School me on .22 ammo

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  • wtburnette

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    I've always had an aversion to 22's. Just not really anything I enjoyed shooting, so I always just avoided them. Recently, the wife wanted a Ruger SR22. We found a good deal on one and picked it up and she's been really happy with it. I shot the gun a few times helping to sight it in for her and I hated it. The trigger is not what I would call good. They're supposed to be very reliable and eat just about any type of 22 ammo without flinching and she loves it, so that's fine. Got me thinking about nice 22's however, so I went looking around. Looked at a S&W Victory at Point Blank and was very impressed with it. Very smooth, crisp and decently light trigger and the fiber optic sights are very easy to see. Found an awesome sale on it at KYgunco and picked it up. I've been very happy with it, but I don't know anything about buying the ammo. That is, I don't know what's good and what isn't. I know everyone talks about CCI mini-mags being great and they seemed to work flawlessly, but I'm looking for ammo that's cheaper, but still decent to run. I bought some Remington Golden Bullet and while very inexpensive, it seems to work fine. Not bad for 6 cents a round. Then I saw some Aguila ammo on sale:

    https://www.targetsportsusa.com/aguila-superextra-ammo-22-lr-40-grain-hv-sp-p-3436.aspx

    Which seems like a good deal, but I have no idea if it's worthwhile or not. So please, school me on what is good and what isn't in the .22 world. Thanks INGO :ingo:
     

    joncon

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    I bought some of the Aguila it works good in my 22 pistols even the ones that are finicky about ammo. I bought some Federal in the black box, I wouldn't recommend it, had numerous FTE in several different pistols.
     

    jrh84

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    .22's are notoriously ammo sensitive, both for accuracy and reliability. What runs great in your gun might choke on every other round in someone else's. What your rifle shoots 1/2" groups with might throw 2" groups in your buddy's. What runs great with a squeaky clean gun might be a pain once everything gums/fouls up.

    In my experience, CCI has the gold standard for reliability in most firearms. There are better brands/types, but you'll pay for it. Aguila and Federal seems to run in most of my stuff (although Federal quality seems to have dropped off lately). Federal Automatch is great for the money. Aguila subsonic is fairly accurate in my CZ and other slightly higher end rifles.

    Winchester is a drop in both reliability and accuracy, although their subsonics are OK.

    Bulk Remington is a last resort for everything. Filthy dirty, terrible reliabilty, and in a handgun, I might be more accurate than it is, and that's pretty bad.

    I haven't used any of it, but have heard nothing but good about Geco and Norma .22.
     

    55fairlane

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    1st off,welcome to world of small bore shooting......

    All.22'sare picky eaters......so be prepared for the madness of testing ammo

    I shoot a lot of Smallbore competition, that being said I shoot a lot of standard velocity (SV) ammo, like eley,sk, and resources, these am most are great and accurate, but the 1080 FPS, won't have enough arsenal to cycle your handgun,so you must look at high velocity stuff, 1200 FPS stuff, Remington golden bullet is cheap, but not very accurate and dirty.....cci -HV seems to be most people go to, cci are tactical, mini mag are good choices, federal auto match is hit or miss,Winchester 333,555 or m22 is also hit or miss

    Aguila yellow box HV stuff seems to work well , as does federal game shok if you can find that stuff

    40 grain,round nose,1200 FPS ammo will be your best choices

    Good luck with your ammo testing....

    Might wanna go over to rimfire central and do some looking as well as steel chickens

    Aaron
     

    55fairlane

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    .22's are notoriously ammo sensitive, both for accuracy and reliability. What runs great in your gun might choke on every other round in someone else's. What your rifle shoots 1/2" groups with might throw 2" groups in your buddy's. What runs great with a squeaky clean gun might be a pain once everything gums/fouls up.

    In my experience, CCI has the gold standard for reliability in most firearms. There are better brands/types, but you'll pay for it. Aguila and Federal seems to run in most of my stuff (although Federal quality seems to have dropped off lately). Federal Automatch is great for the money. Aguila subsonic is fairly accurate in my CZ and other slightly higher end rifles.

    Winchester is a drop in both reliability and accuracy, although their subsonics are OK.

    Bulk Remington is a last resort for everything. Filthy dirty, terrible reliabilty, and in a handgun, I might be more accurate than it is, and that's pretty bad.

