22lr plated or non plated

[ultralightbackpacker]

I just picked up a new henry 22lr. It's the 16.5" barrel youth. Overall length is 33" I guess. It fits my Jeep perfect, not much room in it if you know what I mean. :banghead: My young son is excited to boot.

In any case,

I reload for a # of centerfire pistols on a dillon 550B. I have numerous 22lr rifles, 10/22, rem mod 60, marlin 39. Haven't shot the a 22lr in a long, long while. They just sit in the safe.

I never really thought about it before. I was going to buy a case of 22lr, then I noticed there are a bleep load of different rounds for 22lr. Sub sonic, standard vel, high vel, and hyper.

Well, when I reload all my centerfire, I always use copper plated or metal jack etc. It seems the high velocity 22lr and up only have plated bullets? Why is this?

If I use standard velocity without plating, will the barrel foul with lead?

I know for sure, every gun likes different mfg/rounds, but should I spend an extra couple bucks or not for plating? Is it even possible to wear out a 22 barrel with high velocity?

Thanks much and take care,

Perhaps I am just being paranoid, or I never really treated my other 22's nicely.

 

[rangerruck]

this is not a worry; a lead 22 round will not deposit the way a centerfire will. Oh sure, it may leave some based on imperfections in the bbl., same with the copper, but it will be very small. most rimfire guys go for 1000's of rounds, before accuracy starts to fall off. There simply is not enough heat or pressure, to make a 22 round go molten, the way a centerfire round will. Lot of your leaded rounds are waxed as well, some rifles like this, some don't. And stay standard or subsonic for paper punching will also tend to give better accuracy, even all the way out to 100yds, this is because since they are never supersonic, they don't have to destabilize when punching back under the sound barrier. But then, that is not to say you can't find some supremely accurate hi speed rounds. The ones that are usually the worst in accuracy are the hyper speed rounds.
As for buying bulk, stay away from remington, and cci bulk pacs, they are usually both very dirty, very irratic in their loadings, and unreliable.
Feddy and winny and Aguila make fine bulk, aguila is not loose just buy the brick. And the red box American Eagle, which is feddy's low line rounds, usually found in just the singles, is a very good, and very accurate round out to about 80's or so. They are flat based, and usually screw up, when repunching the sound barrier, but it is not allways the case, they are extremely accurate at 100 yds through my mod 60.

 

[lions]

but should I spend an extra couple bucks or not for plating?

Was in wal-mart today and a federal brick (plated) was $1 cheaper than a winchester brick (not plated). That makes the decision pretty easy for me.

 

[CZguy]

Check out rimfire central.

http://www.rimfirecentral.com/forums/

 

[22-rimfire]

It's probably time to warm up those 22's.

Plated vs non-plated? Not much difference in accuracy or cleanliness. I tend to shoot mostly plated bullets in my 22 pistols as they seem to feed better. I have read the same thing in magazines. But after years of shooting, feeding seems in semi-autos seems more brand sensitive than a plating issue.

What were you planning on buying?

You won't shoot a 22 rimfire barrel out like you can with a centerfire.

If you are buying a whole case, I would avoid Remington Thunderbolts as they tend to be inconsistant and you have more fail to fire rounds than most other brands. The bulk pack ammo tends to be more inconsistant in general as it is loaded to a lower quality standard.

I'd shoot the rifle a bit for accuracy prior to buying an entire case, but that is me. Try a few boxes of different ammo first and then choose. It just depends on what you are trying to accomplish.

 

[bhk]

Plated (really just copper-washed) or unplated - it really doesn't matter. The copper-washing is mostly done for cosmetic reasons, and some real accuracy nuts will argue that the washing process requires bullet tumbling that actually puts dings in the bullet. Most of us wouldn't notice this.

Both are outside lubed, although many of the copper-washed bullets have a harder lube and seem less messy. I generally shoot the CCI mini-mags (copper washed) in my plinking guns and find them to be an excellent, all-around cartridge that feeds well in everything and doesn't gum up the chambers much. Winchester Super-X also is an excellent copper-washed round, although I have experienced multiple problems with them in very cold weather.

