I love to practice on the range with a Ruger 22/45 pistol, as the motor skills developed mimic those used with the 1911 pistol.

But what I find annoying is the incidence of duds in many .22 brands. To squeeze off what I hope will be a perfect bullseye and have the pistol go "click" is just plain annoying. When I remove the round, it invariably will have a nice firing pin impression, and often when re-chambered and re-oriented, the cartridge will fire. Now some will say that gives you an opportunity to initiate a failure-to-fire drill, but to me it's maddening.

Right now I'm using Remington "Golden Bullets" and it seems that about one in 50 or so will turn out to be a dud.

So the question is: What brands in your experience have proven to be relatively dud-free? I'd be interested in your experiences here.

John

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- Cogito, ergo armatus sum -

CCI Standard Velocity. $25/500 Dick's Sporting Goods.

I use the Federal Value Pack exclusively, and I don't remember any FTFs since I began using them.

Andy

I also use these and have had one FTF in the last 500 rounds.

In my opinion the "Golden Bullet" is trash. I have always had good luck with Federal Bulk from Walmart. If you want to get serious about target shooting use some match ammo. You can find it on line. Don

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"Don't worry be happy"

John,

I'm surprised that you got that good a performance from the Remingtons. I got 5% FTF before I switched.

I now use CCI Standard Velocity .22's. Almost no FTF and rather accurate as well. Also, I have heard good things about the Aguila .22's - they use the Eley priming system which uses double the amount of priming compound to insure that the entire rim gets filled.

Buck

Over the years, I've found Remington rimfire of all types to have the highest incidence of faulty priming. I use the Federal bulk-pak for general purpose plinking, etc., and on very rare occasion, encounter a box, or lot, that has this problem, but it's so seldom that it hasn't put me off buying this usually reliable brand.

Another Federal bulk shooter here. I've burned through 2 boxes this summer and not one single dud in the bunch.

Rimfire ammunition is difficult to make, in every sense it is obsolete, it is difficult to prime. Total duds seem to me to be uncommon, but unprimed areas in the rim all too common, turning them usually will get ignition.

I use CCI SV in my M41s and various high price stuff in target rifles. Price does make a difference in quality in .22 ammunition IMO. FTF happen but are rare and I shoot a lot of it.

I suppose you can look at it as a way to find out whether you are flinching or anticipating.

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Ipsis Rebus Dictantitbus

Holy Cow

Now .22LR is obsolete - First .38 Special and now this....
Please tell me that .45ACP and 12 Gauge are still current.
I need a drink

Ok - First it was my Underwood and then the dot matrix printer - Oh, and Ham Radio.

Arggggggggggggggggggggggggggg!

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In dog years I'm dead.

The Federal bulk runs very well in my 22/45. They turn my wife's SIG Mosquito into a single shot, tho.
Fairly dud free, but do get the occasional "click."

My wife's Mosquito runs well on the Golden Bullets but we also get fairly frequent duds.

Remington Match have been 100% in the 22/45, but I've only gone through 200 rds so far. Noticeably more accurate than the Feds, too.

CCI Mini Mags run great and 100% reliable in both guns.

I've got a couple of the cartons of Remington Golden Bullet 22 also and have had alot of FTF. In one carton while shooting a Winchester 1890, it wasn't uncommon to experience 1 in every magazine full (11rds?).
I was starting to blame the rifle though it's never given me a problem in the past. Some did go the second or third time but many were just thrown into the 'dud' can at the range.
Same results in a K22.

I took a few with me and pulled the bullets. What I found was anything from one tiny speck of green priming material in the rim in one spot, to 2 or 3 wide gaps in the priming compound. Plenty of area for a misfire to occur.

My second bad experience with Remington. The first was a few years back with ThunderBolt .22 ammo that leaded so bad after a mag full you could not get a brass brush down the bore w/o tapping it through. Long slivers of lead pushed out ahead of the brush,,forgot to alloy the bullet matr'l?

Good results with Winchester DynaPoint, a strange 22 StVel w/a hollow point. But they are accurate and so far no FTF after several cartons.

+++ What Phil said.

Another "Amen" to CCI Standard Velocity. Super accurate, and 100% reliable in all of my .22 rifles and pistols. Cheap, too...

Another brand I like is the Federal "Auto-Match". reliable and accurate as well.

My Youth .22 Rifle Shooting Team goes through 550 rounds of the Federal Bulk 550 a month, I buy it at Wal-Mart for $18 or so, we get probably 5-10 failures to fire from each box. The kids are loading singly, shooting rifles from the positions, so it's no big deal for them, but I wouldn't like that degree of reliability if I were shooting the ammo in a match or hunting...

