Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires Federal Automatch 40 gr. LRN - another quick survey

Accuracy can be "shoots lights out" to not all that great. Lot #'s make a big difference. If you can find a good lot, it will shoot as well as if not slightly better than CCI SV ammo.

First trials this morning with a Tikka T1x, CZ 457 Varmint, Kimber of OR M82, Ruger Mk IV Standard and a Mark III Competition Target slabsides. I fired 5 rounds out of each rifle to help season the barrel and then fired a 10 shot group for record, the pistols got 10 rounds through them and then a 20 shot group each since I wanted to test each of their two mags for feeding. These are all the groups fired today with no cherry picking. Looking at the general grouping I'll take full credit for the flyers here.

Rifles are at 50 yards, pistols at 25. Haven't measured these to the last thousandth but for reference those alternating color bars are 1/2" wide

1 - Tikka T1x with an SWFA 10x42 SS
2 - CZ 457 Varmint with another SWFA 10x42 SS
3 - Kimber with an ancient Leupold M8 4x scope. I started the Kimber group on the upper right but it was a bit too close to the target edge so started over on bottom right.



1 - Mk IV 6" Standard with Burris FF III
2 - Mk III Slabsides with Burris FF III, not sure where all those flyers came from. I used to be the greatest pistol shot in the world but apparently not these days...



After shooting groups I plinked a while at steel plates set at 40 yards for the pistols and 100 for the rifles. Had five misfires out of 200 rounds, four of those in the Mk IV which apparently has a weaker mainspring than the Mk III. But after rotating the cases 180 deg. they all fired on the second strike. Other than that they all functioned perfectly and didn't gunk up the Ruger mags like the CCI AR Tactical has done.

I'd say this definitely meets specifications since it groups well in all five firearms. Not the best groups each one has produced but all I wanted was something reliable, clean and that wasn't going to spray the rounds over 2-3", these are obviously a lot better than that. If I miss a 3" steel plate at 100 with any of the rifles it sure won't be the ammo's fault.


Thanks for all the comments above that got me to try these. Had a bad experience with Federal bulk some 10 years ago and never bought any more, but will show up at the store when they open tomorrow morning and get as much of this same lot as they want to sell me.

I've found it to be OK but not great.

It has chocked in loading in some of my shooters especially those with match barrels. Maybe the QC on case size is lacking a wee bit???

I would buy it for revolvers and bolt action rifles if feeding is not an issue.

I recently picked up a pretty high condition S&W M22A for $200. I knew nothing about the firearm, good or bad, other than it was sold as a low budget piece but thought I would give it a go. I took it out with Federal Automatch, sighted it in and it showed promise (25 yards) with a pretty darn nice trigger. I returned to the range with a Sightron Red Dot mounted that Doug was selling for $200 a bit ago. A nice Japanese made optic. Of course my groups (same ammo) were well improved as expected. At near age 61 my eyes do struggle with handgun open sights even at 25 yards. I may try my various SK stuff though I suspect my ability is already the limiting factor.