.22LR Ammo quality after the drought
- Thread starter Sgt.Y
- Start date
scattershot
Member
Went to,the range today, with my 10/22 and Ruger MkII. Group size with the rifle was the same with both types of ammo. Oddly enough, the only bobble I had was with the CCI MiniMags, one failure to feed. Other than that, the rifle ran flawlessly with the 30 year old cheapo,ammo.
The pistol ran fine with both types of ammo, too, but I had two instances where the empty case ejected, but the bolt didn't pick up the next round in the magazine. This was with the Wildcats.
Not sure what conclusions to draw from this, other than the thirty year old cheapie ammo is at least as good as you can buy today, especially considering its age. For me, MiniMags are still the gold standard, but the older bulk ammo is better than most of the junk you can buy today.
The pistol ran fine with both types of ammo, too, but I had two instances where the empty case ejected, but the bolt didn't pick up the next round in the magazine. This was with the Wildcats.
Not sure what conclusions to draw from this, other than the thirty year old cheapie ammo is at least as good as you can buy today, especially considering its age. For me, MiniMags are still the gold standard, but the older bulk ammo is better than most of the junk you can buy today.
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Old-Veteran
Member
About 50 years ago I was shooting .22lr out of a Ruger Standard Model with a removable magazine and had virtually no issues with the ammo. Recently I have noticed a lot of problems with various .22lr ammo from various manufacturers. Mostly with the bulk ammo. Maybe it's my failing memory, but as I recall even the "cheaper" ammo was reliable if not necessarily match grade in the accuracy department. My high school rifle team used to get a lot of Canuck .22lr ammo which we called Cajunk because it wasn't very accurate, but I did used to shoot it in a Ruger semi-auto and didn't have issues with firing or cycling.
Old-Veteran
Member
I've had the same issue with Federal bulk ammo in my pistols. Multiple FTF, FTL, FTE and stovepipes. I have a few hundred rounds that I will only shoot in my Single Six revolver.
Old-Veteran
Member
I bet you get very good results with the Wildcats. I have been shooting some that is about 20 years old and it is flawless.
unobrownsfan
US Veteran
Eley .22lr ammo has worked well for me. I think it's manufactured in the United Kingdom. There is also a Remington/Eley .22lr which I don't think is as good. I agree that the ammo shortage and subsequent attempt to rectify it resulted in substantially reduced quality control for some ammo companies. BAD Karma for them.
Kframerbluvr
Member
That brings back memories. The local Singleton's store would put Wildcats on sale for $5.99 a brick in the early '70s. With a single shot Glenfield bolt gun as my only .22, a brick lasted quite a while.
I don't remember the .22 ammo from the '70s being as dirty as some of the stuff produced recently.
My son's Scout troop bought bulk Winchester .22 before the 2013 ammo drought for Rifle merit badge weekend. That was the filthiest .22 I have ever dealt with.
Just had my 10/22 out last week. Fired Golden bullets, Automatch, Winchester 333, and 50 year old Remington. All fired perfect. The 50 year old ammo was stored in a relatives attic, with temps from 120 degrees to -20 and humidity. Fired better than most new ammo. So far, I haven't found any ammo my 50 year old 10/22 didn't love.
Any of the brands that come loose in a box of 3-500 are just bulk ammo.They might work just fine or not.Your guns may shoot them fairly accurately or not.The next step up in quality is CCI.Standard velocity will probably give you the best groups,but the high velocity stuff is worth a try.Norma,eley,etc cost even more and are even higher quality. CCI is a good compromise between price,quality and consistency for most types of shooting
At the range today with my M&P 22 full size. I was having trouble with Rem Golden and FT eject. Found some of the casings would swell and were hard to extract. I replaced the extractor and spring, Every roun extracted but some did not eject. The reason, I think, is the swelled casing would slow retard the slide so the case did not hit ejector hard enough.
Measured some of the problem cases and found them to be 3or4 thousandths inch larger than some spent CCI MM cases. Also found one case that had split open.
Never had trouble with Golden before.Was one of my "go to" rnds
Measured some of the problem cases and found them to be 3or4 thousandths inch larger than some spent CCI MM cases. Also found one case that had split open.
Never had trouble with Golden before.Was one of my "go to" rnds
johnnywitt
Member
The ammo from the 80's and before was different bacause there was no "Bulk" Ammo. The Major Brand Ammo and even the 2nd Tier Ammo like Wildcats, in the 70-80's were still pretty good quality, but I bet in Inflationary Adjusted Dollars they used to cost more per round. The good SV & Target Ammo today is probably as good as it was back then as well as the CCI offerings. Shotgun Shells were more Dinero too if adjusted for Inflation and were of commensurately higher quality. The good news is that you can buy **** ammo for the Kids to shoot, or you can pony up and get medium to top quality if that what you need. More options today and it gets sent straight to your door & you don't have to have your ammo purchases recorded under Federal Law like you used to before Reagan signed the FOPA. Like anything, some things have gotten better and some things have gotten worse. Mostly better though IMO.
