Question on .22LR Ammo

[CaptinFarrel]

Hi all,

Took my ruger 77/22 to the range for the first time with 6 boxes of different ammo, mostly different brands too.

Best groups where from the Eley Sport.
Fairly new to this so wondering if if I could expect the bulk packs of Eley standard to shoot similar to the sport being the same brand? Don't seem to come in packs of 50 to test first!

Cheers!

[No1Mk3]

G'day CaptinFarrel,
Short answer, no. Being the same brand means nothing, as different grades have different loads and usually different projectiles. As an example Federal bulk pack shoots well in my Chiappa, but Federal Gameshok shoots much better whilst the Federal Champion is a fair bit worse. You really have to try each offering whether from the same maker or not, Cheers.

[bladeracer]

Hi all,

Took my ruger 77/22 to the range for the first time with 6 boxes of different ammo, mostly different brands too.

Best groups where from the Eley Sport.
Fairly new to this so wondering if if I could expect the bulk packs of Eley standard to shoot similar to the sport being the same brand? Don't seem to come in packs of 50 to test first!

Cheers!

Nope, can't make any such assumptions, test everything you can find. I found both of these shoot roughly equally though in my Rugers - around 35-45mm at 100m - so they're pretty good.
Have you tried CCI Std Velocity yet? It shoots consistently better than virtually all the 70+ types I've tried so far. The best Eley for me is Eley Edge, but it's now discontinued and I have less than 1000rds of it left. It shoots about the same as the CCI SV, but a little more consistently, so I'm not bothered. Eley ammo is generally pretty good for me, but can get expensive. A case (5000rds) of CCI Std Vel is about A$600 currently.

You'll often find that the rifle will "settle" around the 1000rd mark and accuracy should improve and become more consistent. I don't clean the bores until the accuracy starts dropping off - roughly within 800-1500rds, each rifle is different.

[RoginaJack]

Got some groups of the other ammo?

[sungazer]

I think there is some difference other than just the price point that makes you think you are buying a better product. So you will have to try and see what the results are. I think for most of us we find that a very expensive brand does shoot the best. However we normally find a middle of the road priced ammo that gives very good results that we are happy to accept for the purpose for which we use the rifle.
The bucket of bullets type of ammo is ok if you are just plinking with mates at larger targets. But I always find there is some element of competition and you want to be hitting what you are aiming at.

[bladeracer]

I think there is some difference other than just the price point that makes you think you are buying a better product.

I think marketing, and sponsoring shooters and competitions, adds greatly to the price of some ammo, not to mention being made in and shipped from Europe would significantly boost the price of it here
.
I agree that price does not indicate how well your firearm will like a particular ammo, and it is also no guarantee that more expensive or "better" ammo will shoot any better than far cheaper ammo. I've found that some of the top-tier ammo does exhibit a little more consistency in the pattern of a group, but not enough to warrant paying more than the cheaper stuff that gives similar group sizes.

Eley has excellent rim-thickness control compared to other cheaper ammo I've measured, but unless you are shooting for money, I don't think it's worth three or four or even five times the price of ammo that shoots equally well.

[bladeracer]

The bucket of bullets type of ammo is ok if you are just plinking with mates at larger targets. But I always find there is some element of competition and you want to be hitting what you are aiming at.

Based on my results with rim-thickness batching 3000 Remington Cyclones, I think for a few hours effort you can very significantly improve your group sizes with bulk ammo, I halved the group sizes shooting batched Cyclones.

[sungazer]

The bucket of bullets type of ammo is ok if you are just plinking with mates at larger targets. But I always find there is some element of competition and you want to be hitting what you are aiming at.

Based on my results with rim-thickness batching 3000 Remington Cyclones, I think for a few hours effort you can very significantly improve your group sizes with bulk ammo, I halved the group sizes shooting batched Cyclones.

Yes but thats you spending your time to do what probably is done at the factory to achieve the next level up in their quality line up

[bladeracer]

The bucket of bullets type of ammo is ok if you are just plinking with mates at larger targets. But I always find there is some element of competition and you want to be hitting what you are aiming at.