I gave up long ago on Remington Golden Bullet or Thunderbolt ammo. The cheap Remington "Peters" brand are lame as well.

Wow! You only have a failure to fire rate of 2%the with Remington 22, that's nearly unheard of. My experience with Remington 22 ammo in the last 15-20few years has been more on the order of 20-35%the failure to fire, varying with what gun I am using. I will not buy Remington 22 ammo of any type any more, and have bought none for several years. The Federal bulk 22 has been more very reliable, accuracy is decent in most of my 22s, Federal Auto Match has been very reliable, good accuracy, CCI has been nearly flawless, Elegant match always fires and results in very small groups in almost all my 22s.

I must be doing something wrong, I've fired thousands and thousands of Thunderbolts and maybe six thousand of the Yellow Bullets and never had a dud. I did just switch to the Yellow Bullets because the Thunderbolts caused leading in my P22.
If I had that many misfires I would look into a new hammer - striker spring.Just my .02 cents.

CCI and Federal, no Winchester or Remington.

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Sure you did

Remington Golden Bullet bulk packs are not worth buying to me. Many misfires and low reports/low point of impact rounds. No Remmy .22's for me.

Winchester High Speed HP's in the 100 pack have been all good so far. Haven't tried the bulk packs.

Never had a CCI Mini Mag fail to fire. All the standard velocity rounds fired but my Model 41 simply will not function reliably with them, so I don't fool with them any more.

Federal bulk pack HP: I have shot 1100+ rounds before I have had a dud. Federal Auto Match, maybe one out of 600-700. For the price and easy availability from Wally World, Federal is the best deal going considering the quality.

The Auto Match I use exclusively in my Model 41. The others are used in a Model 63, K-.22 or CZ 452, so I think each piece of hardware is doing the job.

In agreement with the gentleman from New York.

Federal American Eagle seems better than most of the regular brands.

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Richard Gillespie
FBINA 102

Great to hear the Remmie news!!! Thought it was 'just me'.

Golden Pak is giving me about 10-15% FTF in my High Standard Citation.

I've got a dwindling stash of 30 year old CCI that despite a bit of flooding decades ago, continue to be virtually 100% reliable in anything I put them in.

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Dum vivimus Vivamas

CCI and Fioccchi for basic price ammo

Any of the high price competition loads work well.

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Still Running Against the Wind

I've had my share of duds from Remington. Had good luck with Federal and CCI.

I've had FTF's with Thunderbolts and Federal standard velocity, decided to try CCI Blazer when a local sporting goods place had their bricks on sale. 1k rounds later, I've decided to stick with them for target shooting, and have always used their Stingers for small game, so I think I have my preferences set. Bought some American Eagle high velocity (supposed) but by the sound of them, the powder loads are all over the place, where the Blazer reports are pretty much equal, the AE ones are high, low, all over the place. But then again, .22 is cheap, buy a bunch and shoot them up, YMMV...

I've had the best results with CCI Mini-Mags. All of the bulk ammo produced by the big three in the last couple of years has been iffy in quality.

Admittedly I do not shoot .22 round often. During a year I may shoot 100 rounds. I do take new shooters to the range with me and start them out on a .22 handgun and have been doing so for years. So the newbies will go through maybe 100 rounds a month. I am glad to let them start with a .33 since it is easier on my pcoket book.

I do not recall ever having a dud in recent history. There may have been but I do not remember it. I use Remington HP and they work fine for my use.

Now you guys have me watching to see if any fail to fires.

On average I shoot a brick of 22 a month though a 6” Ruger Mk 1 and a stainless Taurus 94. There seemed to be a bad batch of Remington Thunderbolts I ran into 3-4 years ago but I’ve only run into 2-3 misfires since then and I attributed those to dirty chambers. This is buying whatever happens to be on sale but the Thunderbolts shoot very well for me.

I almost exclusively use Federal bulk packs and CCI Mini-Mags. It's exceptionally rare that I have a FTF in any of my .22s.

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Insert short witty words here

I like CCI Standard better than Federal Bulk, but I use them both.

Remington Ely match none better

Over the last few years I've had more complaints about remington 22's than any other brand. I've had enough failures myself to confirm what I've been hearing, failures to fire seem very common, especially in semi autos. Revolvers and bolt guns seem to work better with remington but still have a high failure incidence. CCI and Federal seem to be the best domestice brands, Aguila, SK and Eley also perform very well but the latter two are often hard to find and rather pricey.

