Today’s 22Lr

[Drm50]

In 80s I did extensive tests with American made 22Lr ammo. The purpose being to show that buying match grade ammo to hunt small game with run of the mill rifles was a waste. A good selection of popular 22 rifles were used. All shot from rest with 4x scopes. Certain rifles like certain ammo, no big surprise. Remember this is in 1980s and all US made 22s were tested from premium to bulk packed. Only Winchester Wildcats were inaccurate across the board.

I just watched a YouTube video of a test made for same purpose, from different angle.
The test was made with a 10/22 and Marlin 60, fired offhand open sights. A Chrony was used and the actual deviation in velocity was recorded. It was a good bit and the match ammo was no better than standard. The groups fired off hand didn’t allow for a good comparison.

The bottom line is that today’s rimfire ammo looks to me like the QC has drifted. I had large supply of 22lr from pre panic days. The little amount of new ammo I’ve shot has produced many duds, hang fires and groups 2 to 3 times the groups from old test. The original worst ammo in 1980s tests, Winchester Wildcats, were due to powder charges.
When firing in semi auto they sounded like a posse was firing different guns. No failure from priming compound. When I say no failures with any rimfire means if there was any it was a fluke not ongoing problem.

[Shawlerbrook]

I would imagine with the surge of ammo sales and the fact that “supposedly” they are operating at full tilt, quality control will suffer some.

[shtur]

I picked up some older 22 ammo at an estate sale last summer. It was various makes and most boxes were half full. I had to remove oxidation from most of the lead bullets, and clean the plated bullets. I shot them in my S&W model 63 at 30 feet at a TQ-6 target, which is the NRA reduced slow fire target for 25 feet. The black is 1.5 inch diameter. Shooting them standing without a rest and two handed hold, they all stayed in the black, which really surprised me. I guess the QC was good when .22 ammo was manufactured in the 70'and 80'.

[Andy45]

I agree! In the 70s and early 80s Remington Standard Velocity was my go to ammo for hunting and target shooting. I liked the Winchester target ammo issued by the DCM for rimfire matches too, but it was hard to find in the civilian world.
In the mid 80s I ran extensive benchrest accuracy testing at 100 yards on a couple extremely rare, totally windless days. The rifles I used were a Kimber 82 sporter and a Walther target rifle. Both were nicely scoped.
At 100 yards, RWS shot around 0.85", and the Rem SV shot around 1.1"
The quality of Rem SV has been far inferior to that for the last quarter century!

[John Boy]

DRM ... it’s not the case, it’s not the bullet ... it’s the primer liquid, how much and how it is applied. Dicect a couple different brands and look in the case to see if the fluid was applied and is fully at the base or splashed up the side(s) of the wall and how much