.22 LR ammo question

[Gunner4h1r3]

I have had pretty good experiences with Remington Thunderbolt Bulk packs, Blazer bulk and 50 rnd boxes, Remington Golden Bullets, and CCI's. All have ran well with very few misfires out of my Walther P22 and Marlin 100G. I have had a lot of issues with Aguila 38 gr subsonic hollowpoints out of my Walther mainly failures to feed and eject. I was using the 5-inch barrel at the time so I may try it with the 3 1/4 inch barrel to see if functioning improves. All the above mentioned ammo besides the Aguila has also ran extremely ran well out of my .22 conversion for my AR.

 

[Kentucky_Rifleman]

I picked up a brick of Peters' .22 at Sportsman's Warehouse a month back, and it has become my favorite ammo. Remington produces it, but it's much better quality than the bulk Golden Bullet .22, and my autos love it. It gives me excellent groups and reliability out of my Ruger .22 convertible, my Browning Buckmark pistol, my Ruger Mk 1 and Mk 2, my TC Classic autorifle, My 10/22, and all three of my bolt-action Remingtons.

Plus, it has this really cool retro art on the box (Brown monochrome printing with a flying quail) and is cheap at 19.99 a brick of 500.

KR

 

[levsmith]

Like some of the other people here, I bought ammo anytime i could when it was scarce. Well my local walmart had just got some remington golden bullets in when I was there once and there was no limit, so I bought all six boxes cause I didn't know when I would see some again. Now I'm stuck with 3000 rounds of it and my 10-22 doesn't really like it and my dads marlin model 60 REALLY hates it. I'll use it up eventually but I wont buy it again. I'll be trying some more federal in my 10-22 because it seems to like it and I think I'll have to go up to the CCI's in the model 60 cause its just stubborn and picky

 

[MikePaiN]

I love CCI Blazer (non-bulk)...its $20/500 around here, I have yet to find a firearm that won't run the stuff, it is also clean and accurate.

 

[Chuck Dye]

For plinking, I buy whatever is cheap except Remington. My Ruger MkII fouls to the point of malfunction very rapidly with the bulk Remington.

For hunting, I really liked Eley Rabbit HV, now discontinued and drawing an even greater premium than ever.

The best answer is your own experimentation. Note that the really serious competitors test down to the lot number, not just catalog number, then buy in huge quantities.

 

[TH3180]

Here is 10 shots of CCI SV at 21 feet from a sand bag rest. I really like CCI SV for target shooting. It is a .267" group.

 

[22-rimfire]

Great little group, especially with 10 shots from a handgun. CCI Standard Velocity is pretty good ammo. I shoot it too. Dicks Sporting Goods selling it for $25/brick has definitely been a success for both CCI and Dicks. We're moving into the winter shooting season when I usually shoot a lot less and my ammo cache increases. My ammo supply definitely goes through a recharge period after the leaves drop just like the groundwater table.

Most folks look for 22 ammo that sells for under $25/brick with current pricing. On a volume basis, clearly the less expensive stuff is shot more and the trick is to find the ammo that shoots good enough for your purpose and is cheap. Right now, that ammo is Federal Lightning (#510B) and CCI Blazers.

 

[TH3180]

Another tip is to weigh out your .22lr ammo. I use my reloading scale and weigh it out to 1/100th of a grain and match it up. I use my old CCI plastic 100 count boxes. I can shoot 100 blazers as good as 100 CCI SV when they are weighed out. I have found the more expensive the ammo is, the closer the weights are from the factory.
I got the idea for doing this from another forum and it has improved my shooting. I really enjoy anything that has to do with the sport of shooting so I like sitting in the basement for a few hours moving .22lr bullets around. My ten shot group above was shot with weighed out ammo. I also shot a 10 shot and a 5 shot groups that day that were both under .5" groups.

 

[bannockburn]

I would go with Federal and Winchester bulk packs; never any problems and fairly consistent performance accuracy wise. If I were to move up in price, then CCI MiniMags and Wolf Target Match would be my preferred choice.

 

[Bonesinium]

Everyone is hating on Remington here, but I have yet to see it. I've shot over 1500 rounds of Remington Golden bulk packs, and had only maybe a handful of failures. That is a pretty good success rate for anything, and this is a .22 we are talking about. And it isn't like this stuff is expensive either...

 

[wally]

I've shot over 1500 rounds of Remington Golden bulk packs, and had only maybe a handful of failures.

