What is your favourite 22LR ammunition?

[TheFirearmEnthusiast]

What's your top 5 list of 22LR ammunition BladeRacer?

Whats in your top 5?

[SCJ429]

Just make sure you run a few patches through the gun before you switch to the next type. Otherwise you wont get true results as the lubes on the bullets will be mixed. the lube on 22's vary dramatically and it can have a big effect on how the rounds feed from the magazine as well as shoot.

I don't agree with this as I've only found a small handful of types that won't group well on another type's lube. I think it's actually more likely that you'll find ammo that won't group well in a clean bore,

I don't agree, but perhaps that is my problem. I will not shoot Eley Tenex after shooting Eley Club let alone a different manufactures ammo without a clean. Perhaps it was my shooting and I blame it on the ammo but to me it makes a difference.

To be fair I will not shoot 2208 after shooting 2206 in a centrefire because I feel it makes a difference. It may be in my head but if I get beaten because I did it, I will assume it makes a difference.

[bladeracer]

What's your top 5 list of 22LR ammunition BladeRacer?

Whats in your top 5?

It might change after I test some more

Currently CCI Std Velocity is my favorite by a good margin, so I buy it by the case, around $500-600 per 5000rds (currently $620 shipped from Brisbane), so it's also cheap to shoot. It holds 1MoA to 100m in my three Rugers, and seems to maintain accuracy and trajectory out to at least 350m.

Eley Edge, Eley Subsonic and Eley Sport all shoot very well, on par with the CCI SV but cost significantly more, two to four times the price.

The other ones I find I use more than most are CCI Quiet, purely for very quiet sub-40m shooting, and Remington Cyclones, although mainly because I bought 2000rds for testing rim thickness batching and still have a lot left. After batching it shoots remarkably well. I also tend to go through a fair bit of Highland RX HVRN, HVHP, Target, Subsonic, and HX Super Quiet as they shoot decently and I have a lot of stock ($34 a brick at the time) - they don't feed great through my lever-actions though.

[bladeracer]

I have an RPR and it likes Winchester Bushmans and Winchester subsonic.
Am currently going through a brick of federal std solids which are okay but not as good as the winnies
long Zs are really crappy in my RPR

Have you tried CCI Standard Velocity yet?
Winchester Long Z shoots atrociously in all my .22's.

[PaddyT]

My Lithgow shoots most ammo well except for Winchester Power points which it doesnt like , i mainly plink with CCI Std as its cheap and shoots well, CCI Velocitor also shoots very well but i save that for hunting. Most Accurate is SK Match, my usual routine at the range after practicing my offhand with 2 or 3 boxes of CCI STD is that i then shoot a box of SK off the bench. The rifle seeems to stay cleaner when i shoot in that order(im guessing the lube on the SK helps a bit)-usually the first 10 rounds with the SK are a bit loose then the groups are very tight after that.

[goldiexxxx]

You don't have to test every brand and model available on the shelf to know what will shoot well in your rifle.
Not all manufacturers make their ammo the same calibre. Some make it at .22, some make it at .224, some in between. All you need to do is slug the bore on your barrel and then buy ammo that is .001 larger than the slug...…… done.
Also, anything that shoots supersonic is always going to be less accurate than sub-sonic. That's because about 10m from the end of your barrel (further with the really fast stuff) the bullet goes trans-sonic and the resulting disturbance creates random trajectories. This is why most people here are singing the praises of standard velocity ammo, its designed to be just still sub-sonic.
Whilst standard velocity ammo may not reach out to 100m and knock the head off a rabbit in the dark, its still the most consistent, equates to accurate ammo for the 22LR.
By the way, all four of my 22s shoot CCI Standard the best, and do a good job with the faster CCI offerings too; they just get less accurate the faster the load. CCI stingers can shoot clean through a 50m galvanised post but are not that great at hitting small things out at the range they are actually designed for. I stick to CCI Mini-mags as a max velocity round.
The only other random needing observing is quality control. The bullet might fit the job as described above, but if the ammunition is just cheaply made with no consistency, then that wont help anyone. Don't take a bucket of that Remington rubbish to the range for a relaxing day testing your shooting skills. You will go home with a pile of targets, after having re-zeroed your scope half a dozen times, and seriously doubting why you have a firearms licence at all.

