So I've read in many places and had many people tell me about how sorting bulk 22lr by rim thickness can greatly increase it's accuracy. While reading up on it I also found some saying that sorting by weight (weight of loaded cartridge) can also really increase accuracy. So I decided to test it out and figured I'd share the results.
What I've heard and read is that you can turn bulk .22lr ammo into near match-grade .22lr ammo by simply sorting them. That seems a little too good to believe and I found very little actual results of tests being discussed; just vague anecdotes and descriptions.
To measure rim thickness I made a sizing block from a scrap piece of aluminum. I squared it up on a mill and drilled and reamed a hole with a .225" reamer (the actual hole measures .227"). About half the .22lr I tried where a loose fit, the other half where snug and I had to use a fingernail to remove them. Was random which where which even from the same box. I used a digital caliper and sorted them by .001" rim thickness variance. I zeroed the caliper on the block, put in a .22lr cartridge, and measured how much the rim stood off of the surface on one end.
I didn't sort by rim thickness and weight for any the groups as that just seems like way too much work. I'd rather just buy premium ammo at that point.
The two kinds of ammo I tested where Winchester Wildcats and Winchester 333 bulk packs (the same ammo as their 555 bulk packs).
The test firearms I used where a laminate stock Ruger 10/22 and a Winchester Wildcat varmint/target version (Russian made TOZ rifle). Both are unaltered from the factory.
Groups where fired off a bench at 50 yards with front and rear sandbags, both with 3-9x scopes set to 9x.
A bore snake was passed through the bore between groups and then 2-3 shots where fired into the dirt before firing the next group.
I forgot my caliper and only had a plastic ruler that went to 1/4" increments; as a result all groups are rounded to the nearest 1/4" (doesn't make too much of a difference as you'll see).
All groups are 10 shots.
I ran all the Wildcat/TOZ groups first and ran out of some batches of ammo before I got to the Ruger 10/22 so it only has a couple.
Temperature was 22'C with a 6kph cross wind.
--------------------------------
Winchester 333 bulk pack in a Ruger 10/22 sorted by rim thickness:
Unsorted - 1.5"
.038" rim - 2"
.039" rim - 1.75"
.040" rim - 1.5"
That's pretty much par for the course for my 10/22 as it usually shoots around 1.5" @ 50yds with any ammo; bulk or premium doesn't seem to matter.
--------------------------------
Winchester 333 bulk pack in the Winchester Wildcat/TOZ sorted by rim thickness:
Unsorted - 2"
.038" rim - 1"
.039" rim - 0.75"
.040" rim - 1.5"
.041" rim - 1.25"
.042" rim - 1.25"
Some decent improvements here. Not match accuracy like some online described but a healthy increase in accuracy.
--------------------------------
Winchester 333 bulk pack in the Winchester Wildcat/TOZ sorted by weight:
Unsorted - 2"
47.3 gr - 1"
47.4 gr - 1.5"
47.5 gr - 1"
47.6 gr - 1.5"
Again improvements over unsorted but still not seeing match-grade groups.
--------------------------------
Winchester Wildcat ammo in the Winchester Wildcat/TOZ sorted by rim thickness:
Unsorted - 1"
.038" rim - 1"
.039" rim - 1.5"
.040" rim - 1.25"
.041" rim - 1.5"
.042" rim - 1"
Groups actually got worse with sorting. Not sure what that means or how it happened.
--------------------------------
Some types of premium ammo in the same Winchester Wildcat (Russian TOZ)
These are from a day last year that had near perfect conditions (practically zero wind, no one else at the range at the time, 20'C with light clouds)
Rounded to nearest .010" as you can't accurately measure to a ragged tear in paper.
RWS Club - 0.50"
Eley Sport - 0.48"
Norma Match - 0.27" (this stuff is near $25/50 round box!)
--------------------------------
So all-in-all sorting ammo using either method does seem to improve groups but not nearly to the degree some have described. It improves accuracy, sure, but it can't turn bulk ammo into match-grade ammo.
My 10/22 as it is factory stock isn't a tack driver by any means but can still hit a squirrel at 50yds. I'll probably just keep feeding it unsorted bulk ammo as that's good enough for the kind of shooting I do with it.
My Wildcat/TOZ still performs better with premium ammo and removes me having to sort it. If sorting only gets me 0.75" to 1" and unsorted premium ammo delivers under 0.5" out of the box I'll just keep buying premium ammo for it even if it's twice the price ($.10/round versus $.05/round). Currently premium ammo is also so much easier to find than bulk stuff (I can find bulk but finding the same brand/type all the time isn't the easiest) it makes more sense in terms of supply anyway.
In the end; cheap ammo is cheap and premium ammo is premium.
