Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires Premium Ammo Differences

Yes, that's for sure! I think Paul39 has it right. Companies probably have various lots of powder produced and graded, and then loaded into one of their product lines.

Ammunition companies produce little cartridges that are more sensitive to small variations in propellants, etc.

The rifle companies produce either regular chambers, Bentz chambers or match chambers.

It's a rat's nest.

Below is an excerpt from CZ-USA.com. I think the same can be said of any company's products.

While the barrels of both the CZ varmint and sporter weight models are of the same high quality, the varmint being the heavier and stiffer of the two is more forgiving over a wider range of loads than the thinner barreled sporter weight models.

For example, given a selection of 10 different .22LR loads from various manufacturers, the varmint weight barrel will shoot to the best accuracy potential with 4 of the loads and it shoots another 3 of the loads very well.

In general, the sporter weight barrel will be more sensitive to differences between the loads. Typically out of the same 10 different loads tested with the varmint weight barrel, it will only shoot at its best with 2 of the loads, while another 3 or 4 will shoot acceptably.

Typically there will be a few loads each individual rifle really likes and a few the rifle really doesn’t like, with the rest falling somewhere in the middle. By starting with a quality action and premium barrel, the odds are stacked in your favor, making the search for the best accuracy combination easier.

https://www.cz-usa.com/accuracy-comparisons-between-models/

Best I've ever shot,although I have selected lot's of black box and team that are pretty close.

One of the most crucial part in the making of a 22 rf, is the process of evenly spreading the primer material around the rim of the case heads. I don't know abut now, but years ago, Federal perfected that and their match brass was used by the U.S.Olympic team for quit a few years. I was teaching hand gun courses then and that is what they sent me along with a brick of their match ammo

I believe that was their UM marked stuff. Very expensive back then.

They copied the dimple off the Russian's.It wasn't quite a good idea as people thought.Shot thousands of UM1 &900B ,not as good as the Russian Olimp-R.They made a big deal of the Federal stuff because one female shooter won a medal with it. Came and went.

While you might find cheap stuff that likes your gun, will that play out from lot to lot? I suspect lot to lot variation is less pronounced with the more expensive stuff.

Getting off topic a bit, but I have a few boxes of UM1 and 900 in my DO NOT SHOOT box. I bought this in the 1990s. I paid $21.95 per box for UM1 to test it, but never got around to it. This is in Canuck bucks, but the exchange rate was about 1.05 at the time. Our dollars were close to being par. The Federal 900 was a paltry $9.49 at the time.

For more interesting reading about the Federal GM stuff, you can visit here. https://www.rimfirecentral.com/threads/eight-federal-ultramatch-lots-tested.1130917/

WiTF would a guy have a 'do not shoot box'? Weird......

Collectibles.

Interesting read. I have only taken my B14R out a few times but it seems to prefer a couple of the various SK loads I tried. That below on its first trip out. The rifle has since confirmed that SK Semi-Auto and Rifle Match shoot equally well. Five shots groups at 50 yards. For the money SK is pretty hard to beat depending upon what you plan to do with your rifle. I get the SK Semi-Auto at my LGS for $70/brick. Rifle Match $85/brick.

Yeah, I suppose that’s one take on it.

As I related elsewhere, not long ago I was shooting some SK RM in my CZ 457 with the now-departed MTR stock and barrel. Finished one box and started in on another. POI dropped almost an inch, and accuracy fell off as well. WT actual F!?! I thought a moment and checked the boxes, and you guessed it, different lot. This stuff begins to seem like somewhat less than fun at times. Anyway, my new .22 focus is going to be on becoming a better shot, more than trying to squeeze that last frog hair of precision from ammo I have no control over. My 457 is now a Premier model wearing a red dot for offhand shooting at targets and steel to 100 and I just replaced the 10x scope on my Ruger CSC with a 6, for the same stuff plus some plates out to as far as I can hit them; that yet to be determined. So far, I’ve found the little “dinks” floating back to me very satisfying and the misses nowhere nearly as annoying as the uncalled flyers that plague group-shooting with mid-grade ammo like Club and RM. Maybe the emphasis on just hitting from my clays shooting has rubbed off on my notions about rifle shooting.

