.22 LR Ammo test, which is better?

You may need more than 10 shots ("two rounds of five each") to get an accurate measure. As rimfire ammo is lubricated (you can generally feel the hard wax on the bullets), your bore gets coated. This is NOT a problem. In fact, a barrel "cured" with lube often shoots more consistently than a perfectly clean bore. But to get a fair test of rimfire ammo, you need to scrub the old lube out of the barrel to get down to bare metal, then shoot a sufficient number of rounds to "cure" the bore with the ammo you are going to test ... THEN fire your test groups ... then do the whole thing over again with the next brand/type of ammo.

Oh, and I'm always surprised how well CCI Green Tag can shoot. I'll bet if not the best, it will be close to it. Agree with Odd Job on the Remington Thunderbolt; good plinking ammo, but not know for consistency.

Looking forward to hearing the results. I have the trigger kit in my 452 as well, but I think I selected the spring that gets me to 2#. My preferred ammo at the moment is Eley Sport, unfortunately no longer made. I'm still shooting through the 5,000 round case I bought a few years ago. Good luck!

For future reference Wolf MT and SK standard are the exact same thing. And the Wolf ME and Sk rifle match are also exactly the same....... I have not came across any ammo that shoots better than SK Standard for the same price or less. Eley target “yellow box” is close but more expensive. I never have came across green tag but CCI standard is great budget ammo when you find it for less that $3.50 a box.

I know some die hard rimfire shooters and they do 10 fouling shots after a barrel clean or ammo brand change before shooting a group.

My Kimber 82G takes 10-15 rds to settle in after a full cleaning. The Wolf or SK should shoot well with no fliers.
Thunderbolts and Winchesters not so much.
I just worked an all day Scout event. They were shooting Winchester, every once in a while you could hear a light round. Call it low, look and sure enough it was. Wrecked some good groups.

BigDog1955

I get great results accuracy wise with Wolf Match Target, Eley Tenex, CCI Standard Velocity, and CCI Mini-Mags. Decent results also with Federal Gold Medal, Eley Club, and CCI Green Tag but just so-so accuracy with Federal AutoMatch and Winchester T22. Nothing good to say about any Remington .22LR ammo.

BigDog1955 said:

The mail man showed up today with some new ammo for my CZ 452 testing.

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The only thing my mailman delvers here is bills and junk mail. Actually I did not think the mailman as in the US Postal Service could deliver ammunition? Mine shows up UPS or FEDEX.

I will be interested to see what you get for results as I have a CZ LH 452 and have been wanting to see how it fares with different ammunition. I just have other little science experiments in front of that one.

Ron

bannockburn said:

Nothing good to say about any Remington .22LR ammo.

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What he said.

I find the Aguila Rifle and Pistol Match to be good values for a "better than bulk, but I won't feel guilty and spend even more money on my children". My local Meijer has Federal Gold Medal Match, but it is priced as though it were made of gold...
I, too, like a box of green tag every now and then. I'll have to try some S&K, I hear good things. Of that group I would put my money there or the Green Tag, were I a betting man...

Throw some CCI SV in the mix. I have one rifle that shoots it as good as just about anything. It is my affordable, go to accuracy ammo.

As said before, some if the Wolf and SK is the same stuff. They should shoot good in the CZ. Mine will shoot thise better than the Eley.

I have been competing in Smallbore Prone competition for about a decade now, and that sport is highly dependent on accurate ammunition. I have had my rifles tested at Lapua and at Eley for best ammunition. These ammunition manufacturer's will test different lots of the same brand. Lapua will test different lots of Center-X and Midas plus, Eley will only test different lots of Red Box. Each lot shoots a little different. Each test facility shoots 40 round groups and determines their statistics from that. I would have to look at the number of lots each tried, but it was around ten, maybe less, before converging on a "best lot". Lapua has a 100 meter range, Eley has a 50 meter. It was interesting to see that ammunition that shot best at 50 meters was not necessarily the best at 100 meters, and visa versa. The shooter on my left, at the last Nationals, placed second in the Nation, and I got to ask him about ammunition testing. His rifle had been lot tested around 60 times. He had conducted a whole bunch of ammunition testing.

