Aguila rifle match and pistol match, any experience?

[tazman]

I happened into a store that had a quantity of both Aguila rifle match and pistol match both with 40 grain bullets, so I purchased a few boxes to try out.
Anyone here have experience with either or both of these?

[Petrol & Powder]

Yes, and like all .22 RF ammo, it really comes down to what a particular gun likes.
Aguila worked in terms of fit & function but it didn't yield the best groups for me. It has been a long time but if memory serves, their "match" loads were simply standard velocity versions of their regular loads.

[Petrol & Powder]

Taz, if you're looking for a good cartridge to run in those 500 series Remington rifles, I suggest you try to find some Remington .22 Standard Velocity Target ammunition (Blue box)

266708 266709

I went through dozens of brands and types in my quest for the best load in a Remington 541T and guess what? The Remington rifle shot the Remington Target ammo the best !
I can't say you will get the same result but it's a good place to start.

[dverna]

P&P's experience mirrors mine. .22 ammunition that is great is one gun may be mediocre in another. If you find something that works in your favorite gun, buy a bunch!!!

[Petrol & Powder]

When it comes to improving the accuracy of a rimfire rifle, the very best "bang for your buck" (pardon the pun) is to find the ammo your rifle likes.

Nothing will pay better accuracy dividends than finding the right ammo.
When you do, buy as much as you can. Sometimes even buying as much from the same lot if you can.

[BigAlofPa.]

My LGS gave me a brick of Aguila super extra when i bought my Ruger MK4. I had a lot of no fires with it. It would fire second time around at least. Other than that they worked good.

[tazman]

These are going to run a a couple of CZ bolt action rifles. Both rifles are scoped and will do one hole groups at 50 yards with Norma match.
I have never had access to this particular ammo before and thought I would try some and see how it does.
I have tried MANY different brands and types of ammo in these rifles. I will continue to try different brands and types as they become available to me.
Some brands are simply not available locally(within 100 miles).
Ordering online at the moment has it's own problems.

[Petrol & Powder]

If you're getting 1 hole groups at 50 yards with Norma match ammunition, I would venture a guess that you have found your ammunition for those rifles !

I've been very impressed with CZ's quality, particularly in their .22 rimfire rifles.

As for the current state of ammunition supply, from both on-line retailers and bricks & mortar stores; I suspect the situation will improve after the election. Seems like we're destined to go through this cycle of panic and hoarding every few years.

[skeettx]

I find they work OK
BUT
They work great if you will weigh the cartridges
and then shoot them in that assortment.

Mike

[Maven]

petrol & powder's comments reflect my experience with it as well. My lot was supposedly made under Eley supervision, but it shot quite inaccurately in my HB Marlin match .22 (tweaked by a local gunsmith). Weighing it helped greatly, but it was no match for either the Federal 900B or Wolf Match Extra I was then using.

[Chill Wills]

I got a case of it some time back. (Aguila Match)
It is Eley primed.

The often stated advice, "if you find some ammo that your rifle likes, buy all you can afford" or some such.
Good advice as far as it goes.
The other half of that wisdom that is missing sometimes is that promotional ammo (bulk) and lower end ammo lacks the consistency to compete with purpose built MATCH ammo. Mostly, you get what you pay for. Match the accuracy you are willing to pay for to your needs.

I compete in the 200 meter 22 BPCR Silhouette game. Targets past 100 meters sorts out the better standard velocity makes from the top Eley match, RWS 50, 100, and any left over lots of Olympic grade Federal and the like.

My opinion is, the worst lots of Eley Red or Black box MATCH ammo will shoot rings around the best of the best promo ammo or products like Federal 510 and the like in my rifles. I guess what I am saying is, if you are looking for very accurate ammo in the cheap boxes - you could look your whole life. Even if you use some method to sort the cheap stuff, it has too much variation hidden in it.
That isn't to say it isn't good enough for your needs.

