22 lr ammo quality

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sportsman450

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Well I was surfing Youtube the other day and I came across a video on how to get match grade ammo for cheap! This got me to thinking and I just purchased a new box of Winchester 555 from Walmart, so I got the kitchen scales out (unfortunately smallest measure is 1.0 gm incremets) and the calipers. I set about sorting by weight, I ended up with 306 2gm and 253 3gm cartridges for a total of 559. Then I decided to check rim thickness by using the calipers and a spent 223 casing as the 22lr fits nicely into the 223. I was shocked at the range in rim thickness, now I know 22 lr is mass produced therefore quality control suffers, I measured from 0.035"-0.045" which seems to be pretty broad range. I would assume that is why we get all those flyers when at the range when the first couple of shots are dialed in. When I get the chance I am going to test fire from each group to see where the sweet spot is for my firearms (as this can vary from gun to gun). The other thing I am going to do is the same assessment on some expensive 22lr ammo to see if there is the same variation in product quality versus the bulk ammo (I will post results when possible). Now I know that my technique and equipment is not the most advanced but you get the picture..................

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This ammo is 36gr. (2.3gm) 1260 fps. Any body want to venture a guess or opinion on which group will be close to match grade ammo.....
 
According to Wiki the rim thickness of the 22lr should be 0.043", if thats the case in a box of 555 there is only 6 cartridges that meet this spec. Now Head space in the chamber will vary from gun to gun if not manufacturer to manufacturer so I assume that is why some guns function better with certain brands of ammunition over others as rim thickness variations I assume would vary from different companies also.
 
I'm not sure sorting by weight is going to be any help. Too many variables. A round could be off or on for that matter due to powder, brass, bullet or primer. I'd be curious to see what kind of results you get when sorting by rim thickness. I've never tried but from what I have read, most people who have tried it seem to think its a waste of time.
 
When one gets particular an average quality vernier caliper made in China may fail you & you probably will not know this until much later. In actual fact, all of your measuring tools that you use.
I have no idea of the quality of your calipers. Something to think about.
 
The way I look at it I am not measuring for expert precision, I am doing it out of curiosity to see what variation there is in a box and from brand to brand recently picked up 100 CCI Stingers 32gr at 1640 fps, still came up with 2 different weights same as the Winchester 2gm and 3gm but a much less variation in rim thickness 0.0400- .0425 so it would appear that the more expensive stuff has less variation in production standards but price jumps from $0.04/round to $0.20/round for the Stingers. The other thing is with bulk most of the projectiles are loose in the case vs the pricey stuff is all snug, I dont shoot for precision more for fun and friendly competition therefore it will always be bulk for me but if I was a serious competitive shooter or hunting it would have to be quality lead.

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I dont put much faith in the scales for weight due to the lack of calibration and increments of 1gm ideally it should be to the 1000ths of a gram. The calipers I think are fairly accurate as I zero them after every 50 of so cartridges and I use the empty 223 casing to zero before I insert the 22 into it to measure the rim thicknes now not as accurate as professional milspec calipers but for this purpose of trending I'm sure this technique will suffice.
 
There are several different types of rim fire gauges on the market. Some use .0001" dial indicators so it is easier to read .001" difference. With good quality match ammo .001" rim thickness makes a difference in a match rifle at 50 and 100 yard smallbore events.

If match ammo is sorted by .001" rim thickness it does group better than unsorted match ammo.
 
on the cheaper ammo don't foget the quality of placing the primer in the casing. That in itself is an art and why some ammo is such high quality while other ammo is not so. Just another variable.

When eley went to breaking down the lowly 22 shell to see how they could improve, the engineers came up with over 700, yes seven hundred, not a misprint, variables to consider.

Good luck with your testing, I am sure you will get measurable results.
 
sportmans450, you're doing good base on scientific and statistical database. Don't be discouraged when some people bad mount. Keep up the good works, I want to see how these variations effect the accuracy.
 
No worries I am not going to stop just cause someone doesn't agree with what I am doing, yes its tedious but when I sit down to watch a ball game I usually pull out the calipers and scales and do a few here and there.

Who would have know there could be "700" variables affecting such a small cartridge, I plan on doing at least another brand or two before heading to the range ............. results could be interesting but then again it could be a total was of time .....who knows either way I will share my results and everybody can decide for them selves if there is any benefit to them.

To remove as many variables as I can when I go to range I will use a lead sled for my rifles to eliminate the human variable .... the worst one of all.

Just remember what works best in my guns may not in yours ........Do with the info as you may
 
I, for one, salute you! While this may not result in true "match quality ammo", it will certainly help to eliminate the outwardly measurable & controllable variables.

No matter what anyone says, if you eliminate as many variables as you can, round-to-round consistency improves and, without doubt, consistency in accuracy as well.

