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Federal Automatch 22 LR Question

N

noshow

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Has anyone tried this rimfire ammo in their S&W revolvers? I am trying to lengthen my range time using my Kit Gun that has tight chambers. Would you rate it clean burning or not so? Thanks for your consideration
 
Haven't had any problems, although I can't remember whether I've shot a lot before brushing chambers. CCI Blazer has been a real problem-solver for me with troublesome pre-34 revolvers.
 
I've used it in my Model 17. For cheap bulk ammo, it's probably somewhat better than others in terms of accuracy. I don't recall flyers or failures to fire, but with much of the inexpensive stuff, flyers are very common, failures to fire are less common, but they happen.

As for clean burning, this is a popular question these days. I've used many .22 ammos and find them all dirty. I've never really paid attention to the degree of dirtiness, but I'm sure some of fastidious shooters have.

Try at least a box of five or six (ten would be much better) ammos varying in styles and velocities (standard and HV) and different price ranges if you're looking for a good ammo for your gun. Shoot groups from a good benchrest at 25 yards. You'll quickly find the best ammo for your revolver.
 
I use the Auto Match for exactly that Auto's..I find a whole lot of fouling using them in a revolver compared to using coated bullets.
 
DWalt said:
I have always wondered why so many wish to make an issue of "clean burning". I'm not even sure what it means. In a lifetime of shooting "clean burning" was never something I gave a second thought to - so long as it didn't involve black powder.
Click to expand...
Not absolutely sure that I'm competent to comment, but I believe that I agree with you. Although I HAVE occasionally used a bore brush on the chambers of certain .22 revolvers, I never really connected it with one brand or another. I have occasionally noticed that it took a slight effort to chamber old outside-lubed .22LR ammo, but even that ejected normally.
 
Federal seemed to be best for me in tight chambers, cheap Rem. the dirtiest of them all, and Winchester the tightest...Got tired of it and bought a reamer from Brownells....looks like I'll be shooting whatever I want now,problem solved! thanks to this forum!
 
Federal Auto Match is all I shoot in my Rugers MKII, MKIII, and S&W 41 and Kit Gun. :)
 
I've found the Federal Auto Match of years ago to be great. But the stuff the last few years makes my 22 compact and 10/22 jam-o-matics. I avoid it.

I have not tried it in a revolver, but I have the idea that any ammo I keep around should run in any of that caliber gun I have.
 
Obviously, this is a discussion of .22LR ammo and I've had no issue with "clean burning" such in a revolver.

However, in a "lifetime of shooting" (and handloading with 30 different powders), I've learned to appreciate clean burning powders in autoloaders.....from shotguns and handguns that start squeaky clean and begin to malfunction in <200 rounds to break open shotguns guns that suffer no-set or, worse yet, hair-set triggers due to powder residue migration.

Some powders ( and ammo by extension) are simply filthy-burning compared to others. Sometimes that's harmless, sometimes it has dire consequences.
 
I use to buy Federal Automatch and thought it was great ammo. For the last year it's been nothing but problematic in my autos and revolvers. Too many failures to fire. My shooting buddy has the same problems in his Mark III and Buckmark.


Even at .03 a round I won't spend any more money on it. I find that Blazer works very well in all of my guns and use Federal Ultra Match for my competition with my 617. It's clean burning and very accurate.
 
I'd pay more for Blazer than FAM for sure.
 
I've shot a bunch of AutoMatch thru my K-22, 18ND, and 63-3 with no issues. No hangs up on ejection, even after 150 rounds in an afternoon. Also runs good in the MkII, MkIV, and 10/22. Reading the earlier posts I will include a caveat that all my AutoMatch ammo is at least four years old. I bought cases of it years ago for my dad because it shot the best in his MkII. Sadly he never got to use most of it, so I've been working my way thru it. It will be years before I need to buy more.
 
I've gone through about 20 boxes of FAM in the past year or so and still have 20 more in my ammo safe . My M&P compact 22 chokes on it, but my Ruger SR22 and 22 rifles usually shoot it without too many failures. Coincidently, the box I opened up today at the range was awful. The SR22 became a single shot pistol! The ammo was too weak to feed. This has happened before and I save those boxes for the rifles. As I go through this stash I replace it with mini mags. I won't be buying FAM anymore.
However, it seems to cycle just fine for other people that I know. Maybe I just got a few boxes of under powered stuff.
 
I have used the Auto Match quite a bit....When I started using it the ammo was very accurate and for the price (it ran a bit more than other 22's I was using) it was very accurate. It worked great in my autos and was very accurate in my M-17.

Then the great Obama 22 shortage occurred. As we all know 22 ammo was unobtainable. When it started showing up again, the Auto Match seemed to be the easiest to find and I grabbed several boxes. My wife took her Walther P22 out to shoot for the first time in a while and she said it would not feed shells. That gun had always been infallible!

I still had some older boxes of Auto Match and to make this story a bit shorter I found as some have mentioned that it was the newer ammo. The older stuff worked as always. I can't get the newer ammo to work in any semi auto guns. It is still accurate in my 17 but I get a few misfires now.

My theory...due to the shortage Federal knew that every .22 cartridge was "sold" before it was manufactured. I think that the ammo became under powered. Imagine the savings in making millions of rounds of ammo if a little less powder is put into each round. The new stuff shoots but won't cycle a semi-auto. Quite irritating and I think I am done with Federal.

Dan
 
At least I got some good groups with Auto Match but the lack of consistency turned me off.
 

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DWalt said:
I have always wondered why so many wish to make an issue of "clean burning". I'm not even sure what it means. In a lifetime of shooting "clean burning" was never something I gave a second thought to - so long as it didn't involve black powder.
Click to expand...

In general I'm not concerned. My M17 is the exception. Many M17s, mine included, get fouled and sticky very quickly.
 
I also got some of the new..but will not buy more. As far as dirty ammo..The old Remingtons had an awful lot of wax on them in decades past. After almost 10 cases my ol Nylon 66AB rifle just wouldn't shot any longer. I actually cleaned it with very hot water after taking the receiver cover off. Dried quickly and a little bit of Rem oil...and it was good to go again. I do remember running a cleaning rod down the bbl...once or twice. My pre 18 and the 17 I have shoot most anything. The 41 does not like Rem standard velocity in 2 of the bbls...but it shoots ok in the lightweight field bbl. Little looser chamber??. Everything shoots the Federal 550 Bulk pack hollow point ammo. But I bought some of the Winchester 222 and 333 round boxes and in most of my semiauto 22s it just flat sucks.
 
You often get what you pay for with cheap ammo. Lot-to-lot consistency cannot be depended upon. While Auto Match and others may shoot well today, a different batch of the same ammo purchased tomorrow may not be nearly as good.

CCI Standard Velocity is not premium ammo, but it probably costs a penny or two more per round than the real cheap stuff. It's all I buy anymore. Even though it's standard velocity, it functions well in all my semi-auto pistols (and my two semi-auto rifles). Lot-to-lot consistency is not on the same level as the every expensive target stuff, but it's pretty good. In many years of using CCI SV, I've had one cartridge that didn't fire on the first attempt, and that was a couple of months ago. Accuracy is usually decent in a variety of guns.
 
I seem to having good luck with the AutoMatch ammo. I've been getting pretty tight groups @ 50 yards with the basic 10/22 with no issues of misfires or failures to ignite...

Bayou52
 
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