Goldie

[bladeracer]

You don't have to test every brand and model available on the shelf to know what will shoot well in your rifle.
Not all manufacturers make their ammo the same calibre. Some make it at .22, some make it at .224, some in between. All you need to do is slug the bore on your barrel and then buy ammo that is .001 larger than the slug...…… done.
Also, anything that shoots supersonic is always going to be less accurate than sub-sonic. That's because about 10m from the end of your barrel (further with the really fast stuff) the bullet goes trans-sonic and the resulting disturbance creates random trajectories. This is why most people here are singing the praises of standard velocity ammo, its designed to be just still sub-sonic.
Whilst standard velocity ammo may not reach out to 100m and knock the head off a rabbit in the dark, its still the most consistent, equates to accurate ammo for the 22LR.
By the way, all four of my 22s shoot CCI Standard the best, and do a good job with the faster CCI offerings too; they just get less accurate the faster the load. CCI stingers can shoot clean through a 50m galvanised post but are not that great at hitting small things out at the range they are actually designed for. I stick to CCI Mini-mags as a max velocity round.
The only other random needing observing is quality control. The bullet might fit the job as described above, but if the ammunition is just cheaply made with no consistency, then that wont help anyone. Don't take a bucket of that Remington rubbish to the range for a relaxing day testing your shooting skills. You will go home with a pile of targets, after having re-zeroed your scope half a dozen times, and seriously doubting why you have a firearms licence at all.

Goldie

I agree, you don't have to try everything if you're happy with something already. But if you want the most accurate ammo, you can only determine that by testing it yourself.

But I definitely disagree that finding a bullet .001" over bore size is all that's required for accuracy.

Although transonic transition _can_ upset a bullet, it is not a given, some supersonic bullets transition just fine. They even make supersonic olympic-level .22LR ammunition.

And even the cheapest bulk ammo can be surprisingly accurate.

[TheFirearmEnthusiast]

Awesome

Thank you for your help everyone

Like I said before
I normally shoot CCI Standard Velocity
It is my favorite round at the moment
It shoots very well in my Ruger Precision
I am extremely happy with it

However, like I said yes, I'm currently in a phase where I wanna experiement with different ammunition at the moment

You guys have given me a lot to work with right here, so thank you

I will let youse all know how I go!


- RWS Fieldline Sub-Sonic
- RWS R50
- RWS R100
- RWS Club
- RWS Rifle
- RWS Special Match
- RWS Rifle Match S
- CCI Mini Mags
- CCI Velocitor
- CCI Blazer
- CCI Quiet
- SK Rifle Match
- SK Magazine
- SK Pistol Match
- SK Pistol Match Special
- SK Rifle
- SK Match Long Range
- SK Flatnose Match
- SK Flatnose Basic
- Eley
- Eley Match
- Eley Standard
- Eley Edge
- Eley Tenex
- Eley Subsonic
- Eley Sport
- Federal Auto Match
- Federal Gold Match
- Highland Target
- Armscor
- Winchester Bushmans
- Federal Standard Solids
- Gecko Match
- Remington Cyclone

[SCJ429]

How many rounds did you fire off today?
Is there any point buying $600 worth of different types of ammo when CCI shoots very well? Could this money go towards some upgraded optics?

[sungazer]

A lot of that ammo is sort of specialized or at least made for a specific purpose in mind. I would just select one or two of each brand. I wouldnt waste time with quites and pistol ammo. The pistol has really fast powder so it all burns in the first couple of inches in the barrel. Quiets are just that very slow and only good for very short distance.

[Sergeant Hartman]

Good point. But let the kid have fun... he is spending nearly 1k on testing varied ammo using a $200 scope. His gun shop will love him

I too went though this process, spent a couple hundred bucks, to find a totally obscure brand shoots like crazy. That is 6 shots, first was the flyer on a cold barrel afterthought after ceasefire.

20200222_093711.jpg (179.9 KiB) Viewed 6467 times

I have another one, that ill put up if i can find it. But it had both been frustrating and lots of fun testing ammo.

Edit: found it, yet again a cold bore flyer, same 6 shots, 5 in one big hole. I just need to get consistent on the shooting position.

Resized_20191129_173641(1).jpeg (239.72 KiB) Viewed 6465 times

[bladeracer]

Good point. But let the kid have fun... he is spending nearly 1k on testing varied ammo using a $200 scope. His gun shop will love him

I too went though this process, spent a couple hundred bucks, to find a totally obscure brand shoots like crazy. That is 6 shots, first was the flyer on a cold barrel afterthought after ceasefire.

