What is Plinking Ammo?

[Ramar]

Is it ammo that doesn't go where you aim or it doesn't go there very often? Does it only sometimes go bang? Is it any ammo you wouldn't stake you life on? Is it any ammo that is factory produced? Plinking ammo maybe what is used for fire forming brass.

I've been a bullseye shooter all my life and have difficulty understanding the need for "plinking ammo" but that maybe because I really don't know what it is or what it is used for and I may have a bunch of it and not even know it. Maybe that's all I've ever shot. Maybe "plinking" is a relative term; like you know "accurate" is.

A young upstart asked me this question and now I ask the experts for some help here.
Ramar

[Hickory]

Inexpensive 22 used to shoot cans, dirt clouds or clangers (clangers are 2,4,6 inch steel cut outs I have hanging on a steel rod by my back stop).

Or they can be old ammo I forgot to label and forget what it is, and I need some empty cases.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Much like the inexpensive 22LR ammo. I consider plinking ammo as "sometimes" inconsistant. where you are likely to get a Flyer or two in every 10 shot group. So when it comes to handloaded ammo, plinking ammo would be loaded with a powder dispenser like the Lee auto-disk where every powder dump isn't precisely weight measured and the same with the boolits...I wouldn't take the time to weigh-sort them...I also wouldn't worry about weigh sorting the cases...and the cases wouldn't need to be the same brand or same lot for plinking ammo.

But, generally I WOULD stake my Life on them. Although I wouldn't take them to a league or competition shoot.
My 2¢
Jon

[Charlie Two Tracks]

This will be interesting to see what ends up being the description of plinking. I consider it to be very light charged boolits that I use at close range instead of full house loads at hunting distances.

[Boerrancher]

Much of what I consider to be plinking ammo has already been listed, but here is another example. In my handguns if I just want to have a fun day of shooting and am not worried about blowing the heart and lungs out of a deer or other critter. I will load some lighter loads that are more of a pleasure to shoot out of my 44mag or 45LC. It doesn't mean they are less accurate at normal hand gun ranges, it just means that I wouldn't take them to the woods with me to hunt. Would I stake my life on them? Yes, of course I would but I would keep in mind the limitations. It would be no different than being in the woods with a 22LR squirrel hunting and needing to defend yourself. The 22LR will do fine as long as you keep in mind it's limitations.

best wishes,

Joe

[Jim]

Here's an example of my version (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?190014-223-5-56-how-slow-have-you-gone&p=2108290#post2108290).

[dale2242]

To me, Plinking ammo is ammo that is not bought or loaded for specific purpose, competition, deer hunting, etc, etc. It is for fun...dale

[btroj]

Dale is as close as I can come.

To me plinking ammo can be made in good quantities quickly and inexpensively. Not magnum loads.

On the other hand I often do plink with other ammo to use it up. Those 7 rounds left over froma previous deer season. The last 18 rounds of 357 ammo from a testing session. The odds and ends that are tying up brass I need for new loads.

Plinking ammo to me is far less defined by the ammo than by its use. Any ammo I use for plinking becomes plinking ammo.

We each will have our own definition as we all have our own definition of plinking.

[KYCaster]

Plinking ammo to me is far less defined by the ammo than by its use. Any ammo I use for plinking becomes plinking ammo.


That pretty much says it all.

Jerry

[Shooter]

Inexpensive .22LR ammo is kind of an oxymoron these days.:bigsmyl2:
I love to plink, a pinch of Bullseye under a buckshot is cheaper than .22's.

[sljacob]

This will be interesting to see what ends up being the description of plinking. I consider it to be very light charged boolits that I use at close range instead of full house loads at hunting distances.

That sums it up for me.....plinking ammo is still loaded to be accurate but more pleasurable to shoot.
an example would be the 45lc I load for my Cimmeron Henery replica basicly "cowboy loads" very accurate and fun to "plink" ground squirrels.

[kenyerian]

When we were kids back in the late 50's early 60's there were a lot of small town dumps and we would go Plinking at some of them on the weekends as there was a variety of targets and you didn'e have to clean up. Also if you went in the evenings we could ambush rat's. my older brother would load light , inexpensive ammo for the various pistols that we had because we did a lot of shooting. Accuracy was important for bragging rights but expense was an important factor also.

[texassako]

To me, plinking ammo is a cheap, easy load to assemble so I can spend more time shooting. Example: 38 Special for use in my Security Six with a light boolit(less lead used) and a middle of the road load of fast, cheap powder. Split cases get turned into .38 Long Colt length and use a similar load.

[1Shirt]

It is what ever I take to the range! Not interested in definations.
1Shirt!

