What's acceptable FTF on inexpensive .22lr?

[AzShooter]

I've tried a lot of brands of .22 ammo and a few have very poor reliability, I can't stand 1 out of 100 rounds that doesn't eject or fire. For matches I like CCI Mini Mags. 100% reliability. Also Federal AutoMatch and CCI Blazer.

In my Ruger Mark III and IV I use the high velocity ammo. It will guarantee that the bolt will eject the cases. I find thes brands to be clean too. Important for when I'm shooting my revolver.

 

[springer99]

I've been running in my semi-auto Thunderbolts and Golden Bullets for the last few weeks and find about 1 out of 15-20 rounds are ftf. Is this normal? What's your experience?

IME, good 22RF ammo shouldn't experience more than 1-3 FTF in 500 rounds. Anything above that is either an ammo or gun problem. First thing I'd do is try different ammo to rule out the gun. CCI standard velocity is the "gold standard" for performance quality in my area.

Inexpensive/bulk 22LR ammo is notorious for having quality issues; that's why they price it the way they do. I'm convinced that the mfg. batch test each lot for meeting quality standards and the lots that don't, become bulk. For them it beats scrapping 10's of thousands of rounds, but we end up getting stuck with the junk.

 

[DocB]

I guess the solution is, don't use inexpensive ammo. Life's too short.

 

[shouldazagged]

If that's the state of .22LR ammo manufacturing these days, I'm more convinced than ever that it's a poor choice for self defense.

In all the years I shot .22 rifles I never once had a failure. That was almost all Remington stuff. It was also years ago.

 

[Targets Guy]

I don't use Thunderbolts any more. Goldens I've never had a problem with.

Thunderbolts leave more than they receive.

free upload

 

[rockquarry]

The original poster asks for "acceptable failure to fire" with cheap .22 LR ammo. Maybe I'm missing the point here as many responders have their own perfectly acceptable approximate figures as to failure rates.

I shoot only CCI Standard Velocity in a number of handguns and rifles. I buy it by the case of 5,000 from Target Sports and have for a good while; no shipping cost and no tax.

A few months back I had one round that didn't fire with the first pull of the trigger in a handgun. Worked the second time. In an all the years I have used this stuff, that was the first time I recall such an incident and I've been using it in fifteen, maybe twenty guns. I can't attribute the initial failure to the gun or ammo, because I simply don't know.

This hasn't exactly shaken my faith in CCI SV as I recently bought another case, but the fact that it happened at all really surprised me. Since no one knows exactly what their failure rate is, I'll join the crowd and estimate mine as one in several thousand. That's one too many.

 

[Troystat]

I never heard of a failure to fire with 22 ammo until the 2000's seems like quality control has slipped since I was younger

 

[VaTom]

Gave away the bulk box of Thunderbolts I bought a couple of years ago during the "shortage" after numerous duds. Never bought any since then. CCI, Federal, Winchester SuperX, Blazer have all been good. Prefer CCI when available. Use HV in semi-automatics and standard velocity in revolvers.

 

[littleriver1]

I remember reading several Threads and post in the past on 22 lr saying it is not wise to use 22lr rounds that are less than 1250 Feet per Second in certain guns. Referring to the design of the barrel lining I learned not to use uncoated lead 22lr rounds in certain guns that I may or may not own. I also learned the hard way why Thunderbolts are hated. However I also learned how to remove extreme lead when I used thunderbolts.

 

[Lee's Landing Billy]

I get to see a lot of ammo shot here. A can full of .22 that doesn't go off. Of all the thousands shot here I have NEVER seen anything with CCI not go bang, never. I have a Folgers coffee can about 2/3 full of centerfire that didn't go off. Almost all of those can be traced to a striker fired gun of some sort. Adding an external hammer to the mix will usually fix the problem. At least that's what we see here. When those hammers go WOP it is followed by a bang.

 

[NJM15]

It all depends on the gun

I have a Sig 226 with the factory .22 conversion it fails to fire on about 5 out of 10 using Goldens but eats Mini's. My GSG AK.22 will shoot anything except when it needs cleaning.. I have a bucket of goldens. I find that the goldens have a loose fitting bullet in the case, maybe they don't hit the ramp properly
who knows. The Federal auto match are a second choice

 

[NJM15]

Second chance

I have a Sig 226 with the factory .22 conversion it fails to fire on about 5 out of 10 using Goldens but eats Mini's. My GSG AK.22 will shoot anything except when it needs cleaning.. I have a bucket of goldens. I find that the goldens have a loose fitting bullet in the case, maybe they don't hit the ramp properly
who knows. The Federal auto match are a second choice

A lot of no fires usually work if you reload them, someone told me that the problem is the liquid primer in the rim is not distributed completely around. I think they are done by using centrifugal force spinning them. Maybe "someone told me" is not always right, but again who knows

 

[JH1951]

I have not experienced any failures to fire in the last several decades. I limit myself to CCI standard velocity, and fire out of quality clean firearms, most often Ruger MK II, S&W K-22, Colt 1911 .22 Conversion on a Series 70, and Winchester 62A. My worst problems are keeping the K-22 cylinder clean enough to not bind, and keeping the Colt 'floating chamber' floating, but the remedy there is to clean them well after several boxes of ammo.
So, my variables are very few, but my success rate approaches 100%.