I’m with Don on this one. I’m too old to collect ammo. I just spent about a year, more or less, disposing of stuff some old man had laying about, including “collectibles”. I’m checking out leaving as little for someone else to deal with as possible, especially ammo, and the stuff I have for making it.

Air Quality Alert, for gunsmoke!

I have a number of collectibles. It’s not about what others do or want. And it is something I enjoy. Collectibles are for passing down to my grandkids. They are investments and history both.

For example, I have a Finnish Lotta rifle that I paid $60 for. It’s worth about $900 and climbing.

It’s like collecting stamps, baseball cards or bobbleheads. You do what pleases you. I am not looking for approval.

Yep, it's all good. I was a collector of vintage .22 ammo, full boxes only, for about 40 years. Seemed like a fun/good idea at the time, and the collection grew until I was overrun with display cases and shelves devoted to the stuff, and then packed in boxes in a closet. I woke up to the absurdity of it and sold it all - to another collector who just had to have more. I could've realized a much higher profit had I piecemealed it out but that task was just too daunting (just going through it all and figuring current value was a Royal PIA) so I made him a flat offer that guaranteed me a handsome return on the investment, and he took it. Good riddance I say.

Now, even though I still have a lot of bricks and single boxes of vintage .22 ammo on the shelf (probably 15-20,000 rounds worth) it's gonna get shot away - I don't give a rat's patoot about collectability anymore. Most of it is run-of-the-mill average stuff accumulated over 60 years now of actively shooting .22's. You know, grabbing bricks at the store, shooting some of it, and getting more next time at the store. Current fascination is mainly precision target work but plinkfests happen often enough that hopefully I'll work through that pile of ammo before I hang up my spurs. Which reminds me Pappy, we need to get together and waste some ammo sometime soon!

I collect different things. When I lived in Germany, I collected beer glasses and steins. 3/4s of them were mailed home as I got them.

Way back, if 500 count boxes of Winchester or Federal rimfire went on special, I would buy two or three. Most of it didn’t perform, so I shot it up with the kids or gave it to my gun club.

I was never a Remington fan. Their rimfire stuff always seemed like an afterthought. Not well made.

Or eat some crabcakes!

I am not looking for approval.

Never thought that. Everybody’s entitled to their notions. Mine have been reshaped a bit by recent experience. Whatever winds your clock….

I agree with Paul39. I think it is the testing they do with the various lots of powder and the QC for priming and brass. It is a higher standard for the most expensive lines, regardless of company. Better consistency comes with this.

To get that higher standard, you have to pay more.

Eley has, or had, a facility where target shooters could test various lots of ammo to see which their rifle preferred. Then they can order a bunch of that lot. Wayne Van Zwoll wrote about that experience IIRC.

Killough allows you to specify the lot number of their better grade ammo. Was surprised to see that the $10 benchrest auto stuff is included in that. They also provide the info on the lube used on the various varieties. Might be possible to choose a lower-grade practice ammo with the same lube as one’s match stuff to avoid having to re-season your bore.

Many years ago I saw few reasons to try this or that brand to find what worked in a particular .22. More recently, with but 2 exceptions, I find no US manufactured ammo that I will hunt with. That would be early production WW Power Point and CCI CB Shorts.

The exercise is driven by precision, not spraying and praying. I tried some Eley and was unimpressed. Stumbled across some Wolf MT and smiled a LOT. All of my .22s SMILED a LOT. Then it occurred that I couldn't find any, but discovered that MT and SK Standard + were the same thing, and now I get to whack critters with a single shot. That's cool, 'cause several of my .22s are single shots.

I don't collect ammo, I shoot it. Doesn't mean I don't have a functional inventory, I just don't collect it. I'm not compelled to shoot one hole 100 yard groups with .22 RFs, but one shot in the brain does the trick.