Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires What ammo for the 22lr are you using?

Every .22 is a law onto itself.... There are some brands of ammo that shoot crapy in everyones rifles and there are others that seem to do well in just about everything they are put into...everything else is somewhere in between....

I just got done testing a lot of ammo in three CZs....

http://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/5459630/all/Chronograph_Data

For bulk plinking the Walmat Remington 550 bulk packs shoot well in all my guns, not just the CZs. Much better than the Federal Bulk. But if I really need to Dot an Eye then any one of several rounds will out shoot the Remingtons.

Overall favorite is the Winchester Super-X. I still have several cases of it left over from the Klinton scare many years ago... But there are others that shoot as well...

Just buy a box of everything you can find, get a good scope, a good rest and shoot your brains out....the gun will tell you what it likes...

Bob

That's pretty much my approach, I'd only qualify it farther by saying shoot only ammo you'd use in that particular gun ... in other words, ammo suited for the gun's purpose.

Its a pretty fun way to spend an afternoon or two.

Tom

Yep, and when you do settle on a brand, go buy about 5,000 or more of the same lot #. Different lots can shoot differently.

Alan

I am ashamed to admit, my 77RS Ruger shoots Remington Golden bullets way better than anything else. One hole at 50 yards for ten shots. I've never been a Remmy fan, but I've laid in a bunch for it. My BLR preferrs an older Winchester Wildcat load, only a brick of them left. My 10-22 prefers the Lapua Biathalon load, that is also no longer available. The BLR needs a range day to fins a newer load. The 1022's second most favored load so far has been CCI Minimags. I have not tried Wolfe match in any of them yet, but have tried most of the rest. Surprisingly, some of the Match loads mentioned above don't shoot well in any of these rifles. Just proves how individualistic they are. My son's old '30's era Savage bolt action that he inherited from his Grandad prefers Eley Match.
When shooting groundhogs around the house where precision is not as important as wound channel, I use the Quik Shoks. They will drop a groundhog that is hit right. I sometimes use them for woods hunting where a fox or other bigger stuff might pop up. They will take the top of the head off of a squirrel. It's effective, just not a real accurate ammo for me.
Bfly

I try to keep at least one box of just about every .22lr I can get, up to a certain level. Eley Team for 100yd accuracy shooting is about the nicest ammo I'll spring for. I can't shoot any better than that anyway.
Mostly I use:
CCI Standard for informal grouping on paper.
Federal Lightning and Win Dynapoints for plinking at cans,clays,etc.
CCI Subsonic and Winchester subsonic serves for most of my hunting.
I'll occasionally use Minimag HPs or Velocitors if I think I need the power at close range.

If price wasn't an issue, I'd probably shoot RWS or Eley Subsonic almost exclusively.

What Tom said, 'cept I don't like Remington rim fire ammo. I shoot Federal bulk mostly, do to cost.

I like Winchester Power Points for small game hunting.

I'll just post a disclaimer: I'm a member of RFC and I have read and tried just about every brand of 'plinking ammo' in my 10/22.

And almost every brand, except Remington, is in my stockpile. Actually I will take that back. I have half a box of Rem "Target". Mainly because I can't give that garbage away. Remington makes POS rimfire ammo, except for the subsonics. They are made in Australia and are decent quality. GB (golden bullets) are the worst.

Now in order from best to worst inexpensive reliable and available rimfire ammo over my 15 years of ownership:

Round Nose bullets:
CCI minimags - cycles auto actions flawlessly. 6 cents a shot
Winchester SS (super speed) 1300fps - fast mini-mag competitor
Federal 711b lightning - decent eco-target round around .04 each
Fed auto-match...similar to lightning, available in bulk pack

Hollow Points:

CCI minimag HP - same as the round nose, see above
Winchester SS - same as the RN round except faster 1330fps
Federal bulk 750 - good bulk, not many FTF, walmart-ability
Win 333/555 - similar to the Fed bulk, a bit dirter and cheaper

Any of these are available at your local chinese general store (Walmart)

also FYI for the OP:

The hyper-speed ammo that you are purchasing will not shoot as accurately as standard and hi-velocity stuff. It may extend your range out past 70 yards on varmints, and it's good for close range power, but once the bullet breaks the sound barrier and slows back through it, it destablizes flight pretty badly. The subsonics stay under this barrier and are more accurate, as the reversal of this effect...

Therefore I recommend hyper velocity stuff only for close-range (less than 100 yards) coyotes or last-defense type uses....