My VERY informal 22 accuracy test

There was a recent article in Guns and Ammo on match grade .22LR. They used an Anschutz rifle and several different brands of ammo. As I read the article, I was thinking this is good information, but completely useless to what I suppose is the majority of shooters who will never own a match grade .22 rifle, and will never pay the $10 to $20 for a box of ammo.

I took my 10/22 with a old (found in a box in a house I bought) Bushnell 3-9 Sportview scope to the local indoor range for some testing of my own. With the scope set to 4 power and using off the shelf from the local wally world bulk pack ammo. The two contenders I had with me were Federal "Target Grade Performance" 325 round bulk pack, and Remington "Golden Bullet" 225 round bulk pack. I can't remember exactly what I paid for the ammo but I don't think the per round price is much different. The Federal is a solid lead 40 grain bullet @1200 FPS advertised and the Remington used a 36 grain hollow point @ 1280 FPS advertised. I don't have a chronograph to see how close they were. The indoor range has a 75' maximum distance to shoot at, so I ran the target out to 75'.

The Remington ammo grouped at 2" for 10 shots, while the Federal ammo grouped at .75" for the same 10 shot group. The Federal group was mostly one ragged hole with a couple shots that opened it up to the 3/4 inch. I don't claim to be any kind of marksman, so the group discrepancy could be totally my fault, but I don't think that is the case. At 75' on a solid bench rest and a 4 power scope it is fairly easy even for a old eyed guy to see the target.

I also found that what I thought was a dirty magazine problem in my Ruger 22/45 pistol was ammo related. I could not get more than a shot or two of the Remington to go through it without a jam, but the Federal fed just fine without a problem. I have been buying any 22 ammo as I found it, but will be a bit more selective in the future. This is not a bash of the Remington ammo, just an observation that my guns don't like it as well as other brands. The 22/45 has fed other brands, including hollow points without a hitch. The 10/22 don't seem to care what type of ammo it eats, and other 22 bolt and single shot guns I have will digest anything I stuff in them, but this is the first time I had ever shot anything side by side to see if one was better than the other as far as accuracy (and function) went.

Next up for testing will be my grandsons Rossi single shot rifle and an old Glenfield model 20.

In the mid 90's there was an article in the American Rifleman about 22 ammo. The author took four rifles and fired about 8000 rounds. The rifles were a win. 52 and 3 martini With match chambers. The best was the Win. With Eley 10X at 1/2". The Remington ammo's were consistently the worst with the largest group at 1.5" at 50 yards. The Thunderbolts beat out the Remington Target Std Vel. in this test. Accuracy followed price for the most part.

Your test equipment including the shooters eyes isn't out of line , lots of us old guys try to shoot groups with what we have :smile:

As far a Remington doing poorly I suppose every maker goes through that . Some work to make it better and some don't as long as the product sells . In the seventies I kept trying to get a good box of Federal rim fire ammo and it never happened . As a result I didn't by another box until early 2008 , it was the "Champion" line and it shot excellent .

My eyes are much older now but I still like to try and shoot tight groups .

Jack

In my humble opinion, Remington hasn't paid much attention to "quality" with any of their lines for some time. Rumor has it that the Company is making a newer push for better quality !!!

My 1022 likes win hollow points/blazer /SK magazine ,you can hear the difference sounds in some other 22 ammo from round to round.

Each rifle is a world unto it's self. Two identical rifles and one will prefer on brand/type of ammo and the other rifle will like something else. I have several rifles and keep 8-10 brands/types of ammo on hand. For an example: I have two model 41 Target Master Remington rifles. One will shoot sub 1/2" groups with Winchester bulk and the other one wants CCI Minimags to shoot good groups. You can "tune" a rifle to shoot better by putting "o" rings arround the barrel and moving them back and forth, adding more or taking some off to change the vibration node of the barrel. Don't laugh. It works.

Like I said, my tests were very informal. I have noticed the difference in sound while shooting different ammo brands, but I had never actually compared them side by side in the same gun. When I was shooting them in my 22/45 I thought it was a dirty magazine as I have had that problem before. I was quite surprised when one brand fed fine while the other was problematic. I don't think the feeding problem was necessarily the brand but more likely the bullet shape. It was just eye opening how much better one grouped than the other. I'll have to try some Federal and Winchester bulk pack hollow points against the Remington Golden Bullet next trip for a more accurate comparison.