So, if you are looking for best accuracy, it will take more testing than what it appears you have. However, shoot what you have and decide if one is better than the others. I have gone through cases of SK rifle match, for club matches, and some cases shoot better than others. Same for Wolf. Wolf ammunition is made by SK. You are obviously going to get a different lot from your SK ammunition.

You need to shoot larger groups than the Gunwriter "Gold standard" of three shot groups. Three shot groups are not large enough to give any indication of precision, which is why Gunwriters shoot them. Five shot groups are not much better. You need to get up to around 30 shot group sizes before you can say that one ammunition type is better or worse than another.

This is a statistical aberration, the shot count is not high enough to really prove anything. But that won't prevent me from claiming "I do this all the time"



How is this for a factory, ten shot target, at 50 meters?



I am of the opinion, that since these are actually match grade ammunition, that one of them will give the best results:

SK Standard
Sk Pistol match
SK Rifle match
Wolf Match Extra
Wolf Match Target

This stuff,

Aguila Super Extra
Geco Match
CCI Green Tag
Winchester M 22
Remington Thunderbolt
Winchester Super X 36 gr 1280 fps
CCI Blazer

I have fired most of them, at one time or another in a match rifle, and was not impressed with my group sizes. Green tag is over priced for what you pay for. My Aquila match was as bad as any bargin brand of 22 lr. I have not tried Geco.

Every competitor I have talked with about this, has had dropped shots with the lower priced ammunition. This is an example:



Bud was shooting F Class 22lr with the Tac 22, he had a sighting round fall 12 inches at 100 yards. He was extremely frustrated and changed over to Eley Black box and started shooting cleans!

Has anyone tried Prime 22lr ammo?

It is pricey, but for Match ammo or purely target use it’s not bad, I would not turn my 6yr old loose with it, a few months ago she went through 600rds in a day, my thumb was sore from loading the mag (bench rested, when me 6” away at close targets at the bottom of a 30’ berm)

If it were me, I’d shoot 20 minimum from a clean bore then groups the same count as your magazine. While 5-10 rounds may not be a large enough group for statistics, you won’t be shifting off your positioning or pausing to load rounds. I would also clean between types.

My 452 likes Super Extra Subsonic for cheap ammo, and that’s what it is, but I hunt so my primary concern is headshots on squirrels. It also liked SK and Lapua on paper but for my needs I never fired too much of either.

I have tried the three SK varieties and the two Wolf in CZ rifles at 50 yard benchrest....They each produce some pretty good groups. They each also seem to have a flyer or two in the box that can ruin a good target's score....My CZ's usually shoot more consistent groups with Lapaua Center X, which is usually a few bucks more a box.

I am going to guess the SK RM or your other lot number, the Wolf ME - haha - will have the smallest groups. Shooting small groups isn't exactly a mystery. Everybody has their go-to brand, but 22LR is "consistently inconsistent." There are lot numbers of even very expensive ammo that won't shoot well in a given rifle. However, the more expensive ammo is usually more consistent than inexpensive ammo and that is what is required for small groups. The wildcard is - even inexpensive ammo may have strings of shots that are incredibly consistent, and that is usually fool's gold. That is exactly what posted internet groups are made of since they are usually small sample sizes that don't represent the mean when using bargain ammo. That's why overall averages are important for standard deviation (SD), extreme spread (ES), and of course group size when testing.

The tale of the tape will be shooting over a chronograph. I highly recommend it for testing 22LR and also testing a statistically significant number of data points, ie about 30. When the data is compiled, it allows you to see how good or bad your ammo is. You are able to see that the tiny group you shot had less than 25fps difference on the string. When a shot is way off target, you can see that it wasn't your hold or trigger pull - there was, for example, a 75fps differential that put that shot higher or lower than the group.

