What is the most reliable .22 Pistol / Rifle ammunition?

P

Pack_Wolf

New member
I shoot a Marlin M39 in .22 competitions. I have only had one bad round that I thought was the rifle not hitting hard enough. My rifle is slicked to death and works as any well tuned lever can be. I put a Marble tang sight on it recently and was sighting it in. WOW! Three out of 15 misfired.
Never had that!
Ok rifle dirty?
Cold now, and warm in competition.
Springs too light for reliable hits?
I tore the rifle down and worked on the firing pin, rebound strut, smoothed up the hammer sides and frame area of the hammer, looked at anything that would drag.
Put it all back together and I did get more pin strike, hammer falling faster, and solved the problem I thought. Then I pulled the lead and looked inside the cases. the three cases had just a semi circle of priming compound in the case. Yep! The pin hit the area that had no compound. Three of them were like this. I have shot two bricks of ammo before having this type of problem.
It was the Remington Hollow point that you buy in a bulk pack of 500. It fed well is why I used it.
I don't want to use this any more.
What is better? I see lots of super X Winchester discarded at the ranges.

Pack
 
Last edited:
Sounds like you're shooting cowboy silhouette with that rifle. I have a similar set up for the same game. I usually shoot the Eley EPS Match which I bought several cases of when it first came out. I use it exclusively in all my smallbore silhouette rifles.
I do know that several of the fellas I shoot with use the bulk Winchester X stuff you can get at Wally Mart and these are Master class shooters in the Cowboy game, so it must work pretty well


Kevin
 
I've never had a misfire with CCI 22 LR, and I've shot a ton of it. I usually use Minimags (small game hunting), but their standard velocity stuff is just as good, and usually more accurate.

Remington, on the other hand, I've had a bunch of misfires with. It's cheap in more ways than one.
crazy.gif


I tried the Winchester and it functioned fine, but my barrel didn't shoot it as accurately as the CCI. Lots of others prefer it, though, especially the Dynapoint.
Depends a lot on your barrel.
If you want cheap bulk ammo, switch from the Remington to Federal and give it a try. It's more reliable and still pretty cheap (or it used to be, I haven't bought any lately).
 
Most reliable? Try Eley Tenex

I used to shoot competition 22, had misfires with every ammo there is. I once had a bad Eley Tenex round with multiple strikes at Nationals once, and everybody wanted to see it because it was uncommon. Only rarely with CCI Match or Pistol Match, CCI Green Tag is good too, more like one in 500. Winchester was hands down the worst with probably 1 in 50 misfiring. This was ten years ago.
 
Remington Bulk is the worst stuff on the planet. Bar None.

I can't remember the last time I had CCI Mini-Mags or Velocitors fail. Hear their standard velocity is good too. Basically, anything priced from CCI Mini-Mags on up in any brand will be reliable. Cheap stuff is cheap for a reason.

CB
 
Quote:Remington Bulk is the worst stuff on the planet. Bar None.


I've had some stored for around 10 years that I started shooting up lately. It seems to actually get worse the older it is. All the Minimags I bought at the same time, stored in the same ammo can, are still 100% reliable.

So, buying the Remington, and putting it aside for a future possible emergency, isn't a smart move.

I'm just sayin.
 
As been said above---Bulk, almost any bulk, and especially some, will have failure to fire. In a lever gun, it's not as bad as in a semi-auto that might jam up with FtFs and the incomplete ejection of spent shells. And since a lever gun shoots cleaner, the action and firing pin all stay much cleaner than a semi-auto. Buy a bit better (higher priced) shells and you'll probably get rid of the FtFs.

However, I believe it's still true that that high speed 22LR shells are not as accurate as slower speed. Sub Sonics and Standard Velocity rounds might work well for you. Standard high velocity is about 1250 to 1275 fps and often is a good velocity range for rifle target and hunting. The Super High velocity >1300 fps often have larger target groups.

Also if your doing competition work, you'll want ammo that you can get all the time and that shoots consistantly so that you don't have to always adjust your shooting when you change brand. In pistol target work, it's obvious that even different batches of the same ammo, will give a different point of impact.
 
Ive had good luck with the Winchester bulk in the grey box out of all my .22 lrs. As said above remington is junk as well as federal in my opinion.
 