Based on my results with rim-thickness batching 3000 Remington Cyclones, I think for a few hours effort you can very significantly improve your group sizes with bulk ammo, I halved the group sizes shooting batched Cyclones.

Yes but thats you spending your time to do what probably is done at the factory to achieve the next level up in their quality line up

Of course, but an hour of my time (which I don't charge for) to measure a thousand ten-cent rounds is well worth the saving over buying fifty-cent rounds already batched. Say $100 for 1000rds of cheap stuff - plus an hour batching them - or pay $600 for 1000rds of quality stuff.

[TassieTiger]

^ clever. Didn’t think of doing that. Sitting down watching tv or what ever, could be done with minimal effort...

Did you find huge discrepancies?

[bladeracer]

^ clever. Didn’t think of doing that. Sitting down watching tv or what ever, could be done with minimal effort...

Did you find huge discrepancies?

Yes indeed, but I was using the lowest quality ammo so it would give me the most obvious results. Group sizes were halved by rim thickness batching the Cyclones, turning it into rabbit-head-capable 50m ammo. I can't say that it turns $5 ammo into $35 ammo, but it certainly makes it more useful. And keep in mind that it still doesn't shoot as well as the $6 CCI Std Vel that my rifles prefer.

https://enoughgun.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=9432&start=18#p153603

[Strikey]

Have been testing the Eley Standard lately in 3 different rifles as I am not keen on the price of SK and personally don't think the quality of SK is what it was. So far the Eley Standard has proved to be every bit as accurate as some of the older SK Standard Plus and Rifle Match that I still have but it has shown to be more consistent than some of the newer SK, the Eley also seems to buck the wind slightly better, for the price it is going to be my new Silhouette ammo.

[sungazer]

My rifle likes the SK rifle match when I have been buying it it would be about $11 a brick from memory. but the memory could be way off. It will also shoot the Winchester hollow point quite well but there is only one way out for them once chambered. Must be fired out the bolt must jam them into the lands a fair bit only explination that I can come up with.

[bladeracer]

Have been testing the Eley Standard lately in 3 different rifles as I am not keen on the price of SK and personally don't think the quality of SK is what it was. So far the Eley Standard has proved to be every bit as accurate as some of the older SK Standard Plus and Rifle Match that I still have but it has shown to be more consistent than some of the newer SK, the Eley also seems to buck the wind slightly better, for the price it is going to be my new Silhouette ammo.

Although SK High Velocity was the most accurate ammunition of everything I've tested so far, the SK range overall didn't impress me, although it certainly shoots just fine. Unfortunately the SK HV was already discontinued by the time I stumbled upon a few boxes of it. If you try an ammunition and get satisfactory results straight off, there's no real need to keep testing others, even if you do find something better, it's only going to be better than the already-satisfactory ammo you're using. For me though, I want to find the _most_ accurate ammo in my rifles, and the only way to do that is to test everything you can get hold of. For me, anything that consistently (as in, always) shoots 1MoA (or 29mm) or better at 100m is outstanding .22LR ammunition.

Yesterday I finally received seven cans of RWS .177 pellets I ordered months ago, so now I have to do more air-rifle testing - my shoulders are already moaning at the thought of it

[bladeracer]

...the Eley also seems to buck the wind slightly better, for the price it is going to be my new Silhouette ammo.

Have you tried the heavier 42gn and 45gn bullets against steel?
The 42gn Winchester 1320fps load makes about 25% more energy at 100m than subsonic 40gn bullets. If it gave me decent accuracy I would think it'd be ideal for Silhouette.

[Strikey]

...the Eley also seems to buck the wind slightly better, for the price it is going to be my new Silhouette ammo.

Have you tried the heavier 42gn and 45gn bullets against steel?
The 42gn Winchester 1320fps load makes about 25% more energy at 100m than subsonic 40gn bullets. If it gave me decent accuracy I would think it'd be ideal for Silhouette.

