Experience With Eley Sport?

trky chsr

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Finally had a nice calm day so I went to the range with my new CZ At-one and a CIL-Anschutz 190. I tried a variety of ammo with mixed results but one that really puzzled me was Eley Sport. Out of both guns in a 5 shot group it would shoot 4 fantastic and one flyer. The flyers weren't way out to lunch but enough. Is this typical from this ammo? I also shot Team and it was neck and neck with Center X from my At-One with several 3/8" groups at 50yds and a few better than that. The Sport actually shot better than that with the exception of the flyer. The following is an example. The main group is 3/8".

Eley Sport I.jpg
 

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IMHO Eley is generally good ammo, with some box colours performing better than others. I don't know which are the hot hand these days, but try as many as you can to find what works best.
 
My Brno and my Anschutz don't like Eley sport much, but my old Nork JW14 would put them all in the same hole.
 
The often-heard advice on .22LR forums is "find the brand of ammo your rifle likes and stick to it." Unfortunately it's not so simple because that's not how it works.

The example shown by the OP is not surprising. Flyers can be common in lesser grades of ammo such as Eley Club. They can be common with other makes and varieties of ammo.

The three major match ammo makers -- Eley, SK/Lapua, and RWS -- each make several "grades" or varieties of ammo. For example, among the rifle ammo, Eley makes Sport, Club, Team, Match, and Tenex. SK/Lapua has SK Standard Plus, Rifle Match, Center X, and Midas +. RWS makes similar varieties.

Each variety of ammo can vary in performance by lot (.22LR match ammo is made in batches called "lots"). Some lots will shoot better than others in the same barrel. The same lot may not have the same performance in different barrels. In other words, a lot of ammo that performs well in one rifle may not do as well in another.

The less expensive each variety, regardless of the maker, will generally be less consistent than the more expensive ones, even in good barrels. That often means more "flyers". There's absolutely no guarantee that the name on the box will assure performance. There can be what appear to be "flyers" in any make or variety of ammo. That is to say, there are lots of the most expensive ammo, say, for example, Eley Tenex, that may not shoot well in a particular rifle.
 
Not sure about today... But for the longest time Eley (and Lapua/RWS) ammo was classified using the average groups of the given batch.
- As in, the lot that produced groups under xx value would be sold as Tenex,
- Over that value but under some other value, would be sold as Match... and so down the lane it went.
 
If that flier is typically vertical, mainly that's showing you the ammo is not a good pair for your rifle (though a tuner would mitigate). If it's random directionality, that's more of an indication of something going on in your rifle. No groups are coming out nice and tight? Always that one flier? I can see stuff like Winchester Wildcats shooting like that (though probably not sticking 4 shots tight), but my experience with Eley Sport, I wouldn't be quick to blame the ammo on the flier going out that much at 50 yards.
 
If that flier is typically vertical, mainly that's showing you the ammo is not a good pair for your rifle (though a tuner would mitigate). If it's random directionality, that's more of an indication of something going on in your rifle. No groups are coming out nice and tight? Always that one flier? I can see stuff like Winchester Wildcats shooting like that (though probably not sticking 4 shots tight), but my experience with Eley Sport, I wouldn't be quick to blame the ammo on the flier going out that much at 50 yards.

The flyer was always different for each group. It was the same result in both rifles. By comparison both Team and Center-X produced excellent consistent groups in both rifles with Team getting a slight nod in the 190 and Center-X gets the slight nod in the At-One. The part that drove me crazy is for 4 shots Sport out shot both of those but then that darn flyer came out. It wasn't always the last shot either, sometimes shots 2-4 shot differently than the first one and sometimes it was just a random shot that went astray.
 
I went to the range last night with light wind went to test eley team at 100,so I chose to season the barrel with sport.shooting a stock tikka tx1 I shot 5 shots at 50.after the 5 shots I thought I was missing the target so put a 6th shot over a few inches, and nope wasn't missing .o945 inch group.smallest group I have ever shot lol.now could I do that 5 times with sport,nope but will give it try some time.
 
The flyer was always different for each group. It was the same result in both rifles. By comparison both Team and Center-X produced excellent consistent groups in both rifles with Team getting a slight nod in the 190 and Center-X gets the slight nod in the At-One. The part that drove me crazy is for 4 shots Sport out shot both of those but then that darn flyer came out. It wasn't always the last shot either, sometimes shots 2-4 shot differently than the first one and sometimes it was just a random shot that went astray.

This got me thinking...maybe nothing to do with your problem, but might be a good idea to eliminate it as a potential and move on.
I had a problem with my Zastava mp22, sometimes having a flyer too and not always on the last round. (but mostly)
Marked all 5 rounds with a black felt marker, loaded them in the mag and cycled all rounds onto the floor.
What I found was the last round always was removing the black ink and sometimes shaving a bit of lead off the bullet too.
Seems the last round was not being fully inserted properly onto the bolt face. The extractors/ejector arms were not engaging around the casing properly.
Might have been from lack of magazine spring which helps force the casing up onto the bolt head, or small burrs on the end of the extractors....or just being brand new and not wore in yet.
So I dismantled the mags, strengthen the spring a bit, polished the extractors ends, mag feeding ends and also the bottom of the chamber to make them all smooth.
Now all 5 rounds still have full blk around them after cycling all.

Hope that helps.
 
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