Does anyone sort their bulk .22lr ammo?

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mchaley

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I've got some sort of complex where I'm trying to make winchester bulk 555 ammo as accurate as possible. I've been reading up on it and I've realized a few things.

**I've not tried it yet but I hear that standard velocity (subsonic) ammo is ideal since it doesn't pass the sound barrier at 1050fps depending on temperature. I did buy some subsonic ammo to try but haven't messed with it just yet. I do realize that the bulk winchester 555 ammo is high velocity and accuracy is never going to be as good as it could be with subsonic ammo.

1). Some people talk about weighing each .22lr round and sorting them into comparable lots. That way you may be able to find some lighter loads that are (potentially) subsonic anyway. If nothing else you can at least account why one group looks like it came from a shotgun whereas the next group looks tight.

2). Some people talk about measuring rim thickness. I've seen a few videos but haven't really heard anyone saying it makes a difference. I can see the point of it - being able to weed out those with thin rims that will leave gaps in the headspacing.


Has anyone tried either weighing or measuring rim thickness to sort bulk ammo into a more consistent group?
 
Sounds like you need to invite an OCD relative over and y'all can just have a fun ol' time!

Nope. Only time I sort bulk ammo is if it spills in the range bag. Sort it out from the non-ammo.

Cheers
Trev
 
You are wasting your time sorting that ammo. Sorting high end ammo and shooting it out of a hi end rifle might get you measurable results.
 
dizzy said:
You are wasting your time sorting that ammo. Sorting high end ammo and shooting it out of a hi end rifle might get you measurable results.
Click to expand...

Yes, a big waste of time.

Maybe sorting very, very low quality bulk Wal-mart ammo for a very high end rifle might help... but buying quality ammo would be cheaper, and taking the time spend doing a side job to earn the price difference.
 
Tinkered with rim thickness a few years (OK, now that I think of it, would be a few decades) ago...

What I found
1- It's quite time consuming
2- Didn't change anything at 25M, not much difference at 50M... seemed to affect things at 100M... then again, maybe I was just having better <string>.
3- With <cheap> ammo, the orientation of the stamping on the back seemed to have a bigger effect on grouping than rim thickness.

Did I say it was quite time consuming?
Test gun was Win52 with Weaver T16.
Ammo was Winchester T22 and Eley Club.
 
If sorting by weight or rim thickness gives you confidence then keep doing it. With low end ammunition , improvement is questionable and with high end ammunition, the QA has been done at the factrory.
 
"...is ideal..." Ideal for what? It's target ammo. Not made for hunting.
"...weighing each .22lr round..." Nobody does that. You try a box of as many brands as you can to find the ammo your firearm shoots best(and cycles the action for a semi-auto) and you stop.
"...Winchester T22..." Horrendously unreliable stuff. Has been for eons too.
 
OP for what its worth. When ELEY was reworking their Eley Tenex, match ammo, the engineers considered well over 1600 variables. Count them One thousand Six Hundred Variables, that's not a typo. rimfire is significantly more complex than centerfire.
 
Yes, I weigh every bulk .22lr on my laboratory analytical balance, down to .0001g. Then I use calipers to measure and sort further. Then inspect the stamps for depth. Finally I send them for X-ray to check case thickness.
But that's just me.

Okay, maybe not. But I do check them to make sure there is nothing obviously wrong. Easier to spend the extra few $$ when I need the extra accuracy.
 
This topic comes up from time to time. Some say you can get better accuracy by measuring rim thickness and using those bullet shapers, some say you can't.

There are other forums dedicated to rimfire that would be much more help.
 
I weight sort mid range target 22lr ammo to shoot in benchrest competition . Yes it does make a difference .
You will find a certain weight that shoots better in your particular gun . Eley top ammo is divided by velocity .
Black box Eley comes in many different speeds . Too rich for my shooting . I bought a few mixed boxes of
Eley Match EPS from a fellow competitor . It had 4 speeds , 1061 , 1064 , 1066 , and 1079 fps . I have not
shot it yet to see if my gun likes one in particular . I have not tried measuring the rim thickness , which
affects how the bullet seats in the lands , I think . I don't have the time .
 
Yeah, I enjoy tweeking things to maximize efficiency. I could buy expensive ammo but I don't want to. I'd rather do some testing to see if a bit of sorting can help with regular, cheap ass ammo.

I appreciate the feedback. From what I've read it seems like I'd only see marginal improvement at 100 yards on a windless day.
 
I shoot Win bulk 555 most of the time, unsorted, if I miss my target, it's probably my fault. The gun shoots where I tell it. Never bought any quality ammo yet, gophers don't care or have any choice in the matter. jus sayin' Why would someone expect perfect performance from bulk?
 
metalbender said:
I shoot Win bulk 555 most of the time, unsorted, if I miss my target, it's probably my fault. The gun shoots where I tell it. Never bought any quality ammo yet, gophers don't care or have any choice in the matter. jus sayin' Why would someone expect perfect performance from bulk?
Click to expand...

Why not try to get better performance out of bulk?
 
For those sorting ammunition by weight - how do you know which of the 4 components(bullet,powder,case or primer) or combination of components of a cartridge contribute to the weight discrepencies found and resulting performance variances ? Especially considering the bullet variations are likely to have the greatest contributing factor.
 
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