Best .22 bulk ammo? for SW22

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whatdidido

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So while I'm waiting for my SW22 I've been looking at buying bulk ammo for it. Especially since there is a high chance I will be able to shoot on my brother's property where he lives. So with that bit of great news I know we will be plinking a bunch of targets.

With that comes needing to buy ammo in bulk. I looked at a few websites to get a an idea of prices. Of course there was a range of prices from really cheap to "I'll only be saving $5 by buying 1000+ rounds".

So what brands of ammo do you all like and use? Those who have the SW22 what brands do you like best?
 
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Federal's "white box" that they had on sale not too long ago has been a great find. Accurate, fairly clean (compared to the really cheap stuff) and works well in my semis and revolvers
 
If you're interested in the best accuracy for your gun, cartridges that always fire, and reliable functioning (I'm not familiar with an SW22 model), get a box each of about ten ammos, standard velocity and high velocity. Shoot benchrested groups at 25 yards for handguns and 50 yards for rifles. One time trouble and expense, but worth the effort.

Some of the real cheap stuff shoots surprisingly well, but much of it is a waste of money. People continue to buy it and complain of poor accuracy, unreliable functioning and rounds that don't fire. Spend a little more and get more.
 
rockquarry said:
If you're interested in the best accuracy for your gun, cartridges that always fire, and reliable functioning (I'm not familiar with an SW22 model), get a box each of about ten ammos, standard velocity and high velocity. Shoot benchrested groups at 25 yards for handguns and 50 yards for rifles. One time trouble and expense, but worth the effort.

Some of the real cheap stuff shoots surprisingly well, but much of it is a waste of money. People continue to buy it and complain of poor accuracy, unreliable functioning and rounds that don't fire. Spend a little more and get more.
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That is a pretty good idea. I just want to find something that functions with little to no issues and is on the affordable side. I think I will need quite some time before I am accurate even to hit a target so it's more of getting more bang for my buck, pun intended.
 
Much of the time I treat myself to CCI Mini-Mags. They're on the high end cost wise but I think they're about the best out there. I just ordered a case of CCI Blazers at $180/5000 based on some other threads here so we'll see how they run in my guns.
 
dmn57 said:
Much of the time I treat myself to CCI Mini-Mags. They're on the high end cost wise but I think they're about the best out there. I just ordered a case of CCI Blazers at $180/5000 based on some other threads here so we'll see how they run in my guns.
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Damn, I must be old. Last time I went full bulk, it was 6250 rounds for $95 OTD at the Big Reno Gun Show......
 
Recently Ive had bad luck with Remington and Federal’s bulk stuff - Patterned a like cylinder choke. I found Aguila’s HV to be very accurate in my Colt M4 with .22 conversion.

I experienced several squibs in my 17-6 with Federal Bulk.
 
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I have owned a dozen or more .22 caliber firearms. Every one has been somewhat picky about ammunition, either in reliability or accuracy. A brand that won't function reliably in one may do perfectly well in another.

Rockquarry hit the nail on the head with his post above. Try a single box of several different brands and types before you order bulk quantities of anything.

Only thing I would add is that each production lot can bring new glitches, so don't just assume that something that worked well last year will do as well this year. You will need to constantly test in order to maintain reliability and accuracy in your individual firearm.

Personally, I tend to buy standard production ammo and leave the bulk-pack cheapies alone. Remington, Federal, CCI, Winchester, Aguila all make very good quality stuff, but may also occasionally flood the market with cheapo bulk-packs that will leave you pulling your hair out at the range (and at the bench while cleaning your firearms).
 
Thanks for the big response everyone. I now have an idea where I will start and as rockquarry posted, I will get smaller boxes of ammo and see what works and doesn't work. I will start with what you all recommended here.

Now all I need is my gun back...
 
