Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires General good shooting 22lr ammo?

What are you shooting?

I have some 550 bulk/economy box of federal 36gr I think hp. A 500 box of thunderbolt remington lead 40gr think it is. And I have about 5 50 ct boxes of aguila 40 gr copper super extra. And one box of aguila 38 gr copper hp. This last one shot pretty good in my new cz 455. The others didnt show any promising results.

To me one of the best parts about shooting .22’s isnt just finding out what line of eley of lapua it shoots best..
It’s about finding that bargain ammo that works great for 99% of the time

For the bulk ammo. I’ve found CCI Sv, blazer, and Aguila Sv can turn in some impressive results

Blazer seems decent across a few diff brands/models of .22 rifle/pistol.
Super X back in the day was good, but IMHO hasn't been for some time.

CZ455 runs Blazer for the cheap. Best so far is SK match though.
Dunno if I even need to test others.

CCI standard velocity ammo has been my go-to for good shooting in a variety of rifles. It's not premium ammo and if I were looking to test for maximum accuracy, it's not what I'd use, but for mass produced, readily available (at least before the current chaos), I've found it to be the most consistent.

For average prices, I've respectively found American Eagles and Win Power Points the best in a Ruger 77/22 and an Anschutz.

The premium completion stuff is always super, but I can't afford a full case for a good spring ground squirrel season.

Not seen the Win's on the shelf since I stocked up in the pre-Obama days.

Horrid performance with the bulk barrel/box stuff, so I never buy any.

If guys are going to mention SK, id say across the board the SK standard has shot the best in my rifles. And its cheaper than their match grade stuff, or "match" labeled ammo. For cheaper ammo, I've had great luck with american eagle hp's and solids. And its always a great day when you find out your rifle loves the bulk boxes of federal hp ammo. Personally I like rifles much more when they shoot bulk ammo great, vs a finicky one that only shoots expensive match grade ammo well.

My first CZ 452 does well with SK Standard Plus.

Tikka T1X racks up extremely tight groups with Federal Champion 40 gr solids. Does better with that than some match ammo I tried through it to break in. Happy about that.

CCI mini mag

Another vote for CCI Standard Velocity, off the bench at 50yds. it will put all 50 rounds into one ragged hole out of my Winchester M/52 Sporter and my Springfield 1922 M2.

CCI std vel for paper punching is a very reasonable priced ammo that has always performed well for me. For an ground squirrel shooting round the Federal American Eagle 38 gr hollow point has a good combination of accuracy and hitting power.

Of course at this point practically any 22 LR is desirable, regardless how well ilt shoots (groups).

drover

For my rifle/pistols that require higher velocity ammo to reliably function, I've been shooting Federal Auto Match. Thankfully I have quite a bit of Eley Match leftover from my rimfire benchrest days for my bolt guns. When that is gone I'll be looking for SK std or match and maybe try their Semi-Auto, if any of them can be found.

The mention of Fed. 40gr reminded me that I have most of a brick of that, if it's Champion 1240 muz velocity?

Some years ago when we were shooting indoor three position matches, one of my friends traded me a brick of that 40gr Fed. for a brick of 36gr Fed. Champion I had. She wanted my ammo because that's what her rifle liked. In the years since, I haven't found one of my rifles that liked that 40gr stuff, so it's still on the shelf.

My choices for paper punching generally include Fed. bulk 36gr; CCI-SV; Mini Mags and original WW Dynapoints from over 20 years ago, in no particular order. Some of my rifles like one more than another, so I stick with what shoots best in each rifle.

Bought a M1969 Romanian trainer decades ago for $60 at Dunham's. Our club had a dozen of those critters we used for teaching kids to shoot, plus NWTF/WITO sessions. They're pretty crude, but surprisingly accurate. Tinkered up a pair of rings to fit the metric dovetail and scoped it. Tried several brands of ammo in it, including WW Wildcats. Turned in half inch rested groups with that stuff @ 50 yards with amazing consistency, To the point that I pizzed off another guy once at our range.

Forget what he was shooting, but it cost him a helluva lot more than $60 and came nowhere close to my clunker's groups that day. Told him it was kinda neat to have a POS rifle shoot that good with POS Wildcat ammo.

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I like the the Blazer 40gr. and Winchester 36gr value packs for cheap ammo. Or should I say use to be cheap ammo.
And of course mini mag either 36gr or 40gr

CCI Standard Velocity for general plinking. Blazer is about as good and less expensive. For hunting the CCI Small Game Bullet and Eley Subsonic Hollowpoint and the same in high velocity form.