20200222_093711.jpg

I have another one, that ill put up if i can find it. But it had both been frustrating and lots of fun testing ammo.

Edit: found it, yet again a cold bore flyer, same 6 shots, 5 in one big hole. I just need to get consistent on the shooting position.

Resized_20191129_173641(1).jpeg

$200 scope? I think his scope was nearly double that?
I fired 165rds yesterday at 50m and 100m and managed a best of 11.5mm for 5rds at 50m, laying in the grass on the bipod, resting the butt on the back of my left hand.

I wasn't really trying as I was playing with the Visionking 10-40x56 on the RPR. Because of the 30-minute rail I couldn't zero closer than 80m, so was shooting four-minutes high at 50m. If I want to use it on the RPR under 80m I'll have to make a mount for it. I also need to pad the cheek rest as the scope is too high for a cheek weld, important at 40-power to see through that 1.6mm exit pupil

[Sergeant Hartman]

You can get 0 moa rails for the rprr. Or just create a point 2inch lower that you aim 4

[bladeracer]

You can get 0 moa rails for the rprr. Or just create a point 2inch lower that you aim 4

I have a level rail I could put on, but then I wouldn't be able to shoot long ranges with it.
I was shooting at a 1MoA-100m grid, holding 4MoA low, but it's not conducive to precision.
One advantage of the high-magnification is that I could aim at the half- and quarter-minute grid lines.

[TheFirearmEnthusiast]

SCJ429;
That is a good point.
Yes, instead of buying $600 worth of ammunition
I would rather put that towards the Tikka T1X or a shotgun (as I would like to get into clay target shooting also) I agree


Sungazer;
Thanks for the advice; I will take that into consideration!
I’ll try the quiet ones and the pistols ones anyway
Purely out of curiosity


Ziad;
#1
Like I said before, I’m not spending $1,000 on ammunition.
Everything works out to be around $600 tops
#2
My scope wasn’t $200. From memory, my scope was around $500.
I also know plenty of great extremely knowledgeable shooters that swear by my Bushnell scope.
I truly got a great scope, that’s for sure!

I think that some of you might have misunderstood me
When I said that I wanted to “test out ammunition”
I didn’t mean that I was gonna rush to the gun store right away
Put $600 worth of dollar bills cash on the counter
Buy all the $600 worth of ammunition all in 1x go
Take the entire ammunition home right away
And then rush to the range right away to test everything out in an extremely quick fashion haha

What I meant was;
It’s nice for me to have a list of ammunition to test out (for over time)
And then over the next few months or years or so
Whenever I pop by a local gun store
I can just buy a box or two of the ammunition that have previously been mentioned on here (per every visit)
And I can test out ammunition in that manner
Slowly but surely, I can test out a bit of everything, over the next few months or years or so
Why not
There is no rush
I dont see the harm in doing a bit of ammunition testing over the next few months or years or so (mixing it up a bit)
I think it'd be pretty interesting to compare and look at the different results that most brands offer
(I know plenty of very experienced shooters that do do that)

Don’t be so quick to judge someone’s intentions!

[RoginaJack]

Hell, I didn't realize there was that much choice of 22lr ammo made!

[Sergeant Hartman]

Are you sure it's not actually $629... depending on the shop the prices of ammo varies, a shop might have eley match for 30 and rws HV for $10, another might have match for 26 but HV for $14.

The Bushnell 4.5x18x40 that you have is on special for $235 at the QLD gunshop. You over paid mate. You could gotten a lot better scope for 500 buckaroonies

[TheFirearmEnthusiast]

Ziad;
#1
As reiterated 3x times before
Yes I did the numbers
Everything works out to be around $600 tops

#2
And I've just checked my receipt
Turns out I only paid $300 for my scope
It was definitely the best $300 ever
I'm really happy with it
I shoot very well with it
I've had extremely experienced shooters recommend me that scope and I can totally see why!

[TheFirearmEnthusiast]

Oh and Ziad
I actually know people who spent $400 for that scope

It was definetely a bargain for me to get it at $300
And locally too

[brett1868]

One brand I haven't seen mentioned yet is Fiocchi, I've been using the HV version which I get for $85 a brick for plinking. Works quite well in the several rifles and pistols I have but for pistol comps I use Lapua Centre X as that's what the gun likes.

[TheFirearmEnthusiast]

Awesome
Thanks brett1868
I'll add it to the list!

