School me on 22 LR ammunition

[Teachu2]

CCI doesn't really make "bulk" 22 unless you are talking about the ar tacticool stuff.
There is a lot of good info in this thread and some info is off. I want to clear up that most 22LR ammo velocity is overrated. Remington golden bullets which are high velocity are rated at 1280fps but in reality is lucky to break 1200fps.

CCI standard velocity is rated at 1070fps, CCI minimags and blazers are high velocity and there is a 36gr hollow point and a 40gr solid. The 36gr hp is rated at 1260fps and the 40gr solid is rated at 1235fps. CCI stingers are a 32gr hollow point and rated at 1650fps I believe and there is also the CCI velociters which are a 40gr hollow point rated at 1450fps I believe.

Stingers and velociters are hyper velocity and I don't mess with the hyper velocity stuff. The stingers actually have a longer shell casing with a shorter bullet to get extra gun powder and keep the overall length the same. I don't like that the casing actually seats into the chamber more so.

The grains of the bullets like 36gr vs 40gr is the weight of the bullet. A heavier bullets will obviously move a little slower but carries more energy upon impact and will typically penetrate deeper. a lighter bullet will move faster and have a flatter trajectory but wont carry as much energy on impact and wont penetrate as deep. Each has its own ups and downs and there is no perfect round and that is why they make so many different variations.

I personally only like standard and high velocity in a 36-40 grain. I also like subsonics for quiet shooting on occasions. I typically stay away from the hyper velocity stuff.

See http://www.midwayusa.com/product/23...-hollow-point-box-of-300?cm_vc=ProductFinding for bulk Mini-Mags.

 

[Warp]

See http://www.midwayusa.com/product/23...-hollow-point-box-of-300?cm_vc=ProductFinding for bulk Mini-Mags.

That isn't what we consider to be bulk .22lr.

When people say bulk .22lr that pretty much means the loose packed stuff...that is simply a 300 round box of Mini Mags...which are definitely higher quality than "bulk" .22lr

 

[jrdolall]

The definition of "bulk" probably differs for some people. For MOST 22 shooters it is considered bulk if it comes loose packed in a box or can. In general this is lower quality ammo (don't blow up, I said in general) that is good for plinking and blasting but can also work extremely well in most guns. Thunderbolt, Golden Bullets, Federal blue box, Winchester(several kinds)are the ones you are most likely to see in normal times. CCI makes some "specialty" bulk like the swamp people items but I have never used them because, back when they were available, they were fairly pricey.
There is also what is called a "brick" and that generally will be 10 boxes with 40 or 50 rounds in each box. I personally have found the Blazer bricks to be very dependable ammo and I also prefer the 50 round boxes over the bulk containers.
Buying a brick of 22 is not buying bulk 22 though buying a brick is actually buying in bulk.

I have two Phoenix pistols that only work well with a particular type of Federal ammo. I can't remember which one it is and am not looking at a box but I keep that ammo in a separate container marked specifically for those two guns.
I have a Buckmark that prefers the higher velocity ammo and tends to have ejection issues with the bulk stuff. It may need a new ejector because it is about 25 years old.
I have a S&W M&P 22 that will shoot anything I put in it including sub-sonics. I have a suppressor on it most of the time and it actually sounds like a typewriter, unless we shoot steel and then you hear the pings.
As has been said many times before you just have to match the gun to the ammo and that takes time and, in today's world, money.
Midway was advertising Federal bulk and Blazer bricks this morning and still showed it in stock at around 6:30 CST. Limit of one each so with shipping to my zip it was $25 per brick. Or is that per bulk? Either way it was around $.05 per round delivered which is better than running into town and looking. I didn't buy any because I don't need either of those. Stingers I need.

 

[Warp]

The definition of "bulk" probably differs for some people. For MOST 22 shooters it is considered bulk if it comes loose packed in a box or can. In general this is lower quality ammo (don't blow up, I said in general) that is good for plinking and blasting but can also work extremely well in most guns. Thunderbolt, Golden Bullets, Federal blue box, Winchester(several kinds)are the ones you are most likely to see in normal times. CCI makes some "specialty" bulk like the swamp people items but I have never used them because, back when they were available, they were fairly pricey.
There is also what is called a "brick" and that generally will be 10 boxes with 40 or 50 rounds in each box. I personally have found the Blazer bricks to be very dependable ammo and I also prefer the 50 round boxes over the bulk containers.
Buying a brick of 22 is not buying bulk 22 though buying a brick is actually buying in bulk.

I have two Phoenix pistols that only work well with a particular type of Federal ammo. I can't remember which one it is and am not looking at a box but I keep that ammo in a separate container marked specifically for those two guns.
I have a Buckmark that prefers the higher velocity ammo and tends to have ejection issues with the bulk stuff. It may need a new ejector because it is about 25 years old.
I have a S&W M&P 22 that will shoot anything I put in it including sub-sonics. I have a suppressor on it most of the time and it actually sounds like a typewriter, unless we shoot steel and then you hear the pings.
As has been said many times before you just have to match the gun to the ammo and that takes time and, in today's world, money.
Midway was advertising Federal bulk and Blazer bricks this morning and still showed it in stock at around 6:30 CST. Limit of one each so with shipping to my zip it was $25 per brick. Or is that per bulk? Either way it was around $.05 per round delivered which is better than running into town and looking. I didn't buy any because I don't need either of those. Stingers I need.

