What's a Good Quality Brand of .22LR Ammo?

[usnavymasterchief]

I just picked up a really nice Ruger MK II target pistol in .22LR.
Can someone recommend a good quality brand of readily available ( like Wally World ) clean shooting .22LR ammo? I don't want any 2k for a buck stuff, this gun is too good for that. This is for indoor range use only. I am very familier with most higher caliber ammo but haven't used a twenty two since I was a kid, many, many moons ago and have lost touch with the various brands of good .22LR ammo. Thanks a lot.

 

[Tropical Z]

Its gonna depend on your gun more than anything else.My .22lr handguns are all reliable and accurate using Remingtons golden bullet bulk packs.Wal-Mart has em for less than $10.00 so thats good with me.I wont keep a .22lr that requires premium ammo such as CCI's mini mags or the like.That takes most of the fun out of shooting a .22lr in the first place.

 

[QuarterBoreGunner]

.22s are notoriously finicky in what they will shoot well. I’ve tried numerous times to get a single brand that all my .22s would like equally. Snake eyes every time. Thankfully my .22 target rifles all seem to like Wolf Gold Match and sometimes if I have the cash Eley 10X. For the handguns it’s usually CCI Mini Mags or Winchester Super X.

 

[killermarmot]

I'm with quarter bore on the cci and winchester they have been very good to me, I've had very little problems with remington but the two i've had consistant problems with were federal and pmc. I tried both pmc zapper (cheap stuff) and their sidewinder ammo and it seems to be alot dirtier than anything else. I think the little extra money for the cci mini magas is well worth it, they have never given me a misfeed or misfire in any of the 7 .22s i've used it in.

 

[45R]

Winchester Dynapoints seem to run pretty clean and accurate through my Rugers.

 

[HSMITH]

Between myself and my shooting buddies we go through 1500-2000 22 shells per week. THE absolute worst is Remington, garbage on all accounts. Duds, squibs, and just garbage ammo. Good cheap ammo is the Federal 550 pack, or the Winchester SuperX. Good ammo is CC Green Tag, Eley ___, Federal Gold Medal, basically any match grade ammo.

 

[12 Volt Man]

I second the Federal 550 bulk pack from Wally World. I have shot many rounds through 22 rifles, but none through pistols. Try it out. I think they are only 8 or 9 bucks for that many rounds.

 

[usnavymasterchief]

Thanks guys, I really appreciate the input, sounds like the Federal 550 is the way to go.
Shooting a .22 pistol will be a new experience for me. All my other pistols are .357 Sig and Magnum, .45ACP, .40S&W and a .380acp so it will weird shooting with no recoil but i'm sure it will be fun and I look forward to it. Not to mention that the .22 will put a smaller dent in the pension check.
Thanks again.

 

[Mal H]

I agree with the above. Dynapoints and Fed 550 are very good in the econopak sizes; followed by some better grade stuff like Win Super X (not to be confused with Xpert which isn't very good) or CCI Mini-Mags or Stingers; followed by the high grade Eley, Fed Match (900 A or B), Lapua Multi-Match, etc.

For me, the Dynapoints are a little more accurate in my guns than the Federals, but both are dependable. As Tropical Z stated, it really depends on your gun. It's amazing how one brand is a winner in one gun and only average in another; even in different samples of the same model gun.

Note my lack of recommendation of Remingtons. I've not found them to be consistent in quality in any of their various offerings. I've had more FTF's with them than any other brand.

 

[R.H. Lee]

I have a Ruger Mk II Target pistol, stainless 6/78" bbl. and a coupla 10/22's. The Federal 500 rd bricks from KMart at $10 per work flawlessly.
I have shot many thousands of these with only 2 ftf.

 

[cornbread2]

All serious smallbore shooters agree on ONE thing. They constantly debate which rifle or pistol is best or which scope or whatever but one thing stands out as being the whole truth that no one will question.

Remington bulk pack ammo is the worst rimfire ammo you can buy. It is junk now and has been for the last 20 years.


On average it has a 40% varaition in powder charge.

No auto pistols or rifles work well with such junk.

