Different rounds, different results.

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bumperfood

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Took a trip to the range today with some CCI stingers and some Remington yellow jackets. Interesting results, and don't know if this is normal or what. Sighted in at 50 meters first with the Stingers, 1 inch group, ok for me, so then went on to the yellow jackets. Shot about 2 inches low and left and about a 3 inch group, I expected it to shoot lower, but not open up like that. So went back to stingers--- , now it's shooting high and to the right a bit. OK, maybe scope is loose, no, what then? Three more shots and the group tightened up, after half a doz rounds later, back to less then 1 inch again. Back to the yellow jackets, same thing low, and a much larger group. Used about 25 rounds and the group tightened up but only to about 2 inches. Back to the stingers, with the same results, took 9 rounds but down to 1" again. So anybody have a logical explanation for this. Rifle is a Savage Mk II., no cleaning between brand change over. Oh one other thing, sometimes the stingers would not feed into the chamber, they hung up in the magazine, untill I pushed on the cartridge, and it would then pop up and feed properly. Is this common with stingers?
 
.22's need a bunch of rounds (10-25 usually)to "season" the barrel to different ammo. I have read various reasons but the one I ascribe to is the difference in the lubes on the bullets. I have also read that it is because of the difference in the fouling, other than lube, from the various powder types needing to standardize in the barrel. I do know that it does happen with almost all ammo changes in most 22's.
 
A good friend, now deceased, kept several boxes of each of a dozen types of .22 ammo just for this reason.

When he got a new rifle, standard was to clean it carefully, then go shooting, taking along the cleaning kit and half a dozen different makes of ammo.

Both of us learned a lot of interesting things. Start off, what ELIMSPRINT says above is 100% good information.

A few rounds would be fired to get the right fouling into the barrel, then it would be tried for accuracy, cleaned, a few rounds of another type of ammo, then a group, then cleaned.......

By the end of an afternoon, we knew exactly what make, type and even lot number of which ammunition that rifle liked best.

Then it was a simple matter to go and buy several bricks of that lot number of that type of that make of ammunition.... and KNOW that the rifle would perform.

And one surprising thing we did find: "those lousy old Cooeys" thrive on Standard-velocity shells and they utterly LOVE Subsonics, often producing groups which you would think were coming from an Anschutz. These are the same old rifles which tend to throw the modern hypervelocity ammo all over and around the target. And this holds true for many older rifles with shallow rifling.

Good luck!
 
After a thorough cleaning, one might anticipate one round per inch of barrel to properly season the bore.
Using Eley Team to season the bore in preparation for using the higher priced bullets is acceptable as Eley uses the same lube in their match grade bullets.
Switching from brand to brand or make to make may take longer as the original post was switching from Stingers (CCI) to Remington Yellow Jackets.
Similar problems will be noted when switching from RWS to Lapua to Eley. Once you find something your rifle likes . . . buy a case for it.
 
I am heading out to the range again in a few days, and will pick up some different rounds to try, if I can find any. The prices range quite a bit, from 3$ to about 8$ for fifty rounds. I was talking with another shooter over a cup'a and he mentioned that separating the rounds by both brand and by weight could help, as well as measuring the rim thickness. I think that first I will find an accurate brand for my rifle, ( ignoring flyers) and then look into that. I will clean the bore between tests as well. I think that I will start with different types of the same brand in the hope the lube is the same. Thanks for sharing your insights, I do appreciate it.
 
bumperfood said:
I am heading out to the range again in a few days, and will pick up some different rounds to try, if I can find any. The prices range quite a bit, from 3$ to about 8$ for fifty rounds. I was talking with another shooter over a cup'a and he mentioned that separating the rounds by both brand and by weight could help, as well as measuring the rim thickness. I think that first I will find an accurate brand for my rifle, ( ignoring flyers) and then look into that. I will clean the bore between tests as well. I think that I will start with different types of the same brand in the hope the lube is the same. Thanks for sharing your insights, I do appreciate it.
Click to expand...
Remember that you will still need to "season" the barrel after you clean, whether you are shooting the same or different rounds. Try CCI Standard Velocity if you can find them, my MKII loves them the best of all the "cheaper" .22 ammo.
 
I agree that CCI SVs are a good way to start. If you can't find CCI SVs you can try CCI Subsonic HPs which seem to be fairly accurate at least in my CZs (I use them for hunting). I would stay away from any high velocity ammo if you are after accuracy.
BTW getting 1" groups at 50m with CCI Stingers isn't bad at all...
 
Ok, so let's see if I got this correct. Clean the rifle at home. Fire 15-20 rounds of one box to season the bore, fire a few groups for accuracy. Clean rifle at range, fire 15-20 rounds to season the bore, fire a few groups for accuracy and repeat procedure with rest of samples. I will use one brand, untill I run out and then switch to annother etc. As Elimsprint suggests, I will start with ones that are lubed the same and then switch over. Sounds like a days pleasure to me.
 
Kody said:
I agree that CCI SVs are a good way to start. If you can't find CCI SVs you can try CCI Subsonic HPs which seem to be fairly accurate at least in my CZs (I use them for hunting). I would stay away from any high velocity ammo if you are after accuracy.
BTW getting 1" groups at 50m with CCI Stingers isn't bad at all...
Click to expand...

What's the difference between CCI Standard and Subsonic ?
 
silverfoxdj said:
What's the difference between CCI Standard and Subsonic ?
Click to expand...

I was about to say the SV is 1070fps and the Subsonic is less, but I can't find the Subsonic on CCI's website.. just the Quit-22, which is 710fps. (have a box on my desk)

**edit** found it! weird, not much other then 1 is for hunting and the other target I would say

Subsonics - 40grain hollow point 1050fps
SV - 40grain round nose 1070fps

which isn't much but the 'speed of sound' does change with temperature... something like just below 1100fps at -10C to 1170 on a hot summer 30C day. ...so a longer barrel shooting SV on an icy cold day might crack it? not sure LOL
 
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I realize this is an old post, but after collecting enough different brands and styles of ammo I finally got out to the range. I fired twenty rounds of each type into the 200 yard backstop, waited for ten minutes for the barrel to cool and then fired two five shot groups into targets set up at fifty yards. I used the closest three holes of the five to determine group size Between each different brand I cleaned the barrel with solvent and dry patches. My best groups were shot with Winchester SuperX X22lrh 37 grain, CCI Blazer and CCI Stingers. The worst groups were with Remington Yellow Jackets and American Eagle. I made an arbitrary decision to use the Winchester and the Stingers as my primary go to ammo ( untill I find something better :) ). As my scope permits different settings for different ammo I sighted it in for both. Best groups for both were under an inch, with the Winchester the most consistant.
I enjoyed the process and will try different ammo as I find it, but will stock up on these two. I now have a bit of surplus ammo to plink with as well, about 1200 rounds. One of my friends has a semi-auto ruger with a large capacity magazine so I suspect we will use it up rather quickly.
 
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