What's The Dirtiest 22 Ammo?

Shooting is dirty business. Like working on cars, it's often messy. I see recurring threads about clean ammo or reloading components, but I guess I'm cut from a different cloth. I like to get my hands dirty.

Other than black powder, what's the dirtiest, grimiest ammo you've found? Pictures of dirty guns and shooters are a plus!

Generally, all .22LR ammo is dirty. Monarch brand ammo from Academy in all calibers is just plain nasty, but their .22LR is the worst. I find CCI Blazer .22LR to be somewhat less dirty as far as .22LR goes.

Gotta say Armscore. My Ruger Mkii hates it. That pistol will usually eat anything

All .22 rimfire ammos are dirty. I've tried many and can see no real difference. "Dirty" never bothered me and it does no harm. Very dirty or a little dirty requires the same amount of cleanup. Accuracy is far more important than fastidiousness, at least for serious shooters.

The Remington 22LR with the black bullets. Yuck

The worst "all around" was Remington for me, nasty stuff...

THIS ...

I shoot a dozen 22 cal handguns, some wheel guns, 5 are suppressed pistols. Every brand is dirty and will carbon up over time. With the suppressed guns we just get is pushed back into the action quicker.

There is just two solutions to jam free fire over time. One is the use of Stingers or other brands that use nickel plated cases. Those cost more but simply are cleaner. We have watched this more than 20 years and I am 100% convinced they are much cleaner than others. The nickel and the extra velocity blows more carbon out of the gun is my theory.

Second, is polishing the chambers and cylinders. When you see a carboned up gun that are black all over but that does not affect function on the inside. What stops the gun is the accumulation inside. To keep the guns running I use Flex Hones on every new 22 and about every 400-500 rounds. I polish every chamber and every cylinder to a mirror finish, that keeps the powder from building up and shutting the gun down. Even a wheel gun will eventually get to where the empties do not want to come out.

I buy bulk in 22, 22 mag, 17 HMR and 17 WSM, all of which are also fired suppressed. I cannot pin down a more dirty ammo but feel that CCI is cleaner across the board. I prefer the Remington Golden 22 over most and have used it over 60 years. That said, even match ammo does not matter much and certainly is not more accurate across the board. Ammo accuracy is different with every gun.

In most factory ammo, handgun and rifle, I think most premium ammo designed for defense that has copper and other reducers in them are cleaner. I do believe any offering that claims to have CLE in them are in fact cleaner burning.

For reloading just keep in mind, the recipes with the least powder have less to burn and build up on the gun. The low flash clean powders are cleaner in my view.

I think we trash the import ammo more than it deserves, Wolf, Tullamo and all of those. Shoot them side by side in 2 clean guns and I think you will see very little difference. The issue is we bought that stuff cheap and shot lots of it, so we saw lots of dirty guns and blamed the ammo.

I bought two identical models 637, on the same day, same dealer, etc. I wanted consecutive serials but Bud Gun Shop refused to sell them that way. I took both and fired a box of white box 38 special plus p, over the chronograph, half thru each gun. What I found was, one averaged 921 fps and the other averaged 888 fps. I assumed much of that is due to the cylinder gap, the difference is small but the larger gap does give the slower velocity.

What I also was was the one with the slower velocity and larger gap got dirtier. The 637 is a shiny aluminum gun, carbon shows up immediately. My point is, you might think that white box is clean if you have a tight gun, or dirty if your gun is looser.

I do believe that the products advertised as cleaner, such as Winclean are in fact cleaner. Worth more cost? I dunno, you have to clean them anyway.

Just some thoughts.

I don't like cleaning guns but its a part of the price I pay to go shooting.

What makes 22s different is that they are the only guns I own that I have had to quit shooting in the middle of a range session because they are too dirty. When fed particularly dirty ammo I have had semiauto 22s become unreliable in the middle of a range session. And even when using ammo that isn't dirtier than normal I start having really sticky extraction on my 617 due to the tight chambers.

Worst offender I have seen was some Remington Thunderbolt ammo from about 10 - 15 years ago. Not only was it really dirty the lead must have been too soft because it leaded barrels that did not have that problem with other brands. Unreliable ignition and inconsistent velocity too. Sometimes it sounded like the bullet barely made it out of the barrel.

I buy nothing but a few different types of CCI ammo now. Ignition is reliable by 22 standards, rounds are consistent, and I have never had to quit shooting in the middle of a range session because the gun got too dirty. Even with CCI I start having sticky extraction in my 617 after 5 to 10 cylinders but that is a gun problem. Debating whether or not to ream the chambers or take a cleaning rod to swab out the chambers when they start getting sticky. I really hate the thought of cleaning at the range but reaming the chambers could affect accuracy and cannot be undone.

