Question about Federal Automatch 22lr

To my knowledge, nobody makes .22 ammo that isn't either lubed or plated. Cheaper stuff is mostly wax lubed from my understanding. Without one or the other, your barrel would be full of lead in no time.

Lead .22 rimfire rounds have a lube on the bullets. It may be hard when dry like the Automatch or waxy to the touch like Norma Tac-22.

Stay safe.

They are coated and run very clean.

At a little under 7 cents per round at Walmart, that ammo is hard to beat, IMO.

Got a bunch of it here and Walkalong is right. Some type of dry to the touch lube as far as I can tell. Seems to perform great in everything I've put it in. Although I haven't done any serious accuracy testing of it; or any chronographing. Might just do a bit more research this coming summer.

I have scads of it, but the only guns I've broken it out for use in so far are a Mossberg 702 Plinkster and a Taurus PT22. Ran fine in both guns, neither of which were too duty afterward. It's good to go for me.

It's decent enough ammo for the money, with a few duds in each box. Accuracy though is just around average, from my target guns to the plinkers.

I shot a bunch of it this weekend, more accurate than I was expecting. They have much less lube than the RWS Rifle Match I shot also...that stuff is so slippery to the point it's hard to hold onto the rounds to load them into a magazine...they must dunk those into a vat of KY before packaging.

Orion8472 said:

I have a bunch of it as well....but I was wondering if it had a coating because I'm just beginning to take my niece out to the range and didn't want her touching lead...whether or not actually touching lead for a short time is all that bad. I have a Taurus TX-22 Competition that she really loves shooting...and that's what I plan on running through it.

But as I have seen here, they do have some type of coating on the bullets. Thanks!

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The burnt primer compounds are probably the worst of it, hand washing fixes most shooting issues.

My experience is it's less for more money than their bulk ammo and both perform about the same.

My experience with it is some batches are good some are absolute junk. Purchased a case of it before the election and some of the boxes have 20% dud ratio and the rest go from not strong enough to cycle a semi auto to hv levels like a cci stinger.

So is mine

Orion8472 said:

I have a bunch of it as well....but I was wondering if it had a coating because I'm just beginning to take my niece out to the range and didn't want her touching lead...whether or not actually touching lead for a short time is all that bad. I have a Taurus TX-22 Competition that she really loves shooting...and that's what I plan on running through it.

But as I have seen here, they do have some type of coating on the bullets. Thanks!

Click to expand...

Yes all 22 LR bullets have a coating of some formula of wax. lead colored bullets generally have coloring in the coating that can leave residue on your hands. Copper wash bullets also have wax on them. Federal Automatch has been decent practice ammo for me. Better than average accuracy. I have downloaded a book on it from another forum.

Federal Automatch..."match", Bah!
It has never shoot well for me in any of more than a dozen 22LR firearms I've shot it in. I still have half a box from 2014 I can't seem to get rid of.

Back to the OP's question...yes it's dry lubed.

Years ago Federal AutoMatch was my go-to ammo for Steel Challenge and Bullseye Matches. It was accurate compared to the more expensive ammo and I liked that. It was rare to get a light load.

The new boxes give me about a 20% failure rate. I'll use it for practice but never for any competitions. It's a real shame. I wish I still had a supply of the older ammo.

The lube is a dry lube and doesn't come loose on my fingers. It does load well in my McFadden Ultimate Clip Loader.
My Ruger Mark IV 22/45 like the stuff. I see no buildup of lube when I go to clean my gun at the end of a match.

I bought 5000 of auto match 4 years ago. Everyone has fired in all my semi auto handguns and rifles. Accuracy is as good as minimags.