Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires What's your best shooting target/matchgrade ammo

Hey guys, I realize all rifles are different, but I'd like to get a vote on which 22lr ammo shoots the best in your rifles. It can be your favorite bench rifles, 10/22, Tikka T1x or your favorite Ansuchtz or Savage MK2. I'd like to hear what you guys and your rifles prefer. I have a brick of old Federal Gold Medal Match ammo that has been working great in all of my rifles. I'd like to buy some newer ammo though, as all of my matchgrade type ammo is a minimum of 20 years old.


Serious here, as some of this crusty schidt is showing its age. But it still shoots pretty dang good. I did find a box of newer RWS semi-auto ammo that shot surprisingly well. Wolf Match Extra and Wolf Match Target has also shot very well. What is your favorite low dollar accurate ammo go to, and what is your most accurate ammo regardless of price? I appreciate your comments on this. Thanks!!!

Through the decades I've shot something north of 18 to 20 pistol and rifle in .22. I believe I have just as many different ammo manufacturers as well.

I seem to have good luck with Eley Tenex, Eley Match, Lapua Center X, Norma TAC 22, Federal Auto Match to name a few.

Fortunately, it's pretty easy now to find the best ammo for my pistols and rifles considering my diversified supply. I learned to feed each firearm what it wanted before I throw a lot of $$$ chasing a bunch of expensive accuracy improvements. Eventually you find the right combination.

Lapua Center X and Midas, SK Match and Long Range Match, Eley Ten X and Match,RWS Special Match

Budget:
SK Standard, RWS Target, Wolf, CCI SV

Several others on hand but usually one or more from the above list will shine

The bulk of my .22 rifle shooting anymore is with vintage single shot target rifles - Ballards, Stevens Walnut Hill, Martinis, and a BSA International. Tenex remains the most consistent performer in all of them, with Lapua Midas and SK Match a close second and third.

A pleasant surprise was that I found SK Pistol Match to be a darned good performer in some of my other rifles - the BRNO #2, Winchester Miroku Low Wall, and Springfield M2 particularly like it which is good because I shan't be blasting "targets of opportunity" with premo match stuff in them. It's what usually goes in my pocket if searching for squirrels with one of those three in hand. Unfortunately it's not quite up to snuff for serious competition in the "main" rifles.

I too have a few old bricks of Federal Olympic Gold Medal Match that remains astonishingly accurate even with the oxidation that's forming like in BSA's pic. My plan is to finish shooting it up during next year's match season, the corrosion/lube deterioration isn't going to get better with age. I will cry though when it's all gone.

I hear you about crying when it's gone. I think I only have a couple hundred rounds of the Federal gold medal match that was made in 1992. That stuff shoots damn good in my 10-22. It's always so consistent, everytime I shoot it. I guess that's why I started this thread. I'm looking for some newer stuff to replace it.

The picture on that box does not do it justice though!


I think maybe Wolf target match and Wolf match extra may take a close second place, along with SK standard plus. I know those are still in production, so I may look for some of that stuff. I've been hearing some good things about SK long range match ammo as well.

I have CenterX, Midas+, several SK types, Norma, Eley, etc.
My go to first is usually some type of SK

I have yet to try any of the most expensive ammo. I have tried some mid-grade products. Of those RWS Target Rifle and Norma Match have been most consistent. I have tried several Eley products. The HVHP is just so-so as is the sub-sonic HP. Eley Practice can be great, but has a good bit of lot to lot variation. I recently picked up some Eley Club and Semi Auto Bench Rest Precision. The Bench Rest was very good in the little I used it in one of my guns.

BSA, I have some old SK that the lube has dried on like that. I have thought about putting a little oil on a rag and rolling them around to "relube" them, and give that a try, but have not tried it yet.

I got the idea here:

Geeez I wonder what his magazines look like after a 100 rounds.

No thanks.

If you're having problems with FTF or FTE - clean your friggen gun. A .22 is not an AR.

Match ammo is oily for sure. I have not used it in a magazine as my bench gun is a single shot.
That said, I plan on using match ammo in my 10/22 in factory class this coming year. I will for sure have to be cleaning my mags every couple of matches or so.

That's one of the reasons why I stopped shooting Wolf Match. Not only is it the dirtiest ammo it is caked in lube. Now I use the 500 round bricks as a doorstop.

Took me awhile to figure out what he meant by "awl".

I don't usually shoot crap ammo, but I had to see for myself what was said about Remington Thunderbolt. Sure enough, strips of lead, a veritable lead mine. Just for the heck of it I hand lubed a batch with Lee Liquid Alox. Sure enough, the leading stopped. Just an experiment, a messy PITA. FWIW.

I experimented with re-lubing some of the oxidized Federal match stuff. I started by wiping the bullets clean with soft flannel, then I melted some Javelina Schuetzen bullet lube (made and sold by a guy in the American Single Shot Rifle Association), which I understand is 75% beeswax/25% Alox, and dipped the bullet noses in and out rapidly. Biggest issue was ending up with too much lube on the bullets which is why I tried to do it as quickly in-and-out as I could. Still a lot of lube on them though. Results: accuracy pretty much unchanged but things got cheesed up pretty good in and on the gun from all that lube. Second trial: dipped as before but then wiped clean with my fingers to get off the majority of the lube - pretty scientifically repeatable, huh?! Accuracy still ok, less mess in/on the gun but more mess on me. Conclusion: not much worth the hassle. If I tried it one more time I would dilute the mix with mineral spirits - but is it worth it in the end?

Thought about trying Lee Liquid Alox, and still might, but am a little leery about it's viscosity when dried/cured. It seems that the best premo target ammo is lightly lubed with substances that stay soft almost liquidy unlike LLA which dries sorta tough. Maybe with a bit of beeswax melted in? On the other hand I see the whole deal as a rabbit hole I'm not sure I want to go down.

