Eley vs S-K ?

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boxhitch

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the way I understand it
Eley has their upper tier Team/Match/Tenex then lower tier of Club/Semiauto/Sport/Contact/Force/on and on and on,
is S-K ranked comparably somehow?
can one be related comparatively to the other?
all on-the-average I know, so from experience?
S-K seems to mark everything 'match', or is the Lapua line the upper tier?
 
Other than Lapua would be more tightly QC'ed therefore will have tighter specs (less outliers) than the SK brand, I don't think the SK line has good-better-best.

I would consider SK to be entry to mid-level and the Lapua to be high end

I just look at the velocity range I want for a particular application and buy a 50 pack of each if I can.

https://sk-ammunition.com/rimfire/

edit - thanks for the update ref different plants Peter
 
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Lapua and SK are made at different plants, both in Germany. They are different specs with Lapua the higher-end product.

Regards,

Peter
 
I’ve gone through about a case each of the SK S+, SKRM, and SKLRM. I saw no difference in accuracy or consistency between the options. SKHVM was worse. Eley Match has been better for me, although I tested some Eley Team yesterday that was tighter on target than my Eley Match. I will be shooting through the Match before I use the Team I’ve got.
 
When it comes to good vs better vs best, SK and other .22LR entry level match ammos can be capricious in performance at any level. What this means is that, while there is an SK "good/better/best" hierarchy it isn't always very meaningful. In fact, from time to time the same can be true of upper tier match ammos.

What is the SK hierarchy? For what it's worth, it was explained by a Capstone official in 2019, who was quoted in a Guns & Ammo article.



See https://www.gunsandammo.com/editorial/cz-usa-model-457-22-lr/365081

For nominal 1070 fps ammo, it's SK Rifle Match followed by SK Standard Plus, SK Pistol Match, and SK Magazine, regardless of pricing.

For the faster 1106 fps ammo, it's SK Long Range Match followed by Biathlon Sport and Pistol Match Special, again regardless of pricing.

Note that it's quite possible to have a lot of a "lower" level ammo outperform a higher one. This is true of all match ammos.

Note also that while SK is produced at the same facility as Lapua .22LR ammo, it's made on different loading machines on different production lines.
 
I bought a few bricks of SK 'flavours' a couple years ago, and got a deal (ca $70/can) of Magazine at LGS. There is very little diff in them, but RM seems a touch more accurate. I use the Magazine for fouling 5-10 before 'measuring' but many of those rounds end up with good groups anyway. Eley is not avail out in NB, and shipping spoils the 'deals' from most vendors. Local BP us only good for CCI-SV for my use as 'practice ammo' at $15/box-100(plus 15%).
 
Pervious testing in my Brno Mod 4 proved out of 14 different ammos CCI Std beat them all (including some high priced "target" stuff. At the urging of a fellow shooter I picked up a box of Norma Tac .22 and put it up against the CCI Std, shooting 9-5 shot groups with a scope from a bench rest. Both shot really well, but the Norma was a bit tighter groups by about 0.1 consistently. Hopefully, it remains available. (BTW, Tac .22 is very greasy).
 
good info, tfs

should have looked at the Eley home page first I guess, some questions answered right there, they don't have such variety and good details, kiss
Like Tenex and Match @ 1085 , while Team is listed @ '1040-1085' ...
then Target is held to 1090 with Club in at 1085, Sport not listed any longer

others are either 42 gr or 38 gr

hhmm
 
boxhitch said:
good info, tfs

should have looked at the Eley home page first I guess, some questions answered right there, they don't have such variety and good details, kiss
Like Tenex and Match @ 1085 , while Team is listed @ '1040-1085' ...
then Target is held to 1090 with Club in at 1085, Sport not listed any longer

others are either 42 gr or 38 gr

hhmm
Click to expand...

Don't worry about published or factory-rated muzzle velocities for .22LR ammo. These are averages only, not the exact velocity. These averages will be different from one rifle to the next, regardless of barrel length. Furthermore, different lots -- even different boxes within a brick -- will have different averages.