Well said. That's exactly what it is. Buying bulk vs buying in bulk.

Yesterday from Midway I ordered:
500 rounds CCI Mini Mag, $48 shipped ($0.10 per round, not bad for Mini Mags)

Also yesterday, from Midway, I ordered:
500 rounds CCI Standard Velocity + 500 rounds CCI Blazer + 325 rounds Federal Automatch for $90 shipped (avg price $0.07 per round)

And two days ago I ordered 2,100 Federal bulk .22lr in a .50 ammo can for like $116 shipped from Cabela's. Speaking of Cabela's, I receive a looong time backorder for 300 rounds of CCI Mini Mags (swamp people packaging) last week.




Based on this it seems .22lr supplies might be on the upswing here recently.

 

[MBaneACP]

Glad to see CCI "Tactical" back in stores, as the most accurate & reliable AR I have ( which has been co-opted by my Sweetie for Appleseed ) was pretty much built around that round. NOTHING else worked as well. One hole groups from prone at 25-yards!

Just returned from Boise NSSF Rimfire Challenge match. Shot in the Manual division with an S&W 617 revolver built by Apex Tactical and an out-of-the-box Ruger American bolt action rifle. With the revolver, I shot CCI MiniMags, the round Apex did the testing with. On the Ruger, which I got the day before the match, I shot Eley Edge, a crazy accurate cartridge that most semiautos won't run.

You know, shooting a lot of rounds quickly through a bolt gun turns out to be hard! LOL!

I have had zero luck with bulk Winchester. ARMSCOR, which seems hot to me, works well in my go-to 10/22 but not the AR. I've had pretty good luck with Eley-primed Aguila Target, which all my .22s seem to like.

Michael B

PS: Of the above mentioned products, Ruger and ARMSCOR are sponsors; the others are not.

PPS & Off-Topic: I'm going to buy the Ruger American...it has been repurposed with a silencer for thinning the rabbit herd around the Secret Hideen Bunker.

 

[Cee Zee]

That isn't what we consider to be bulk .22lr.

When people say bulk .22lr that pretty much means the loose packed stuff

I think that's pretty much a contradiction there. If loose packed ammo is bulk ammo then that Minimag ammo is bulk ammo.

People have always looked at CCI ammo as borderline bulk ammo. I remember when it came packed loose in a 50 round box many years ago. Like you say that's what defines what bulk ammo is. CCI is definitely higher quality than most of what we call "bulk" ammo but not always.

 

[Warp]

I think that's pretty much a contradiction there. If loose packed ammo is bulk ammo then that Minimag ammo is bulk ammo.

...no, because Mini Mags aren't loose packed (and they are higher quality)

CCI is definitely higher quality than most of what we call "bulk" ammo but not always.

Yes

 

[javjacob]

CCI minimags are not packaged loose. They come in high quality plastic containers with a plastic divider that separates each round from the other. Minimags are one of if not the highest quality "high velocity" 22LR ammo.

Most the bulk ammo comes in oddball numbers like 222, 325, 333, 375, 525, 550, 555.ect The old CCI swamp people that came in the 375 box was bulk but the new stuff in the 300 box is in a plastic divider. The only CCI bulk I know of today is the AR tacticool 375.

 

[javjacob]

Even in the old 50 round boxes they weren't really "bulk". They just didn't have a divider and the rounds were placed 25 up and 25 down to fit snug in the box. The rounds didn't move around much and stayed in their place. "BULK" ammo is dumped loose into a box and the ammo moves around freely. If you shake a bulk box the rounds move around and bang into each other. Also with "bulk" it is not uncommon to get shorted a round or 2 and you would never know because its packaged loose.

 

[Cee Zee]

...no, because Mini Mags aren't loose packed (and they are higher quality)

Some of them are.

It doesn't matter to me what people want to call their ammo. We all know that Minimags are better than your average bulk pack of ammo but by the definition I've always heard they have been sold as bulk ammo. Call it whatever you feel like calling it though. It doesn't matter a bit to me. FWIW there are lots of varieties of CCI .22 ammo some of which was sold in bulk packs. I've bought a lot of Blazer in loose packaged bricks. They came in bricks with 525 rounds in them. I probably still have some if I want to dig through my stash and look. Here's an image of the box though. These were common just before the panic.

IMO Blazers are better than Federal, Winchester and Remington on loose bricks or at least that's been true in recent years. At one time I would have said Federal was better but they dropped in quality after the first great panic.

 

[Warp]

Yes, Blazer is bulk.

I've never had or used any...but I have a box of it coming next week.

 

[jrdolall]

I haven't seen that Blazer bulk in a while but I bought 10 bricks of Blazer right before the latest panic. I don't know that there is /was any difference in the quality of the bulk pack versus the bricks.
I am seeing quite a bit of 22 at local stores in Alabama and Georgia right now. Lots of Aguila mostly but I have had mixed results with that ammo, most of which I think has been the gun rather than the ammo.

 

[Cee Zee]

At Vance's in Columbus they had bricks of Blazer side by side that were either the bulk pack or the 50 round boxes. The price was the same (very cheap at the time too - like $11 - $12 which for the time was very low). This was for almost a year leading up to Sandy Hook. I bought a bunch of them and shot them all up too. I have 2 boxes of 50 left but I usually bought the loose packs for the extra 25 rounds. Blazer is pretty good stuff. It's stayed consistent which is more than I can say for Federal which is what I shot almost all the time for 15 years. It's junk now IMO. Blazer is still good if you can find it. CCI has always been committed to quality IMO. All of their stuff is pretty good. There's a reason people like Mini-Mags so well. It's great hunting ammo. They don't make any top quality target ammo but CCI SV is pretty good and it doesn't cost an arm and a leg. It's good ammo for practicing IMO because it's fairly consistent. It does have some flyers but I can usually tell when that happens. I like Blazer for plinking too. It's reliable and fairly accurate. I wouldn't have any problems using it on varmints either.

 

[*Kemosabe*]

“NEW & IMPROVED” Any better?

I haven’t had good results with the Remington Golden 22s, but I bought 3 boxes (225 count) of them because they had “New And Improved” on the boxes to give them a try and also because these are the first 22s I’ve seen in 6 months!

I haven’t tried them yet and I was wondering if any of THRs members have found that they are improved or is the “New And Improved” graphic on the box the only thing that is new?

 

[Cee Zee]

"Improved" can cover a lot of ground with those Remington .22 cartridges. They could improve a whole lot and still be bad. Hopefully they got their act together and started making good ammo.

 

[Vern Humphrey]

"Improved" can cover a lot of ground with those Remington .22 cartridges. They could improve a whole lot and still be bad. Hopefully they got their act together and started making good ammo.

You got that right.

I have a friend who works at the Remington plant here in Arkansas, and he said, "Yes, we have a problem with rimfire, but our centerfire ammo is the best in the world."

And I said, "I'll never know -- because after my experience with your rimfire, there's no way I'll shell out thousands of dollars for an elk or moose hunt and risk it all on Remington ammo."

 

[Cee Zee]

I love their centerfire rifle ammo. My 30.06 Savage 110 loves it especially.I wouldn't have a problem using it on a hunt. Your friend is right Vern. They make awful rimfire ammo but they make very good centerfire ammo. I can't say it's the best in the world but it's good.

 

[22-rimfire]

The Remington ammo seems to be an improvement. A lot depends on the gun you're shooting it in. Some guns simply have more FTFs than others in a particular brand. Run them through another gun and they fire normally. My thought is.... if you all don't want to buy it and I need some, I'll buy it as long as it's priced normally. The new and improved cost more than the old 550 round bulk packs.

I noticed at the store than all of a sudden sugar is being sold in 4 lb bags now rather than 5 lb and for about the same old price. You're right, I don't buy much sugar.

 

[Conelrad]

Thunderbolts are all that has ever worked in my Mk2 suppressed.

I've tried them all. Everything else goes once and you get to cycle it from then on.

MiniMags in the 10-22 exclusively.

DG

 

[Cee Zee]

The Remington ammo seems to be an improvement. A lot depends on the gun you're shooting it in. Some guns simply have more FTFs than others in a particular brand. Run them through another gun and they fire normally

Uh, no. I bought my "last" brick of Remington a few years back. I tried shooting it through about 5 different rifles. It didn't work in any of them. It's not the rifle. It's the ammo.

I know all about some people having good luck with the stuff. All I can say is they aren't buying the same stuff I am because I've never seen such a pitiful excuse for ammo of any kind. Half the rounds were either squibs or total duds and the other half would put the hottest .22LR on the market to shame when it comes to power. I had to check the barrel many times to see if the bullets actually came out or not the charge was so low. Many rounds would hit the ground 10 feet in front of the rifle. Then the next cartridge would sound like a .45 going off. I got the exact same results with 5 different rifles. It's not the rifles.

Plus it was the dirtiest stuff I've ever seen. Can you imagine needing to clean a single shot, bolt action rifle about every 75 rounds because the bolt wouldn't slide due to powder residue building up? I've had that rifle for about 40 years. I've gone decades without having to clean it. I had to clean it so often with the 200 rounds or so I shot from that brick of Remington it was ridiculous. That type of rifle should practically never get gummed up where it wouldn't work. It happened over and over again with that Remington ammo. I had to clean the firing pin too because it wouldn't function right after a few rounds.

Maybe all Remington .22LR ammo isn't like that. But I've seen a whole lot of reports that describe the exact same experience I had. Yes some people love the stuff. I have no idea why. It has to be because they label different ammo as the same stuff and sell it in different areas. The one thing I know is that Remington rimfire ammo is the worst ammo on the planet in the eyes of a whole lot of people.

I remember as a kid buying the stuff all the time and never having a problem. But that was 50 years ago. It's junk now. At least all of it I've seen has been junk. I'm talking absolutely horrible junk too. It's not even close to being good. Your mileage may vary.