Just thinking out loud...

Have we reached the apex of what we can expect from the .22 LR - and in particular the bullets to which it is limited? I know there is always room for improvement but even the most accurate ammo possible is still going to shoot a ballistically inefficient bullet at a low velocity.

Would we be better off putting some major development into something like the new 21 Sharp? I've never owned a .17 caliber rimfire but by all accounts, run of the mill .17 caliber rifles outshoot similar .22's by a good bit and especially as the range increases. A faster bullet with a much better BC that loses velocity at a much lower rate will always be less affected by wind.

In a perfectly windless environment good .22 LR ammo in excellent barrels can certainly show incredible one hole accuracy, but outside of that (literally outside) environmental factors will always be more detrimental to less ballistically efficient projectiles.

My long winded point here is that instead of relying on esoteric efforts to create results that are greatly affected by factors outside of our control (the art of reading the wind vs. the science of bullet and rifle technology), could we not see a major leap forward by by simply changing the bullet that a .22 LR case can shoot?

Interesting comments for sure guys. I appreciate it. Speaking of too much lube, I can't believe how much they put on that Norma Tac22!! Now, some of the stuff I've shot has done well, but these last batches I bought do not shoot worth a chidt. Making me wished I would have bought the old Remington target ammo I saw a couple weeks ago. I hate to badmouth the Tac22 because I know some of you guys really love it. However, the last 200 I bought are dogs in every rifle I've tried them in. Bad lot I guess??? Not going to post any pics of those groups, they are embarrassing. Last week I was shooting them through a new rifle and I could see the bullets in flight. I'm guessing they were traveling around 800fps?

Food for thought.

I would say that there's always room for improvement. Had the shooters and ammo makers of 100 years ago thrown their hands up and said "this is as good as it can get" we'd be in a fix today. But, I doubt we'll see over the next 100 years the same dramatic increase in quality/accuracy that we've seen over the last 100 years. Ammo makers have spent a sh*t ton of money to develop what we now have (probably not out of kindness toward we shooters but as a means of profiting more than their competitors - always follow the money). Subtle changes in bullet shape, lead alloy, lube, cases, powder, priming compounds, etc. have served to move us forward. How much is left in that pot I don't know.

As for better BC bullets for the .22LR case, and different calibers, etc. yeah, I think that's where we'll see the most improvement. But along with new ideas about ammo there has to be attendant changes in the equipment that shoots it. I'll submit that the current .22LR match ammo is about as optimal as you can get for the bores/chambers/throats of the guns we shoot it in. Will more ballistically efficient bullets demand changes in said barrels, etc.? Undoubtedly. And will such revolutionary changes in ammo & gear demand revolutionary changes in how we approach the game, yeah probably again. That all spells money - money that ammo companies has to spend, and money we'll have to spend to get on the bandwagon - and to that end maybe it is better after all to let things progress slowly. I see so much trouble in the world from mankind leaping ahead way too fast in some things, faster than our frail psyches can keep up with sometimes. Kinda like if you went back to 1920 and gave a guy who's used to driving a Model T and rightfully can't conceive of a car that'll easily and (relatively) safely zip up to over 100 MPH and handle/brake accordingly well too, and drop him into a new BMW he would probably kill himself in less than two minutes - but we moderns who benefit from slow but progressive advances in automotive technology take that Beemer in stride. (Probably not the best analogy, but hey!)

Dunno, just thinking out loud.

It's always good to think about this kind of stuff. However, I've seen some absolute tack driving go down in very windy conditions. Even saw a 1 hole 10 shot group shot at 100 yards from a NRA competitor and his souped up Anschutz rifle. Some things have been eye openers for sure. Hell, rifles have been damn good for nearly a century now. Take my 1949 Winchester model 52 for example. It will compete with any high dollar rifle made these days. The ammo is what has improved slowly over the years though. Rifles pretty much staying the same internally, but looking different on the outside. Optics have also advanced to a high degree, even over the last 20 years. I think it really depends on individual needs. I myself am happy with the accuracy/precision I get out of every 22lr I own. From my Savage target rifles, Win 52, to my newest 10/22 clone. They all shoot damn fine. That may not be good enough for a high dollar benchrester, but good enough for my needs.

The other day I was shooting in a damn wind storm. Here are the results with 20+ year old ammo:




After 1 adjustment on the old Weaver V16 4-16x42, and I'm in the ballpark:




That old Weaver cost me $100.00 used a few years ago, but it works as it should. The rifle works as it should, and multiple ammos work as they should. In the wind even!!! This may be an eye opener to those that don't shoot in the wind much, but it was so windy that day that I had to tie the bottom of the backer board to the steel stand. Otherwise it was at full sail. When I got there, the target backer board was blowing 90 degrees from the target stand. I've shot a lot in the wind, but at the ranges most rimfire shoots are held (50 yards), the wind really doesn't affect what I do. I know, the naysayers will chime in.

Thanks buddy. However I've seen more lube on the Norma Tac22 ammo. That stuff is greezy!!! In cold (below freezing), that lube gets real sticky and starts affecting groups and even velocity as well. No bueno here. If you lived closer, I'd trade you a real doorstop for that Wolf match target ammo you have. ha ha..

I think any tangible improvement will be in manufacturing consistency. Many of the companies turning out rimfire are using machines that have been at it for a century. New machines and their ability to measure and produce consistent priming, rim thickness and powder loads may be the key to that. I suspect that the stuff that shoots best in my target rifles (Anschutz, Martini MKII) like Midas Plus and SK Match are due to consistency.