Custom 10/22, 21 brands of 22lr, 50 yards, 3 shot group test.

[Orion8472]

ColtPythonEliete,. . . TOTALLY just a "really good plinker for me". There would be competitors who would embarrass the crap out of me. So yeah, just for my own fun. Now, that Mark II, on the other hand, could definitely be used in competition.

 

[ColtPythonElite]

Gotcha. ...I shoot benchrest and plink. Sure, I will spend the money for good target ammo for my bench guns, but there is no need to feed match ammo to a plinker. For my plinkers, I have gotten my best budget minded groups out of Blazer in the 50 round boxes and Federal Auto-match.

 

[Orion8472]

Federal Automatch can be a bit sketch in this rifle. If CCI starts producing more 22lr, I'll see about getting a lot of the Standard [whenever that will be]. Until then, I have some basic rounds that will suffice until then.

 

[Werndl]

Imho, i was gonna say my initial thought was that u were were having a bedding issue or maybe a a stock screw tension problem. Not sure how conditions were on the day you shot, but that lapua kinda throws those thoughts out the window. I have a small amt of 50/50 benchrest shooting experience and was fortunate enough to be taken under the wing by a few of the best 50/50ers in the country, this past summer. Long story short, to shoot groups slightly better than one of those lapua groups (cant rememberwhich one), Many, many shooters much better than myself go through lot after lot of extremely expensive ammo(as you know) just to find what their rifle likes best. I Never knew u could buy eley in fps increments (of 10fps i think). The rifles alone are gonna set one back over 3k easily and the one piece rests are were around $1500 or so. Wind indicators line the range, and people still dont always shoot one hole groups (wind does amazing things to a bullet at 50yds) the Moral of the story is you are doing extremely well with what youve built. If you only wanna plink, ccis look respectable and if u wanna do sniper or egg shoots, lapua will definitely do its part for you. That whole benchrest rimfire world was an eye opener for me and seemed to be too much of an arms race for me (i was way behind the curve with a wood stocked anschutz). Hope this helps

 

[fotheringill]

Without any malice through criticism, and being aware of product availability at the time of the testing, I will relate a short story.

A few years ago, I did my own "informal" testing with a CZ 452 with mid to top shelf ammo.

I shot fifteen shots in groups of three shots of each brand and grade. First group was Wolf Match Extra. I was impressed. Next was Federal Automatch. I was much more impressed, with groups tighter than the Wolf ............ for the first nine or so shots, then the next two groups spread.

I figured out, with the help of a guy with a mile wide grin on his face at the next bench that the lube from the Wolf was affecting the Federal Automatch and improving the Federal accuracy. Lube changes without cleaning and refouling can also give false negative results.

I would suggest going slower, a few different types of round for each test day and thoroughly clean the barrel before switching to the new ammo. Take as many fouling shots as you feel comfortable with and then go for accuracy.

 

[Master Blaster]

One thing no one mentioned is your scope. Does it have an adjustable objective? Is paralax adjusted for 50 yards? If the answer is no your head position can throw off the groups a bit.

 

[Orion8472]

Yes, my scope has the AO.

 

[Cee Zee]

when I'm accuracy testing my custom 10/22, I'll shoot a couple of "fouling" shots of each new type of ammo before I shoot the group; different lubes from different brands will sometimes throw the first shot or two from new ammo slightly out of the group

I shoot about 25-30 fouling shots with every brand before I decide anything about that brand. Different lubes can work fine with other cartridges or they can totally mess up your accuracy.

The bottom line is the work you did here might be a good starting place to determine what ammo your rifle likes best. But it takes many, many rounds to know for sure what it likes.

People suggest CCI SV often. It is one of the most consistent brands of ammo around. It seems to work pretty well in almost every rifle. Not many brands will do that.

Also it should be pointed out that Wolf ammo is actually made by Lapua. It is identical to some Lapua type but certainly not their best stuff. I used to love Wolf but it got to where it wasn't as consistent IMO.

I've spent thousands of dollars on .22 ammo trying to figure out what works best in my rifles and in some pistols for that matter. Shooting is a science that requires a lot of research to do really well. I'm not saying you have to shoot a whole lot of ammo to be good. But to win competitions you have to match or exceed what the other shooters are doin. Not only do you need good equipment but you need to know what to put in it. And here's the kicker. It can all change from one batch to another. Bench rest shooters will order ammo by the pallet when they find something they like. Or they did anyway when they could find what they want. The state of .22 ammo is pretty low right now. I'm just glad I have a good stockpile from before. Trying to learn how a rifle works with a brand of ammo now is going to be like pulling hen's teeth. Sometimes I want to ship my .22 rifles back to the manufacturers. They aren't much more than lamp stands without ammo to put in them.

 

[Orion8472]

^ I don't think I would ever want to get into "orders by lot" just to get the best accuracy. I'm not going to do competition, so that level of expense is not something I would want to get into.

Again, I hope that CCI starts putting out more 22lr so I can get some Standard at some point in the future.

 

[Skylerbone]

Orion, ammo related PM incoming.

 

[dakota1911]

I am impressed you got that many types of .22 unless you have been stashing for years and have a ammo cellar the way some people have a wine cellar.

 

[Orion8472]

dakota, another member helped me out [who shall remain nameless]. He is the one you should be impressed with!

 

[Cee Zee]

I don't think I would ever want to get into "orders by lot" just to get the best accuracy.

I don't do it either. I can't afford it. Besides even the rich guys are hard up for ammo these days. It just isn't available. My comments were mainly about helping you get to the next level of accuracy. I didn't expect you would be looking to shoot better than everyone. I just talked about how the bench rest guys do it because there is stuff we can learn from them.

Again your test should be a good starting point for finding the best ammo for your gun. I'd try a box of the 5 types you liked the most in the test. That will really get you to a good spot and it won't cost a lot. I'd definitely try more CCI SV. It's a very good type of ammo that works pretty well with almost all rifles. But it is a bit hard to find right now. I wish I could find some. I've bought some here and there but not enough for my tastes. I use much more expensive ammo in the competitions I do enter but I practice with SV almost all the time. It's good ammo and I think you'll like it. I've killed a squirrel or two with it too. It doesn't have the knock down power of MiniMags but it's more accurate.

But I'm like you. I hope to see more SV being sold in the future. Shooting has stagnated because of the shortages. This could be the golden age of accuracy if the ammo people would get their act together. But they don't seem to mind that many people are leaving the sport after being involved in it for decades. The newbies out there paying way too much for ammo are driving the market now. Instead of trying to make those people long term customers they seem to only care about cashing in quick. What a shame.

 

[Orion8472]

^ I couldn't agree with you more on your post, Cee Zee!

 

[TimSr]

I have an old Mod 25 Glenfield bolt rifle that I sighted years ago for squirrel hunting using a half dozen different off the shelf ammos, no premium stuff. At that time CCI Mini mags won the day. More recently I did the same tests with ammo I have today. I hadn't seen mini mags in forever, but CCI Blazer won over Winchester, Federal and Remington. I also found years ago that light weight, conical Hyper velocity type .22 rounds had far inferior accuracy. At 100 yards you could really see a huge difference. I'm sure each gun will give its own results, but my results in a cheap production line model seemed top parallel the OP's conclusions for his gun. I'm sure mine aren't as tight as his best at 50 yds.

Just out of curiosity, I wondered if they ever used jacketed bullets for 22lr match rounds like .22 mag. I would think they could thread the rifling better at high velocity.