[Member-Deleted]

Ammo testing is fun. I'm glad there's someone else that enjoys it as much as I do @TFE
I was down the range last sunday with my Lithgow.
It was a bit blowy for proper testing but I couldn't help myself.

I usually plink around with Eley standard but I tested the following...

American Eagle HV
Geco Match
SK Standard Plus
SK rifle Match
SK Long Range
RWS Target Rifle
Eley Club

Eley Club and SK Rifle Match were the standouts from those.

Nothing really underperformed considering the conditions and I was only running a bipod and rear bag.


My results were inconclusive due to the wind... So I have to do it all again

[TheFirearmEnthusiast]

Thanks Denno

Yes I agree that Ammo Testing is really fun

I think that it's incredibly boring to just shoot "the one ammunition" for the rest of your life without exploring/trying anything else out

That would just be retarded

[bladeracer]

I've spent several thousand dollars on .22LR ammo for testing, and I don't consider one dollar of it to have been wasted. The ultimate goal of course is to achieve the best possible inherant accuracy from the firearm, but along the way I got to spend many hundreds of hours hurling pieces of lead into the distance, and I find shooting in itself to be immensely satisfying and relaxing. On top of the simple pleasure of shooting, I also learned a great deal about the ammunition, and how to get the best out of it, ballistics generally, and developed a clear connection with each individual firearm.

I know there are plenty of competition shooters that are satisfied to go to the range twice a month, shoot their twenty, fifty, maybe even a hundred rounds, and come back to do it again next time. That is not me, not in anything I do. When I learn something, I really want to learn it in-depth, the minutiae behind the scenes that determine not just how things happen, but why they happen the way they do.

One thing I loved about IPSC was that we never shot the same courses of fire, every time we got to the range we had no idea what had been dreamed up for us. The unending repetition of most competition is what keeps me from wanting to get involved. The idea of shooting at that same piece of paper, at the same distance, with the same firearm, and the same ammo, week after week just does nothing for me. I did it as a kid, air-rifle and .22 competition, and I enjoyed it and learned heaps, but I'm happy to leave it in the past, part of my apprenticeship into shooting.

[in2anity]

Thanks Denno

Yes I agree that Ammo Testing is really fun

I think that it's incredibly boring to just shoot "the one ammunition" for the rest of your life without exploring/trying anything else out

That would just be retarded

No disrespect but shooting satisfaction can be acquired outside of marveling at your tiny benchrest groups. Join a club, shoot some comp, then you’ll start to appreciate ammunition that “just works”. When you strip away those mechanical aids, there are many more variables at play than ammunition. At that point you’ll be aiming to keep your variables to an absolute minimum. Just sayin.

[FNQ]

Horses for courses, we are all looking for different results.

Personally I buy the cheapest bulk .22 ammo I can find, buckets, bricks, jars, never can seem to leave a gun shop without some.

Hell I even have a bucket of mixed left over ammo. 5 round mag for me could contain 5 different makes & models.

They all still hit beer cans or my 6 inch plate at 50-80m (not a big fan of gun clubs or ranges).

Farm guns so I’m not looking for “tight” groups just lead on target.

Never did understand shootings .22 at long range like guys quote 2-300m. To me it always seemed like using a 9 iron to tee off on a par 5..

But who cares as long as your having fun!

[Sergeant Hartman]

I don't get it.. where is the empathy. Ee are all shooters and love firearms... but all i hear is

Ohh i don't like them cuz the don't hunt ducks
Or what's the fun in shooting the smallest group
Or what's the point of shooting just paper
Oh i am a great shooter cuz i can hit a 5 cent piece at 200m
Or he is a sheet shooter cuz in the real world you might have a roo at 175m or 250m, not just 100m.

Ffs, just enjoy what you have, if you can shoot a 3inch group at 50m. or a 0.2" group at 100m. Just enjoy

[TassieTiger]

I don't get it.. where is the empathy. Ee are all showers and live firearms... . Just enjoy

Can you pick a language?

Ee? Showers? Live?
Where’s the empathy for the English language

[sungazer]

He has big thumbs. Dont discriminate against the disfigured.

[Sergeant Hartman]

Yeah show some bloody empathy for my thumbs and phone.

Plus it's done that way to weed out the intellectually challenged.

Plus researchers said you need to work your brain or you will lose brain function in old age... hence sudoku. In a similar theme i am doing a public service for all the old people on this page. When you all reach 70 you will have brains of a 69 year old and you will then go ha that guy was a lifesaver with a hole.

Or just look at my signature.