What kind of accuracy can be expected from BULK ammo?

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abms1

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I recently purchased a Savage Mark ii BVSSXP. So far I've only got one extended range session with it. All shooting was done off a solid bench rest with scope. Consistent trigger pulls were not a problem. No wind at all. Used a bunch of different bulk ammo. And my results:

Federal bulk blue box 36gr - 4.5" no consistent groupings
CCI Blazer 40 gr - 3.5" groups with a flier here or there wrecking the groups
CCI 36gr mini-mag - 3" with less fliers
American Eagle 40gr - complete garbage!


Is it unreasonable to expect better groups from the bulk stuff or am I wrong?

So I've picked up a variety of other ammo .... Remington target, Remington Subsonics, Winchester T22, CCI Greentag, Federal target ($10 per box) that i will try at my range session tomorrow.

In the meantime ... A question for everyone out there >>> What kind of accuracy can you get from your 22 @ 50yds using bulk ammo in 5 shot groups?
 
I find cci standard velocity to be the best I've tried in mine. Try some of that. Last time I was as the range I was putting them all in 0.5" - 0.75" @ 50yds in the rain. I only had 1 box a buddy gave me to try, now to find more!
 
Winchester 555 or 333 will group under 1½" at 50 in several of my rifles.
CCI Blazer slightly better.
But a real target rifle with top grade match ammo will be under .25" at 50,.
Eagleye.
 
My savage will shoot a little under one inch at 50 yards with Cci blazer
About 1/2 in with Cci std vel
Does your scope have adjustable parallax ???
Might explain larger groups
 
Dont discard the CCI Stingers, in many semis they will do a better job than any Eley of that world, in a bolt action, we are not talking the same animal here, out of my SR-22, CZ, Papoose and my T-bolt ( when my 10-22 takedown, get here, it will be a Stingers diet for it) they group very good, i am now shooting only those out of all my 22LR, got a 5000 brick the other day and i have another one to pick up today to the baron no sale tax, this is a sub 2 inch 15 shots group from my SR-22 @ 110 yards...JP.
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Good for you JP, but Stingers were horrible in the two dozen or so guns we have tried them in. We can print reasonably consistent 0.5" groups @ 50 with Blazers out of our MKII's and Dlask builds...

OP - those groups are so bad, I suspect a problem with; 1. your optics (you don't say what scope you are using), 2. your mounting system (check your rail and rings to make sure they are correctly installed and tight... try taking everything apart, clean the sight screw holes and reinstall everything, lots of people have had problems with factory installed mounts), 3. your feeding (cycle bullets out of the magazine and into the chamber, then eject without firing and inspect them for damage), 4. your crown (this has been a well documented problem with MKII's), 5. your rifling (this has also been reported where the rifling petered out toward the muzzle), 6. your technique (not dissing you, but what kind of shooting experience do you have?). Good luck with the fix... the two loads that I have found to be exemplary in our MKII's have been CCI SV's and Federal 711B.
 
hoytcanon said:
Good for you JP, but Stingers were horrible in the two dozen or so guns we have tried them in. We can print reasonably consistent 0.5" groups @ 50 with Blazers out of our MKII's and Dlask builds...

OP - those groups are so bad, I suspect a problem with; 1. your optics (you don't say what scope you are using), 2. your mounting system (check your rail and rings to make sure they are correctly installed and tight... try taking everything apart, clean the sight screw holes and reinstall everything, lots of people have had problems with factory installed mounts), 3. your feeding (cycle bullets out of the magazine and check them for damage with out firing), 4. your crown (this has been a well documented problem with MKII's), 5. your rifling (this has also been reported where the rifling petered out toward the muzzle), 6. your technique (not dissing you, but what kind of shooting experience do you have?). Good luck with the fix... the two loads that I have found to be exemplary in our MKII's have been CCI SV's and Federal 711B.
Click to expand...

In the SR-22 especially, it is the most accurate ammo for that particuliar rifle... JP.
 
As you can see the second group is Federal 525 bulk, and I am not a great shooter by any means (as some would say "Obviously" :p ). This was at 50m through my Savage MkII TR, and I would say this is a good average of bulk ammo.

