Bad Federal Bulk .22

[351 WINCHESTER]

If I find a paticular lot of .22 ammo that groups well and is consistent I try and go back to where I purchased it and buy as much as I can making sure it's the same lot no. I've never had anything but bad luck with remingtons famous golden bullet, bulk pack of boxes of 50 - doesn't matter. As a kid thats the only ammo I could get and I thought it was normal for misfires and weak loads. I called remington and sent them emails and they told me "that's the first time anyone has complained" - yea right!!!

I've have very good luck with Aguila ammo as it's eley primed - you can tell by the smell. Can't wait to try their new intercepor load - they claim they get 1500fps with a 40gr. h/p or solid. Someone else told me some guy got 1700fps out of his rifle. I would like to see that.

 

[JDGray]

Quote: The problem is not the ammo, there are many different ammo/weapon conflicts. Some won't cycle the CCI, some Federal, some Remington. It is a very difficult problem to explain but weapons are very picky when it comes to Rimfire ammo. BTW American Eagle brand is Federal ammo. If you find ammo that works in your weapon stick with it, if it doesn't work give the box you can't use to someone who can use it in theirs


In my case the ammo is the problem. I've used the same Fed bulk for years, and starting last summer, I started having issues with it, before that it was fine. After having alot of duds with the Rem bulk, I tried the Fed stuff again, with the same results. Its alot eaiser to clear a dud, than to drop the mag, and pry a stuck case out from behind another half chambered round. For now the Rem golden green box 550 stuff will do. I'm to cheap to buy mini mags

 

[Headless]

Just like SM and Johnny Guest, I've found the federal 550 round bulk packs to be excellent performers in all of my .22's.

A S&W 22A that I sold to my brother actually jammed constantly with remington ammo and winchester bulk pack ammo, but worked flawlessly with the bulk 550 round fed packs. It required a lot of pressure to cock the slide, too, i'd call it pretty stiff compared to my...

Browning buckmark, which also occasionally chokes on rem bulk pack but is consistently flawless with federal.

Just this last weekend i fired 700 rounds of fed bulk in about 3 hours through my remington 597 semi auto rifle and my browning buckmark and my brother's 22A combined, with only 4 dud rounds! We broke open a brick of remington and fired ~200 rounds, 11 of which were duds. Interestingly, my 597 bolt is extremely low tension (high velocity rounds in this rifle like aguilla 1650fps make the casings fly 30 feet! Pity it was such dirty dirty ammo...) and so is my buckmark, but the 22a is quite stiff and they all prefer the fed bulk stuff.

I bought some of the federal 'match target' 325 round boxes (beige) because nothing else was left a while back and was impressed by those also - more expensive, but there was not a single dud in the entire box and i was able to juggle a tennis ball around the backstop with my 597 at 100 yards, hitting it 3 out of 5 shots as it was rolling down the backstop after knocking it up the hill some.

Remington on the other hand i have been less than impressed with - it seems to be loaded a bit hotter in their centerfire cartridges than comparable federal 'american eagle' ammo...but out of thousands of 9mm i've shot, the only 2 FTE's i've had in my s&w 659 were in a 200 round batch of remington i fired out of it...one on about 80 rounds in...then i totally cleaned the gun on the spot as i was quite distraught...then again after another 60 rounds or so! ... and that's after 15k+ rounds flawlessly sent downrange through that gun, and another 10k without issue afterwards ...Sometimes with 400 to 800 rounds fired in a single session without cleaning, flawless... without any modifications to the gun (i just never bought the remington again..).

In rimfire .22 ammo as mentioned i've not had good luck with the remington either, and i don't like the fine gold powder it leaves on everything if you get the bulk 'golden bullet' from wally world.

 

[tradja]

I started buying Federal Champion bulk based on the good recommendations here, mostly in the "Favorite Bulk .22LR?" threads.

But, I've given up on Federal Champion .22LR bulk after the last three boxes: multiple FTE's in my Marlin 60 and will not cycle my Bersa .22 at all, not even once. The rifle is almost completely reliable with Rem Golden or Thunderbolt, and the Bersa is 100% with Golden.

Like Headless, I don't like the fine gold dust all over my fingers and guns, but the Rem Golden Bullets do seem to run in my guns, at least. I've had good luck with Rem Thunderbolts in my .22's also, but without the gold fingers.

Interesting experiment, and really illustrated to me the "YMMV" concept and the importance of researching the ammo preferences of your specific guns, which really made me pay renewed attention to my CCW loads. At least it was a cheap experiment!