I shoot probably 500 rounds of 22 a month just plinking. I like the winchester xpert(500 rd bulk) and the federal that comes in 525 bulk packs. both of these shoot good and run reliably in my rifles and pistols.
for hunting, I use cci mini mags that are extremely accurate in my guns.
 
When I shot indoor bullseye, I'd shoot about 2 cases ( 10,000 total ) per year. I had the best luck with the CCI standard velocity. A few of the team shot Hansen and had good luck with them, I don't know if that is even on the market these days. I could afford to shoot 2 cases a year of the CCI, but couldn't justify the price of the Eley.
John
 
Thanks for all of your replies. I found some interesting things about my rifle and the ammo.

#1 the priming compound is 20 times more powerful in a CCI than a Remington. It also is completely covering the bottom and a full 360 degrees. Not so with the Rem.
The Rembullets are 39 grains and the CCI stinger was 32 grains. I was surprised at this but it stands to reason. Velocity has to come from somewhere.

#2 The reason I used the Rem ammo is that my rifle loaded and ejected them better. I never really questioned that. I just thought that some guns are finiky and others I talked to had the same feeling. What the problem was is the barrel has a cut out for the extractor to slide into and the extractor clip could not grip the back of the case well. The barrel made too high of a ring around the bullet as it went into the barrel. I had to relieve some metal from the side of the barrel that would suround the cartridge at the base. Now I have good contact with the spring extractor clip. I can shoot anything now.
I will certainly get some more CCI and group the rifle at my shooting distances.
I agree that for me, the Stingers and higher velocity would not group as well as standard velocity.

Problem solved for now. Thanks again,

Pack
 
Quote:...CCI stinger was 32 grains.

Stinger cases are also longer than the spec for 22 LR. Look at them side-by-side with Minimags and you'll see.
 
I've had bad luck with the Remington HP's in the bulk pack too.They wont even feed properly in any of my .22 rifles for some reason.I shoot the Federal HP's now and have'nt had very many problems with them at all.I've never had a misfire with any CCI ammo that I can remember.I've used Mini-Mags,Quickshocks and Stingers.Out of a pistol it was a different story.The Quickshocks jammed up alot but those are the only CCI ammo I've shot out of a pistol.
Another thing I've noticed is the solid bullets jam really bad in all of my rifles.Especially when I shoot them out of my Remington 522.The bolt wont even go forward if I try to shoot them out of it.They will feed in the 10/22 but sometimes they get stuck and wont even eject.
So I'd suggest trying the Federal HP's in the bulks pack.I would'nt even waste money on solid bullets of any brand.
 
For bulk ammo everyone around here likes the american eagle. I concur,
remington is junk ammo. I lost a match for my team because of it last year.
About every tenth shot sounded way wrong and weak. About one in twenty
miss fired but those could be shot over.
 
Originally Posted By: Chris_BriceRemington Bulk is the worst stuff on the planet. Bar None.

I can't remember the last time I had CCI Mini-Mags or Velocitors fail. Hear their standard velocity is good too. Basically, anything priced from CCI Mini-Mags on up in any brand will be reliable. Cheap stuff is cheap for a reason.

CB

+1
 
I like the wichsester super X in the silver boxes of 50 with the Red X
It is harder to find than it used to be.... I used to get some that was almost as good as match ammo.... I have a friend who used to shoot 22 silhouette and he hoarded the silver box super X expecially certain lot #s

But it is always reliable and more accurate than any of the bulk packed stuff..... since this thread was about reliable... that is my vote.... the super X has always been less likely to jam in my 22's that are prone to it.....


I don't get as much time to shoot as i used to and when i do i am willing to pay an extra $5 per 500 rounds to have accurate and reliable ammo.... another penny a round is not much because i do not shoot over 2000 rounds a year....

I thought it was stupid on my part to spend hundreds of dollars to get guns to shoot good and then go cheap on the 22 ammo.... but I still can't help myself sometimes when I see the cheap bulk packs....

R
 
+++CCI Mini Mags - reliable/accurate rounds! Winchesters seem to work fine for plinking but have had inconsistencies in the accuracy dept as well.
 
Originally Posted By: bigwheeler For bulk ammo everyone around here likes the american eagle.


I've had great luck with it and my main squeeze loves it too.
 
Back
Top