CCI std vel hard to beat for general shooting. That said my CZ 455 varmint loves SK

Out of my buckmark and victory I like the federal auto match and CCI mini mags or velociters. The CCI standard velcity shoot well from my bolt action savage mkII

Lately the Federal 36 grain hollow points have been out-shooting all the rest in my stock scoped Ruger 10/22 & Ruger open sight Mark 2 pistols.

CCI mini mag solid & HP running a close 2nd

41

For cheap, Federal Auto-Match seems to do pretty well in a number of rifles and handguns. Blazer as well.

Recent outing with a Green Mountain barreled 10-22 at 50 yards.

Second the Federal Auto Match.

Also, if I have/get a semiauto that’s acting up (other than a High Standard), after a good cleaning, I run CCI Mini Mags through it, before chasing through a lot of of other potential causes for unreliable feeding (mags, extractors, chamber, etc.).

All my .22LR's shoot this stuff good enough.

CCI Standard Velocity. Super dependable and it shoots well in just about every gun.

My abilities aren't good enough to tell accuracy differences CCI SV & Green Tag, but my wallet knows the price diff. No more GT for me.

For sleeper ammo that sometimes gets overlooked because of the brand, this stuff is usually VG.

Upper right. My piece shot it pretty well.

Years ago when I was steadier I did a 10 shot group of the Wolf Target at 50 yds. The hole was 3/8 inch in diameter. Same rifle, early Savage Bull Barrel with accutrigger did a 1/2 inch 10 shot group with Remington Target. I'd love to load up on the Wolf Target when things calm down.

About 2 years ago Wolf changed suplliers for their .22kr.

Back in beginning, it was just rebranded SK Jagd standard plus and match ammo. Now it is supplied by Eley.

Mine would have been the older supplier then. It was something over 15 years ago that I was testing these brands. Is it safe to assume that the quality is still there?

The old wolf is definitely good ammo. I have not had occasion to try any of the eley produced product yet.
Unfortunately with eley, I have not had much luck with any of their “middle of the road” offerings.

Yep. The jury is still out on the "new" Wolf. Until and unless the supply chain gets close to what was normal, we won't have a chance to do much testing. I see that the usual sources for Euro target ammo are drying up, although it has taken longer than for the garden variety domestic ammo.

Federal bulk has worked well for me across the board. It's certainly been the most reliable. CCI Mini-Mags for serious business and CCI Subsonic for my pistols.

I found out yesterday that my Ruger MK IV Tactical loves SK Standard Plus. Shoots minute-of-ptarmigan/spruce chikin head at 25yrds. Figures it would be one of the most expensive and scarce brands in my supply line. Fortunately CCI Subsonic runs pretty close and I have a metric schitt ton of it.

My guns have always shot the PMC Scoremaster into tiny groups. I bought a few bricks before it was discontinued around 2008ish? Otherwise CCI Standard velocity is pretty consistent (and still produced!)

Since the subject has come up...this Eley with the Remington brand on it...have you folks given it any testing? It is pricey enough, it should be darn good.

Mgw619: I hope the folks here (including you!) have the luxury of "choosing" the 22 L.R. ammo they will be shooting in the upcoming couple of years!
I know if I didn't have a lifetime supply on hand right now I would NOT be able to shop and choose which ammo I preferred - I base this on the last several months of shopping in dozens of stores/shops in three states with NO luck.
I have several Rifles that shoot the Federal 36 grain hollow-point bulk pack ammo quite well - and its perky on small game and Varmints.
My other on hand favorite is the Winchester 40 grain Power-Point hollow-points and I use this in my higher dollar heavy barrel bolt action 22 Rifles.
Again I wish you well in your shopping - I know I have not only NOT seen ANY of my favored 22 L.R. ammo on a stores shelves but I have NOT seen any of the munitions pictured by others on this thread. for many months now.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Tried both Eley Remington Club (orange label) and Eley Remington Target (yellow label). The Club stayed mostly in a 1" square with a couple landing outside of ot. The Target was 6 out of 10 with four landing just outside the square. I'm shooting a newish Ruger 22/45 MK IV Tactical with a crappy trigger and topped with a Swampfox Kingslayer RDS. I was shooting into a squirrelly crosswind. Between that and the trigger, I'm pretty sure I threw the misses rather than the ammo. None of the HV Eley stuff I have shot very well for me in the MK IV nor did the SS Hollow.

