What ammo doesn't work well in the MP 15-22?

[mp15.22]

Federal,CCI,and Winchesters work excellent. Stay away from Remingtons.

 

[Majorlk]

Federal,CCI,and Winchesters work excellent. Stay away from Remingtons.

Remingtons run just fine.

 

[don5]

I had trouble with the win 333 ammo in the 1522 my son uses. We do not use it. We stick to fed bulk for plinking and squirrel hunting. It works really well so we see no need to change. The winchester ammo made quite an impression on my son. I don't think he would use it if you gave it to him. He couldn't get it to fire with his single shot davy crickett. It caused him to miss a squirrel and he was done with it. He had 4 FTF's-failure to fire, squirrel got away and dad was laughing.

 

[QuiQNeZZ]

Since this is my first rifle ever i'm still new to the whole ammo deal but have been reading up. Guy locally is selling a brick of Eley Sport Std Velocity. This any good?

 

[Majorlk]

Since this is my first rifle ever i'm still new to the whole ammo deal but have been reading up. Guy locally is selling a brick of Eley Sport Std Velocity. This any good?

Eley is good ammo. Some consider Eley Match to be the best match ammo available.

 

[yzf128r]

I've had really bad luck with Winchester ammo in my 15-22. Whether its the white box, super -x, or M-22 they all fowl the barrel with lead very badly. I've used those 3 products and had the same result. They function good and produce decent accuracy, then after 250-500 rounds I notice that they start to key hole. Then it's to late. At first I thought it was just the white box which fouled after roughly 500 rounds. I tried super-x, and had identical results. At this point I had given up on Winchester, until I found 1000 rounds of M-22 on sale at Walmart. I was Leary to buy it, but since it was designed for this style rifle I figured I would give them another shot. After 250 or so rounds there I was beating a wooden dowel down by barrel trying to get out the lead. That last time it took me almost a week to get the barrel clean using several products to remove lead fowling. I don't know if its just my particular rifle or what, but my 15-22 will never see winchester ammo again. It runs fine on all other ammo. I have ran 2500 rounds of blazers through it in a single session without a hint of fowling.

 

[QuiQNeZZ]

Eley is good ammo. Some consider Eley Match to be the best match ammo available.

Thanks for the quick response.

 

[QuiQNeZZ]

What about Federal lightning 40 grain high velocity? Guy had a couple 500rd boxes he's trying to sell.

 

[Majorlk]

What about Federal lightning 40 grain high velocity? Guy had a couple 500rd boxes he's trying to sell.

Virtually ANY standard or high velocity .22 will most likely do just fine in a 15-22, no matter what the brand. There's altogether too much worrying about what might or might work. Just load it up and shoot it!

 

[jonesy814]

Like others, I have had good luck with Blazers, mini mags, stingers, and also the Federal Auto-match bulk pack. Have some of that CCI at tactical but haven't tried it yet

 

[Shooterjgs]

Virtually ANY standard or high velocity .22 will most likely do just fine in a 15-22, no matter what the brand. There's altogether too much worrying about what might or might work. Just load it up and shoot it!

Yea with the ammo shortage I've started trying other ammo that I wouldn't ever try before... all I use to shoot was CCI and sometimes Federal... come to find out my rifle will literally shoot anything I put in it...so yea just load it and try it you might be surprised... I was...

 

[Dattebayo]

Hello all. I just picked up my M&P 15-22 today so I haven't had a chance to fire it yet but I saw this thread about ammo so I thought I'd post what my owners manual says about this.

I'll quote from the manual:
"Through our testing, Smith & Wesson has found that there are several brands and types of .22LR ammunition that do not perform consistently or reliably. Consequently, Smith & Wesson DOES NOT RECOMMEND that the following brands or types of .22LR ammunition be used in your M&P 15-22."

Remington Golden Bullet
Remington Target 22
Remington Thunderbolt
Winchester Wildcat
Any and all sub-sonic brands and types.

Also if you have the Performance Center Model it is equipped with a .22LR Lanley semi-auto match chamber which does not accommodate CCI Stinger brand ammunition. WARNING: Never use CCI .22LR Stinger brand ammunition in your M&P 15-22 Performance Center Model Rifle.

OK on to what they DO recommend.

"Based on the design and action of the M&P 15-22, Smith & Wesson recommends that you use the following brands and types of .22LR ammunition for optimal performance in your M&P 15-22 rifle".

CCI Standard Velocity
CCI Mini-Mag
Aguila Super Extra Std. Velocity
Aguila Super Extra High Velocity
Federal American Eagle
Federal GameShock
Winchester Super-X High Velocity

Sorry for the long post but I thought it might be a help to those wondering about what ammo to use.

The ammo recommendations in the manual are just that. Recommendations.

My personal go to bullet is the Remington Golden Bullet and I consistently get dime sized groups out of my rifles with them at 50 yards. People can talk **** about them all day long and that is cool with me, cause in this time of ammo shortages, I'll take them all.

