How tight should lead bullet be in 22 barrel

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I had a few borked 22LR laying around and I pulled the lead out of them. They only go a little ways into the breech end and wont fit in the other end period. I guess I can assume my barrel is good and tight?
 
Well this shouldn't really be a surprise. The bullet necessarily has to be larger than the bore so that the rifling has something to engrave into. If the bullet did go in either your firearm or your ammo is utter crap and should be tossed immediately. The only thing your test shows is that your bullets and barrel are not so grossly out of spec that they would not function for their intended purpose.
 
There is a bit of a conundrum when it comes to 22 rimfire bores. I have a couple of Martini 22 rimfire rifles that are both stamped with .220. They actually have bores that measure .220 diameter on top of the lands and .223 in the grooves. A later Browning 1st model T bolt has a bit larger bore that measures .222 and .224. All three shoot better than I can hold. The next extremely accurate rifle I have is an Anschuttz Cadet Match rifle. All of these rifles are very accurate. The thing is they start to lose accuracy with High Velocity ammo. They all love STANDARD VELOCITY ammo.

22 rimfire bullets need pretty fast powder to be able to obdurate into the rifling. They also need to be very soft to fill the grooves fully and of course properly lubed. If you want to push them fast the bullets need to be harder and preferably plated with a harder metal. I remember back in the day when Whizz Bangs were the rage. There was nothing faster available. They were OK for accuracy and measured .223 diameter. The early bullets gave poor accuracy because the bullets were cast from traditional Brinnell hardness alloy and they used traditional lube. Then, they went to a higher Brinnell rated alloy and used a better lube. It was great stuff. It was hard and shiny rather than being sticky and soft. Mind you they could have taken a page from the M&M book because on a warm day the lube would melt in your pocket and make a heck of a mess. The new HiVel ammo is much better to deal with.

Some of the modern Hi Vel ammo is very good but still doesn't shoot as well as Standard Vel. I haven't met a grouse/gopher/squirrel/raccoon/rabbit that can tell the difference between them as far as terminal performance goes. Very slight trajectory difference. The Standard Vel offerings just tend to be more accurate over all conditions.
 
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