Aguila Golden Eagle and Wolf Match rifle in my rifles. Winchester high speed 100 pack in the model 17 and CCI Standard 22mag in the model 48
Not one FTF so far this year. My son buys what ever is cheap at Wal Mart for him and my grand daughter and have a high number of fail to fire or fail to feed in the Erma M1 carbine in 22lr.

I REALLY like Federal "Auto-Match." I've gone through 3 boxes of the stuff in the past couple months with no 'duds' at all. It's the brand of .22 that has the highest functionality success rate of any I've tried in my semi-autos. My nylon 66 will shoot just about anything, but I purchased a Kimber conversion kit for my SW1911, and I also was given a Jennings J-22 (Oh I know allll about it no need to tell me it stinks!) a few years back, and they are both very picky with ammo. Most brands will be a failure to chamber next round every other shot in the Kimber conversion slide (I check and just empty chamber) , and the Jennings will jam every other shot in every way conceivable with most ammo, but the Auto-match is great, even the Jennings will shoot most full mags without a hitch. Also, for the record, I never would have purchased the Jennings, a friend convinced its former owner to get rid of it, and gave it to me. I hear the former owner had 'anger issues' and is prone to bad decisions, so I am glad I have it now that it means he doesn't! It's a fun gun, I only use it for recreational plinking and I am even more careful with it than any of my other guns as I feel it's more dangerous. I'm really happy with the Kimber conversion on my SW1911 too, with the right ammo it's very fun and cheap to shoot

I have a lot of Remington "Golden Bullet" packs. I've found that this is the only brand I've found that does not foul the floating chamber on my Colt .22 conversion unit for the 1911 pistol. I get fewer duds with the Federal Value pack rounds, but the copper coating is not as good as that found on the Golden Bullets, and it's a pain to scrub the floating chamber. With enough rounds, it can actually seize up with any other ammo than the Golden Bullets.

John

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- Cogito, ergo armatus sum -

Remington rim-fire ammo is the WORST! In fact their Thunderbolt ammo is a sheer disgrace!!! Winchester (Wildcat) is a little better, and I find the Federal Champion in the BLUE BOX to be the BEST. CCI is also good, but more expensive, so when they have a "sale" on the bricks of Federal Champion ammo I stock up.

Chief38

CCI mini mags have worked well for me in my rifle as well as my .22 cal pistols.I have had two failure to fire rounds out of the thousands I have shot in the past year or so.

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JR

This has been my favorite for the most part. $15.96 a box at Wally World for 325 rounds. How can you beat it ? I do not think I have ever had a dud.
Now, for my Model 41 I tend to use Eley Sport, it is about $30-35 a brick of 500 which is still pretty reasonable and it is standard velocity and I think a bit more consistent.
But, the Auto Match probably shoot a better group then I can hold, but I like using fancy ammo in my Smith 41 !!

I regularly dump the dud bucket at the range & pull the bullets for casting. I recently disassembled several pounds of .22 ammo & didn't pay too much attention to brands, but when just now looking at the coffee can of pulled bullets, the Rem Golden Bullets really stand out.

I just sorted out about 100 from the dud bucket that either have light strikes or only one strike & wilt take them to the range soon to see if they will ignite. The majority are Remington Golden Bullets, followed by Winchester, and more than a few Federal.

Someone suggested that .22's are difficult to make and are obsolete. Apparently he's from the current generation that seems to have lost all manufacturing proficiency. I spent much of my youth in the late 50's & early to mid 60's shooting .22 & NEVER had any duds. Wonder why .22 ammo became so 'difficult' to produce today?

In fact, I still have an inventory of Remington Blue/Yellow box Standard velocity ammo that fires 100%. When I was a kid & they came out with Winchester Wildcat & Remington Thunderbolt, the stuff was considered the low-end, budget ammo, so accuracy expectations weren't as high as for their "better" ammo. Nevertheless, it all fired 100%.

CCI has always been 100% for me.

I bought several of the Rem Golden Bullet 525 packs a few years back, when Big 5 had them on sale for $9.95 per box & have had very few duds.

I suppose all those illiterate, pot-smoking kids coming from the public schools that are discipline-adverse gotta get jobs somewhere - I wonder how many of them work in the Remington QC Department?

I found CCI the best value and relaible. Federal is great as well as the higher priced Winchester.

I stopped buying Remington years ago. Too aggravating to shoot. The Hornet's work pretty good but too expensive for plinking.