SavageMKIITesting_zps792c80f1.jpg
 
I had a Remington 541-T that would put Winchester Wildcats inside an inch all day long at 75 yards. On a calm day many times 4 would be in one hole.
These days I'm shooting a Savage bolt action with heavy barrel and it will put the Federal bulk 36 grains inside an inch at 50 yards. I haven't shot it at 75.
I'm using a Nikon prostaff 2x7 and the paralax is set at 75 on them, it seems like a great scope for 22LR to me.
 
honestly if your going for accuracy with a .22lr use a match rifle good optics and match ammo the bulk stuff just is not consisitant enough for repeatable shotstry lapua standard or extra if you wanna spend the 12.50 a box you can go with lapua gold match but thats to price for me anyway. i use a mkII also
 
Off hand I'd say you have a problem somewhere...though if the gun is brand new it may just need more breaking in.
Last year I bought my two sons their first .22's. They each got a Marlin XT-22 and with a decent scope they are shooting 2" groups at 100m with American Eagle bulk.
 
mlehtovaara said:
CCI Standard Velocity..............

That is all. ;)
Click to expand...

I agree. My Savage heavy barrel shoots CCI standard velocity exceptionally well. Avoid bulk (loose boxed) ammo, it often won't shoot as well as the same brand that is well packaged.
 
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hoytcanon said:
Good for you JP, but Stingers were horrible in the two dozen or so guns we have tried them in. We can print reasonably consistent 0.5" groups @ 50 with Blazers out of our MKII's and Dlask builds...

OP - those groups are so bad, I suspect a problem with; 1. your optics (you don't say what scope you are using), 2. your mounting system (check your rail and rings to make sure they are correctly installed and tight... try taking everything apart, clean the sight screw holes and reinstall everything, lots of people have had problems with factory installed mounts), 3. your feeding (cycle bullets out of the magazine and into the chamber, then eject without firing and inspect them for damage), 4. your crown (this has been a well documented problem with MKII's), 5. your rifling (this has also been reported where the rifling petered out toward the muzzle), 6. your technique (not dissing you, but what kind of shooting experience do you have?). Good luck with the fix... the two loads that I have found to be exemplary in our MKII's have been CCI SV's and Federal 711B.
Click to expand...

1. Its a cheap bushnell 3x9x40that came with the rifle, obviously needs replacing. Regardless though, it should be decent enough to allow for 1" groups.
2. I've checked the mounting system and retightened everything. It all seems very solid to me.
3. I will have to try that tomorrow.
4. I have researched issues with the crown on the mark ii. It looks uniform and has no sharp edges, dings, dents, scratches. Ill take a picture and post it tomorrow.
5. The rifling looks decent at the muzzle as well. The picture will help determine that. I don't have a borescope so i'm not able to inspect the rifle.
6. I dont have alot of experience. However today i was able to make some .75" groups with the CCI green tags. However, it seemed quite often that a potential .75" group was often ruined with a flier which I don't feel is due to my technique cause usually i can feel if i pulled it.

So today i was able try out some other ammo at 55yds with a slight wind. The remington 22 target was an average of 2.25" groups. Remington subsonics were slightly better. The winchester superx superspeed rn and t22 target were quite bad. But the federal target and cci greentag shot 1" groups, However an observation is that fliers were also evident with the higher quality ammo, which indicates i suck.... or..?

Overall I'm very disappointed with savage sofar. The first mark ii fss i got had a horrible failure to eject problem. I replaced it with this mk ii bvssxp and it seems its a dud also. I'm not going to give up on it yet but the quality control from savage is either severely lacking or my luck is just terrible. I wish i would have just bought a CZ in the first place.
 
bulk group

After trashing Winchester ammo, I finally tried some in my 10/22 and ate crow. It's cold and messy out, so off the bench indoor at 25 yards I'm getting 1/4" groups between centers with the 333s.

Using Federal 525 at that distance I can get 1/2" groups. Same ammo with open sights(middle aged eyes) using an old Remmy 121 pump I'm getting 3/4" groups. Just the odd flyer. A 40 box of American Eagle did no better out of the pump.

feb2012range001_zpsb4bb67ee.jpg
 
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I shoot two Savage MK IIs (a 24X scoped "Classic" and a peep-sighted FVT) as well as a Lee Enfield No. 7 (peep sight). All rifles produce 1/2 - 3/4 inch groups at 50 yards with CCI Standard Velocity ammunition.
 
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