Eley Sport .22 - Buy or No?

[nicholst55]

The LGS has some available, albeit it's spendy. I know the British-made Eley is top-shelf ammo; how is this Mexican stuff? Anyone got any experience with it? I don't want to end up with a bunch of it if it's not worth the price. It's the only .22 I've seen for months, though!

His limit is two 50-rd boxes, one box of centerfire handgun ammo per caliber, along with 100 primers per customer, per day.

[John Boy]

http://www.gunbot.net/ammo/22lr/

[L Ross]

Well I have shot a bunch of it and I found that like most 22 it depends on the gun. A buddy was zeroing his Uberti Low-Wall replica with a Malcolm Leatherwood scope on it last month for our silhouette match. He tried some Eley Sport in it and it started to produce 1/2" groups at 50 yards. I was surprised as I none of my rifles shoot it that well. Of course it too is unobtainable but Sportsman Guide has it listed AT $295.00 per case of 5,000, (out of stock). Just for comparison purposes, SK and Wolf Match Target was running right around $500.00 per case.
Unlike Remington and Federal I have never had a misfire with the Eley Sport with a few thousand fired.

Duke

[Nobade]

That is nuts! The last Eley Sport I bought was $125/case and it hasn't been all that long ago! BTW, it seems like it is the same ammo as PMC Scoremaster. Both shoot the same in my rifle and both have that "unique" smell.

-Nobade

[knifemaker]

I have about 1,000 in stock and have been using it in several 22 rifles. My 10-22 with a bull barrel will print 5 shots in 1/2 inch at 50 yards with the Eley Sport. My Granddaughters henry lever action will also print that same size group and so will my Grandsons single shot Crickett rifle. That Crickett was one very cheap rifle that really surprised me on it's accuracy with the Eley sport. No misfires and I will buy more with no reserves about the quality of the ammo. I was looking for Federal Value pack bricks when I ran across the Eley and since the store was out of Federal and had the Eley, I bought two bricks of it just to see if it would shoot ok in my Grandchildren's 22 rifles. I'm glad that I did buy it as I now know it is very reliable accurate ammo at very reasonable prices. I bought it about 8-9 months ago and I believe that I payed around 20 bucks per brick of 500.

[wv109323]

The Eley Sport is good ammo. It comes in a purple and yellow box. It is the same as Aguila SE IIRC.

[R.M.]

Yup, good stuff for the dollar. That unique smell is the Eley priming.

[shotstring]

I use it for practice ammo in my Anschutz 1712. 1/2 inch groups are the average, but if I sort by rim thickness I can get many of the groups down to 3/8 inch at 50 yards. Many of the groups would be smaller, but there always seems to be at least one flyer per 5 shot group that opens it up. Not as accurate at 100 yards though for me. Still, for the money, the best value I have found in cheap 22 ammo. Next step up for my Anschutz is Eley Club at $700 per case - over twice the price of the Sport.

[imashooter2]

The Sport is not Eley's top of the line by any means. I concur with shotstring's "at least one flyer per 5 shot group" statement. If it was what I could find, I'd buy it again. If I could get CCI SV, I'd buy that instead.

[uscra112]

No better than most American-made bulk ammo in any gun I tried it in. When I did a weight-variance study it ranked behind Auto Match and CCI Standard Velocity but ahead of Remington. (But then everything is better than Remington!) I wouldn't pay any more than I pay for common bulk ammo if I had any choice. Weight-sort it to weed out the outliers if you want accuracy.

[Forrest r]

Eley priming???? Not hardly, the stuff is junk at best. Try shooting it in 50* weather some time & see what happens to that "Eley priming".

The best 1 I saw with the junk was when 3 guys in a pistol league went in together & bought a case of it to practice with because of the "Eley priming" it had to be good. After countless ftf's they gave the junk away only to have the people they gave it to po'd at them & gave it back.

Eley sport wouldn't know what Eley priming was if it hit it square in the face, save your $$$$ for some cheap bulk ammo. At least you'll know what your getting.

[Baron von Trollwhack]

A year and a half ago it was 23$ a brick plus shipping from midway. Manufactured by AQuilla as noted above. Of the 15 kinds of common LR SV 40 grainers I tried in a 10-22 carbine with a low power scope @ 25 and 50 for squirrel hunting purposes it came in the top 5, the typical raged amoeba hole at 25 and 3 or 4 fliers from the 50 yard amoeba hole. Stock trigger, minimum headspace set.

BvT

[LAH]

The Eley Sport didn't do well in the Kimber. Here's a 50 yard target.
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h244/Creekerpics/22LR%20Ammo/DSC02966.jpg (http://s66.photobucket.com/user/Creekerpics/media/22LR%20Ammo/DSC02966.jpg.html)