I don't remember ever having had any ammo purchase recorded with my name. I've been a buyer since about 1968.These days everything on-line can be tracked, so I feel much more at risk now.
johnnywitt
Member
Prior to the FOPA if you bought Handgun Ammo they recorded it: amount Purchased and your DL. It was like buying a gun. This was Federal Law, so it didn't matter if you were in Texas, or Massachusetts.
Don't remember that. But most of mine, even for allowed private use, came from Quartermaster Stores, and later the County range depot, so I guess I was tracked by default. And chemo-brain fog gets in the way.
johnnywitt
Member
It's been a long time since that kind of nonsense was the law of the land. But, the price of the the FOPA included the Hughes Amendment that bars ownership of Full Autos manufactured after May, 1986. Not that FA does much for ya in a hand held weapon platform, but its fun to shoot a FA .22, pistol caliber weapon. The neato factor is pretty high. Oh well, kinda got off track here. The worst RF Ammo I ever had was the Remington GB Bulk from circa 2010, or so that gave OOB in my FA Uzi Conversion Kit- that and the crappy Thunderbolts that had the super soft lead and would dangerously lead up barrels. Seems like Remington fixed this though. The Latest Remington GB I have bought shot pretty decent out of my AA Glock 19 Kit. Remington used to be some really good ammo. The Rem.Target was exceptional in some of my older guns. I hope to see them return to the fine quality ammo standards they used to have.
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I remember the ammo log book I had to keep as an FFL back then. I first got my FFL in '73 and ammo sales were logged in a separate bound book. It was part of the 68GCA regs.
The only time mine was ever checked or questioned was during the Son of Sam thing in NYC. Recv'd a letter from ATF wanting to know if anyone in the book had purchased Winchester or Western brand 44Sp'cl ammunition.
re todays .22rf ammo. Not having a happy time with the stuff I've been getting which is mostly Remington Golden Bullet stuff.
Lots of duds,,we set them aside from bulk packages and found 7 to 9%.
Pulled the bullets on a few and find the primer compound is distributed very hit and miss into the rim inside. The rest we shot up on second and 3rd trys. A couple never did fire.
When they do work they're accurate enough for me. But lots of strange sounding firings. A couple made me check the bore for a squibb,but none occured.
Over all not happy ammo.
Some Federal HV has been good but with a few duds also. No where near the level of the Remingtons though.
Some Remington Thunderduds (bolts) which I said I'd never buy again after the heavy leading problems a few years back found their way into my range bag. Must have been lured by cheap pricees!.
I was surprised,,they all fired fine and were accurate in my rifles (Win63 and 90) and no leading.
I lucked into some 1970's Winchester T22 bricks, 5 of them for $35e. so that'll keep me and my elderly 22's happy for a while
The only time mine was ever checked or questioned was during the Son of Sam thing in NYC. Recv'd a letter from ATF wanting to know if anyone in the book had purchased Winchester or Western brand 44Sp'cl ammunition.
re todays .22rf ammo. Not having a happy time with the stuff I've been getting which is mostly Remington Golden Bullet stuff.
Lots of duds,,we set them aside from bulk packages and found 7 to 9%.
Pulled the bullets on a few and find the primer compound is distributed very hit and miss into the rim inside. The rest we shot up on second and 3rd trys. A couple never did fire.
When they do work they're accurate enough for me. But lots of strange sounding firings. A couple made me check the bore for a squibb,but none occured.
Over all not happy ammo.
Some Federal HV has been good but with a few duds also. No where near the level of the Remingtons though.
Some Remington Thunderduds (bolts) which I said I'd never buy again after the heavy leading problems a few years back found their way into my range bag. Must have been lured by cheap pricees!.
I was surprised,,they all fired fine and were accurate in my rifles (Win63 and 90) and no leading.
I lucked into some 1970's Winchester T22 bricks, 5 of them for $35e. so that'll keep me and my elderly 22's happy for a while
Joe Hohmann
Member
I've had great luck with Remington Golden Bullets, however, I buy them by the 100 pack, not bulk. It is one of the few brands my model 41 "likes", plus, I have not had a misfire after 400+ rounds. My 25yd target yesterday shows no shots past the 8-ring after 35 rounds.
The specs are different between the 100 pack vs 500 or bucket (why this should be, I have no idea).
The specs are different between the 100 pack vs 500 or bucket (why this should be, I have no idea).
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