So going out on a limb - here's my totally biased prediction:

These will shoot about the same. Some groups will be better or worse, but these are usually in the 1-1/4 - 2.5" range (at 50yds). Plink with these, enjoy these. Shoot as many soda cans as you like. If you get a small group, then celebrate because these typically have SD of 25 and ES of 100fps.

Winchester M 22
Remington Thunderbolt
Winchester Super X 36 gr 1280 fps
CCI Blazer
Aguila Super Extra


The next group **should** be better. These **should** have fewer flyers. The Geco match really isn't "match" like the Wolf or SK offerings, but both the Geco and CCI green tag (ie the best lots of CCI SV) **should** have SD near17-18 and ES of about 75-80. You will probably get a brag group out of these. You will probably also get a group greater than 1" at 50yds.

Geco Match
CCI Green Tag
Most Tac 22 is here also

This group and the next group should give the best groups from the list, like the rest of the internet says. Wolf/SK should group under 1" at 50yds and some much smaller than that. The problem is that there are still flyers and more consistent / less consistent lots. One brick might shoot lights out. The next one might have to be burnt up in a pistol. Don't let one flyer sour your feelings on an otherwise reasonable group. These cost more and are generally the best "accuracy for the money." The 452 isn't a "match rifle" but is also "good for the money." This is usually the balance point in terms of how much most people want to pay for ammo and how much accuracy they are willing to live with. From here on out you will have to measure SD and ES yourself, because these mid range ammos are hard to call.

Wolf MT
SK STD
A few lots of Tac22 and most lots of Norma Match 22 are here

This group should have a reduced amount of flyers and have better consistency than the best lots of the above. However, it is possible that your individual rifle may not shoot these much better than the one above. Barrel harmonics, tuning, and the velocity range that the individual rifle shoots the best all come into play.

SK Pistol M
SK Rifle M
Wolf ME

The final group (none on the list) are the "top of the line" match ammos - Lapua (Center X, Midas, Xact), Eley (Tenex), RWS (R-50, R-100), etc. They are expensive, but they are the most statistically consistent. The bottleneck with using these is most likely the CZ 452 (gasp, right? - go ahead and flame away.)

Final thought: In my humble opinion, the shooter has to balance the equipment with the ammo budget and the law of diminishing returns as it relates to potential accuracy gains. Not to mention that in the state of SD, the wind is going to play havoc on comparing group sizes, but the ES and SD can be compared. The issue will always be "SSDD" - same shooter different day.

Those are my thoughts - good luck finding the best ammo!

Unless you are trying to compete at benchrest, I would look at something priced like CCI Blazer, Federal 510 or even Federal Automatch and call it a day....I have 4 CZ's, have had others and have shot or shot against a pile of others. They generally all do/did well with those ammos.

If you want standard velocity, CCI SV is hard to beat in performance for the price. I have a 452 FS that I probably haven't cleaned in 2-3 years. Occasionally, I will check the scope zero off a rest and rear bag from 50. It easily puts 5 shots in a 1" target paster. 1/2" groups aren't uncommon, either.

Top tier ammo won't make a CZ a top tier rifle. However, good ammo will do very well out of a good sporter weight rifle like a CZ.

I shoot sporter weight rifles from a bipod or mechanical front rest and a quality rear bag. They generally require a tight hold.

plinker4life said:

What he said.

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I won't shoot Remington rimfire ammo! It's the worst in all my rifles.

I've spent so much money testing ammo for rimfire benchrest competition, but only about 1 batch in 100 will win matches consistently. It's a crap shoot, and the best ammo seems to go to the top shooters. Not fair, IMHO. What's the most discouraging is that some lots group beautifully, but have flyers that destroy good scores. After many years, I gave up on Rimfire Benchrest.

Accuracy can differ greatly between lot numbers of the same brand of ammo. During my rimfire benchrest years I have had lot numbers that shot fantastic but another lot in the same brand and grade level that performed worse than a shotgun pattern. My advice, and we all have some, is to try to identify a brand that your rifle likes and then buy a number of lot numbers in that brand and grade level. You may find a lot number that gives the performance you want and if you do, buy as much of it as you can afford because another good lot may not be there when you need more ammo.