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CrazySpyder69

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I am so confused on what ammo to buy for my brand spankin new savage .22. This is my first gun so go easy on me!:uhoh:

I have been searching online for .22 ammo and dear god I am so confused. First of all I gave up looking at cabelas (where i bought the gun) because their website is so hard to navigate when looking for ammo.

So I went to academy.com. They have 4 different types. First is the 100 count brick for 5 bux. Seems to be a good deal. Then there is the 50 count MAG shells for 7 bux. Then there are 2 other brands for 500 count for 10 bux.

http://www.academy.com/index.php?page=content&target=products/outdoors/hunting/rimfire_ammunition

That is what I am looking at. Wow I am so confused. What to buy? I know different ammunition will act differently for each gun. But where to start? Whats the difference between the mag rounds and the regular? Why does one say "shells" and the others say "ammo"? Is that just the cartridge? HELP!!!:banghead: :cuss:
 
First and foremost, welcome to THR.

The most important thing to figure out is which chambering do you have? Most (as in the vast majority) .22 rimfires are chambered in .22 Long Rifle or LR for short. .22 Winchester Magnum Rimfire is an entirely different caliber and is less popular in general.

At this point I'm going to assume your gun will have .22LR etched on it's barrel. The coolest thing about .22LR is that you can go down to your local Walmart, or gun shop, or sporting goods store and they will likely have a minimum of four different loadings. I have on more than one occasion left a store with up to fifteen different loadings without breaking a twenty! The advantage here is that your rifle will have a unique preferance for one of the loads out there. It'll shoot them all but there will be one that groups better. Most shooters find that high velocity loads don't deliver amazing accuracy. But given that a box of 40 seldom exceeds a dollar you can try a lot of them on the cheap.
 
Yes it is LR. Sorry, I really didnt know it made a difference. HEY! You learn something new everyday.

Ok! So where should I start? Any brands that perform better the majority of the time?
 
For the record, CCI makes Mini Mags and Maxi Mags. Mini Mags are hi velocity .22LR rounds, and Maxi Mags are .22 Magnum rounds.

You still haven't told us what kind of Savage you got. Is it semi auto? Read the booklet it came with. It should say if hi velocity ammo is okay to use or not.
 
Personally I own .22 firearms for the plinking and fun factor.

As such I buy the cheapest ammunition I can....as all Im killing is tin cans and paper - it doesnt matter.

Things to keep in mind.....semi-automatic .22s can be finicky with super-cheap ammo...so if your looking for reliability then you should by some hi-velocity .22lr to run in your semi-auto. This ammo will cycle better in the firearm. You can still shoot super-cheap .22lr in a semi-auto but be prepared for the occasional failure.

If its a bolt-action gun, break-action or lever-action then you will be manually cycling the gun - therefore you can get by shooting super-cheap ammunition and not have cycling issues.

To me the name of the game when shooting .22s is to have fun cheaply....therefore I buy cheap ammo.
 
"...what ammo to buy..." Relax. You'll have to buy a box of as many brands as you can and shoot them, off a bench, to find the brand your rifle will shoot well. The price of said ammo means nothing either. Your rifle may shoot the least expensive ammo well and not the most expensive. .22's are just like that. Rifle or handgun.
Buy a few boxes of different brands and go shooting. Shoot slowly and deliberately, changing targets between brands, for group only. You don't need to shoot the whole box to know if your rifle likes that brand or not. A mag or two will do. Once you find the most accurate ammo, sight in with that brand.
Non-reloading center fire shooters must follow the same proceedure. It's far less expensive with a .22 though.
 
Welllll......here's the deal. Every .22 seems to be different in its ammo preferences. My best shootin' buddy and I went on a quest to find the most accurate ammo, using a total of 5 different guns, ranging from a Ruger 10/22:barf: to a full out Model 52 Winchester with a 24x target scope. We bought a box of everything we could find, from cheapo brick to very expensive Eley target ammo.

The "general findings" are as follows(and remmeber we were "nit-picking" here---some gave decent groups, just not nearly as good as others):

The Ruger 10/22 sucked for accuracy, no matter what we fed it.

"High-velocity" ammo never grouped as well as "standard velocity" stuff.

The best we found were (in descending order of accuracy, but only slight differences):

Wolf Match Target
Winchester T-22
Federal "Gold Label" Classic

The range from the "worst" to "best" groups was about 2x---in other words the best made groups 1/2 the size of the worst. Results, excepting the 10/22:barf: were surprisingly consistant, e.g. all rifles did about as well (relatively) with the same ammo.

Now, none of this matters too much, if you'r just shooting tin cans, but if you wanna really challenge yourself (and learn good shooting technique) on the range, or hunt small game (think head shots, to minimize meat damage) then it becomes more important.
 
I too find that high velocity rounds are less accurate than standard velocity in my marlin. Also, do note that some auto-loaders tell you in the manual not to use hyper velocity rounds.
 
Another point to ponder is that specialty loads don't often work amazingly. Examples would include Aguila Colibris which are powered only by the primer (no powder). They are quiet for sure but the trajectory sucks as does the accuracy. The Aguila Sniper Sub Sonics are extreemly cool in Browning Buckmark pistols however they barely "Pattern" with a rifle and won't even cycle in a tight match chamber. I've had amazing results with Federals el cheapo American Eagle line. To include a .57" group at 100yds best ever. My Beretta 87 Target seems to like CCI green tags the best and Aguila gold second best. My across the board won't shoot in anything well is Remington "Golden Bullet". I have at a minimum 10 dud's in a 550 round brick and they're the most failure prone loading (aside from the aforementioned specialty loadings) I've ever wasted money on. The Federal red boxed standards are reliable and cheap but they haven't delivered spectacular accuracy. For plinking however they are lots of fun. If you have a bolt action I'd give the Aguila SSS a try because IF they shoot well in your gun, I've found the performance impressive. They use a 60 grain projectile (30% heavier than standard) which retains energy very well. The effect on spinners and cans are immediately obvious! Avoid using shot shell loads as they are short range propositions not to mention they are pricey.
 
I have a Savage model 64 that is still pretty new to me, I think I may have just recently cracked 400 rounds through it (maybe as high as 550). It's been fed the following.

Remington Thunderbolts - Dirt cheap but I have had an average of 1-2 duds per box so far.

Federal Spitfire (hollowpoint) - My Savage loves these rounds and my Ruger MK III pistol hates them.

CCI Blazer - Both my pistol and rifle seem to love this stuff above all else.

Go look at Midway for more ammo choices.
http://www.midwayusa.com/ebrowse.exe/browse?TabID=3&Categoryid=10017&categorystring=653***7547***
 
.22s are weird about ammo more than any other gun I've known.

I'd recommend buying a few small 50 round boxes of different stuff and see what it eats best.

My Browning auto .22 likes the super cheap-o Wal Mart Remington bulk packed stuff, even over the more expensive ammo so you never know.

Good thing is it's cheap enough to try several :D

In general don't fall for the hype of super mega velocity or super mega match whatever, regardless of what fancy box they put it in.
 
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