[dragon813gt]

For me it's the lightest bullet weight w/ the smallest charge of powder. So for 9mm I use a 115 grain bullet over 4.3 grains of W231. I don't have molds to cast lighter bullets for that one. And even if I did I'd have to a cost comparison. I'd want to make sure using less lead was cheaper since I'd have to use more powder. I still want them to shoot well so I will make appropriate changes insure they shoot well.

[gray wolf]

Informal shooting with less than stellar ammo.

[oldred]

What is plinking ammo"

VERY hard to find!

[MT Gianni]

The ammo shot out of a gun that will no longer hold the accuracy of a target rifle and may not be what I want to hunt with.

[Recluse]

This will be interesting to see what ends up being the description of plinking. I consider it to be very light charged boolits that I use at close range instead of full house loads at hunting distances.


Informal shooting with less than stellar ammo.

I grew up shooting in river beds, stock tanks and junk yards (what are now called "town dumps" or "land fills") and we'd take our single-shot .22 rifles with us, set up beer cans and whatever else we could find and just shoot for the sheer fun of it.

In the river beds and stock tanks, many a turtle and rogue water moccasin met their reptilian end courtesy of our trusty single-shots.

It was shooting for the fun of it.

My plinking ammo today is made for that purpose. I'll load up some 150FN rounds in front of 8 to 10 grains of Unique for my Winchester 94 and head out to a stock tank (no more public junk yards) and set up "reactive" targets and fire away. I have to adjust my point-of-aim, obviously, but big deal. It's shooting for the sheer fun of it.

I have some 7.62x39 loads that use 9.0 to 10.0 grains of Blue Dot pushing a CE Harris 155 grain spire point in my Chinese SKS that are a joy to shoot. Won't even cycle the bolt which is even better because that means I don't have to go crawling all over creation looking for precious brass.

Guns were made to be shot and shooting is fun, so the more I can shoot without breaking the bank (or my shoulder), then life is good. I make ammo just for that purpose.

:coffee:

[429421Cowboy]

We don't make much distinction for "plinking" loads, each of our rifles has one load with a specific bullet that is used for everything from practice to hunting, keeps life simple. The .44's get fed a steady diet of 240x9.5 Unique, makes a stiff enough load to carry at work yet still plenty fun to shoot. Many thousands of them through our Rugers and at this point that load gets called whatever you happen to be using it for. Shot more steel than i can think of with them, small game, snakes, one whitetail buck and used them for SD loads. Lately, to save a little powder, i have been putting 5.0 of Bullseye under the same boolit in a Special case for target practice and SD situations since it still packs about the same heat as a .45 ACP. Thats about as far as plinking goes for us!

The .22's get a steady diet if Federal bulk ammo for shooting gophers, we really don't target shoot much with them. I guess you could call the .22 CB's we use in the pistols for fun into the boolit trap plinking loads because thats about all they are good for!

[starmac]

I always thought it was the loads (any) that you used to plink with.
I always considered shooting other than hunting was plinking, so rounds that you are not worried about the performance on game in my mind would be plinking loads.

[Doc Highwall]

To me a plinking ammo is the cheaper 22 bulk ammo, and in center fire lite target loads that are not refined for best accuracy. The bullets are not the best having small imperfections and the powder charge is just thrown, loaded with the cheapest primers I can buy.

[scb]

What I DON"T do when loading plinking ammo:
Don't tumble cases
Don't trim cases to length
May not clean primer pockets.
Don't sort head stamps
Don't weigh every charge
Don't load anywhere near max.

[plmitch]

Whatever box I grab to use.

[Dale in Louisiana]

The ultimate (at least in MY mind) plinking day:

Plinking, Tanker Style (http://mostlycajun.com/wordpress/?p=134)

dale in Louisiana.

[dragon813gt]

I forgot to add that plinkers include reject bullets. These might be ones that have improper hollowpoint fill out. Or if they're a style that I use for hunting. Their weight might be out of range. I'm not as picky with the bullet quality when it comes to plinkers.

[fouronesix]

For me, plinking rounds are culls that are safe enough but don't want or need to pull down. If I load up 10 rounds to test, shoot 5 stinkers on target, the next 5 are "plinkers".

[Blanket]

Right now it is about 30000 rounds of Russian Jr 22 LR that I ended up with that was so poor that I would not even considered shooting this **** until the Latest Greatest Crazy. Step out my back door and shooting 50 rounds a day at my swinging targets, nuts on the ground or other targets of oportunity. That is poor plinking ammo

[Kull]

To me it's ammo put together to shoot some pine cones and save some money at the same time. I don't generally load lighter weight bullets at lower velocity vs hunting or self defense rounds. Rather it's just lead bullets, cheap powder, used cases vs jacketed bullets, preferred powder, and new cases.

