"It will digest any ammo although, as you know, 22 ammo is very un-reliable (lots of duds)." this statement was made on another topic. I've always had good reliability from most 22 ammo even the cheapest stuff. Has the new stuff gone really downhill?

.22 ammo, in my experience, can vary from lot to lot. I've always liked CCI, but recently had some very eratic stuff. I had a box made by a reputable manufacturer that misfired approximately every fifth shell (early '90s). It's a crap shoot. If you find something good that's consistent, reliable and your guns like it, buy thousands of rounds. That's what I do anyway.

I've had good luck with Federal. I bought 5,000 rounds in 2003, and they sent me a few hundred more, and I've still got a few boxes left.

quote:

Originally posted by darmtn1917:
"It will digest any ammo although, as you know, 22 ammo is very un-reliable (lots of duds)." this statement was made on another topic. I've always had good reliability from most 22 ammo even the cheapest stuff. Has the new stuff gone really downhill?

Yes, a lot of the cheaper .22 ammo has slipped down the hill of mediocrity.

One of the best .22 rimfires for the money is Federal 510s at WallyWorld. $1.29 per box of 50.
Federal 714s are quite good also.

My all time favorite is CCI MiniMags. These will run $5.00-$7.00 per hundred.
I have shot tens of thousands of the Minis over the years, and I do not recall ever having a problem of any nature.

Best,
Gary

Without question the worst .22 rimfire ammo I have ever used is the Remington Thunderbolt. Most of my bad experiences (including a round that went off when it was halfway into the chamber of a Ruger 10/22) happened about 20 years ago when I was shooting a lot of the .22 so I can't speak for the quality of the stuff that's made today.

Dave Sinko

All the current Remington bulk cheapo ammo is erratic, in my experience. It leads the the barrel like no other, sometimes won't go off, and has widely divergent powder charges. Federal bulk works fine.

My K-22 Masterpiece (serial number K15530) that I bought used in 1973 is happy with any .22 Long Rifle ammunition that I feed it. It is supremely accurate with Remington High Speed cartridges. Misfires are a rare occurance. This is one of the early post-war guns. Maybe they just made them better then.

Of the .22 lr "duds" that I've taken apart I find that the cause is the primer. About 1/2 the time it isn't evenly distributed around the rim and may only cover 1/3 to 1/2 the circumference. This is why if you rotate the cartridge and fire it again it will often discharge.

The other 1/2 will have the priming compound missing from the rim and you can see it mixed in the powder. I blame some of this in the rough handling the ammo gets during delivery.

Of course a pistol that isn't giving a good dent to the rim will have misfires with perfectly good ammo. Usually this is a cleaning issue but occasionally its a firing pin that's been peened .

+1 on the mini mags.

i've got a very finicky ruger 10/22 that would not feed bulk pack 22's reliably. by a process of elimination, i narrowed it down to the mini mags. i like that they are copper plated. now i use them for all my 22's - problem solved.

bill.

this is a testement to technology,lots of years ago when I shot Bullseye,it was rare to have a .22 failure,today we expect it.new and improved isn't always a good thing. jwr

I have a ruger auto that has a problem with Remington Thunderbolt, but no other. It will nomally misfire twice on clip.

I've shot a lot of CCI minimags thru my 617. Very accurate, but very dirty, and I had a fair number of misfires in da. I was paying $7 per hundred. Recently I bought some Federal bulk pack at Walmart at $11.50 per 550 rounds. It seems to be just as accurate as the Minimags, is obviously a lot cheaper, and as a plus, burns significantly more cleanly. Also, after firing about 400 rounds da, I've only had one misfire.

I can't recall having a misfire in thousands of rounds, mostly W-W Power Points and Eley.