Dud-free .22 LR brands?

[PALADIN85020]

I love to practice on the range with a Ruger 22/45 pistol, as the motor skills developed mimic those used with the 1911 pistol.

But what I find annoying is the incidence of duds in many .22 brands. To squeeze off what I hope will be a perfect bullseye and have the pistol go "click" is just plain annoying. When I remove the round, it invariably will have a nice firing pin impression, and often when re-chambered and re-oriented, the cartridge will fire. Now some will say that gives you an opportunity to initiate a failure-to-fire drill, but to me it's maddening.

Right now I'm using Remington "Golden Bullets" and it seems that about one in 50 or so will turn out to be a dud.

So the question is: What brands in your experience have proven to be relatively dud-free? I'd be interested in your experiences here.

John

 

[ChattanoogaPhil]

CCI Standard Velocity. $25/500 Dick's Sporting Goods.

 

[snowman]

I use the Federal Value Pack exclusively, and I don't remember any FTFs since I began using them.

Andy

 

[Steve in Vermont]

I use the Federal Value Pack exclusively, and I don't remember any FTFs since I began using them.

Andy

I also use these and have had one FTF in the last 500 rounds.

 

[HAWKEYE10]

In my opinion the "Golden Bullet" is trash. I have always had good luck with Federal Bulk from Walmart. If you want to get serious about target shooting use some match ammo. You can find it on line. Don

 

[haggis]

John,

I'm surprised that you got that good a performance from the Remingtons. I got 5% FTF before I switched.

I now use CCI Standard Velocity .22's. Almost no FTF and rather accurate as well. Also, I have heard good things about the Aguila .22's - they use the Eley priming system which uses double the amount of priming compound to insure that the entire rim gets filled.

Buck

 

[jkc]

Over the years, I've found Remington rimfire of all types to have the highest incidence of faulty priming. I use the Federal bulk-pak for general purpose plinking, etc., and on very rare occasion, encounter a box, or lot, that has this problem, but it's so seldom that it hasn't put me off buying this usually reliable brand.

 

[scooter123]

Another Federal bulk shooter here. I've burned through 2 boxes this summer and not one single dud in the bunch.

 

[oldRoger]

Rimfire ammunition is difficult to make, in every sense it is obsolete, it is difficult to prime. Total duds seem to me to be uncommon, but unprimed areas in the rim all too common, turning them usually will get ignition.

I use CCI SV in my M41s and various high price stuff in target rifles. Price does make a difference in quality in .22 ammunition IMO. FTF happen but are rare and I shoot a lot of it.

I suppose you can look at it as a way to find out whether you are flinching or anticipating.

 

[DeadAye]

Rimfire ammunition is difficult to make, in every sense it is obsolete, it is difficult to prime. Total duds seem to me to be uncommon, but unprimed areas in the rim all too common, turning them usually will get ignition.

I use CCI SV in my M41s and various high price stuff in target rifles. Price does make a difference in quality in .22 ammunition IMO. FTF happen but are rare and I shoot a lot of it.

I suppose you can look at it as a way to find out whether you are flinching or anticipating.

Holy Cow

Now .22LR is obsolete - First .38 Special and now this....
Please tell me that .45ACP and 12 Gauge are still current.
I need a drink

Ok - First it was my Underwood and then the dot matrix printer - Oh, and Ham Radio.

Arggggggggggggggggggggggggggg!

 

[Fishslayer]

The Federal bulk runs very well in my 22/45. They turn my wife's SIG Mosquito into a single shot, tho.
Fairly dud free, but do get the occasional "click."

My wife's Mosquito runs well on the Golden Bullets but we also get fairly frequent duds.

Remington Match have been 100% in the 22/45, but I've only gone through 200 rds so far. Noticeably more accurate than the Feds, too.

CCI Mini Mags run great and 100% reliable in both guns.

 

[2152hq]

I've got a couple of the cartons of Remington Golden Bullet 22 also and have had alot of FTF. In one carton while shooting a Winchester 1890, it wasn't uncommon to experience 1 in every magazine full (11rds?).
I was starting to blame the rifle though it's never given me a problem in the past. Some did go the second or third time but many were just thrown into the 'dud' can at the range.
Same results in a K22.

I took a few with me and pulled the bullets. What I found was anything from one tiny speck of green priming material in the rim in one spot, to 2 or 3 wide gaps in the priming compound. Plenty of area for a misfire to occur.

My second bad experience with Remington. The first was a few years back with ThunderBolt .22 ammo that leaded so bad after a mag full you could not get a brass brush down the bore w/o tapping it through. Long slivers of lead pushed out ahead of the brush,,forgot to alloy the bullet matr'l?

Good results with Winchester DynaPoint, a strange 22 StVel w/a hollow point. But they are accurate and so far no FTF after several cartons.

 

[jimmyj]

CCI Standard Velocity. $25/500 Dick's Sporting Goods.

+++ What Phil said.

 

[canoeguy]

Another "Amen" to CCI Standard Velocity. Super accurate, and 100% reliable in all of my .22 rifles and pistols. Cheap, too...

Another brand I like is the Federal "Auto-Match". reliable and accurate as well.

My Youth .22 Rifle Shooting Team goes through 550 rounds of the Federal Bulk 550 a month, I buy it at Wal-Mart for $18 or so, we get probably 5-10 failures to fire from each box. The kids are loading singly, shooting rifles from the positions, so it's no big deal for them, but I wouldn't like that degree of reliability if I were shooting the ammo in a match or hunting...

I gave up long ago on Remington Golden Bullet or Thunderbolt ammo. The cheap Remington "Peters" brand are lame as well.

 

[310Pilot]

Wow! You only have a failure to fire rate of 2%the with Remington 22, that's nearly unheard of. My experience with Remington 22 ammo in the last 15-20few years has been more on the order of 20-35%the failure to fire, varying with what gun I am using. I will not buy Remington 22 ammo of any type any more, and have bought none for several years. The Federal bulk 22 has been more very reliable, accuracy is decent in most of my 22s, Federal Auto Match has been very reliable, good accuracy, CCI has been nearly flawless, Elegant match always fires and results in very small groups in almost all my 22s.

 

[pete-driver]

I must be doing something wrong, I've fired thousands and thousands of Thunderbolts and maybe six thousand of the Yellow Bullets and never had a dud. I did just switch to the Yellow Bullets because the Thunderbolts caused leading in my P22.
If I had that many misfires I would look into a new hammer - striker spring.Just my .02 cents.

 

[ladder13]

CCI and Federal, no Winchester or Remington.

 

[cjw3]

Remington Golden Bullet bulk packs are not worth buying to me. Many misfires and low reports/low point of impact rounds. No Remmy .22's for me.

Winchester High Speed HP's in the 100 pack have been all good so far. Haven't tried the bulk packs.

Never had a CCI Mini Mag fail to fire. All the standard velocity rounds fired but my Model 41 simply will not function reliably with them, so I don't fool with them any more.

Federal bulk pack HP: I have shot 1100+ rounds before I have had a dud. Federal Auto Match, maybe one out of 600-700. For the price and easy availability from Wally World, Federal is the best deal going considering the quality.

The Auto Match I use exclusively in my Model 41. The others are used in a Model 63, K-.22 or CZ 452, so I think each piece of hardware is doing the job.

 

[Indiana George]

CCI and Federal, no Winchester or Remington.

In agreement with the gentleman from New York.

 

[Nightowl]

Federal American Eagle seems better than most of the regular brands.