The Winchester 42gn is the go to ammo for rimfire lever action silhouette I believe but for Rifle Metallic Silhouette standard velocity is better for your follow through, if you ate doing everything right you should see where you have hit your target, high velocity ammo gives too much muzzle flip to allow this. For me I like to see ammo that will consistently produce 1 inch groups at 100m, this Eley Standard is shooting much better than that from my Annie 64MSR.

[Cooper]

I shoot a fair bit of Eley standard now. One of my barrels seems to prefer Eley to CCi standard. I also bought a brick of Eley sport. I bought a packet and it seems to shot better than the Eley standard. There is hardly anything in it. Most times the the standard shots just slightly better. I paid $100 for the Eley sport per brick and $79 per 500 bulk pack of Eley Standard.
I saw a CCi standard for $489 per case (5000) in Melbourne to other day.

[bladeracer]

I saw a CCi standard for $489 per case (5000) in Melbourne to other day.

Whereabouts? I might have to get into the city quite soon anyway, that would make the trip well worth while

[Sergeant Hartman]

My cz452 loves to easy the eley standard. It was the first box i tried, have tried 10-15 different ones only rws high velocity and one more expensive eley was good... bought a couple boxes of rws hv the other day and was not as impressed worse than the standard. At ~70 per 500 for the eley i am very happy. At 50m its usually clover leaf

[bladeracer]

My cz452 loves to easy the eley standard. It was the first box i tried, have tried 10-15 different ones only rws high velocity and one more expensive eley was good... bought a couple boxes of rws hv the other day and was not as impressed worse than the standard. At ~70 per 500 for the eley i am very happy. At 50m its usually clover leaf

Did you try CCI Std Vel as well?

[Member-Deleted]

My cz452 loves to easy the eley standard. It was the first box i tried, have tried 10-15 different ones only rws high velocity and one more expensive eley was good... bought a couple boxes of rws hv the other day and was not as impressed worse than the standard. At ~70 per 500 for the eley i am very happy. At 50m its usually clover leaf

Did you try CCI Std Vel as well?

+1 for trying the CCI Standard. My Sportco single shot likes them and that shop has them at $49/500, but you can get them anywhere for around $6.00 per box.
5 shots at 50m with an old Tasco 'Pronghorn' scope will do me.

[johnboy357]

Has anyone tried the SK Pistol Match Special - it is just a little faster than the normal Standard Velocity stuff - see a fair bit used in Handgun 100m Silhouette - good enough for the tiny shoot off targets at 100m. You might also like to try the SK "Long Range" ammo that has recently come onto the market.

[scoot]

Tried the sk pistol match special in my fussy bl22 recently and it was one of the best I've tried in lot of types and velocities. Sk rifle match was almost as good too. Haven't tried the long range.

[scoot]

P.S. there is a pistol match and pistol match special, both in similar green boxes. The latter being slightly faster.

[bladeracer]

Has anyone tried the SK Pistol Match Special - it is just a little faster than the normal Standard Velocity stuff - see a fair bit used in Handgun 100m Silhouette - good enough for the tiny shoot off targets at 100m. You might also like to try the SK "Long Range" ammo that has recently come onto the market.

I tested eight SK types today in my RPR, including Long Range Match and Pistol Match Special. I ordered some Pistol Match but received more Pistol Match Special in error.
Just sorting through it all now.
The PMS gave me a best of 9mm and 14.5mm from five 5rd groups at 50m. Velocity over ten rounds was 1033 to 1084fps, averaging 1062fps, ES51.
The LRM gave me bests of 14mm and 20.5mm from five 5rd groups. LRM was interesting as it hangs right on the sound barrier, six went supersonic, one was right on the border at 1102fps so I couldn't decide if I'd heard a solid crack or not. They varied from 1077fps up to 1122fps.
The HV gave me a best of 8.5mm out of just three groups - this stuff is outstanding in my Rugers, but discontinued