I haven't done any tests. I have several types of 22lr ammo. I have noticed a difference between some old 80's Remington Vipers and new Remington Golden bullets. The new ones say on the box "new cleaner". Indeed I noticed that they were cleaner than the old vipers. The old vipers were so bad I had to take the magazine apart on my Mossberg 702 semi auto and clean it. Even the magazine was full of black **** after shooting about 40 rounds. The Golden bullets were much cleaner but not "clean" by any stretch.

I have not bought Rem ammo since the 90's. I used to be a big Remington fan boi but they turned me off.

Federal has been getting a lot of my business in the .22lr and other ammo.

I too had a magazine issue with both of my Mk III 22/45's so I had a mag cleaning party. Love those mags, once you figure them out it is so easy to take them down, clean them, oil lightly and reassemble.

I really have not shot much .22lr rifle in 3 years. Pistols yes, worth it to burn 50 rounds once a month to keep hand and eye working together smoothly.

Rifle, not so much practice needed. I can get essentially the same thing in my basement with an airgun at 1.3 cents per round instead of 7-8 cents.

I have had very good luck with Blazer.

Having tested large amounts of rimfire ammo the lot to lot variations are huge. It can be as much or more than manufactures variations.

Before the ammo drought hit I did a test between Blazer bulk ammo and blazer boxed ammo . Tried two different lot numbers from each and the boxed ammo was more accurate each time ..... not by a lot but it was .

Jack

Recently, as was referred to by the OP, GUNS and AMMO did run a test of lots of ammunition, and the take-away (for me, anyway) was that if you want accuracy, use lead-nosed bullets at ~ the speed of sound, somewhere in the 1050 fps range, they said. Of course, they were using an Anschutz rifle, something that many of us don't have.
But, the principle might be helpful, no matter what we have to shoot. For me, the Winchester 40 gr subsonic with the volcano crater hollow point worked fabulously. Then, they quit making it!:???: Old Blazer was very good ammo in my guns, like MiniMag HP :wink:

I won't say anything negative about Remington Golden Boolits, but, the range guys at the State-run range I use mostly, say the majority of duds in their "throw away" steel barrel are Rem GBs and Thunderbolts. I haven't personally experienced any problems when I did, but I don't shoot Remington much, except their supersonics, which are O.k., but don't run in the same league as other brands.

My son, myself and the local gun shop did a lot of testing of 22 ammo at 200yds in several rifles and a contender 14" pistol. Rifles were a win 52 from cmp, a Kimber target also from cmp, a civilian win 75 target, a Mossberg bolt action and last was the contender. Ammos were across the board ( the LGS owner not only did part of the shooting but kicked in a few boxes of everything on the shelf) There were 4 shooters My Son Myself the LGS gunsmith owner and a gentleman that specialized in long range pistol shooting. Across the board 22 long rifle high velocity was not as good as standard velocity. Stingers, and other light bullet high velocity loads just didn't group well. Next was the 40 grain high velocity stuff better but not there. Though some did do better in the contender. Standard velocity was by far ahead of the others in all the firearms, yes each gun exhibited its favorite here but at the end some ammos stood out. Surprisingly one of the best tested across the firearms was the old cmp surpluss 22 ammo that sold for $90.00 a case of 5000. We were told this was federal 711 in the cmps packaging. Most of the target grade ammos did good in the target chambers but when feed into the sporting hunting chambers didn't show much over other Standard velocity offerings. Another good one was the federal shilouette load with the 43 grn bullet which is now discontinued.

I've been thinking recently of doing a similar test using my Marlin 60. I have 4 different types of .22 ammo that are all "equal" meaning they are all 36gr plated HP rated at 1260-1280 fps. CCI Mini-Mag, Remington Golden Bullet, Federal bulk pack, and Winchester Super X. I would like to test for accuracy and also functioning. When (if) I get a chance to run my experiments, I'll post my results.