For me it was CCI especially stingers,but my experience was in the late 70’s may be cleaner now,but the cleanest I’ve shot was Remington standard velocity,got smart and bought thousands of rounds of it ,shoot nothing else

Years ago (at least 25-30), I ordered a few items from Sportsman's Guide. This was when they would send a mystery prize with every order. My prize happen to be 2 boxes of (junk) Russian 22lr. I took them to the range and was shooting them in my MKII and noticed what looked like sawdust everywhere. It nearly locked up the Ruger. I had to completely tear it down to clean all of it out. I shot the rest in a single shot rifle.

I’ve found Remington Thunderbolts to be the dirtiest/least reliable and I avoid buying it these days.

It is all dirty, especially in a blowback 22 semiauto.

Many years ago, the Yugoslavia-produced 22 LR product sold by Hansen (Southport, Conn.) had to be the absolute FILTHIEST 22’s I ever saw!

Let's see some pics, folks! Filthy guns, dirty shooters! I know you're out there . . . .

I'm going to say Aguila. But it is a small difference. I have two .22 pistols that I rotate. If I shoot them until they get too dirty to function, I clean them, and swap to the other gun. Aguila will go around 400-500 rounds in the .22a-1 before starting to malfunction. A quick brush (without disassembly) of the breech and bolt face will extend it a couple of hundred rounds. With other ammo I usually get tired of it and switch to the other gun before it malfunctions. It's favorite ammo is Remington Golden Bullets.

The Aguila is the Standard Velocity ammo so that may have something to do with it. The other gun is a High Standard 10-X and only gets standard velocity (CCI or Aguila). I get the same results but the difference is much less, but the advantage goes to CCI none-the-less.

None of that is enough of a bother to be a concern to me. I'll still shoot any of it.

Dave Lively said:

I don't like cleaning guns but its a part of the price I pay to go shooting.

What makes 22s different is that they are the only guns I own that I have had to quit shooting in the middle of a range session because they are too dirty. When fed particularly dirty ammo I have had semiauto 22s become unreliable in the middle of a range session. And even when using ammo that isn't dirtier than normal I start having really sticky extraction on my 617 due to the tight chambers.

Worst offender I have seen was some Remington Thunderbolt ammo from about 10 - 15 years ago. Not only was it really dirty the lead must have been too soft because it leaded barrels that did not have that problem with other brands. Unreliable ignition and inconsistent velocity too. Sometimes it sounded like the bullet barely made it out of the barrel.

I buy nothing but a few different types of CCI ammo now. Ignition is reliable by 22 standards, rounds are consistent, and I have never had to quit shooting in the middle of a range session because the gun got too dirty. Even with CCI I start having sticky extraction in my 617 after 5 to 10 cylinders but that is a gun problem. Debating whether or not to ream the chambers or take a cleaning rod to swab out the chambers when they start getting sticky. I really hate the thought of cleaning at the range but reaming the chambers could affect accuracy and cannot be undone.

Click to expand...

No reaming just polishing. I use Flex Hones on every gun including rimfire. When new I use the 400 grit one time, then use the 800 grit every 400-500 rounds, whether wheel gun or semi auto, I have a dozen 22s, half of which I shoot suppressed which blows carbon back into the gun.

Simple fix and they last forever if you use them properly, light oil when mounted on an electric drill. You will not regret this and then use them on every gun you own. A mirror finish just does not collect carbon, like a factory finish.

I’ll second Remington Thunderbolt as the overall worst ammo dirty or not that I’ve tried.

"Dirtiest .22 ammo is a regular thread", appearing many times in past years. I don't recall anything new in any of the threads ever, perhaps because there is nothing new on the topic. I'm guilty of contributing and I think my responses have always been the same, probably like other contributors.

It is interesting that people are so sick of cleaning their firearms. That's part of the deal, each time you clean and lube a pistol, you learn a bit more about it and just handling it makes you more familiar with it. People act like it is brain surgery. Also why not ream the chambers on a Smith .22 ? If you are not shooting it, it is a safe queen. Reaming with new tools takes about 15 minutes, you don't even have to take it apart. The amount of metal removed is tiny or none at all. Beats having to pound out the old ones with a block of wood. It probably won't touch accuracy if you use new reamers. It absolutely makes no difference to 99.9% of shooters. Looks stupid to brag about your S&W .22 to a range pal and then have to pull out a block of wood to pound out the empties. A 60 year old pre-number will have the same issues and polishing won't fix it.