I use the inexpensive Aguila Match as practice ammo. It is very good in all four of my silhouette rifles. It is very good for the price! Its only problem is the unexpected flyer now or then. In a match that is double trouble. You missed your expected shot location AND you now are looking for a missed condition that the last shot caused. Past that, it is pretty darn good stuff for practice. If you think it is good enough will just depends on what your needs are.

[Pete44mag]

I use it as practice and plinking ammo, fairly accurate but it not match grade. I have a Kimber 82G single shot that loves it and shoots it better than Wolf Match or CCI Green Tag. Go figure! Has a funny odor if you shoot it indoors out of a pistol. For the most part I like it.

[tazman]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I appreciate it.
I'll try it out and post a result.

[Chill Wills]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I appreciate it.
I'll try it out and post a result.

What is the going price on 50?

I will be interested in hearing how you do with it in the Kimber

[tazman]

I don't have the Kimber any more. It never shot as well as either of my CZ rifles with any ammunition at my disposal.
I traded the Kimber for a S&W 19 with just a little boot. I got more from the Kimber than I paid for it. Surprise there.

Price for the ammunition was $4 a box of 50.

[Chill Wills]

I don't have the Kimber any more. It never shot as well as either of my CZ rifles with any ammunition at my disposal.
I traded the Kimber for a S&W 19 with just a little boot. I got more from the Kimber than I paid for it. Surprise there.

Price for the ammunition was $4 a box of 50.

$4 a box is a good price. Being just before the election I would ask them about taking it all. You won't be sorry using it for most shooting. That is a Good price anytime! Good for you!

BTW- I would love to pick up a little used M-19 and sorry I did not in the 1970's.

[tazman]

Given the place where I purchased it, I expect they really don't sell much of it. There should be quite a bit left there when I get it tested. They had several bricks of both types when I was there.

[Norske]

A tip from our 22 bench shooters: When changing ammo brands, clean your barrel first, then shoot a few rounds to coat the bore with the new bullet lube. As for ammo choice for best accuracy- it's up to the barrel, not us or you, and unfortunately, your barrel doesn't care about your budget.

[uscra112]

Personally I've shot almost zero Aguila in recent years. My experience from a decade ago wasn't good, so I just haven't bought any.

If you have to weight-sort it to get decent accuracy, that tells you something right there. If they can't even hold the weight, they aren't keeping any of other dozen or two process parameters that make for good ammo under control either. Puts it in the Thunderduds class AFAIK.

BUT - with ammo as scarce as it is right now, you can't be too picky about it. Especially at the price. I'm seeing scalpers asking as much as $12 for some types of CCI ammo online, and getting it. Buy it, sort it, shoot it. In more recent years I've had remarkable success using a Waltz-type swaging tool to uniform the bullets in cheap ammo. Even Thunderduds. We do what we have to do in times of famine.

[Chill Wills]

If you have to weight-sort it to get decent accuracy, that tells you something right there. If they can't even hold the weight, they aren't keeping any of other dozen or two process parameters that make for good ammo under control either. Puts it in the Thunderduds class AFAIK.

Hey urcra112, Good morning,
Are you talking about Aguila MATCH with Eley primed cases? Or one of the lower promo products in their line that you have had experience a decade ago?

My current experience with their MATCH 22 product in my CPA Stevens match rifle and my Cody Ballard is really very good with no attempt to sort. I think they work equally well in my Winchester low wall barreled with the Shilen ratchet twist. However, that is my iron sight rifle and these older eyes sometimes may be the cause for the mystery flyer now and then.

That's my three cents worth.

[uscra112]

Something everybody needs to understand is that "Eley primed" is not a magic guarantee of quality ammo. Eley owns and licenses a patent for a process. The execution of the process is up to the licensee. They can do it well or they can do it sloppily. And it's only one out of many, many process parameters that have to be controlled (or not) when making .22 ammo. Even if they do the priming right, if other factors aren't equally well controlled, "Eley primed" is just a marketing gimmick.

@Chill - I don't recall that Aguila even had match ammo circa 1998, so no, it probably wasn't. Last 5 years or so I've been too crippled-up with a bad back to shoot my good rifles seriously, so I'm not able to judge by testing current offerings, even off the bench.