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JIM
NRA Pistol Instr

The only "duds" I have had in the last maybe 10,000 rounds were REMINGTON, especially the Remington Target, up to 10% per box. I did have one single failure with a Win T22. None with CCI, Aguila, Winchester, Federal, and even Armscore (Which did not live up to the accuracy standard I was led to believe, it was terrible with 3" - 4" "patterns" at 25 yards).

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

CCI Standard Velocity has already been mentioned several times, and for good reason. Until you get into the expensive stuff, CCI SV is hard to beat for accuracy and reliability. It does cost more than the the low end ammunition, but performs much better. I have had good luck with it in almost every .22 rimfire handgun and rifle I've fired it in. While I have not tried all the .22 ammos available, I've used many of them. Accuracy-wise, several of the Aguilas were as good as CCI SV, sometimes slightly better ,but the Aguilas didn't always fire. That was several years ago; maybe their current ammo is improved. All I buy now is CCI SV by the case.

I wish CCI would make a standard velocity HP like Remington does. I like them quiet for hunting and the Remington sub sonic hp is a good killing 22 round. Not as many ftf's as with the Golden Bullets but to many for my liking. I hate the ftf's in the Golden Bullets because my Colt Huntsman seems to shoot them the best.

Like a few people have noted, the CCI seems to have the least amount of ftf's.
I have a Thompson Hotshot which I got for my nephew to learn on (was pleasantly suprised with the accuracy of it).
It spits 'em like there's no tomorrow. And if it ever doesn't hit hard enough, a second drop of the hammer usually does.

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27-2, 66-1, 640 Pro, 10-5

An interesting post, to say the least. I don't remember any problems with 1950s or 60s era ammo either. But then I didn't have enough of it to shoot, either. I also remember heading out to the gravel pit or dump and I didn't own a full box of ammo. And there was no way in the world I was going to shoot all my ammo up. But then being (or just feeling) poor caused me to scrounge ammo. Others used my shooting places, and some were apparently wealthy. I think that because it wasn't unusual to find many unfired 22s lying on the ground in a few places. I discovered with just a quick wipe with a rag (or my Tshirt) they cleaned right up.

And I'm guessing others were having FTFs back then because many of the rounds I picked up did have firing pin strikes. On more than one occasion I came home with as much or more ammo than I took simply because I found so much. Occasionally an adult would take mercy on me and toss me the remains of a box as they were leaving. Those were the good times.

But they left a scar on my poor little mind. Even today at yard sales and gun shows I pick up partial boxes of 1950s vintage ammo if its cheap. I particularly liked the Winchester nickel plated cases. It was the micro stamped insignia I think I liked. Not the big U or P like Remington/Peters used.

I guess I have way too much ammo. I still have some of the couple of bricks of Remington Golden Bullet hollow points I bought in 1966 with a then new 22 rifle. For whatever reason, it became my standard of accuracy with that gun. So instead of burning it, I hoarded it.

I think I agree the new ammo isn't as dependable. The reason is probably the more modern high speed equipment doesn't place as much or a quality requirement as the old equipment. I wish someone would find a youtube video of 22s being made. They produce billions of rounds each year. I guess because no one uses it for self defense (well, maybe), they really don't care if it fires or not. The problem seems to be that once you get a reputation for poor quality, it transfers to center fire ammo and then to firearms. Maybe not fair, but its the way our minds work.

As for the above posters dislike of the dumbed down publicly educated youth (youffs?), they don't work anyplace. If they're employed, they just sit and let the bad ammo get packed and sold. And I'm a public education graduate. If you want to see them, go visit one of the public urinals being used as an Occupy (name the city). All they really want is a free ride (including forgiveness of their high $ student loans.)

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Dick Burg

Bulk pack ammo doesn't have the best QA and generally has more failures to fire on the first hit.

I've had and seen failure to fire with just about every brand and quality of .22 LR that you can buy. Had a failure with a round of Federal Match last week. In general the more expensive ammo has fewer failures and the match ammo is some of the best for reliability but paying $7 to $10 for a box of 50 rim fire is quite a penalty for reliability. In lower cost ammo CCI is one of the better brands as is the Wolf match ammo by SK.

I've never had a FTF with CCI Mini Mags or CCI Stingers.

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Calmer than you are.

CCI standard velocity shoots the tightest groups and has been very reliable in my 22s.I gave up on the bulk pack stuff long ago.

Duds with a .22? This can happen

They say Rugers are built like tanks. Your picture sure proves it!

John

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- Cogito, ergo armatus sum -

Your wish has been answered. CCI Subsonic hollow points. These are 1050 fps vs CCI standard velocity at 1070 fps. Very big hollow point as well.

CCI Ammunition - Product Detail