I bought some Cascade .22 LR Standard Velocity ammunition recently and took it to the range yesterday to try it out. The ammunition is made in Mexico by “Cascade Cartridge International S.A. de C.V”. The box label says it is “Designed For Target Competition”. I was hoping to do some accuracy testing but it turned out to be function testing. The cartridges work (feed, fire and function) in my S&W Model 41 but I had issues in my S&W Model 17 and a Savage Mk II target rifle.

In the Model 17 the cartridges were hard to insert unless the chambers were clean (brushed with a bore brush) and, when firing, cylinder rotation locked-up. (The plain lead bullets in the cartridges mic .224). In two cases the cylinder did not want to swing out like the firing pin was protruding or the case heads were swelling. This revolver works perfectly with CCI Std Vel, Remington Std Vel and a variety of inexpensive high velocity cartridges. The attached photo shows ten of the cases fired in the Model 17.

In the case of the Savage Mk II it fired one round of the Cascade ammunition and the case would not extract. It had to be knocked out with a cleaning rod when I got home. This rifle has dual extractors which I assumed would drag any recalcitrant case from the chamber. This rifle has worked flawlessly with old Winchester T22, Rem SV, CCI SV and Eley Club.

I guess my next step is to try this ammunition in some other self-loading firearms and see how that works. In the mean time it looks like I’ve got ammo that’s usable in a Model 41.

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Thanks for the heads up on that ammo.............

Interesting outcome. My usual Mexican .22 round of choice is Aguila 40 grain copper plated lead roundnose. Inexpensive and runs well in a S&W 617-6 and a Savage Mark II TR. I'm looking at acquiring a 41 and based everything I read around the web I would have thought that would be the finicky one of the three guns used in your test.

My M41 is very finicky about ejecting, but not feeding. CCI SV has been the best in mine. The chambers of my M17 do get very sticky, especially with Blazer.

__________________
Common sense isn't so common.

UPDATE...

I took another batch of rifles and pistols to the range this week for some more function tests. Here are the results:

Colt Woodsman Match Target - Normal function, no problems loading, firing, extracting or ejecting.

H&R 999 - Hard insertion of cartridges in the chamber; fired and extracted normally.

S&W Model 18 - Very hard insertion of cartridges in the chambers. Fired OK but brass had to be knocked out with a cleaning rod. Cleaning chambers with a brass brush helps (but too much aggravation).

S&W 41 (Sport Barrel) - Normal function; no problems.

S&W 15/22 - Normal function, no problems loading, firing, extracting or ejecting. Did have one failure to fire due to defective cartridge (priming).

Winchester 52B - Extra effort needed to turn down the bolt handle. Firing and extraction was normal.

I have no real conclusions to draw from this additional testing other than this ammunition seems to work OK self-loading rifles and pistols. Using it revolvers and bolt action rifles presents some problems. (Tighter chamber dimensions?) Looks like this ammo will get set aside for practice and informal competition with auto-loading pistols & rifles.

Measure the thickness of the rim. I ran into this problem years ago on a target Remington rifle bolt action. I forget the ammo brand but the bolt was hard to close but not with other ammo. I measured the rim when I got home and it was thicker. The ammo seemed ok in other 22s. It acted like a head space problem in my rifle.