But both Skeettx and Maven said they got better performance by weight-sorting whatever it was that they were using. I take it that they are referring to whatever Aguila calls "match" ammo today. I'm a superannuated process control gaging guy (worked 15 years for Zeiss IMT). So I'm extrapolating from first principles here. If one very obvious characteristic (overall weight) isn't being closely controlled, how can any of the rest can be trusted?

Try weight-sorting some Eley Tenex sometime. You can't. It all weighs exactly the same on any scale or balance we shooters can afford. THAT is good process control!

About six or seven years ago I wrapped myself up for months, weighing and measuring and testing and modifying .22 ammo. Mostly bulk stuff, because the objective was to find out what could be done to improve the accuracy of an abysmal 10/22 Ruger without breaking the bank. A sidebar revelation that came out of it was that "match" ammo from the mfgrs. I evaluated wasn't much different from their bulk ammo except for the label on the box. (Leaving aside Thunderbolt, which was so horrible that it didn't deserve to even be called bulk ammo. Anything looked like match ammo compared to that stuff!)

The only real match ammo that mfgrs. other than Eley have offered in recent decades was the Federal UM-1 stuff with the dimple in the base. I picked up several boxes of it at an estate auction in the late '90s, and not knowing that it was no longer being made, shot up all but half of one box just practicing. :oops: Made me look like Harry Pope on his best days, but when it came time to do my study, I didn't have a sample size big enough to get meaningful weight data. From that tiny sample, it should have been on par with Eley Match at least.

Point being that, unless we can afford Eley prices, we don't know what really good match ammo is, because we aren't getting it from anybody else. Unless things have improved a lot since 2014.

See yer 3 cents and raise ya a nickel!

BTW - What became of Champion? My old bookmark gets me "can't find that server", and I can't find them with a general search. I used to visit their store pretty often when traveling back and forth from Michigan to my Ohio retirement BOL. Nice folks. Gone now, I guess.

[Chill Wills]

:grin:

I think that is some creative writing for someone that hasn't shot any of the current product.
I have. I stand on what I wrote.
I am sorry about the status of your back. Truly. That can't be any fun.

I'll see your nickle.

Next person's turn. I'm done.

[uscra112]

Engineering, not creative writing. :D Sorry if I was boring. It's a professional deformity.

[35isit]

While not trying to make one hole groups. I shoot handgun metallic silhouette. I find the Aguila Eley primed .22 ammo pretty much on par with Eley. I buy the Rifle Match when I can find it. I The last I found was about $45.00 a brick. It will hit the shootoff targets at 100 yards when I do my part. In my game consistency is everything.

USCRA, I understand Champion in Ohio closed.

[tazman]

I got to the range this morning with the new ammunition and my CZ rifles. The temperature was changing rapidly and since both the rifle and the ammo was starting out cold, I had some impact point changes over the course of the three hours I was there.
I took four kinds of ammo with me. Norma Match, Federal Target, Aguila Rifle Match, and Aguila Pistol match.
I had some wind later in the morning and had to wait on a few shots for things to calm down a bit. For the most part, I am satisfied with how the day went.
I was actually doing a pretty good job of getting steady today. The forend of the rifle was resting on a board with a towel folded under it for a cushion and a bag under the buttstock. I don't currently have a good bench rest setup.

The Norma Match is still consistently great. The Aguila Rifle match was nearly indistinguishable from the Norma. The Aguila Pistol match didn't perform well for me. The Federal Target did a good job but was not as good as the two match loads. The best part was the three good lots of ammo shot to the same point of impact.
I haven't had that happen before. This makes it so I can sight in and leave the sights alone when using the less expensive ammo for practice.
These targets were all 5 shot groups fired at 50 yards. The white circle in the center of each dot measures slightly over 1/2 inch. Significantly smaller than a dime.
The Black rings measure 2 1/8 inches across.
I am really happy with these targets.
266818266819266820

[tazman]

I went back to the store where I purchased the first few boxes of Aguila Rifle Match and bought two bricks. That was all they had on the shelf.
I will check back later and see if they restocked.

