.22LR Ammo quality after the drought

[arjay]

One thing I did not mention I live in the country so shooting on my property is allowed when firing the four clips.

Any suggestions or lists of quality ammunition, I use winchester white box or PMC Bronze for most of my other calibers for targeting but it seems 22 is an overlooked round from manufacturer for quality.

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

 

[shocker]

Ive had duds with thunderbolts, and more disappointingly, a 22 mag dud with Winchester tmj.

 

[Louchia]

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

 

[johnnywitt]

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.

 

[hoc9sw]

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.

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]

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.

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.

 

[hoc9sw]

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]

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.

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.

 

[2152hq]

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

 

[Joe Hohmann]

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).

 

[Targets Guy]

CCI mini-mags have not failed me yet.

 

[BigMuddy]

I've used a lot of Federal Auto Match and thought it was pretty good. A recent "find and purchase" resulted in a bulk box that will not cycle a semi auto handgun. Not one round worked. They all fired but none had enough power to cycle the action. I suspected a cost cutting reduction in powder.

The Thunderbolts bring back memories. When I was in college I got my first handgun, an H&R .22 M950. I used to buy a brick of Thunderbolts every week when I got paid before I wasted my money on things like food and rent. I shot that gun at least 500 rounds per week. Good times!

I also remember having to sign for ammo. When that started (1968?) my mother would get so mad every time my brother and I needed .22 ammo because now SHE had to go get it for us.

Dan

 

[NJM15]

My wife and I went shooting her virgin M&P 22 yesterday at the range and bought Federal cheapo ammo half way through the 50 rounds the ammo refused to cycle. We noticed the rounds were loose in the cartridges I have been shooting big bore handguns my whole life I never had much experience with the 22 other than .223 Winchester, not even close. But I knew what was happening was the bullet was not seated in the cartridge properly and was having sealing issues. We were experiencing blowby and it concerned me that we could have a bullet lodge in the barrel due to insufficient pressure. Talking with the manager about the problem he claimed 22's were always loose. I tended to not believe him and felt he was trying to keep a sale. But he did say that all M&P guns were high quality, which I already knew. We returned the two unspent boxes for refund. When we got home later that afternoon, I proceeded to shoot four clips of CCI Choot-ems with no issues. The CCI's were paraffin dipped and has substantially tighter seats than the Federals we bought. My thought is they are cranking out ammo so fast that the machinery may be out of spec, way before they realize it and poor quality control is letting junk get out there. Was it a fluke or have anyone else seen this problem too.

The only .22 ammo I have seen with loose fitting bullets
were Remington Goldens I have two buckets of them
they shoot out of revolvers , or my Henry but forget anything else
semi auto with one exception my GSG AK 47 .22 I put 50 through it with no malfunctions. I use the Federal auto match , they are pretty close to CCI's , even my Sig Mosquito likes them

 

[NJM15]

CCI and Aguila

The only .22 ammo I have seen with loose fitting bullets
were Remington Goldens I have two buckets of them
they shoot out of revolvers , or my Henry but forget anything else
semi auto with one exception my GSG AK 47 .22 I put 50 through it with no malfunctions. I use the Federal auto match , they are pretty close to CCI's , even my Sig Mosquito likes them

Two of the best .22 rounds I have shot were the Aguila
super maximums, and CCI stingers the CCI's 1640 fps velocity
the Aguilas 1700 fps . The CCI's actualy have a longer case then the standard to hold more powder, and believe me they sound like it too. Tried my Henry with a 3-9 40 scope on the 100 yds range with the Stingers and could punch 3" groups
Just a problem finding them

 

[mrchuck]

2 hours ago, I bought 3 boxes of Winchester 22lr.
Each box has 555 rounds of 35 grain hp's.1280 fps.
Price was 27.95 per box purchased at my Walmart, plus tax.
So, ammo is becoming more available.
And EVERY table at the last gun show had plenty to sell,,,,but at a much higher price.
Adding this to my current inventory, I think I now have enough for a lifetime.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

I can't tell you about the quality of 22LR ammo post shortage because where I live the shortage is still going on. We have none.

As for the bullet being lose, they use a healed bullet in rimfire ammo, not the same same bullets in other ammo.

 

[susieqz]

i use the upper end of medium priced ammo.
there are no loose bullets.

bulk is bulk.

 

[RV4driver]

Regarding MrChuck's remark above about lifetime supply of .22...

It occurs to me that as we age, having a "lifetime" supply of ammo is easier to achieve! I'm 62 now, and doing the math, I likely will not have to buy .22 again.