Working over Bulk .22LR

[kBob]

I just responded to a .22LR ammo thread and just saw another.

I have on occasion bought bulk packs of loose .22LR ammo and found most to be OK but not upto decent boxed of plastic cased ammo for accuracy.

So I was just wondering, has anyone used a rim thickness gauge to sort the bulk stuff out into lots by rim thickness? If so how were your results?

WHo makes a cheap, reliable rim thickness gauge?

Also what with the convenience of electronic scales has anyone sorted the bulk value pack stuff by weight and if so how well did that work?

You folks that live in cold dark places migh have the time to make that cheap stuff a real value in shooting as wel as in the pocket.

-Bob Hollingsworth

 

[the naked prophet]

The federal bulk pack (550 rounds, either maroon or blue box) works so well for me, why bother sorting them or buying anything more expensive unless you're shooting a competition or something?

 

[TheLaxPlayer]

I don't know anything about measuring the rim thickness, but there's a problem with sorting them by weight. You don't know if the different weight is from the brass, powder, or bullet so the data will essentially be useless.

 

[MRIman]

For plinking Fed 550's the way to go, If you need to put one
shot next to the other,CCI Stingers!!!
I'm box for box in my stash(one brick for every 50 Stingers)

MRI

 

[zinj]

The easiest way I have heard of to measure rim thickness it to take a spent .223 casing and drop the cartridge bullet end down into it (so it catches on the rim) and then use digital calipers to measure the whole assembley.

Measurement of .223 case with .22 LR - Measurement of .223 case alone = Rim thickness.

A bit labor intensive for me, if I were concerned with maximum accuracy I would just buy target ammo.

 

[MutinousDoug]

When I was shooting Bulleye .22 I found that weighing cartridges helped to eliminate flyers. I bought bricks of WW XX ammo and weighed them as I watched TV. I culled all those that were more than .5 grain less than the median weight. The culls amounted to less than 1% of the brick and were used for practice or plinking. Of those culls, the groups I shot were measurably larger and a few of those rounds were duds which, when the bullets were pulled had no powder or no visible priming mix in the rim.
I never tried to measure rim thickness. This was 1985 through 1995, Maybe things are different now?
Like I say; This was Winchester XX shot in a Ruger MarkII 6.875" pistol; Not Wildcat or other promotional junk.
My high score for my best season was 278/300 and my average was much closer to 265, so take my experience for what you think it's worth.