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Old 04-27-2016, 01:54 PM
mbu110587 mbu110587 is offline
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Default Range Day - Ammo Performance Report

Hey All-

I've had my 15-22 for a little under a year now and love it. Luckily, I haven't had many problems with mine...granted I don't really put it through any real rough conditions. Ive shot 2000+ rounds over the last 9-10 months and only experienced what I would call ammunition-related issues. Nothing serious with the rifle and I have yet to even tweak the extractor. I have a Volquartsen set aside in case the day ever comes, but so far no problems with the original extractor.

Anyway, I finally got a chance to spend a full day at the range yesterday testing out some of the various .22lr ammo I've been hording. I figured since I had a pretty large variety of different brands, I would compile a little report of what performed best/worst, etc. I know that my gun is going to prefer some ammo over others and my results may not reflect everyone's experience but I think there is somewhat of a general concensus on a few specific brands that seem to work nearly across the board. Hope you guys/gals find this helpful or, at the very least, interesting!



Federal AutoMatch .22lr Target Grade Performance (box of 325)



40 Grain Solid
Muzzle Velocity 1200fps

TOTAL FIRED : 200
TOTAL FTE : 8
TOTAL FTF : 1
STOVEPIPES : 11

This ammo was decent but out of everything I put down range, these were by far the most finicky. I had a handful of stovepipes, casing getting caught in the bolt, etc. Overall, I wasnt overly impressed with this box...I would probably only buy these again if the deal was too sweet to pass up. For around the same price, there are a few other boxes I would look at.




Federal HV Match Gold Medal .22lr
(box of 50)



40 Grain Solid
Muzzle Velocity 1200fps

TOTAL FIRED : 250
NO ISSUES

This ammo was probably the best Federal ammo I've ever used and it's tied for the best batch of the day. I shot through 5 boxes of 50 and had not one issue. They cycled, fired and ejected flawlessly. That's pretty much all I can say. I believe I picked up some boxes of these at Cabela's for $3.99 each. If you come across these for a good price I would not hesitate to stock up.




Remington Hi-Speed "Kleanbore" .22lr
(box of 50)



TOTAL FIRED : 150
TOTAL FTE : 0
TOTAL FTF : 3
STOVEPIPES : 1

Firstly, this ammo was pretty old. My father had these saved up in his basement and claims they are from the late 60's or early 70's. For being roughly 40-50 years old, this ammo was pretty damn awesome. I was expecting a lot more issues to crop up when shooting this stuff. The performance this ammo still had was a pleasant surprise. The only negative is they were pretty dirty rounds. But none the less, oldies but definitely goodies.




Remington Viper 22 Hyper Velocity
(box of 50)



36 Grain Truncated Conical Solid
Muzzle Velocity 1410fps

TOTAL FIRED : 100
NO ISSUES

These bullets are awesome! Another older batch that came from my father's stash that really held up over time...these rounds performed perfectly. Not a single issue to report. Rounds were zipping through targets and these bullets were in the Top 2 for accuracy. If you can find some of these, buy them all...these little guys smack hard!




CCI 22 Mini-Mag High Velocity
(older box of 100)



36 Grain Copper Plated Solid

TOTAL FIRED : 100
TOTAL FTE : 0
TOTAL FTF : 5
STOVEPIPES : 0

The last box I got from my father, these seem to be an older, solid bullet version of the popular Mini-Mags by CCI. Can't find any info on muzzle velocity so I can't compare that to the newer stuff but these performed pretty well. Again, for being older ammunition, this box stood up fairly well. I had a total of 5 duds out of a box of 100. They fired a little dirty and I noticed some inconsistencies in the recoil from bullet to bullet but that could have been my own positioning, etc. Otherwise, these worked just fine. On target and mostly solid performance.





CCI Mini-Mag 22 LR HP
(box of 100)



36 Grain Copper-Plated Hollow Point
Muzzle Velocity 1260fps

TOTAL FIRED : 300
NO ISSUES

Along with the Federal HV Gold Match, the modern Mini-Mags from CCI are some of the best .22lr rounds you can get these days. I've seen a lot of people talking about how well this ammo performs and I couldn't agree more. Out of 300 rounds, there wasn't a single problem. I always buy boxes of this ammo when I run across it. Even if the PPR is on the high end, these rounds are extremely reliable and definitely worth a little extra, in my opinion. Great bang for the money!




In summary, I ended up totalling 1100 rounds fired yesterday. The 15-22 performed like a dream...I couldn't have asked for much more out of it. The best ammo I used was the CCI Mini-Mags and the Federal HV Gold Match. Both performed flawlessly with no issues or hiccups whatsoever. The worst of the day was the Federal AutoMatch Target Grade box of 325. I see these on sale somewhat frequently in my area and if you can pick up a box or two for cheap then it may be worth buying some. I was unimpressed with the number of issues these rounds had, mostly the casing getting stuck in the bolt for some reason. Other than that, the rest of the ammo performed at or near expectations and got the job done. All in all, it was a fun and relaxing day at the range; the 15-22 is a dream to shoot!

Below are a few pictures of the current state of my rifle in case anyone is curious. Nothing too fancy but just how I like her!








Hope you guys enjoyed the range report! Feel free to leave comments with your own ammo experiences below. I would be especially interested to see if anyone else has had success with any of those older rounds. Good luck with your own search for the perfect ammo. Shoot safely and shoot often!

Cheers!





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Old 04-28-2016, 08:22 AM
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freescopesdad freescopesdad is offline
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I also stock up on the minimags in bricks whenever I find them for less than .10 per...
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