I recently did the above suggestion of buying a bunch of different kinds of 22’s and tested them in several of my guns. I used to buy Remington Thunderbolts but found them extremely dirty and caused function issues in a couple of my guns after only a few rounds fired. I went to Federal red box bulk, 550 per box for under $20 at Walmart. These function in all of my guns reliably and out of roughly 7000 rounds only one or two misfires have happened. Accuracy is very good and they’re clean.

I also tried two Aguila types, Armscor, Remington Gold, Winchester Super X, Fiocci, CCI mini Mags, Velocitors, standard velocity and several others. In my 5 guns they all shot reliably with no malfunctions and were reasonably accurate. Due to bullet weight and charges they grouped at different places on the target but that’s to be expected.

In the end I found all of my guns were very tolerant of ammo, accurate with each and functioned 100% with each. The big difference was how dirty some were. All lead is typically dirtier than copper wash I’ve found. Reliability as far as my guns is a function of gun but all ran perfectly.

In the end I found it made little difference other than how dirty they shoot. In doing this test I’ve decided to stay with the Federal red box bulk. No reason to change.

Yesterday I traded two of my 22’s at a local gun show. They were my S&W 2206 and 1970 Ruger Bearcat. Both good but had others I liked better. I walked away with a beautiful Winchester 62A. I wound up taking it to the range for a few minutes yesterday and put 30 rounds of Federal red box through it at 50 ft. Just standing and not resting the rifle, all 30 rounds were within 2 inches in the center. Basically it made 1 large hole. Resting I believe it would group in a quarters size circle. The point, bulk isn’t bad and for casual shooting it’s the way to go. Federal red box is my proven choice and under $20 at Walmart. What I generally do is pick up 5 or 6 boxes at a time and try to keep 6-10 all the time.
 
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The last time I compared .22 LR ammo, I used two rifles, two handguns and 26 ammos. I fired fired five, five-shot groups at 25 yards with the handguns and five, five-shot groups at 50 yards with the rifles. More groups and more rounds per group would have given me a little more information, but being statistically obsessive takes some of the fun out of a project like this this.

A big problem with using cheap ammo is the lack of consistency from one lot to another. Spend a little more and consistency often goes up. That's why I generally shoot CCI SV in everything. It wasn't #1 in accuracy in my testing, but it was #4. However, it always fires and usually functions reliably in any semi-auto handgun or rifle.

I've had good luck with other CCI rimfire .22 LR ammo. It's been mentioned here by me and others before, but CCI Blazer is likely the best of the real cheap stuff. Maybe not as accurate as CCI SV, but it works pretty well in many guns. I've had better luck with Federal Auto Match than many others have, but perhaps I just got into a couple of good batches.

Another good Federal ammo for me has been #510. There's really no easy way to do all this except by doing a bunch of shooting. It's popular today to complain about "dirty" ammo. All .22 ammo by nature is dirty. If it's accurate and works in your gun, "dirty" is very secondary. I've yet to experience an ammo so dirty that the gun malfunctions as others have claimed. I shoot a lot of all kinds of .22 ammo, but I do clean guns regularly. That hurts nothing, despite claims to the contrary, but I'm only speaking within the realm of good quality, non-target firearms like most of us use.
 
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Wow lots to consider with all this. I think my best bet is to try different ammo and see what works and doesn't work. I am not concerned with having to clean my gun but I have read of people complaining about getting misfires and the like from "dirty" ammo. Not sure if it's the ammo or someone not cleaning their gun regularly or both.
 
I have 2 SW22s under roof and both of them are very tolerant of just about all the 22 LR stuff I've thrown at them. I've shot CCI, Winchester red box, Rem Golden Bullet, Federal blue box Win 555 and Browning and the one that gave me the most problems was the Browning, with failure to fire. And it wasn't the gun's fault; I think they forgot to put primer material in some of the rounds. I have not tried the Thundercrud as I am not that hard up for ammo. ;) But with any round that has fired, I have not had problems with extraction or feeding the next round in.
 
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