Interesting Question on 22LR Ammo

Sometimes stores like Wally-Mart and Canuck Tire store their inventory in unheated warehouses.This can effect the powder in the shells giving erratic behavior when shooting.I have a 10-22 plus several other 22's and I experience half a dozen missfire to a box sometimes.I usually run them through again and they will go bang.I know the 10-22 is a great little gun but regular cleaning(100-200 rds.) keep them banging and ejecting lickety split.If you have ever found some old ammo that was left out in a building or vehicle over winter it is bound to be iffy when you fire it.I guess thats why you are told to store it in a dry-humidy free area.I know the big chain stores don't care about non-perishable items and it cost money to heat a warehouse in Canada.Thats my story and your welcome to it...
 
I shoot a lot of rimfire, and have seen the effect of those "quieter" rounds on paper. I have an old Mossberg 146B that I use to test accuracy of run-of-the-mill ammo (Dynapoint, Federal, Winchester, Remington, etc) and it is really a very accurate rifle, so gives a decent idea how well certain ammo will perform without running it through one of my expensive match-chambered target rifles. At 50 meters, any round that sounds "different" will ALWAYS print out of the group. It isn't always low, either. But it will invariably open the group by 50% or more. On a slow evening, I tried sorting a bit of the Federal bulk plated (525 rnd box) by weight, and culled about 10% of it. The ammo that passed the weight classification did shoot better groups, but I still got the odd "strange" sounding round, which would ruin the group. This stuff is great at the price for plinking, etc. But if you are a serious shooter, it does not cut it. Buy better ammo, and you can see the difference right away. Regards, Eagleye.
 
I tried quite a few different 22Lr cartridges through my CZ452 at 50 yards yesterday, and the Federal Bulk pack ammo was far and above the most inaccurate of the bunch. Even cheap Aquila Super Extras shot a tight, consistent group, along with CCI regular and mini mags, Winchester High velocity, american eagles, federal target. I thought it might have been something I was doing, so I went back to the bulk pack and tried another group of 5 and experienced the same disappointment. Nothing like going from a cloverleaf of 22 cal holes to having trouble hitting a 1" dot at 50 yards. Maybe I'm being too picky? In any event, it doesn't give me the kind of feedback about my shooting technique I'd expect when bullets go astray for no reason other than the ammo.
 
Saddle Tramp. I store all my .22 ammo in a locked wooden cabinet in a unheated garage. I have a whole bunch of different types and my share of bargains stuff. I have not tried it in the dead of winter, but in spring it all seems to work. I start my gopher season with odds and ends that have been left in my yard truck, all winter. No problem.
 
2 years ago my brother and I shot some Fed. Champion, Winchester Wildcat and Winchester Xpert over a chrono.

I don't have the data anymore but the results were pretty poor for all of them. Some (the wildcats IIRC) had variations of 300+ fps between rounds !!!

Thats where your thuds come from.
 
Accuracy wise, my old C.I.L. Anschutz shot really well with that cheap Federal bulk stuff. My problem with the same stuff was that the bullet was more of a dimple and not a very good hollow point.

I once spoke to a Federal rep and he said that the Federal bulk and the American Eagle were the same stuff, just packaged different?
 
SaddleTramp said:
Sometimes stores like Wally-Mart and Canuck Tire store their inventory in unheated warehouses.QUOTE]

I spent three years working in the Canadian Tire A.J. Billes Distribution Centre, which handles over 4 billion dollars worth of retail goods per year, and I can assure you it is heated. I don't think I ever saw the temperature drop below maybe 15 degrees. It is not air conditioned, though, and can pretty easily exceed 35 in the rafters, but all the ammo is kept in a cage on ground level, which doesn't get quite so hot.
Click to expand...
 
curtmg said:
This is only what the guy at WSS told me, so take it for what it is. But he said in the bulk packs the rounds get banged around alot, this causes some rounds to compress.
Click to expand...

I've concluded more or less the same thing but I think it may be more than just compressing powder. I've noticed that if I drop a .22 RF cartridge it will likely be a flier if I pick it up and shoot it. This must be because the bullet has been shifted in the case and is not longer exactly concentric. I think that jarring around the loose cartridges in a bulk pack shifts some of the bullets out of concentricity as well, leading to reduced accuracy.

If you look at good ammo the bullets are suspended in a frame so they can't get banged around. There must be a good reason for that. I find that Federal Classic shoots a bit better for me than Federal Champion. I doubt that there is much difference in how they are made so the difference in accuracy must result from the bulk packaging instead of the careful separation or rounds in the plastic box of the Classic.
 
Bold Badger said:
...I once spoke to a Federal rep and he said that the Federal bulk and the American Eagle were the same stuff, just packaged different?
Click to expand...

Maybe, but the stuff I tried sure shot different from each other. Maybe its correct that proper packaging protects the ammo. No flier in the AE ammo, and much larger pattern with the bulk pack in my little test.
 
Grizzlypeg, I never checked it out, but just took his word for it. I am not a fan of the bulk feds even though I have found them to be accurate in one of my rifles which seem to like them. For gophers I like a big hollow and am willing to give up a hair of accuracy. For me, win 40 grain power points seem to give me the best of both accuracy and thump. The new ones are packed in plastic 100s and each round is separated.
 
Not different?

Bold Badger said:
Accuracy wise, my old C.I.L. Anschutz shot really well with that cheap Federal bulk stuff. My problem with the same stuff was that the bullet was more of a dimple and not a very good hollow point.

I once spoke to a Federal rep and he said that the Federal bulk and the American Eagle were the same stuff, just packaged different?
Click to expand...

Federal Bulk in the 525 packs is a 36 grain bullet, the American Eagles HP are 38 gr and the solids are 40 grain, so in no way are they the same, except for length!
Every single .22 that I have , which is many, has its own ammo preference for best grouping at 25 or 50 meters. Now that said, most all of my 22's will kill a gopher with just about any rim fire ammo available.
I got a good buy on some American eagles, 38 gr HP, which just happened to shoot well in my 2 favorite 22 rifles, a pair of BRNO model 2E's. Could I spend more money and find a round that grouped even better for these rifles, absolutely.
But in my case its about having fun and shooting gophers, and this ammo serves that purpose.
I have experimented with the Paco Tool and you can certainly improve the performance of 22 HP's with this tool, by enlarging the hollow point. Improved ammo to me makes a louder thud when it hits hairy flesh, almost like 22 mag does. FS
 
American Eagle 38 grain copper plated hollow points appear in all ways identical to Federal Game-Shok High velocity 38 copper plated hollow points. My only question is why AE's are sold in packs of 40? Both shot very well out of my CZ452 american.

I'm not saying the bulk ammo is junk. Its a reasonable bargain at its price, but it doesn't have the accuracy in my gun that the others do.
 
Grizzly and FS are probably right. The bulk pack that I was thinking about were 550s sold by wally. They worked well in my C.I.L. and I went through quite a few pacs. I was impressed enough to tell the fed rep (Rick B.) and he told me that they were the same as AE? I only tried one box of AE from peavy and didn't buy any more when I found that they were 40/400 pacs.
 
New Federal .22 ammo for automatics

I saw on Guns and Ammo show tonight that Federal have come out with a new bulk pack (350 rounds) for automatics which have a muzzle velocity of 1200 fps which federal say is the sweet spot for both accuarcy and best cyclying in the .22 rimfire.

I haven't seen any of this stuff but it may take a while to filter into canada.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom