the best most accurate 22 long rifle ammo made that i can get over the counter

The stuff that shoots best in YOUR gun.

There match ammo out there of various makes. Go to Brownells or some well stocked ammo supplier and buy 10 or 20 50 rnd boxes of various makes and prices.

I hear ya. Old federal lightning from walmart always went bang. Probably not available in walk in stores but order you some sk plus ammo. Good ammo at a fair price.

For affordable accuracy in a decent rifle, I like CCI Standard Velocity. For all around use, CCI Mini Mags. For decent bargain ammo, I have had good luck with CCI Blazers and Federal bulk pack 36 gr copper plated hollow points. Of course, your guns may prefer something completely different.
By the way, I won’t buy anything from Winchester, their quality control has really nose dived in the past 5 years or so.

CCI standard velocity and Aguila standard velocity. At 100 yards, golf balls aren’t safe.

I’ve been shooting a lot of Aguila lately. It’s dirt cheap at around $23 a brick. I don’t shoot paper for groups. I just like hitting what I’m shooting at.

I have an old Martini single shot target rifle. Had about 30 boxes of old Winchester Super-X , blue and yellow box from the 50s. Down to 2 boxes now, and have yet to find anything that shoots as good. A couple come close, but not as tight a grouping. As manybothers have said, every gun is different, 22s being more particular, when it comes to smmunition choice.

Another vote for CCI SV for most common, accurate ammo.

There's "match" stuff out there that's better, but it's harder to find and more expensive.

The CCI will be a step in the right direction at least. Also, very reliable in my experience unless you need the HV stuff to cycle the action.

How much do you want to spend?....like above, CCI variants are pretty good. Go Lapua, Wolf, Eley and etc. you will pay center fire prices for 50. May not shoot as well as something else. As @earlthegoat2 says, buy a bunch and find out.

Then comes the game of chasing lot numbers....

....and when you find the round, buy as much of that lot number as you can afford. Borrow if you have to.

TonyAngel said:

CCI standard velocity and Aguila standard velocity.

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^^^^ THIS ^^^^

TonyAngel said:

CCI standard velocity and Aguila standard velocity. At 100 yards, golf balls aren’t safe.

I’ve been shooting a lot of Aguila lately. It’s dirt cheap at around $23 a brick. I don’t shoot paper for groups. I just like hitting what I’m shooting at.

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Since Aguila went to Eley priming, I have a lot more rifles that prefer it to even CCI. Try all the CCI you can get, Aguila, and Federal Match.
Here is the 10 round test of Aguila Red (HV) at 100 yards. First day out with my T1x...it will do for $25 a brick.


Federal match is love or hate for my rifles. It is either awesome or sucks.

Federal Black bulk works great, shoots great and is cheap. Sold in bulk boxes of 1100 rounds

"I’ve been shooting a lot of Aguila lately."


Me too.

TonyAngel said:

CCI standard velocity and Aguila standard velocity. At 100 yards, golf balls aren’t safe.

I’ve been shooting a lot of Aguila lately. It’s dirt cheap at around $23 a brick. I don’t shoot paper for groups. I just like hitting what I’m shooting at.

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MEHavey said:

^^^^ THIS ^^^^

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I agree. With my revolvers and my two rifles I have had very good accuracy with these cartridges.
I have tried some fairly expensive or higher quality ammo from Eley, Federal Gold Medal, Lapua and I am sure in higher quality guns than mine they are excellent but I actually have better accuracy with the CCI SV and Aguila ammunition in my 10/22, Savage 30 Stevens Favorite, S&W 17-3 and my S&W 63.

If you have a good gun, you just about have to feed it good ammo if you want to get serious about better groups.

Well, the cheapest .22 stuff is pretty bad. Dunno how it was in the '50s because I wasn't there, but from the 80's onward it was easy to buy really bad .22 LR. The moral of that story is don't buy the cheapest .22 you can find, unless you are willing to put up with bad results.

The opposite question is "what is the most accurate .22 ammunition?" and that is akin to asking whether it is hotter in the summer or in the city. It is an unanswerable question.

CCI is the usual answer. I don't completely disagree with it, but I actually have three different guns chambered for .22 LR that really do not like CCI. That does not mean that CCI makes bad ammunition, but rather points up the fact that guns are individuals - and more so with .22 than perhaps any other round.