[gandydancer]

plinking is slang for going shooting. nothing more. its the sound a red rider BB gun made when you hit a tin can. (I SAID A TIN CAN) GD

[lylejb]

To me, It's inexpensive, no stress ammo fired for fun.

I don't worry about much of anything loading plinkers, no weighing boolits, brass, or anything except the initial setup on the powder measure.

It doesn't HAVE to be anything, just fun.

[Adam10mm]

Interesting that so many variations come to mind with the term. I've always thought plinking ammo was light recoiling, accurate ammunition for casual target shooting that can also serve as small game loads out to 50y. Like "mouse fart" or "bunny fart" loads. .357 Mag 158gr at 900fps, .44 Mag 250gr at 800fps, .45 ACP 230gr at 800fps, etc. Something you can handle shooting one handed.

[DRNurse1]

I think you nailed it Gandy Dancer. Everyone else seems focused on plinking AMMO when it is really PLINKING ammo that results in all the fun. Do they still make tin cans???


plinking is slang for going shooting. nothing more. its the sound a red rider BB gun made when you hit a tin can. (I SAID A TIN CAN) GD

[jcwit]

If one needs to ask what "plinking ammo" is then its obvious they have never entered a precision shooting match, or if they did they did not score anywhere near the top.

There is not only a difference but a HUGE difference.

Surely our Military Snipers would not enter the field using "plinking ammo".

[TheDoctor]

Depends on the person. My 10 year old loves shooting my 8 3/8 Smith 29. With a 240 gr. sitting on a soft charge, say 6.5 grains of Red Dot. Mine sit on top of 9.5 gr. of Universal. That load to him is too heavy for a "plinking" load. He can't shoot many of those. While for me, it IS a plinking load. You can successfully hunt with it, but my hunting loads will sit on top of H-110. Too stout for me to shoot all day.

Could also claim that "extras" that get generated during load development, or any other round that I am not "quite" happy with, also get tossed in a box for plinking ammo. Basically anything that is less than absolutely perfect, and wasn't worth the time to pull down.

[lksmith]

for me it's the "cheap stuff" not match grade but accurate enough to play with.
For centerfire, it's typically FMJ ammo, or cast boolets that may not be perfect (zinc bullets?)
NOt the stuff you would typically use for hunting or for one reason or another.
The $5 per 20 steel cased FMJ 223

[perotter]

For me, any ammo that is meant for any kind of target practice.

[quilbilly]

My definition is light recoil and cheap enough to shoot in quantity. Until the recent craziness, cheap 22 Blazers was my go-to plinker. Now my 9mm Luger carbine with 125 gr rnfp boolits is cheaper than 22's especially now that I can get small pistol primers less than $40/1000 again.

[TJF1]

Anything that is not loaded for s.d.
Or for hunting is plinking ammo. To me
terry

[Swamp Man]

Take 22lr plinking ammo as an example they refer to the bulk packed 22lr as plinking ammo. All it truly means is the production standards are not as tight as they are in the production of special use ammo such as the CCI Stingers. If I had plinking ammo loaded in my gun and was faced with a threat would trust that ammo YES.

[jcwit]

Don't think I count this http://www.champchoice.com/detail.aspx?ID=3501 as plinking ammo.

But it sure is accurate ammo.

[TXGunNut]

Plinking ammo is any ammo I use for plinking. It may be rotated-out SD ammo and it could be hunting ammo that I no longer use for hunting. But yes, it's generally cheap ammo bought or built in quantity.

[BattleRife]

Plinking ammo is high volume, low cost, low stress ammo with adequate performance for non-critical uses.

By low stress I mean easy to find (in every store) or load (minimal prep and inspection steps).

[TXGunNut]

Saw some plinking ammo on the store shelf next to a big box of lube grooves last week. :wink:

[Bullet Caster]

Plinkin' ammo is plinkin' ammo. It's made with the point of, man I just like shootin'. Don't matter what boolit, charge or case. I would define plinkin' as "JOY OF SHOOTIN'".

Oh and by the way, just made my 1 thousandth post. Nice to have a boolit in my avatar. BC

[Bent Ramrod]

Plinking ammo is minute of pop can at 75 yards. Except for the price, and the occasional flyers out of the core group, it is otherwise indistinguishable from target ammo, except for the exquisite bouquet of Eley priming. All the extra dough spent for target ammo is just to cull out those flyers.

Them factory flyer-cullers don't work cheap, either!:cry: