Winchester Super-X .22 LR... garbage?

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1KPerDay

1KPerDay

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I had 4 duds in my first 3 magazines full through my 22/45... none would light even on re-striking.

I thought I'd gotten lucky and found a brick at Cabela's a month ago... maybe it wasn't so lucky. I usually run Federal Champion bulk and it's been great for me... I think I've had one misfire/dud in 15,000 rounds.

Remington GB gives me about 1 dud out of a hundred rounds... annoying, but not a deal breaker. but a 13% failure rate is unacceptable, IMO. Particularly for what they're charging. Super-X used to be known for quality. I still have some "Western" Super-X from the 60s and it's good stuff.
 
I bought the 500 rd in wooden box. its been great. Rimfires are always like that, it s a hit and miss
 
The Winchester Super X I have used recently is the most reliable I have fired in my Charter Arms Explorer II and in my son's .22LR Colt M4. The M4 gagged on Remington GB (fail-to-feed) but my Nylon 66 eats them up; have had fail-to-fire with Remington GB bulk pack with my current Marlin 60. But Winchester Super X has usually trumped Remington GB bulk with my guns; have not seen any of the supposed to be new, improved Remington GB locally (sad because in the 1960s Remington Golden Bullet HVHP lived up to the name with me -- Springfield 120, Winchester 69A and Marlin M60).
 
In thousands upon thousands of rimfire rounds I've fired, I've never had a misfire. However, about 75 percent or more of those rounds have been CCI MiniMags, as they were all that was available locally the first few years I was shooting.

That being said, I have found that the Winchester Super-X stuff is apparently not powerful enough to cycle reliably my blowback semi-autos, especially the smaller handguns. These little guns have strong recoil springs to protect them from slide/frame damage when using stronger ammo. I get about a ten-percent failure (to eject) rate with them in my handguns (except my Ruger Mk-II), and about a 2-5 percent FTE rate in my Mk-II and my 10/22 carbine.

My FTE rate with the MiniMags is less than one percent. In fact, it's not high enough to even guess at.

Of course, they all have worked 100 percent in the revolvers I've shot them in, though that accounts for less than one percent of all rimfire rounds I've ever fired.
 
Winchester T22s, their supposed match load, gives me about 5% misfires. Most of these seem to have no priming compound at all as they won't fire when rotated to get a hit on other parts of the rim.

Remington SV is about the same.

Federal 711B has been 100% over several thousand round for me.

J.
 
I have only fired maybe three boxes of the stuff in three different guns: bolt and and semi-auto rifles, and a Beretta Bobcat. It was given to me so I don't know the age of the ammo other than it was the same model as what was current production in 2009. It ran fine in the bolt action, of course, and maybe had one or two ignition failures in the rifle. I went through the last of one box in the Bobcat, which is finicky anyway, and other than occasionally jamming against the top of the chamber on feeding it worked OK. I'd be fine plinking with it in bolt actions or revolvers. Can't remember much about the accuracy other than it wasn't atrocious.
 
With any brand of mass produced rimfire ammo there are going to be a bunch of duds with any brands. It's always been that way. Federal has always performed best for me over the years but even they will have some duds in every box. IMO Remington is the absolute worst. Getting priming compound evenly distributed fully around each rim is hard to do. Most rounds that fail to fire WILL fire if you rechamber it 90 degrees from where it was first struck. Undoubtedly this was one of the reasons rimfire priming was replaced by centerfire priming a long time ago.
 
After seeing a video of CCI making .22LR ammo, I'm amazed that ANY rimfires have a better than 75% success rate. But the way they churn 'em out it's also hard to fathom that there's a shortage.
 
"With any brand of mass produced rimfire ammo there are going to be a bunch of duds with any brands. It's always been that way."

All rimfire ammo is mass produced. I've been shooting rimfire since the '50s and never had a dud. My father never had one, my uncle never had one, etc. Maybe the newer stuff is junk. And I don't buy Remington unless it says Eley on the box.

Maybe you need better guns. :)
 
From my own experience, the better quality and most reliable rimfire ammo stacks up this way:


1) CCI
2) Federal
3) Winchester






4) Remington
 
I've used Super X, along with about every other sort of 22 since the early 50's.
Somewhere over 60 years.
Sometimes you get a dud, just the way it is.
 
Bought some Winchester 17 HMR recently, worst stuff I ever tried. At least a 20% failure to fire rate. Never again.
 
The most reliable and accurate ammo I've used in the non-premium stuff has been Win Super X, CCI MiniMag and Federal American Eagle.

Mike
 
I have a brick in one of those wooden boxes. I chuckle... I was at Walmart before the current shortage and they weren't selling. An associate looks inside and says they're the same as in the regular bricks... reduced the price to match. Still have not shot any of those out of that brick. Never really a big Winchester 22 ammo fan in general, but the T22's were always pretty good. Been shooting the CCI standard velocity stuff when I want an economy target round.

My typical plinking foder is Federal Lightning from Walmart. Been generally pleased.
 
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Some time there is more than one problem .......... J s/n.
Click to expand...

But when you're using 4-5 different .22lr guns, but one type of ammo (Remington), and you get multiple failures in every gun, the problem is the ammo(Remington). People don't call them Thunderduds for nothing.
 
I had 4 duds in my first 3 magazines full through my 22/45... none would light even on re-striking.

I thought I'd gotten lucky and found a brick at Cabela's a month ago... maybe it wasn't so lucky. I usually run Federal Champion bulk and it's been great for me... I think I've had one misfire/dud in 15,000 rounds.

Remington GB gives me about 1 dud out of a hundred rounds... annoying, but not a deal breaker. but a 13% failure rate is unacceptable, IMO. Particularly for what they're charging. Super-X used to be known for quality. I still have some "Western" Super-X from the 60s and it's good stuff.
Click to expand...
It's complete junk. You should send it to me for proper disposal ASAP.
 
Most rounds that fail to fire WILL fire if you rechamber it 90 degrees from where it was first struck.
Click to expand...

The original 1860 Henry .44 Rimfire Rifle had a double pointed firing pin that impacted the rim at two points on opposite sides of the rim. I wonder why no one designs a rimfire rifle that way today.

Doing research for a planned post-apocalypse story, I scrounged discarded .22 rf duds from the the gravel and burnbox at the range, took them home and at my leisure cleaned them with a rag and lighter fluid, and later went back with my .22 Rumanian army trainer rifle and tried them with the rims rotated opposite the failed strike. The majority fired.

Why do rimfire rifles no longer have double headed firing pins?
 
1KPerDay,

I just read your post on June 20. On this past Wed., June 19, I was sitting in my car waiting to go in for a Dr's appt, found a paper adv. from GM under the seat, May-June 2011, need to clean car more frequently. On one page inside was a box of Federal Champion .22's for sale, 525 pack, $14.95 per box. WOW, I can remember that day, trying to decide if I really needed these rounds....., guess you know my backsides still got bruising on it ! :cuss:
 
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