.22 LR Ammo test, which is better?

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The problem with buying match grade ammo in bulk is after enough time the magic lube on them dries up and the accuracy and consistency is usually gone.
 
For this reason I hope the powder coated bullets become a "thing". I have just opened one of CCI's Christmas season boxes, they shoot very well though my pistols. Time to try them through the rifles. Or maybe the Red, White and Blue box out now. Obviously these are not a match type offering. It would be neat to see something to that effect though.
 
To be honest, I have shot pretty much everything on your original list, and again, as it has been said several times before, it depends solely on the gun. My Mossberg 146B-A will shoot just about anything with reasonable and acceptable accuracy, but it performs the best with Winchester Super X, as crazy as that sounds. It is my "go-to" round for small game. My faithful old 10/22 performs well with CCI Stingers. My Marlin Golden 39A can be quite finicky as well, but the CCI runs nicely in it, all working out in the end. I have seen rifles ruined from extended shooting of Thunderbolts, so avoid those for anything more than occasional plinking. I don't mind having several different brands of rimfire in storage, but some people do I guess, so if you have more than one .22lr, I would be looking for a nice compromise if at all possible, which is exactly what you'll get with CCI.
 
Well, from what I understand, it happens when the bullet itself is super loose inside the casing a.k.a weak crimps, putting the lead itself just slightly off center when fired, if that makes sense. A common thing with that particular brand, which Im sure you can imagine, is a bad thing. Not saying that it happens all the time, just saying that you don't ever want it to happen to you. If the lead is off center when fired at 1100 fps it can damage the rifling to a point of ruination, as well as bend the barrel due to the malleability of the steel as a result of the heat.

I am hoping that some other folks with more insight can weigh in on this issue. Anyone?
 
I have only seen it a couple of times myself, I have just seen that it CAN happen. Ive shot plenty of them myself, thats for sure
 
I could believe that Thunderbolts could lead to fast leading, but not destroying the rifling. I bet those "ruined" guns were just leaded up.

I may be wrong..... and have been. But I do not believe there is enough heat or velocity to ruin a modern .22 rim-fire barrel. I do know some very early .22 rifle barrels were built with soft metal and could be "shot out" but I doubt anything in the last 75 years would have that problem.
 
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You can't put enough heat into a modern .22LR barrel fast enough to cause a structural problem with the barrel. You will get stoppages from fouling of the action before that point occurs, even with a belt-fed or drum-fed full auto gun.

You might find this video interesting:



That was 2178 rounds through a suppressed .22LR in one session but the suppressor and barrel cooled down quite a bit whilst they cleaned the chamber to reduce stoppages.

The most I have fired with no interruption is 250 rounds, using 10 magazines that were preloaded in my 10/22 clone. At that time my suppressor was too hot to handle and so was the breech end of the barrel (the rest has a carbon fibre sleeve). I then reloaded all 10 magazines and fired another 250 rounds after that. At the end of the session I found molten lead on the exit hole of the suppressor but there was no damage to the barrel or the suppressor (which was an A-TEC CMM4(6) made entirely from aluminium).
 
ColtPythonElite said:
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.
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This has generally been my experience as well, with CCI MiniMags taking a second seat (and sometimes first) for "cheap" ammo.

This last batch of SVs tho, kept giving me flyers @ about 1" below groups at 50yds, with the extra weight of my rifle i could watch the shots as they dropped short thru the scope, lateral tracking was perfect but you could see the ark was wrong. Im going down to one of my local hangouts when i get paid and buying a few boxes of the nicer ammo, to see if it groups any better (and more minimags, the 1000 rounds i bought couple months ago are gone, and they do make a difference at 100yds+)
 
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I suppose I should clarify as well, that most of my .22lr, are antiques. I have seen it happen with my own two eyeballs, but you're absolutely right in saying that antique .22 are more at risk. The key word being "modern." Like I said, I would perhaps be more inclined to agree with yall if not for my own experiences.
 
It is maddening sometimes that a rifle will shoot one ammo well for awhile but then a new lot doesn't shoot well and you have to test again. Some cheaper ammo will shoot really well sometimes but not another time.
 
CCI standard velocity is my personal favorite 22 ammo. Its very economical compared to true target ammo, easy to find, and it shoots excellent in every gun I've tried it in. Very reliable too. My most accurate bulk ammo is blazers and remington golden bullets believe it or not. The rest of remington's ammo is junk. Bulk winchester is junk. Bulk federal is junk. Mini mags are great reliable hunting bullets. Winchester's in the 100 round plastic boxes are okay. I've not shot much of the real match grade 22 ammo as I have no reason too since I don't compete and have centerfires for when more accuracy is needed.
 
in my testing, remington thunderbolt did not shoot well out of my 452, but, ironically enough, remington cyclone, the lead hollowpoint version of thunderbolt, shot pretty well. Not wolf mt well, but pretty well. Fed automatch shoots 3 shots out of 5 into a cloverleaf, but the other 2 wander. cci SV works pretty well for the money.
 
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