I'm curious as to when you bought what you've shot. Five years ago there was not a lot to choose from between the Remington and Federal bulk packs at Walmart, I'd buy what was cheapest or in stock, getting the Federal in case of tie as I preferred the plated bullet.

But about three years ago the Remington just started getting worse and worse, The great Obama ammo shortage didn't help

 

[kva47]

Golden bullet's fine in my 10/22, p22, and old winchester pump action

 

[MikeNice]

I shoot pretty much any .22lr that CCI makes. In my Ruger 10/22 it is the most consistent. I almost always have trouble with Remmington ammo. It either fails to feed properly or fails to fire about 4 or 5 times in each 30 round clip.

Federal is pretty good. I haven't used it a lot. I have noticed a lot more lead in the barrel when using their uncoated bullets.

The lead and cases do seem to oxidize faster than CCI. I had a box of 50 I left sitting in the closet for about a year. I came back and the ammo looked really old. Most of the ammo was bad enough that I was uncomfortable with firing it. The box of CCI Green Tag beside it had some lead oxidization, but the cases were fine.

 

[bradystrib]

I was just given 2000 rounds of Remington....bummer.

 

[writerinmo]

Just picked up an Armscor M1600 that says use only high velocity ammo. I went out and bought a mixed bath of stuff, Blazer, Thunderbolt, and had some CCI Stingers left over from years ago and some standard velocity Federal. The only problems I had over 300 rounds of each were with the standard Federals, they would often chamber a round but hadn't cycled the bolt back far enough to cock the firing pin. Other than that all performed great, noticible difference between the rest and the CCI Stingers of course. If I was hunting with it, I would use them, otherwise the rest were fine. I get the Thunderbolts for under 2 bucks a box of 50, local farm and home store has Blazer on sale right now for $1.69 so I will go grab ten or twenty boxes of them here soon.

 

[wally]

Golden bullet's fine in my 10/22, p22, and old winchester pump action

Make sure you are not confusing Remington Golden Bullet (typically ~$3/50) with the Remington Golden Bullet bulk pack. Similar name, very different ammo!

My main issues with the Golden bullet bulk pack were high dud rate, 2-3X the Federal bulk pack, loose bullets (you could rotate them in the case) which often caused them to "fold" instead of climbing the feed ramp causing feed failures, and the last straw was I stated getting two or three blown cases in each pack -- where the rim blew open 1/8-1/4" and shot hot gas and fragments out the side!

I get the Thunderbolts for under 2 bucks a box of 50

I used to really like Thunderbolts too, but again about three or four years ago they changed from a "waxy" lube to a dry shinny polymer lube and I've had terrible leading issues with it in all my pistols since. I got stuck with a bunch of it as Academy was selling it for $9/500 during the transition. Eventually shot it up by mixing in 50 rounds of it with 150-200 rounds of the Federal bulk pack. Until the leading fouled the barrels, it was accurate and always reliable, it had been my favorite cheap ammo before the change in bullet lube.

I was just given 2000 rounds of Remington....bummer.

Depends on exactly what ammo it is, other than Golden Bullet bulk pack or Thunderbolt, its likely OK, or if its three or four years old I'd wager its fine.


When .22 ammo costs starts getting close to what I can reload 9mm for, I quickly lose interest in shooting it.

 

[GLOOB]

I've shot over 1500 rounds of Remington Golden bulk packs, and had only maybe a handful of failures. That is a pretty good success rate for anything,

Your standards are really, really low. If I had even one failure in that many rounds of commercial centerfire ammo, I'd take notice. Two failures, and I'd start avoiding that cartridge. My standards for .22LR aren't any different, only I'd probably still buy questionable ammo for plinking, if it was the only thing in stock.

Here's my experience:
Fed Automatch : over 1500 rounds, one dud
Eley Club : 500 rounds, one dud
Fed 550 bulk pack : 1100 rounds, zero failures
Aguila Colibri: 500 rounds, zero failures
Winchester super X: 100 rounds, zero failures
CCI mini mag: 100 rounds, zero failures.
Remington GB bulk pack: 525 rounds, ~35 duds, and some FTF due to underpowered rounds. Hmm. 22LR catridges are small. I guess ~100 of them could be considered a handful?

It was probably a bad box. But unless it's the only thing on the shelf, I'll probably stick with the Federal in that price range. Having so many duds ruined the fun of even plinking. My friend and I ended up "disposing" of the majority of the box by loading them up with a speedloader and firing them off as fast as we could pull the trigger (and clear duds), aiming at nothing in particular.