Ammo velocities always remain unknown until they are chronographed. A box of 50 rounds of entry level ammo such as SK varieties or Eley Club or Eley Target can easily have velocity spreads of over 50 fps. Even top tier ammos can regularly have spreads in the 30 fps range.
 
My starter ammunition is SK Standard Plus , seems to shoot
well in all & any rifles which I have.

Next up is the Eley Team which I find is a good consistent group producer.

As Glenn advises lot testing is the only true way
to get the right ammunition for Each rifle.
...skwerl
 
Only assuming here of course, but I would expect a manufacturer to hold top tier ammo to a higher standard with lower es/sd
beyond that there are no controls as to how or in what it is used so of course there are added variables and results

Point of the op was to try and figure how Lapua/S-K handled this, Eley seems more clear in their info
 
RWS is another brand of match ammo that is worth testing. Like ELey and Lapua, they have different grades. I just found, no later than today that a certain lot of RWS Rifle Match does quite well in one of my BR rifles.

Gilbert
 
Since RWS bought Norma, the Norma TAC22 versions are the lower end of the RWS 22 rimfire varieties.
Call it rebranded but testing the two TAC22 varieties in my rifles did not find any advantage.
Mind you it was great ammo for a break-in procedure on a new Anschutz.
 
Like Norma, RWS produces and markets ammos for a variety of calibers. RWS and Norma have been associated for some time. Dynamit Nobel, which owned RWS at the time, bought Norma in 1990. In 2002 RUAG Ammotec became the new owner of both. In 2010 the Norma factory expansion in Sweden was completed. Some (all?) Norma .22LR ammo may be rebranded RWS-produced ammo.
 
grauhanen, Thanks for re-posting that letter re SK products. On the Lapua site there is info on each of their rimfire flavours - https://www.lapua.com/products/rimfire-ammunition/
On a similar note, Last Summer I ran several brands thru my Sav B22 (which was quite accurate for it's price) using a Caldwell Chrono (all the ERRs were NULL readings). Though small samples there was a general trend indicated by these results - the CCI-MMs and SV had as good ES as the SK-Rifle Match and the SK-Flat Nose (discont'd). Here are those results :
Chrono 2-Tests Aug 2022.jpg
 

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The thing that's often missed in any conversation about "which level shoots best" is the fact that we're talking more about ammo consistency levels.
To clarify, let's say you have 3 different lots of Std Plus, and 3 different lots of Rifle Match.
You shoot test targets with all 6 lots, on the same day under the same conditions.

You may find that the lower grade ammo outshoots the higher grade in your rifle, under those conditions.
That shouldn't happen, you say.

All that means is that your rifle, for whatever reason, prefers that particular lot of ammo, and none of the higher grade lots had the same characteristics. If they did, you'd have found better results with one of them, in all likelihood.

The lower grade will probably have more flyers than the higher grade, but that gets lost in the noise from the higher grade not shooting well in your rifle.

And to make it even better, the lot that was pure magic in your rifle in cool temperatures may not shoot well in the heat of summer, or vice versa.
 
The conditions outside -- temperature or humidity, for example -- won't make much, if any, difference in one ammo's performance compared to another. The ammo shoots or it doesn't. Extremes in conditions never help performance.

All grades can vary in performance. There can be consistent and inconsistent lots of any grade of ammo. Entry level match ammos lots such as SK varieties, will be more likely to be more inconsistent than upper tier .22LR match ammos. Entry level ammos will often have considerable variation in performance within a lot when compared to upper tier .22LR match ammos. Of course few lots of any grade will be consistently consistent throughout.
 
what do you consider as entry level match or upper tier ammo in the S-K lineup?
it makes sense with any testing the upper tier would have 2 or 3 rankings of quality or consistency
 
All SK ammo is entry level .22LR match ammo. Lapua CX, M+, and X-Act is "regular" match ammo, as is Eley Team, Match, and Tenex as well as RWS Premium Line varieties such as Special Match, R50, and R100.
 
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