[BigAlofPa.]

Nice shooting. Going to be nice Sunday here. Im planning on shooting too. I want to bench shoot my winchester 60.

[Gunslinger1911]

I just bought a brick of Aguila pistol match "Eley primed". $50 Interested in seeing how it works.
About all the LGS had.
My Win 52 loves Center X, still have a couple bricks, but NOBODY has any !!!
I wonder what the difference is between pistol match and rifle match ?

[tazman]

I just bought a brick of Aguila pistol match "Eley primed". $50 Interested in seeing how it works.
About all the LGS had.
My Win 52 loves Center X, still have a couple bricks, but NOBODY has any !!!
I wonder what the difference is between pistol match and rifle match ?

Velocity mostly. The pistol match had a louder bang than the rifle match in the samples I bought. The pistol match may need to work the action of a semi auto pistol, hence the need for extra power.
It didn't group well in my rifles like the rifle match did.

[dangitgriff]

Anybody try the Paco Kelly Acu’Rzr?
R/Griff

https://www.accurateshooter.com/gear-reviews/paco-kelly%e2%80%99s-acu%e2%80%99rzr-bullet-tool/

“EDITOR’s NOTE: Do NOT use this tool with premium-grade rimfire target ammo. It won’t help. Use it with the cheaper bulk-pack ammo.”

[uscra112]

I've built a tool like the Waltz, which I think is more consistent than the Paco tool, but I'll grant you the Paco tool is a lot cheaper. Going back to my post #21, I treated hundreds of rounds of all grades with it, as well as weighing and measuring. Bottom line is that it definitely improves bulk ammo, but it only spoils match-grade ammo.

[onelight]

Taz that was good shooting with those CZ 22s .
Looks like you had a fun day :)

[tazman]

Thank you. It was certainly a fun day.
It is always more fun with an accurate rifle.

[jsizemore]

CZ has been doing some fantastic stuff.

I haven't tried any of the new Aguila but it just didn't hang with the other match ammo I used in the past. I've found bulk ammo in the past that just cozied up to a particular barrel and discipline I happened to be shooting at the time.

I had a friend that shot yellow box Winchester that was made in Australia. Great ammo. That plant shut down and a fella down under bought the old equipment from the plant and started making ammo again. I seem to remember the fella's name was Cooper. At a shoot in PA I had the chance to try some and it was great stuff. SK had just started and it was $115/case for MATCH. I stashed 5 cases of that and still have a brick or 2 that shoots great in everything. It's my base line to see if a barrel has lost it's edge.

[tazman]

I went to the indoor range today with my S&W 22a pistol(22lr) and the Aguila pistol match ammo I picked up a while back.
It functioned the S&W flawlessly and shot very good groups. The extra kick it had over the rifle match made it function very well.
That was the only 22lr ammunition I took with me so I didn't compare it to Federal Auto Match or other ammo I had at home.

I can't say it was exceptional since I didn't put an optic on the pistol. This pistol shoots well with anything it can feed and function with.

[35isit]

Found 32 boxes of Rifle match at a LGS. Just happened to be the same lot number of what I already had. Needless to say it came home with me.

[FergusonTO35]

I don't have any match grade firearms and I am as far away from being a match grade shooter as can be. That said, Aguilas work as well as anything else I have tried in all my guns: autoloading rifles and pistols, revolvers, lever and bolt action rifles. Aguila Interceptor 40 grain is the best I have ever tried if you must use a small .22 pistol for protection. It clocks a consistent 1002 fps through my Ruger LCP II across my chronograph, functions 100%, and has good accuracy.

[303Guy]

Just yesterday I found Aguila subs to be more accurate than CCI subs. I'm now looking for Aguila match or target or whatever but just standard subs will do for now. Apparently Aguila don't crimp there loads which makes for a straighter cartridge. I need to check that.

uscra, would you be of mind to share your accurizing tool details?

[uscra112]

Sure. P/M me with your direct emall addy. Files add up to more than I can attach to a post.