    I haven't used any of it, but have heard nothing but good about Geco and Norma .22.

    I agree with ^^^

    Geoff and normal ammo are rws,a great name in ammo
     

    natdscott

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    ...the 1080 FPS, won't have enough arsenal to cycle your handgun,so you must look at high velocity stuff, 1200 FPS stuff...

    I disagree. I've not has a single .22 Auto have an issue with cycling using CCI 0035 Standard Velocity. It feeds and functions just about everything I know.

    Other than that, pretty sano advice.

    The world of "better" .22 ammo starts at 0035 and ends at Eley Club, SK Rifle Match, Wolf Match Extra.

    -Nate
     

    patience0830

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    Not far from the tree
    It all depends on what your goal is. 1/2" groups at 50yds or just reliable, fairly accurate plinking? I bought a brick of Norma match for about $63 on sale today for testing purposes. CCI should be consistent for function in the victory, if not the best accuracy wise. The old federal bulk 555 boxes were always my go to before the ammo shortage for plinking. Remington will need to improve their consistency of quality a lot before I'll buy any more of it. I've not tested any Aguila extensively. What I have shot hasn't been as consistent as allot of the other available ammo. SK std is old reliable for me.
    As has been mentioned, if you want the best performance, to include accuracy, then testing is in your future. Run a couple magazines of whatever is next on the test list, THEN test fire a few groups. The different lubes will work differently so a consistent base layer put down by those first two magazines will give you a better idea of what that particular ammo will do in that gun.
    Have fun. I have a blast with the pile of rf pistols I've accumulated over the years.
     

    Mgderf

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    I've always run a couple of boxes of CCI Mini-mags through my new .22's, then just try a bit of everything to see what shoots best.
    I've heard time and again that a lot of new .22's need a "break-in/settle down" period and are best run with high velocity rounds.

    I like CCI's, but there's nothing wrong with Aquila.
     

    oldpink

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    The best suggestion that I can give you try as many different low price to medium price types of ammo as possible until you find the one that groups best and is the most reliable.
    CCI is the popular favorite, and for good reason, and their grand old Standard Velocity is one round that has a very high likelihood of grouping well, as it does out of my 39A, not at all unusual to get 1" groups or smaller @ 50 yards.
    FWIW, Remington Golden Bullet may be a bit dirty, but I was pleasantly surprised by how well it grouped out of my Marlin, with over fifty rounds in a row fired without a single failure.
     

    wtburnette

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    Thanks for all the great info everyone! I'm really just looking for decent plinking ammo with decent reliability and accuracy. The occasional issue isn't too big of a deal, as the .22 will only ever be a range gun, just for fun. That said, I don't want a failure out of every mag. So far I've shot Armscor, Geco, CCI mini-mags and the Remington golden bullets. I've had one failure to fire from 250 rounds of Armscor, one from 100 rounds of the Geco, one from 800 rounds of the Remington and none from 100 rounds of CCI. Not enough to have formed much in the way of an opinion, aside from knowing the Remington is very dirty and tends to blow a lot of stuff out when firing, some of which ends up on my hands. I tend to use gloves when I shoot it. Might have to try the Aguila I linked to, just to see what I think and I have 650 rounds of the Federal black box I picked up when I didn't know any better that I'll be picking up from Cabela's this weekend. Guess I'll just have to shoot more to see what I like best.... :ar15:
     

    BigMatt

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    I pick up CCI whenever I can. I shoot the Mini Mags out of my modern firearms and Standard Velocity from my classic old girls.

    CCI is clean burning, consistent and reliable. For a few cents more, it is worth it.

    If you are trying to wring every bit of accuracy out of your gun, you will need to try different ammo, but for shooting out of a pistol at the range, you can't beat CCI.
     

    VERT

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    For decent quality plinking ammo in semi autos: CCI blazer or Federal AutoMatch. Both can be had in bulk packs. I have also had good luck with the Winchester M-22.

    CCI minimags are the universal go to. They will be the first to dry up during the great midterm election panic of 2018.
     

    wtburnette

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    For decent quality plinking ammo in semi autos: CCI blazer or Federal AutoMatch. Both can be had in bulk packs. I have also had good luck with the Winchester M-22.

    CCI minimags are the universal go to. They will be the first to dry up during the great midterm election panic of 2018.

    I hope I have the same luck with Federal AutoMatch, as I just ordered 3250 rounds... :):
     

    Broom_jm

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    I see you ordered the Federal Auto Match. I missed out on a deal for a couple bricks of that right here on INGO, a couple years back. I recently bought some Norma TAC-22 ($.08/rd) and I'm testing it in a couple of bolt-action rifles, for accuracy. If it works well enough there, I'll see if it will cycle our two pistols reliably. (When it comes to 22 pistols, I'm not finicky about how accurate they are, but 22 rifles have to be minute-of-squirrel-head at 50 yards.)

    Back before there was difficulty buying 22 ammo, I used to pick up a couple boxes of several different brands and test them, side-by-side. Going back almost 10 years, Federal Champion 40 grain delivered excellent results in all of our guns. I ran out of that last year and when I finally found some more, it is not the same stuff. This is a long-winded way of saying that not only is each 22 rifle/pistol different, each 22 ammo is different, AND EACH LOT OF 22 AMMO might be different.

    When you get up into the $.25/ea ammo, I suspect there is greater consistency, but I'll have to take the word of others for that. I'm not paying that much for 22 ammo.
     

    wtburnette

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    I see you ordered the Federal Auto Match. I missed out on a deal for a couple bricks of that right here on INGO, a couple years back. I recently bought some Norma TAC-22 ($.08/rd) and I'm testing it in a couple of bolt-action rifles, for accuracy. If it works well enough there, I'll see if it will cycle our two pistols reliably. (When it comes to 22 pistols, I'm not finicky about how accurate they are, but 22 rifles have to be minute-of-squirrel-head at 50 yards.)

    Back before there was difficulty buying 22 ammo, I used to pick up a couple boxes of several different brands and test them, side-by-side. Going back almost 10 years, Federal Champion 40 grain delivered excellent results in all of our guns. I ran out of that last year and when I finally found some more, it is not the same stuff. This is a long-winded way of saying that not only is each 22 rifle/pistol different, each 22 ammo is different, AND EACH LOT OF 22 AMMO might be different.

    When you get up into the $.25/ea ammo, I suspect there is greater consistency, but I'll have to take the word of others for that. I'm not paying that much for 22 ammo.

    I hear ya, I don't even want to pay $.10/round for .22, as it's not why I got into the caliber. It's simply inexpensive plinking for me, so if I can find stuff for $.06/round that works for me, I'm going to go with that. I like knowing that I'm spending less then 1/3 the price of 9mm :yesway:
     

    gopher

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    I use a lot of Fiochhi .22, mostly the HV (FHVCRN, FFHVCR) and some SV (FLRN). Can't really vouch for the accuracy (it is probably more accurate than I am) but it is most definitely reliable in my .22s and is pretty inexpensive (you should be able to find it for <$0.08/round).
     

    wtburnette

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    I picked up my order of the Federal value pack ammo yesterday at Cabelas and decided to pick up a box of Browning ammo as well to test. The Federal AutoMatch ammo should be in tomorrow, so I'm going to be testing all three new types of ammo next weekend. Might also pick up a box or two of something else at the range to have a broader test. I wish that Aguila ammo was still on sale so I could test it. Read over at the S&W forum that the Victory runs copper plated .22 like a champ. So far it's run the Geco, Armscor, Remington and CCI that I've tried with no issues... :yesway:
     

    wtburnette

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    Went on a bit of a buying spree for .22 and have run a lot through the Victory. It's ran everything fine, with the exception of the Aguila. I had two failures to feed with it. Even loading the mags they tended to hang up, where all the other ammo I've tried has dropped in fine. Oh well, I know to avoid that brand. There are plenty of other inexpensive options that work just fine.
     

    VERT

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    Went on a bit of a buying spree for .22 and have run a lot through the Victory. It's ran everything fine, with the exception of the Aguila. I had two failures to feed with it. Even loading the mags they tended to hang up, where all the other ammo I've tried has dropped in fine. Oh well, I know to avoid that brand. There are plenty of other inexpensive options that work just fine.

    automatch right? Now that .22 is coming back I need to buy some more.
     
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