 

[Vern Humphrey]

Will never buy Remington ammo, EVER!

You aren't alone.

As far as I'm concerned, the sooner they stop making that crap, the better.

 

[Bonesinium]

Your standards are really, really low. If I had even one failure in that many rounds of commercial centerfire ammo, I'd take notice. Two failures, and I'd start avoiding that cartridge. My standards for .22LR aren't any different, only I'd probably still buy questionable ammo for plinking, if it was the only thing in stock.

1500 rounds, with say 20 failures, is a success rate of 98.7%. Concidering it is inexpensive rimfire ammunition, at around 3.5 cents a round, used for nothing but plinking and target shooting, I'll take it. And I'm not even sure it is that high. I just shot a box, 525 rounds, and had 2 duds. That is 99.6%. I'm not expecting amazing things, but I wouldn't say my standards are "really, really low". This isn't centerfire ammo at 10-30x the cost.

It certainly isn't my first choice, but until I have some terrible experience I'm not complaining. It is quite dirty though that I can't deny.

 

[GLOOB]

^^ If it's a couple duds per 500ct box, yeah, it's fine for plinking. I probably had a bad box. But it's not like it's any cheaper than the alternatives, where I expect zero duds per box.

If my sample is the norm, I could expect to shoot 40,000 rounds of non GB bullets before I had 20 duds.

 

[viccola8]

22lr ammo

I have had a terrible time lately with Winchester and Remington 22lr shells misfiring. I bought Federal Premium shells at Cabela's and have had no problems with them. They are on sale there right now for 15.99 for 525 ct. Cant beat that price anywhere! I think you can get them from their website if you dont live near a Cabela's.

 

[22-rimfire]

What are Federal "Premium" that is packed in a 525-ct bulk pack?

 

[viccola8]

I had a terrible experience with Remington 22lr shells. I had a case rupture that ended up buring a hole through my shooting glove.....thank heavens I had it on. Had 42 misfires in a box of 500. Never again! Im using Federal now and no misfires so far. I suggest using the coated shells.

 

[kva47]

Make sure you are not confusing Remington Golden Bullet (typically ~$3/50) with the Remington Golden Bullet bulk pack. Similar name, very different ammo!

My main issues with the Golden bullet bulk pack were high dud rate, 2-3X the Federal bulk pack, loose bullets (you could rotate them in the case) which often caused them to "fold" instead of climbing the feed ramp causing feed failures, and the last straw was I stated getting two or three blown cases in each pack -- where the rim blew open 1/8-1/4" and shot hot gas and fragments out the side!



I used to really like Thunderbolts too, but again about three or four years ago they changed from a "waxy" lube to a dry shinny polymer lube and I've had terrible leading issues with it in all my pistols since. I got stuck with a bunch of it as Academy was selling it for $9/500 during the transition. Eventually shot it up by mixing in 50 rounds of it with 150-200 rounds of the Federal bulk pack. Until the leading fouled the barrels, it was accurate and always reliable, it had been my favorite cheap ammo before the change in bullet lube.



Depends on exactly what ammo it is, other than Golden Bullet bulk pack or Thunderbolt, its likely OK, or if its three or four years old I'd wager its fine.


When .22 ammo costs starts getting close to what I can reload 9mm for, I quickly lose interest in shooting it.

You might have hit on something there. I shoot the bulk pack golden bullet. What's the difference, exactly?

 

[shooter1]

It's no secret that Remington .22 ammo has had a problem with their priming mix for at least the last couple of years. I shoot a couple of rim fire matches a month, (Steel Challenge and NRA falling plates). Among the competitors, are a couple of Remington employees. They refuse to use Remington rim fire ammo due to the misfires common with this ammo. It's impossible to be competitive with such a handicap. Remington furnished ammo for the last Steel Challenge at a local club as a trial for their "Fix" of the misfire problem. I did not attend, so have not heard how the new mix performed as of yet. I'm sure they will solve their problem, hopefully more "sooner than later". I'll be happy to go back to Remington when they work out their problem. Their center fire and shot shell ammo is first rate.
In the meantime, most of us get by just fine with Federal Bulk for anything other than precision rim fire work. The most consistent and reliable rim fire ammo I've used or seen used is the CCI. It's necessary to try different varieties of .22 ammo to learn which your particular firearm shoots best. Most of us don't need Olympic class accuracy for our applications, and most of the modern rim fire ammo manufacturers make quite passable product. Take your pick!
str1