Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires Is Remington .22 mag ammo crap?

I was doing an ammunition test with my two .22 Win Mag rifles to see what they shot the best. An older Anschutz 1515-1516 and a newer 1516 in classic sporter configuration, fitted with 3-9x scopes and targets at 100 yards.
Results were as expected, with one wild exception.

I was getting good +/- 1" groups with both rifles shooting CCI 30 gr. polymer tipped, S&B 40 gr. hollow point, and PMC 40 gr. HP ammo, and reasonable 1-1/2" to 2" groups with most others like Federal 50 gr. HP, Win 45 gr. fmj and HP, and Hornady Vmax 30 gr. polymer tip. Worst group I shot was about 2-1/2" while trying a wide variety of brands, weights and bullet styles.

And then I tried Remington "Premier Accu tip V Polymer 33 gr. gold box" I could not keep shots on the target paper, much less in a group. Probably dispersion was 2 feet or so.

I moved targets to 50 yards and repeated the test with the same relative results.

Any idea what's going on with the Remington ammo? They market this stuff as their very best, most accurate ammo. I've never seen such a dramatic difference in factory ammunition accuracy in my life, and I'm reasonably experienced. What should I check? What's your experience?

Castnblast,

I’ve had similar results to yours with the .22mags.....however, the older (1990s vintage) Remington Premier Accutip - when it first came out has been the most accurate .22 mag ammo I’ve ever shot in the three .22 mag rifles I have. Interestingly enough I just went through an exercise with my Anschutz 141M that when I first got would shoot bug holes with the Hornady 30 grain V-max but has since not been doing so good with any ammo (i.e. greater that 1-1.5” groups at 50 yds.). I tried a bunch of things to see what was wrong but what I found was certain lots of the Hornady shot much better than others. The lot that I originally shot in the rifle will still shoot great in all three of my .22 mags but the other lots (I have three different lots) won’t shoot good at all. That was my experience and I’m guessing Remington is no different?

PennDog

.22 mags can be finicky. The only .22 mag I've shot that particular load in was a 9-1/2" barreled single six. It was sub inch at 25 yards with that load. Everything else stunk. Y' just never know what is going to happen 'til you pull the trigger. Since your gun doesn't like it, set it aside and shoot something else. When you get another .22 mag, try it in that. I always have a collection of part boxes of rimfire ammo I keep around to try in new guns when I buy them.

My personal bugaboo load is the CCI Maxi Mag +V. It has shot brilliant groups in every fixed-breech (bolt, lever, and contender pistol) gun I've fired it in and has shot horrid, 4-6 inch or larger groups in every revolver I've tried it in.

I understand normal variations in accuracy, but not even hitting the paper is dismal. At that point the rifle is just making noise. I have a dozen boxes of the suspect Remington ammo in my stash. If it's truly garbage I'll toss it, but if it actually has potential for another rifle to shoot OK I'll sell it to someone else without feeling too guilty. I don't understand what could be so horribly mismatched. I bet I could shoot .22 Long Rifle in my magnum rifle and not have accuracy that poor. Not that I'm going to try that, just sayin'...

Remington Premier was the most accurate .22 Mag ammo for my Cooper, the original Federal Premium with the Sierra 30 grain was excellent too.

I have had excellent results with the Remington Premier 33 grain 22
WMR. 1/2 inch groups at 50 meters, 2 inch groups at 100 meters, wind. Rifle is a Ruger 77 22 mag with a heavy barrel and laminate stock.
It also likes the Winchester Supreme 34 grain WMR

Another for the 33 grn premium ammo it was deadly in our 77/22 mag best ammo we tried one hole 5 shot group at 50 yds

It is interesting that some do have good results with the Remington Premier Accutip 33 gr. ammo. Can anyone offer a theory why my two Anschutz rifles are not compatible with it? I'd like to learn something from the experience.

Lot numbers, it's all about lot numbers.

Maybe quality control was sleeping during that lot. Find someone local with a different 22 WMR piece and have them shoot some. Or buy a box from a different lot and see how it shoots. Then send the target pictures to Remington, they may ask for the ammunition back for testing or maybe just send you a coupon to buy replacement boxes.

QC has been sleeping on many products from Remington in recent years. I won't be buying any more of their products to experiment with, in my experience other manufacturers do a consistently better job. I have asked my brother to try them in his Browning, perhaps he can use the ammo for something.

Never had success with any Remington rim fire amp. Way too many misfires. I have been happy with their center fire ammo for sure though

I’ve saw a lot of differences between lots. Hasbeen

I picked up some 40 grain remington over 20 years ago. It shoots so accurate in several of my rifles , I don’t waste it.
Hasbeen

Yup, exactly my point. Lot numbers will vary a lot.

I'm pretty sure it's not the bullets themselves, though. A buddy of mine used to buy contract overrun 33gr. VMaxes from Midway or some place or other, and they shot bugeyes in his .221 Fireball rifle. He plinked with those loads rather than fool with a rimfire at all. It was pretty fun to shoot, I gotta admit. His Fireball had a 1.25" diameter full bull Pac Nor barrel, and didn't kick at all. A brute to carry. but fun to shoot.

Castnblast: One of my Ground Squirrel Hunting partners has a heavy barrel CZ Rifle in 22 Magnum that just LOVES the Remington 33 grain Accu-Tip ammunition.
I buy it for him on occasion when I run across it.
He is due here at my place later this week and I will get some particulars on his group sizes - and I have seen this ammo perform on Ground Squirrels in the past - its impressive.
Sorry this rather pricey (usually) ammunition does not shoot for you.
I have been having wonderful luck with the new 22 Magnum ammunition by Norma (40 grain jacketed hollow-points - 1,885 F.P.S.!) - it is BOTH very accurate and very lethal on a variety of Varmints and small game.
Good luck to you.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

I forgot about that Federal load - really wish I would have bought cases of that stuff it was the most accurate .22 mag ammo that I ever used!!

I did see some of the new Norma ammo - I’ll have to try that one out.

PennDog

Remington .22 mag. ammo is all made by CCI. The 33 gr. premiere stuff has been very accurate {sub MOA} in my Marlin 882.

Try some CCl loaded with Federal GAME POINTS..My best.

Yes