Most real target rounds (Eley, CCI Green Tag, Lapua, RWS, etc) are plain lead (lubricated, of course). I use these in my target rifles. The lube on these is often much thicker and quite messy. I believe the Eley still uses a lube mix containing bees wax and it sure has a distinctive order when fired.

 

[moooose102]

i think that the lead .22's have so much lube on the bullet, you would have a hard time leading to any appreciable amount. and this would also translate to VERY little wear. the plated also have some kind of lube on them, i am not sure what it is. but .22's are designed to have the snot shot out of them. the one i have that was my dads (since he was a kid) has had so many rounds through it it has worn some of the action (ejector, one of the springs, ) out and had to be replaced. i can only guess, but between my dad, and us 3 boys, probably in the area of 50k rounds through it area. like i said, i am just guessing. but i know we all shot the heck out of this gun. and as far as accuracy goes. it is still very good!. i just clean it about every 4-5 times i shoot it. i have found with this particular old gun that dry lube works better than oil. oil collects the burnt powder and starts jamming the action after about 200 rounds.

 

[Marlin 45 carbine]

I'll ditto bhk, I've noticed Win. SuperX is affected by cold. good otherwise. I've never had any luck with Remington's 'golden bullet'. last time at the range was a .22LR day for me, and I saw a LOT of Rem. .22LR laying on the ground evidently someone else noticed it wasn't doing well and threw it away! I've read that some .22's shoot the 'YellowJacket' good tho.
I tryed various rounds out of my AMT 'small game hunter' and was surprised at Aguila's 40 gr. 'Interceptor' (did well) and CCI 'Velocitor' (did well). the Aguila 30gr 'Supermaximum' did not group well and a big disappointment was the Federal 40gr 'AutoMatch' also did not do as well as expected.
my standbys CCI MiniMag and SuperX Win. did well as always.
My AMT doesn't group the CCI 'Stinger' as well as other Hi-speed offerings.
the AMT has deeper rifleing than other .22's I've checked including my Winchester 74 and my Henry 'US Survival'.

 

[aka108]

I've found over years of paper punching that standard velocity 22lr gives better results in any brand. Recently gone to Eley Sport and Aquila Std Vel with excellent results for the money.

 

[SimpleIsGood229]

I just buy what's cheapest.

Leading is really not much of a problem. For example, I've around 6,000 rounds through my Browning Buck Mark Bullseye, most of which were non-plated. To clean it, all I've ever done was Bore Snake'd the barrel; it still shoots beautifully.

Bottom line:
Buy what's cheap.

 

[Navy joe]

I buy whatever is built with an Eley priming process. Lately that was a case of PMc that I believe Aguila produced for PMC. Unplated is what I prefer.

 

[CRITGIT]

They are copper washed or plain lead. In either case they're lubed (wax) coated to prevent problems.
Most .22'ers use Fed Bulk (550 ct) 11.97 from Wally. Hard to beat!

CRITGIT

 

[bannockburn]

ultralightbackpacker

Over time, I've found CCI MiniMags to be the most consistant, reliable, and accurate of the high velocity copper washed variety. Unfortunately they're also starting to become the most expensive too. In order to get more bang for my .22LR buck, I've started using Federal Champion ammo, usually picking up a brick when they're on sale. Even though it's plain lead, for the money it's good enough for plinking and informal target practice. Another really good .22LR plain lead ammo that I've used is Wolf Match Target. This ammo just flat out performs, giving me great accuracy and very reliable performance. But like the CCI MiniMags, the Wolf ammo has also seen some really big price increases since last year. Winchester ammo has been okay; not the most accurate but decent enough for most plinking sessions. The one brand I've never had much success with is Remington, even when I've used it in Remington rifles. Far too many failure to feed, failure to eject, misfires, jams; you name it, I've had it happen with Remington .22LR ammo.