If anyone thinks I did something wrong here go ahead and mention it. It's the first time I've done sorting like this and went by the general process used in several forum descriptions and YouTube videos.
What I've heard and read is that you can turn bulk .22lr ammo into near match-grade .22lr ammo by simply sorting them. That seems a little too good to believe and I found very little actual results of tests being discussed; just vague anecdotes and descriptions.
To measure rim thickness I made a sizing block from a scrap piece of aluminum. I squared it up on a mill and drilled and reamed a hole with a .225" reamer (the actual hole measures .227"). About half the .22lr I tried where a loose fit, the other half where snug and I had to use a fingernail to remove them. Was random which where which even from the same box. I used a digital caliper and sorted them by .001" rim thickness variance. I zeroed the caliper on the block, put in a .22lr cartridge, and measured how much the rim stood off of the surface on one end.
I didn't sort by rim thickness and weight for any the groups as that just seems like way too much work. I'd rather just buy premium ammo at that point.
The two kinds of ammo I tested where Winchester Wildcats and Winchester 333 bulk packs (the same ammo as their 555 bulk packs).
The test firearms I used where a laminate stock Ruger 10/22 and a Winchester Wildcat varmint/target version (Russian made TOZ rifle). Both are unaltered from the factory.
Groups where fired off a bench at 50 yards with front and rear sandbags, both with 3-9x scopes set to 9x.
A bore snake was passed through the bore between groups and then 2-3 shots where fired into the dirt before firing the next group.
I forgot my caliper and only had a plastic ruler that went to 1/4" increments; as a result all groups are rounded to the nearest 1/4" (doesn't make too much of a difference as you'll see).
All groups are 10 shots.
I ran all the Wildcat/TOZ groups first and ran out of some batches of ammo before I got to the Ruger 10/22 so it only has a couple.
Temperature was 22'C with a 6kph cross wind.
--------------------------------
Winchester 333 bulk pack in a Ruger 10/22 sorted by rim thickness:
Unsorted - 1.5"
.038" rim - 2"
.039" rim - 1.75"
.040" rim - 1.5"
That's pretty much par for the course for my 10/22 as it usually shoots around 1.5" @ 50yds with any ammo; bulk or premium doesn't seem to matter.
--------------------------------
Winchester 333 bulk pack in the Winchester Wildcat/TOZ sorted by rim thickness:
Unsorted - 2"
.038" rim - 1"
.039" rim - 0.75"
.040" rim - 1.5"
.041" rim - 1.25"
.042" rim - 1.25"
Some decent improvements here. Not match accuracy like some online described but a healthy increase in accuracy.
--------------------------------
Winchester 333 bulk pack in the Winchester Wildcat/TOZ sorted by weight:
Unsorted - 2"
47.3 gr - 1"
47.4 gr - 1.5"
47.5 gr - 1"
47.6 gr - 1.5"
Again improvements over unsorted but still not seeing match-grade groups.
--------------------------------
Winchester Wildcat ammo in the Winchester Wildcat/TOZ sorted by rim thickness:
Unsorted - 1"
.038" rim - 1"
.039" rim - 1.5"
.040" rim - 1.25"
.041" rim - 1.5"
.042" rim - 1"
Groups actually got worse with sorting. Not sure what that means or how it happened.
--------------------------------
Some types of premium ammo in the same Winchester Wildcat (Russian TOZ)
These are from a day last year that had near perfect conditions (practically zero wind, no one else at the range at the time, 20'C with light clouds)
Rounded to nearest .010" as you can't accurately measure to a ragged tear in paper.
RWS Club - 0.50"
Eley Sport - 0.48"
Norma Match - 0.27" (this stuff is near $25/50 round box!)
--------------------------------
So all-in-all sorting ammo using either method does seem to improve groups but not nearly to the degree some have described. It improves accuracy, sure, but it can't turn bulk ammo into match-grade ammo.
My 10/22 as it is factory stock isn't a tack driver by any means but can still hit a squirrel at 50yds. I'll probably just keep feeding it unsorted bulk ammo as that's good enough for the kind of shooting I do with it.
My Wildcat/TOZ still performs better with premium ammo and removes me having to sort it. If sorting only gets me 0.75" to 1" and unsorted premium ammo delivers under 0.5" out of the box I'll just keep buying premium ammo for it even if it's twice the price ($.10/round versus $.05/round). Currently premium ammo is also so much easier to find than bulk stuff (I can find bulk but finding the same brand/type all the time isn't the easiest) it makes more sense in terms of supply anyway.
In the end; cheap ammo is cheap and premium ammo is premium.
If anyone thinks I did something wrong here go ahead and mention it. It's the first time I've done sorting like this and went by the general process used in several forum descriptions and YouTube videos.
