Advice on .22 ammo

msnively

msnively

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I've got a pistol and a semi-auto rifle that both use .22. They both want "high velocity" ammo. One says 1300+ FPS. Other just "high velocity".

Only types I can find in my area are Remington Thunderbolt @1250fps and Winchester Dynapoints @ 1150FPS.. The Thunderbolts are giving me FTF about 10-25 per 500. Oddly the Dynapoints about 10 per 500.

Can anyone recommend a brand/type that's available to order online in Canada that's 1300+ FPS?

Or is this many FTF in .22 normal? My 1911 .45 has never had a FTF.
 
I can't really help with the fte/ftf but from what i've read the Winchester and Remington will have those from time to time. I just ordered 1500 CCI mini mags from Cabelas. Grouse River shows stock on different CCI but their website is iffy so they may not actually have stock. ammosupply.ca has cci standard and just about everyone online has federal packs.
 
"High velocity" 22lr ammo usually runs from 1150-1300fps advertised velocity on the box. Generally anything super sonic (above 1116fps at sea level) is considered "high velocity". There is also "hyper velocity"; things like CCI velocitors (1450fps) and stingers (1650fps). "Standard velocity" on the other hand are usually around 1050-1070fps; just barely subsonic.

If they cycle the action, they are "high velocity" enough to work. The FTF's can be from bad ammo, a weak firing pin, or your gun not liking that specific type of ammo (that happens a LOT with rimfire firearms). In the case of Thunderbolts they are known to be very hit or miss from lot to lot. Some guys get great boxes with near 100% reliability and others report horrible results with as much as 1 in 4 FTF. The cheaper the ammo, the higher the chances of a bad batch. If you want centre-fire like reliability in rimfire you need to buy premium rimfire ammo. For high velocity that usually means CCI which has been very hard to find for a couple years now as Americans buy up nearly everything that is made. Some semis will cycle on standard velocity ammo; give it a try, if it works it works, if it doesn't it doesn't. You can buy a box of 50 to try for a couple bucks.

CCI for me are generally 1-2 FTF in a box of 500 at most and those can be blamed on a horribly dirty Ruger 10/22. In bolt actions I don't remember ever having a FTF with CCI ammo after a couple thousand rounds.
Remington, Winchester, and Federal bulk boxes I expect at least 1 FTF in 50 on a good day, 3-4 in 50 on a bad day, 10+ in 50 if it's a bad batch from the factory. More if fired in a semi.
Most premium ammo I buy is from Eley, RWS, or Norma. It's all match/target/training/practice/club ammo which is all subsonic. They are 1050-1070fps but still cycles my 10/22 (seems to be an oddity, most 10/22's wont cycle with subsonic). I've gone through a couple thousand rounds of those combined with zero FTF's in bolt actions.

Rimfire is not centre fire and cannot be compared to it. There is a reason rimfire is only regularly used for varmints and plinking. Premium rimfire can somewhat be compared to centrefire for reliability but cheap rimfire has no parallel.
 
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You need to try a box of as many brands as you can to find the ammo each one will both shoot well and cycle the action. That is it will be unlikely that both will shoot and cycle the same ammo. Doesn't take a whole box to figure that out. One or two mag loads will suffice. Buying ammo on-line gets expensive quickly due to shipping costs. Said shipping costs are not set by the seller.
Kind of odd a manufacturer would suggest HV ammo for a pistol. In Canada, most .22 pistols are shot with standard velocity ammo. Just because there's no handgun hunting though.
Both Remington and Winchester have been having QC issues lately.
 
Two Cooey Model 64s from two different estate sales. The newer one hangs up with a FTE about halfway though the mag - every time. The older one came to me rusty, missing / broken parts and generally neglected. Ten hours later and after more than the gun was worth in parts the gun given up for dead functions flawlessly. Go figure .......
 
try cci minimags, the biggest difference is the smoothness of the bullet, they just naturally feed better, memory failing but most remington bullets I have, have serations or ribs on the base of the bullet, these can affect loading on some finicky semi-autos. The smoother cci bullets tend to cause less grief, the bullets in cci's are typically tighter as well. A loose bullet will affect how smoothly they load. The physical structure of the cci minimal is typically superior to the rem, win, as well as it shoots a little hotter helping cycle better.

Hope this helps, its been my experience.
 
I recently ran across some Remington Yellow Jackets which list a muzzle velocity of 1500 FPS, but didn't know if this was TOO fast. Still new at this so didn't want to make any assumptions.
The pistol I'm using is a Colt(walther) 1911-22 and the rifle is a Pietta PPS-50 "Puma".
Both had good reviews, and not a lot of issues. All reviews said they didn't favor one ammo over another.
I just don't know if I'm expecting too much from .22 ammo.

I'd LOVE some CCI rounds, but nothing local seems to have them in stock. And most of the "ammo supply stores" I've been too online, just don't have anything but the cheap stuff in stock.
 
deadeyes40 said:
has anyone tried Winchester m-22 in their semi. I have had good luck with federal 525 round bulk packs. very few if any FTF/FTE per box.
Click to expand...

I have used M-22 in 5 different rifles.
Accuracy varied from "Meh", in one of my 10/22's (Dlask 16.5" barrel) to "WOW" in my Savage heavy-barrel. 500 or 600 rounds with no FTF's or FTE's yet
 
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