 

[Majic]

Your best bet is to buy 50 round boxes of everything and try them. You never really know what your firearm will like till you try it. Don't buy the bulk till you are sure that's the ammo your gun prefers. What some may have and call junk your gun may shoot one holers with. I've seen it happen many times.

BTW don't expect no .22lr ammo to be clean shooting. When cleaning don't forget to clean aound the extractor.

 

[Sactown]

I've run Win Dynapoint through both my MkIIs, Trailside, and 10/22 withount any problems. They shoot clean and damn accurate.

 

[cornbread2]

You will find bad lots of almost any cheap ammo but on average the best cheap .22 ammo is

Winchester Dynapoint
CCI Blazer
Federal Lightning

Sometimes Winchester Wildcat works well in auto pistols.

 

[Tropical Z]

This is weird.Ive found Federals bulk packs to be extremely inconsistent and inaccurate.I run Remington without a hitch in my S&W 422,Beretta Neos and FEG SMC-22.

 

[Mike Irwin]

I like the Federal 250-round value packs.

 

[DougCxx]

Once you get above around $10/per box of 50, the ammo starts getting very, very consistent--in most any gun you put it in. Eley, RWS and Lapua are pretty good bets here. ....I am regularly amused by people who will pay for a fairly accurate gun and then wonder why it doesn't shoot $2 or $3/box ammo into one hole at 50 yards.
......
Although I admit I have not had the chance to try the current Dynapoints as the Wal-Marts in my area cannot seem to get them at all. They all carry the 22WMR, but none even have shelf space for the LR.
~

 

[Waitone]

My Browning was a little picky until I did two things. First I shoot only high velocity .22LR. Second, I end each session by running a boresnake while the barrel is still warm.

No FTF's. Greatly reduced FTE's.

 

[SteelyDan]

I'll agree with most of the others. More than any other sized cartridge, the .22s seem to favor or disfavor certain manufacturer's offerings. The only way to find out which ones your gun likes is to try a bunch of them.

 

[Mr Jody Hudson]

Although most .22s are finicky on ammo... one that is usually in the top three for any of my MANY .22 rifles and pistols, as far as accuracy and reliability is Aguilla 40 gr. standard velocity... it shoots better than match ammo in some of my guns and is also about as inexpensive as it gets.

You will probably have to get it in a minimum of 500 rounds online but I've never tried to buy that small a quantity...

 

[zahc]

I bought remington once when they were out of federal. Dirtiest ammo ever. Actually pretty accurate in my 10/22 but not worth it.

 

[jefmad]

The first thing I would suggest is that you first buy a brick of Hi-velocity ammo and shoot that through the Ruger before you start to test what works best. The springs need to be worked in and using something like Mini Mags or Federal Lightning will make your pistol operate much more reliably while you break it in. I was lucky in that my Ruger likes the Lightnings @.79 per box.

 

[cratz2]

I have a friend that is an excellent shooter. He has an older (bought before 1986) Ruger and he used to swear by the $3.00/50 Federal Gold Match Target. One day we went shooting and I brought about 10 different boxes of 22LR ammo and he figured out that $.88/50 Federal Lightning shot absolutely as accurately for him, in his gun, on that day as the Gold Match.

Seriously... don't knock the cheap stuff until you find out for sure that a particular expensive ammo is better for you and in your gun than all the cheap stuff. And you can't just compare Ely Super Grand Master Wizard Compatition stuff to one box of Super-Xs... You have to try a variety.

 

[cornbread2]

The most commom problem with cheap .22 ammo is inconsistant powder charges.

On a semi auto .22 a round with the correct powder charge will blow the bolt back sharply and eject the empty case and pick up fresh round from the mag just as the gun was designed to work.

If the next round that goes into the chamber only has a half powder charge that is the round that will jam the gun.

A weak round will also not be in the group. At 25 yards it will be close enough but at 75 it will shoot very low.

You have to have consistant ammo to function in an auto.

 

[Majic]

You can buy a brick of ammo, sort thru it by weight, bullet nose condition, crimp, and rim thickness and find that most brands shoots accurately.