7 Types of .22LR vs. Ruger 10/22 Carbine

[The_Armed_Therapist]

Results from the range yesterday (sorry, but no pictures!):

1.) Remington Golden Bullet, Plated Round Nose, High Velocity... 1255f/s, 40gr... ~1.5" group overall, very evenly dispersed. No fliers, no failures.

2.) Remington Viper, Hyper Velocity, Truncated Core... 1410f/s, 36gr... ~1" group with 9/10 shots, 0.5" group with 6/10. One flier hit approximately 4 inches to the left of the others. No failures.

3.) Remington Subsonic HP, lead round nose... 1050f/s, 38 gr... ~1" group, all evenly dispersed. No fliers, no failures.

4.) CCI Mini-Mag, Copper-plated round nose... 1235f/s, 40gr... ~0.5" group with 7/10, 1" group overall. No fliers, no failures.

5.) CCI Quiet-22, lead round nose... 710f/s, 40gr... ~3" group, approximately 4 inches low of the bulls eye. EVERY SHOT JAMMED. None of the 10 shots ejected and 4/10 didn't fire the first time.

6.) Federal Gold Metal Solid... 1080f/s, 38gr... 1.5" group, evenly dispersed. No fliers and no failures.

7.) Winchester HP, copper-plated... 1280f/s, 36 gr... ~1" groups with 9/10 shots with 1 hitting 2" high of the others. No failures.


The rifle used was the Ruger 10/22 Carbine. It was shot at 25 yards with Tech Sights installed, zeroed a prior day with the Winchester HP, copper-plated rounds. Each was fired in 10-shot groups using the same mag.

Conclusions:

1.) I will not ever use, nor will I recommend, the CCI Quiet-22 rounds. I'm sure there's a role for it and that there are plenty of guns in which it functions properly, but my experience with it was quite pathetic.

2.) I'm not sure what to think of the ones that had 1 flier (Winchester HP, and Remington Viper). My sample sizes cannot be used to determine that these two brands produce more fliers (and the others fewer). It's just as likely coincidence with my limited test.

3.) I'm also not sure what to think of those that were evenly dispersed vs. those that had a small group within a larger group.

4.) Overall, it looks like the CCI Mini-Mags performed the best with 7/10 within a 0.5" group and 10/10 within a 1" group. The Remington Viper showed a lot of potential, too, if not for that one flier that I'm not sure about.

5.) However, I'd also say that, minus the Quiet-22s by CCI, none were really head-and-shoulders above the rest.

 

[BCRider]

Well for starters clearly the CCI Quiet rounds are intended for a bolt or other non-semi gun to be used for quietly dispatching pests. So it's hardly surprising that these rounds did not have the energy needed to cycle your 10/22.

I would not worry about a single 4" flier. Likely the bullet was damaged or loose in the case or some other oddity. Stuff like that is why one long time shooter grimaced in dissapointment when I told him I preffered bulk box ammo. He suggested that if I wanted to get decently accurate results that I should NEVER buy anything that didn't come in proper little 50 round boxes with suitable packing to avoid damage to the rounds. I still buy bulk stuff but I also have some properly packaged stuff for my more demanding rimfire work.

10 shots each, if that is indeed all you shot for each test, is not enough of a sample to tell if your "group within a group" results would remain consistent. To tell if this is consistent or not I think you would need to shoot a whole box of 50 for each. With only 10 shots it could simply be a matter of good luck that your wobbles and the random directions of the bullets happened to produce a couple of 6 and 7 shot tighter core groups.

Still, it did point out some good ammo to use for your gun. No one said that a rimfire gun is going to ONLY work with ONE type of ammo.

I just got my own 10/22 carbine and haven't done anything but shoot one type of ammo out of it with the plain iron sights. But in reading around the web there's a lot of info on accurazing the gun in terms of head spacing the bolt, optimizing the nose shape of the firing pin and other seemingly "innocent" factors.

 

[WNTFW]

It would be interesting to put the info into a spread sheet or DB and look at the factors in a sorted chart. That way it would be easy to spot trends. Plus another biggie would be actual chrono numbers.
A friend & I shot some .22lr over a chrono. At the time the Rem GB's shot the best overall and had the best spread in FPS. The Blazers shot well with some wild fliers. The FPS on them were very tight with occasional 30 - 50 and even 80 FPS spikes. The shooting groups & chronoing were on different days though.
I like the way you include some analysis of the groups size and dispersion.

 

[The_Armed_Therapist]

So it's hardly surprising that these rounds did not have the energy needed to cycle your 10/22.

I had thought that, theoretically, they could cause some problems, but really didn't think it would be that bad. LOL

I basically was only trying to see what mine would shoot best since I'm hoping to take it to an Appleseed soon. Well, I got to taking some notes and noticing some things, like dispersion, and ended up with quite a bit of information. I wasn't even considering posting until another thread was asking about .22LR ammo.

And I'm well-aware that the sample sizes are too small for many conclusions. It just started out as one thing and ended up another.

 

[bamajoey]

I had very good results with CCI Quiets using a CZ 452. I shot a 50 round box, 5 shot groups, they all fired and grouped .75 at 25 yds. Plenty good enough for varmints.

 

[berettaprofessor]

Just posted a thread where I compared 3 guns (CZ 452, souped-up Ruger 10/22, and a Savage Mark II) and 5 types of ammo today; My results are similar to yours if you take into account that I shot at 50 yards to your 25 yards; the Remington Subsonic was my best at just under an inch (2.3 cm)...the CCI was next closest overall at 3.53 cm, or about 1.4 inches at 50 yards with the results of the CCI thrown way off because the Savage Mark II didn't like it at all. My ruger 10/22 also liked the CCI (2.1 cm) better than the Remington Subsonic (2.5 cm) as you saw.

 

[Captains1911]

Sounds like the CCI quiets performed exactly as designed.

 

[The_Armed_Therapist]

Sounds like the CCI quiets performed exactly as designed.

Well, they certainly were quiet... Thinking about that pesky groundhog that gets into the garden might be worth turning my 10/22 temporarily into a single-shot. SHHHH!!!!!