In the true "match" quality ammo (I'm talking the $.60/round stuff, for example), the factory pulls, say, every 100th round of the line to check for inconsistencies. They also use specialized methods for applying wax, checking rim thickness, etc. that costs money to do (ergo, higher per-round costs). Some of these checks can certainly be performed by the shooter at home, if he's willing to do the work, and the results will definitely show improvements.

Obviously, for a day of plinking at the range, it wouldn't be useful, but for a day's competition (silhouette, for example), where the required round count is reasonable & known in advance, it seems like a worthwhile exercise to me.

I, too, am VERY interested in the results you get! I'll be getting into silhouette myself shortly...
 
Well I'm baa….aaack, what does Baseball + Beer + Bullets = ...... you guessed it "Friday night". Was at the local gun shop yesterday and picked up a Bulk Box of Federal (36gr. 1260 FPS), while there had a look around and bought a Mossberg Bolt action 802 Plinkster (wooden stock, open sights). "WHY??" you ask and I say why not for $200.00 taxes in with a Bulk Box of Bullets included who could resist, so now I have the test gun for all the sorting of Bullets I have been doing.
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The wife thinks I am crazy!!!!!!!! All I do is watch Baseball, drink Beer and count Bullets, go figure.

So what I have observed so far is that the CCI's are the best made, the Federal's a close second and Winchester's are bottom of the Bucket. The criteria I used to come to this conclusion are:

1) Tightness of the crimp on the projectile
CCI – tight (no movement)
Federal – reasonably snug (unable to spin projectile)
Winchester – loose (can spin projectile in casing)

2) Variations in Rim Thickness – with my calipers
CCI – 3 categories, ranging from 0.040”- 0.042”
Federal – 5 categories, ranging from 0.040”- 0.044”
Winchester – 10 categories, ranging from 0.035”- 0.045”

3) Lubrication
CCI – waxed
Federal – possibly something (could be the grease for the chips I was eating??)
Winchester – nothing

4) Weight – with my scales
CCI, Federal and Winchester all had the same weight variation which was 2 and 3 grams. Therefore this is not a big factor at the moment, could be at the range when the gun decides what she likes Best.

5) Price
CCI - $0.203 / Bullet
Federal - $0.054 /Bullet
Winchester - $0.040 /Bullet

According to Wiki the rim thickness of the 22LR cartridge should be 0.043”, which makes for interesting results. The percentage of cartridges per manufacturer that meet this standard in the samples tested are as follows:

Winchester - 1.1% (sample size 559)
Federal - 25% (sample size 525)
CCI - 0% (sample size 100: smaller amount than the others but large enough for this purpose I think)

Not the most scientific study, but a trend does develop and my purpose is to not to diss one brand or the other. I just want the best bang for my buck (lol). Next is a trip to the range ........I will keep you posted.

I am more interested in the head to head performance of bulk ammo, the CCI ammo was just used as a sort of yard stick .........
 
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This is really interesting. My only thought is that all the bulk ammo is high velocity (that is, will crack the sound barrier, if only by a little). The best groups (theoretically) should come form subsonic ammo. Downside is I don't know of any that are sold in bulk and readily available...
 
sportsman450 said:
No worries I am not going to stop just cause someone doesn't agree with what I am doing, yes its tedious but when I sit down to watch a ball game I usually pull out the calipers and scales and do a few here and there.
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Hello

I think that the criticism of your instrument *can* be valid. So to deflect those criticism - and to confirm to yourself you are doing it right - repeat your measurements. See if your readings are consistent. If they are, your findings are valid. If not... get better calipers :)

I know it's tedious but... this is cool work, so it's worth doing right :)
 
Calipers are dead on everytime I check them against the 223 casing for control. Now would NASA use my calipers .......... no but for the purpose I am using them for they are acceptable, and suite me fine its the gun that decides what rim thickness she likes best. If one could make an assumption here it would be that Federal has better quality control standards in the production of the 22LR cartridge vs. Winchester.

It will be interesting to see if one bulk out performs the other. It would only be fair to compare bulk ammo vs. bulk. CCI was the most expensive cartridge I could find at the local store, so if you can find a bulk ammo that is comparable to the top shelf stuff then that is the one I want to buy.

If there are no performance differences then I will buy what ever is the cheapest, but if paying only $0.01 more per cartridge yeilds superior performance over the other bulk ammo then it is more that worth it.

Who knows maybe the poorly made Winchester will out perform all other 22LR cartridges......... plausable but not likely, range report will tell for sure.

One other thing to keep in mind is that quality could vary from one production run to the next, so if I were to scrutinize Winchester or Federal again in say 1yr things could be totally reversed........... thats really gonna stir the pot.
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