22LR Practice Ammo

[jbradley]

I am getting a 22LR conversion kit for my Sig P229 so I can get more practice rounds in for less cost.

A friend recommended that I use the Winchester lead free. The only concern is that I can just about get 9mm for the same price. His thoughts on the bulk ammo was it is messy and "you get what you pay for".

At the price of his recommendation, what is the point... just shoot the 9mm.

Any suggestions?

Thanks
John

 

[mgmorden]

People who stick to "you get what you pay for" too closely just enjoy wasting money. Advertisers love them - just stick a higher price tag on your stuff and watch them flock there. The audio industry in particular is filled with them. "Audiophiles" tend to love the phrase "you get what you pay for" and will spend hundreds of dollars on gold plated cables and such to bring out the "subtle nuances" of the music. I found it funny recently when one journal did a blind sampling with one of these people between those hundred dollar cables and a metal CLOTHES HANGER - and they couldn't tell one bit of difference .

Anyways, back to guns .

If I'm feeling generous I'll get the Remington "Target" ammo that runs about $7 for the tray of 100. It feeds and shoots absolutely fine in my Ruger Std.

Honestly though, 95% of the time I shoot the cheap $1.50 boxes of Federal. They're plenty accurate enough for practice, and feed fine. Very rarely (once per couple hundred rounds) I'll hit a dud round with those, in which case I just cycle to clear and keep going. Just for practice I don't have an issue with that very occasional issue.

As to "messy" - I've never understood that either way. If you clean your gun after each outing then who cares?

Shooting uber-expensive ammo from a .22 largely defeats the point IMHO.

 

[jhb]

....

lead free is nice if you are shooting on your own land and don't want the lead issue to deal with at some point. if in an indoor range i don't see much point. others will be firing lead all around you and before and after, so.....

if he's suggesting it because he thinks it's that much better, than other .22lr types and brands? i am going to disagree with him. while i don't have a sig .22lr conversion kit to comment on feeding..i do shoot allot of .22lr in pistols. currently in a walther p22 and a cz75 kadet. both love cci mini-mags the best, but i have shot many bulk boxes of high velocity remington goldens and federals through them with little to no issues. i have shot plenty of winchester x and bulk types as well with no problems.

as far as messy....i'm not sure what he means. the cci is pretty clean relative to .22lr? the cheaper remington is dirtier, imho, but not dramatically?

in my opinion any .22lr higher velocity should cycle fine through your sig, but in my experience with rimfire pistols, the cci mini-mags do the best and pricing isn't crazy around $0.06-0.08 per round vs. $0.25-0.30 per 9mm round of equal comparison.

 

[NG VI]

Well being an auto conversion kit, it'll probably like the higher-velocity stuff better, and since you'll be shooting for fun and to save money on 9mm practice ammo, then there is literally NO point to spending as much for 9mm as .22 practice ammo. Over-priced lead free ammunition is cool to have available IF you can't shoot regular lead bullets, but you don't have that restriction so just go with any .22 you can find and see what your conversion kit likes best, or what it likes enough compared to the price.

My CZ kit, that ate every single type of .22 I could find that fit in the magazine. All of it. I don't think I would have gained anything by using some weirdo lead free .22.

 

[Spammy_H]

I haven't used .22 LR in a pistol conversion kit, but in the our Browning Buckmarks and Ruger 10/22s, our experience has been that the Winchester and Remington bulk packs tended to be a little tempermental. However, the Federal bulk pack works flawlessly in our .22s. I love the stuff - shoots pretty cleanly (anything made by Winchester in a white box fouls with white carbon like crazy).

Last I checked - the Federal bulk pack @ Wally World runs about $18 for a 550 box.

 

[RH45]

Lately, I've been getting misfires with Remington Target, and Winchester T-22 target. After doing a little searching, I've found that I'm not the only one.

For cheap ammo, CCI blazer has been the most accurate out of my guns, but, over the years, I do remember a couple of misfires. I don't think I've had any issues with Federal, bulk packs of 550, but, I've only run a couple of thousand.

 

[bigfatdave]

You will have to experiment, I doubt the lead-free stuff is worth it unless you must reduce lead somewhere.

CCI makes a bunch of superb loads, if I were you I'd start out with minimags and standard velocity loads from them. But the whole point is cheap ammo, so in the end you should find a cheapo bulk ammo to go blasting with, Federal makes a number of bulk-pack loads, I (and all my .22lr guns) like the Fed550 available at WalMart in a red box or the similarly-priced Winchester, also in a red box ... fed550 and win555 fill up a number of ammo cans in my closet, they're probably the best bang for the buck, they do have the occasional* hot or light charge, and they do have the occasional** dud, but they let you go blasting all afternoon for <$20 and aren't too terribly dirty.


*(hard to measure, nothing that is going to damage a quality firearm, just a bit louder or quieter once in a while)
**(maybe 5 in a box of over 500 rounds? sometimes less, rarely more ... I've kept track a few times)

 

[9mmepiphany]

The recommendation for the Sig .22lr conversion kit is to use CCI MiniMags for reliable function. That is what I use in mine and it runs without any problems...I just had a bunch when I got the gun and didn't try anything else.

I have heard folks tell me they have had problems with theirs when trying to shoot other brands...mostly Remington. But folks shoot even cheaper CCI stuff seem to be fairing better.

Either way, just be sure to clean it and either count you shots or get the followers from SigPower to catch the slide after the last round

 

[M2 Carbine]

I shoot a LOT of 22LR. Most of it is Wal Mart bulk pack and most of that is Federal. ($15.97/550)

If the idea is to save money, shoot the least expensive ammo that will do the job.