federal .22 junk?

[Halo]

I have some old Federal Lightning that I bought in the early 90s that does not feed well in any of my guns. I get feeding failures. I'm not sure what causes it, but suspect it may not be working the action with enough force. I also don't know if that has anything to do with the age of the ammo.

Oddly enough, I have no complaints about Remington. Guess it goes to show how individual guns are.

 

[gidaeon]

if only CCI made a 'big value pack' to compete in that < $18 but I suppose that would mean compromise from their usual great standard.

 

[esmith]

Remington thunderbolts have worked fine for me, they have been the most accurate too. Remington golden bullets have been horrible. Terrible.

Federal bulk packs have been good. I have a few ftf's when i shoot them, usually only 2 or 3 out of 300. For the money i save, it's worth it.

 

[txdude321]

i shoot federal 550 walmart value packs and I have never had a FTF I have gone through thousands of rounds of it too

 

[Bartkowski]

I haven't had many FTF's in the 550 packs either. Maybe 1 a box, usually 0.

 

[Grantman]

I've put nearly two federal 525 bricks through my .22 along with nearly 3 500r bricks of cci and don't have a bad thing to say about federal 525 value pack. Only yesterday I had my first ftf, waited, rotated bullet and fired again, nothing, rotated bullet fired and it went off. That's the only time the federal 525 had a fault. Sure it doesn't group nearly as good as minimags but it is excellent for good reliable plinking with acceptable accuracy.

Clean your gun

 

[CRITGIT]

Federal Bulk Pak ammo is the best, that is, most consistent I've used over the past 12 years or so. Rem blows!
Keep 'em clean and they'll shoot better!

CRITGIT

 

[sarduy]

CLEAN YOUR RIFLE

 

[MIL-DOT]

My Marlin 60 is almost brand new, maybe 6 weeks old, with maybe 250 rounds a week through it, and it's been cleaned several times already ( plus the cleaning it and all my guns get when first brought home). To be fair, the Fed Bulk stuff is very clean burning,very little carbon/residue to be found during cleanings,but if this kind of consistency is close to good as it gets, then I'm thinking .22 shooting ain't nearly all it's been cracked up to be. I'm kinda new to .22's, having been more of a nine-mil pistol and AR/AK shooter,but my recent .22 experiences, fun as they've been, have me a little surprised and disappointed with the quality of ammo. I did pick up a box of 'Mini-Mags and a box of some Winchester 330's today ( 330 to a box, about all it said), so I'll see how these perform.

 

[.38 Special]

Probably not fair to judge the whole .22 deal based solely on bulk pack ammo. If you shot nothing but Bulgarian surplus 9mm you probably wouldn't think much of the 9mm "experience" either. Like most things, you get what you pay for, and if you're willing to pay a few dollars more, .22 quality goes up quite a bit.

 

[Shade00]

Bad luck here with the Federal Champion bulk stuff. Too many bad strikes and duds to count. Remington Golden Bullet has been a winner for me - maybe 7 or 8 bad strikes in the last two bricks. Much better than the Federal, which couldn't make it through a cylinder in the Model 34 without a bad strike.

 

[Mike U.]

.38 Special makes a very good point.

The .22 LR caliber is really popular around the world and many ammo companies make multiple loadings for it.
Lapua, Eley, RWS and God knows how many other makers put out outrageously accurate and consistent ammo. But, their stuff can get really expensive really fast too. For example, one load from Lapua, the 40 gr Midas L Lead round nose runs at $15.49 per box of 50.
Some Eley loads run ~$9.79 per box of 50.
Of the U.S. manufacturers I've found CCI puts out an excellent line of .22 ammo. They give a decent selection of different loads and are not extremely expensive like some of the real top shelf makers like Eley and Lapua. While a lot of their stuff is not cheap, CCI's offerings have always given me consistently good results. And, they are not as pricey as some of the premium European offerings. Another thing I love about CCI is they can be found in the big box stores. That's a real plus for me.

I haven't had the chance to try a lot of the other U.S. big maker's non-bulk stuff, but, as you experiment your bound to find the loads that run best through your firearms. With .22's, half the fun is in the search.

Good luck in your search and have fun!