Yesterday I had a flat calm day and chewed the center out of the 1" square with 20 shots of CCI Standard Velocity and only 4 going outside the black.

I have a Volquartsen trigger kit that I just haven't installed yet. I'm sure that will tighten things up a bit when I do.

I still have a lot of Wolf , which for price is my favorite.
Just plinking with my pistols, I like CCI std. Vel. Hasbeen

This.

My experience as well.

I agree

IF you can find it, Geco Semi-Auto is pretty good for a budget ammo. It averages .368" at 50 yards in my CZ 512, a little carbine that is a remarkably good shooter. That's with a 3-9 scope on it, too. I picked up a case of it last spring, when I realized just how good it is in that rifle. My other CZs (all boltguns) don't like it quite that much, but it sure is great in my little 512 Carbine. That little rifle has pretty much retired my 10/22s, it's that much better.

Thanks for the responses. I guess it's all a mute point at this time with nothing being available unless someone would like to sell me some of their suggestions. Seems like CCI SV has received the most praise on here

In my T1X I’ve tried a large selection of ‘budget’ ammo, but no fancy stuff. And I haven’t had any CCI sv yet. The best shooting stuff I have is the Blazer ammo, with the Fed Auto Match being good also. What I actually use these days for varmint control is some rather old Remington Golden HP ammo. It shoots almost as well as the Blazer, and the HP bullet is way more effective on yard pests.

From what I can tell, best accuracy can be had with the round nose bullets. I’ve been looking for the most accurate HP bullet.

Just to say it, the least accurate ammo I have is Remington Thunderbolt.

I’ve have exceptional results with the Aguila Super Extra 40 gr.

I've had good luck with Federal 510.

I've been shooting that stuff since the last "shortage", and find it every bit as reliable as any CCI product, and a bit less money. I keep about 4 cases on hand all the time now. I only have trouble with it in one handgun, but all my rifles love the stuff, My Smith 617 sometimes has misfires with it, probably due to the short firing pin (it's a common problem on some of the Smiths).

Aguila is good ammo, but the only problem I have encountered is some feeding issues with narrow straight line single stack mags, specifically my Ruger Mark IV and a S&W Victory. I did a quick check of dimensions and couldn't find anything obvious. Wouldn't be a deal killer for me.

BTW, if anybody cares, it's pronounced AH gee la, Spanish for eagle.

Aguila SE and Federal Automatch has been my plinking ammo of choice. The Aguila is Eley primed and has a distinct smell but it shoots more accurately than about anything else under $50/brick (normal not-gouged price) and functions in all my autos. Haven’t seen Automatch in a long while though, hope that changes because I like the bulk packaging.

Good enough for gnats and fleas....

Alas, Dan, Wolf Match Target of yore is not the same as offered nowadays. Wolf was previously made by Lapua (as is SK), but a couple of years ago, Wolf went to Eley for their contracts. So, the new Wolf MT or ME is made by Eley now, and is no longer the wonderful load it used to be. In individual rifles, it might be better (or might not!).

Last year I donated 2 bricks of Remington Thunderbolts to the Local Boy Scout council for camp use. I heard later they scalped them and didn't let the kids shoot. Mb
.

Well, wasn't that just white of them.

Smart indians, knew that chidt didn't fly straight and was mostly duds anyway... I thought we were talking about "good shooting 22lr" anyway, not garbage 22lr?...

Don’t give up, get pro-active. I signed up for in-stock notification on Eley Club and it came through in a pretty short time. Gotta be lightning-fast when the email drops, though.

Boy, you're not kidding about that.

That would piss me off beyond belief.

All around best across the various .22s I've owned has been the CCI mini-mag HP load ... HP, not the solid. Not always first place but always in the top 3 finishers which makes it a good thing to keep stocked up on. Other frequently good choices are WW power point HVHP, federal bulk HVHP, and CCI stingers.

Don't forget to try a couple subsonic loads. Sometimes they are crazy accurate. (Other times they suck badly.)

Tom

That is exceptional ES

To some degree it depends on the ammo-rifle pairing. But the better stuff I've had tends to shoot good or sometimes great in everything. Since the OP mentioned CZ 455 --I have a CZ 455 VPT that always seems to do good with lapua and lapua-like brands. Back when the wolf MT and ME was made by lapua, I went through alot of it that wish I had saved some. Also SK+ and SK rifle match were very good. The eley products did not do as well for my CZ. Even some tenex I had did not seem quite as good as the Wolf ME. Course all of this can be different for every rifle.

Yup. It was maybe two minutes from the time the notice popped on my iPad to checkout. Went right back to the link, and it was OOS! The other stuff I’ve scored using notifications has been less desirable than .22 LR, apparently.

I bought a box of GT some years ago, and it’s never done anything special in my regular sporters. Tried it in my 457 MTR and it looks promising, but not especially for the price. Matters not right now, of course.

Dang! I am disappointed to hear that Wolf Match Target isn't by Lapua any more! My CZ 452 american loved that stuff! It didn't do as well with the Eley stuff.

CCI mini-mag hp was always a runner up for accuracy considering it wasn't match grade. The old winchester power points were also pretty good.

22lr ammo is getting as expensive as centerfire ammo used to be!

Cabelas had some cci instock today. It was the cci AR stuff. This similar to the Cci sv?

I believe the cci AR stuff had a copper was on the bullet, whereas the SV was straight lead.

Shot some of the AR stuff from some more consistently accurate rifles and wasn’t much better than standard bulk ammo.

CCI mini mag is all I shoot.

I was out yesterday shooting my Smith M41. All shot pretty well given my ability but I am not surprised at how Blazer shot. Quite often a solid round in my rimfires. All groups are 10 shots at 25 yards.

Blazer is never first in my several .22 rifles, but it's often 3rd or 4th in the line-up of inexpensive, good shooting ammo. My 10/22 with a GM barrel thinks it's hot stuff, and so does a little CZ 512, it's like 2nd in the Ruger. Pretty good stuff for cheap bucks.

I've found the Federal Auto match to be pretty decent stuff and your target backs that up.

I have had good luck with American Eagle. When I was younger it was some of the cheapest and was about $7 for a 400 round brick. We shot tons of rabbits with it because it was cheap.

Through sighting in scopes I discovered it was usually pretty accurate. It's more money now but I still have 3-4 4000 rd cases on the shelf. I buy the 38g hp but the 40g solid shoots well too.

I just bought a christensen Ranger 22 today so next week I hope to get out and see if I can find a round it likes. I just threw about 15 different boxes in an ammo can for the range trip. I'm hoping it'll shoot the AE 38g hp.

Bb

I’ve been shooting a lot of CCI suppressor. Stupid accuarate out of my CZ bolt gun. About 13 months ago I bought a bunch of the RWS subsonic HP and it shoots nearly as good. I wish I’d bought 10x as many.

I also have had good luck with the Blazer shells in my 541-T HB. Amazingly, it also shoots the Winchester 36 gr. hollow points really well!

Like it has been mentioned before, it's all about what the rifle likes.

Good shooting EdM. Smith 41's are awesome pistols.
I was curious, have you tried RWS Subsonics out of your 41? Mine loved that round.

BSA you old dog any 22lr ammo is good shooting at regular price if you can find any mb

I have found CCI standard for target and Mini Mags if I want higher velocity for most of my rifles. I really liked Win T-22 white box but hasn't been made for years. When Win went to grey box just wasn't the same. My Marlin 39A liked the Federal bulk packs for silhouette.

Depends on what your guns shoots best at whatever price point you set. My price point was 25-35$/brick of 500 back before hoarding and panic buying kicked in.

During my 2700 handgun bullseye competition days, my go-to 22 LR ammo was CCI std velocity. It shot well in my S&W 41, Hammerli Xesse, and Ruger Mark II.

Aguila std velocity also shot well. Others that shot "ok" were: Federal Match ( red box, but not the super high-end stuff), a big step down but decent and "competitive" ( depending on you classification) was CCI Blazer and Federal.auto match.

You just have to try different brands in your firearm. Not too much to choose from in this political ammo climate. Hopefully in a year or two we will have some normalcy.

Federal Gold Medal Target and CCI Stardard Velocity Target are consistently accurate for me.

CCI Standard has been consistently good along with AutoMatch but I stocked up on Norma Match when it was cheap. It shoots a bit better than CCI, in the rifles I've compared.

The only American made rimfire ammo that I've found to be usable has been CCI and it isn't great. Winchester and Remington have been just horrible, unusable. Sometimes Federal is passable, probably because it's owned by the same company as CCI, ATK. Eley, SK, Lapua, and RWS are much better quality, along with higher pricing for most of it. Since I hunt squirrels and rabbits and don't try any sort of competitive shooting CCI works well enough, favorite being Subsonic Hollowpoint. Given plenty of money I'd like to stock up on the European rounds.