I wil go so far as to say that I have never fired a .22 that wouldn't do a pretty good job with Eley, and for that reason I trust Eley more than any other. I would bet my last dollar, though, that there are trainloads of .22s that won't shoot Eley worth a hoot.

Short version: if you want to find out what your particular .22 likes, buy A) a box of 50 rounds from every brand you can think of, and B) nothing that comes in a bulk pack.

Eley Match is probably about the best 22LR ammunition out there.

The price will make most folks cringe.

Buying "over the counter" may be your problem here. Most places don't carry top quality .22 ammo. because most folks refuse to pay accordingly for it. I'm a terrible shot, so it really doesn't matter what I shoot, but for the folks who really insist on the best, I always suggest they start with Ely Tenex Ultimate EPS and work their way down the list from there: Lapua Midus Plus, RWS R50, etc. But having said that, I know of many instances where folks who are really good shots, finding their particular firearms prefer a relatively cheap round such as Western Value Pak or CCI Standand to the more expensive stuff. I used to tell my customers to buy a single box of several different ammuntion and see what works best in your firearm because firearms were a little like people -- some of us prefer hotdogs and some prefer hamburgers. However, there are a couple of more points you might want to consider. First, fifty or more years ago the .22 shooters who were looking for accuracy all used these little devices that measured the thickness of the rim and then placed all the rounds with the same thickness in their own separate piles. Even within the same manufacturer, there were considerable differences. More recently, I understand folks don't do that so much any more. Now they use a different little device that measures the "concentricity" if that's the right word, of each round. Once again, even within the same manufacturer, there's a great deal of difference in how straight the bullet is seated in the case. If you do an internet search for it, you find articles about "concentricity" in .22s and devices to measure it. They ain't cheap, but the folks that use them, swear by them. Best of luck - keep us informed about what you find.

Ely Match is very good and in my Savage TR-22 is clearly the best. However, CCI Green Tag is only marginally less good, is less expensive, and is readily available.

I have a Kimber 82G, a surplus target 22LR rifle that was used by the military. It performs better with quality ammunition versus the junk available from Wally World.

As the old saying says, "you pays your money, you take your chances".

It’s been my experience with .22’s that they’re all individuals that require you to try a bunch of different cartridges before you’ll find the ones that work the best. There are consistently great rounds like the Eley, SK, RWS and Lapua match offerings.. but their price will quickly drain the coffers if you’re not careful.

I have a Rem 541 that likes RWS rifle match, my 10/22 likes Aguila match and my Ruger Mk III loves CCI green tag. I have yet to find the load my Henry levers like best, same for my new Mk IV and 10/22 international. Because of coronageddon I just haven’t shot them enough.

Its fun finding the one or two loads your .22’s like best; recoil and blast is nil so you can spend longer hours shooting than with a centerfire.

Good luck and stay safe.

For me the most accurate .22 ammo across the board in my guns is 1) Wolf Match Target 2) CCI Standard Velocity, and 3) CCI MiniMags.

.22 Caliber handguns and rifles can be very particular as to their accuracy with various brands of ammunition. Only testing will tell what yours like. CCI, both standard velocity and Mini-Mags, do well in my guns, but I no longer compete with them. If all you're interested in is lack of duds in a 100 ct box, then there are a lot of choices. Federal Auto Match does well in this regard...but if gilt edged accuracy is the goal, then only testing in your guns will suffice. Rod

CCI standard velocity or Eley if I really want best accuracy.

earlthegoat2 said:

The stuff that shoots best in YOUR gun.

There match ammo out there of various makes. Go to Brownells or some well stocked ammo supplier and buy 10 or 20 50 rnd boxes of various makes and prices.

Click to expand...

I did this with SG Ammo a while back, filled a cart with 14 different flavors of .22 ammo (including 2 flavors of short and long, not LR) to play with. I tried to get at a minimum of 500 rounds of each, as a single box of 50 is just barely enough to really test out how well something shoots in a specific gun, and I have many .22 capable guns now.

While it was fun to play with most of those flavors, and educational to see which ones really suck in certain guns, the most interesting thing I found was my preferred Federal 36gr JHP (many part #s, same ammo really) works very well in everything I own currently. Yea it's not dead nuts match ammo perfect 100% of the time, but for 99% of my shooting desires it's more than adequate to the task... for me.

Also, who knew that they make .22lr ammo that makes you think it's a .223 almost. Some of these flavors are WILD!