 

[Freeway]

So far, I have tried

CCI Mini-Mag 40g CPRN
CCI Tactical - 40g CPRN
Federal Champion 36g CPHP
Fiocchi "Canned Heat" 40g CPRN
Remington-Eley Target Rifle 40g LRN
Remington Golden Bullet - 36g CPHP
Winchester M-22 - PLRN

Almost 5,300 rounds with 13 failures.


Still have to try these...
CCI Blazer 40g LRN
CCI Velocitor 40g CPHP
Federal 36g CPHP (325 Value Pack)

Mine seems to shoot about anything I feed it! If I find one that doesn't work well, it will go in the Henry Lever Action.

 

[Majorlk]

The ammo recommendations in the manual are just that. Recommendations.

That is so very true - and they were written several years ago and have never been updated. That's why I tell shooters who ask about them to simply ignore them, as both lists are woefully out of date and do not reflect current ammo production.

 

[Shooterjgs]

That is so very true - and they were written several years ago and have never been updated. That's why I tell shooters who ask about them to simply ignore them, as both lists are woefully out of date and do not reflect current ammo production.

Or the current rifle production... early 15-22's had issues the "new'er" ones don't... which is good for everyone...

 

[rt-texas]

Finally made it to the range today to try out my new toy. MOE in FDE.

375 rounds of bulk Federal, 200 rounds of CCI standard velocity and even 100 rounds of some Remington Thunderbolt my buddy had.

CCI ran flawless, but seemed less accurate than the Fed.

Federal bulk ran great. 2 FTF with good strike marks. 1 stovepipe with FTE near the end. We both thought the most accurate.

Remington all fed and shot fine. But some loads sounded "weak". Also had a strong smell that we didn't notice on the others.

But I have to say we had more f***ing fun with this toy than I have had in a long time. So glad I pissed the wife off and bought another gun!

 

[Tennreb]

...I found 1000 rounds of M-22 on sale at Walmart. I was Leary to buy it, but since it was designed for this style rifle I figured I would give them another shot. After 250 or so rounds there I was beating a wooden dowel down by barrel trying to get out the lead. That last time it took me almost a week to get the barrel clean using several products to remove lead fowling. I don't know if its just my particular rifle or what, but my 15-22 will never see winchester ammo again. It runs fine on all other ammo. I have ran 2500 rounds of blazers through it in a single session without a hint of fowling.

My LGS threw in a box of M-22 when I bought my M&P 15-22. Some of the cleanest burning 22lr I've seen. Good groupings as well and no FTEs.

It is copper jacketed so I don't understand your lead fouling issues here. I managed to get 2000 RDS at Wallmart yesterday morning and was elated. First guy in line bought 3 boxes of 555. He can have 'em. He apparently thought the big black boxes of 1000 RDS were some center fire.

I paid $100 for 2000 RDS of what I consider good bulk ammo for the 15-22.

 

[yzf128r]

I don't get it either. It's the weirdest thing. Once again (stupid me) I ran across some WIN super x, and low and behold I was spending 2 hours cleaning my barrel to get rid of the fowling. I ran 333 rounds of federal through it at first. Once that was gone, all I had left was the Winchester. I broke down my rifle and inspected the bore and it looked good. I ran my boresnake through it a few times just for good measures. Then ran probably 200 rounds of super x before I started to notice accuracy problems. I broke the rifle down again and inspected the bore and just like every other time there was significant fowling about 4" past the chamber. I caught it early this time so it wasn't quite as bad to clean. Once I got home I cleaned it. When I was done I had a pile of lead shavings that was bout the size of a nickel. It must just be my rifle, but every time I use any Winchester ammo this happens. I'm a clean freak, so my rifle never starts the day dirty, it just hates Winchester ammo. I can and have run 2500 rounds of CCI blazers through it in a single session with zero trace of fowling. It kind of sucks that it does that with Winchester ammo. It runs it good, and accuracy is good, it just leaves lead deposits/shavings in the barrel, even the M-22. Luckily this is the only ammo my rifle doesn't like, so there are quite a few options left. It even runs Remington golden bullets like a champ. It's just a weird deal.

 

[lsu2868]

Ok...bringing back an older post by using the search function. Today at the range I was running some Federal American Eagle's thru my 15-22. I stopped after 100 or so rounds because I was getting to PO'd. This is the first time I have used this ammo and I had nothing but issues. Out of a 25 rd magazine, I would have 7 or 8 FTE's. Then reload and have another 7 or 8 FTE's and so on and so on. I have run CCI's thru with no problems. Anyone else have this issue with the American Eagle's? I am going to clean it again tonight and go back tomorrow with some Federal bulk, CCI Tactical's and some Blazers and see what happens.

 

[cjt50]

Since we are reviving an old thread;

Bought some Remington Thunderbolt thinking it may have been improved since I last bought during the late 80's, (only thing I could get my hands on at decent price) Nope, still a PITA. All rounds cycled just fine, but I noticed that after 50 round the groups started to open up. Looked down the barrel and notice it was severely leaded up. So I just blasted away the other 450 and will consider it a lesson re-learned. All 500 round cycled perfectly though, shame really......