plinking ammo ( looking for bulk but decent quality )

No Remington,no Winchester. CCi sv goes on sale regularly as does their mini mags,that’s the cheapest I’ll buy. My guns love SK so I keep watching for sales
 
M22 runs flawlessly in my 10/22's, but often have FTE in my Bolt Savage B22 (poor rim???). However, M22's are only worth it when it's on sale at ~$0.07/round. At retail, I'll rather pay the extra $0.01/round for the CCI MiniMags.
 
I used to use the m22 lots in my 22s until it was recalled a couple years ago.. have since bought more but find it just sits in the safe.. cci mini mags are a bit more expensive but still my go to for bulk plinking/hunting ammo.. the federal auto match (white box) 325 rnd boxes for $30 also runs very well in my 22s and is decently accurate
 
I use quite a bit of winchester m22, runs very well in my 10/22. But in all honesty just buy CCI, it is great ammo. Is not much more than most bulk and imagine will see much better grouping consistency with it.
 
A friend gave me his boxes of Winchester 333 to use, and rounds went all over the place or malfunctioned in my Marlin 795 or GSG 1911. Granted this stuff sat for a year or two. Found more duds than I was used to. Would stovepipe or failure to chamber the first two rounds in my 1911-22 frequently. I thought something was wrong with my firearms, so I started loading up CCI Blazer 525 like I was accustomed to. All of a sudden they started shooting straight again. I politely gave the box of Winchester 333 back. It's possible they work great when minty fresh. One of my friends uses them in his Marlin 60. Possibly in his GSG 1911 too, but I know he runs aftermarket springs and his pistol is broken in.

CCI Blazer worked well until I started shooting rimfire gongs at 100 m. Then they splattered and shredded the paper targets on either side of my gong. So now I spend the extra two cents a round for copper plated round nose bullets on my CCI AR Tactical. Feed happily in my semi autos. But once I lose my cheap supply of them, I'll probably try Federal American Eagle 38gr copper hollow point for about the price I'm paying now.

I do like keeping a small open top box to dump the CCI cartridges out of the trays for easy pickup. Like a box formerly used to hold Winchester.
 
Shot my 10/22 carbine in a Speed Steel shoot yesterday.
CCI MiniMags, Blazer, and American Eagle all mixed up. The CCI MM's are thrown in so the advancement of the bullets can be tracked in the Butler Creek speed loader . . .
While the Remington Thunderbolts have been previously tested my best guess is I have run out but around Xmas when they usually come back on sale for about 30 to 35$'s some will come home with me.
Not one misfire, no fail to ejects. The rifle is stock except for a "tuffer buffer".
The reputation of Winchester is such that it has never been tried in either of my 10/22's.
American Eagle round nose and Blazer are currently around $41 for 500 rounds and CCI MM's are around $11 or 12 for 100.
If buying a box of 50 and testing them for functionality is not within ones budget then I am preaching to the ill informed.
 
For general plinking all my bolts(don't own semi's) shoot CCI Blazer well enough. I also have bricks of AE lead RN but my bolts don't seen to be as accurate shooting this stuff.
CCI SV provides more consistent accuracy so I save it for my favourite rifle.....
 
Friend brought some Federal Champion 36 gr copper plated hollow point 525 round today. CCI AR Tactical had noticeably tighter groups, but the Champions were pretty good for the price. Fed, fired and extracted well in our bolt actions and semi-autos today.
 
Last edited:
CCI MiniMag is the best bulk ammo in my books - well worth the money.
I found Federal Champion Value Pack comes very close - very reliable and groups almost as good as MiniMag in my 10/22. Federal Automatch is complete junk on the other hand...
 
The xt22vr is the heavy barrel right? If so I have the same one and as far as bulk ammo it likes and shoots well, it likes Federal American eagle, Federal auto match, CCI mini mags, CCI Blazer, Aguila hv and standard. It will shoot most bulk I’ve run through it but the ones I’ve listed shoot the most accurately, with the American Eagle and Mini mags I can almost succeed in the 1/2” groups at 50y challenge. I’ll have 4 out of five at a 1/2” or less and then pull a shot or have a flier lol. It’s a great little rifle, I really enjoy shooting it.
 
yeah i got the heavy barrel. i have no complaints on the winchester in the way of accuracy, much the same to you i can knock the center out of the target sheet without issue. however its just a consistent issue with chambering and pulling the brass back out of the barrel. i did not have any issues with cci and other higher end brands. just wanted your guys opinions on a cheap but good shooter. something that works well in a semi should be perfect in the bolt action.

thanks for all the input.
 
84wankel said:
however its just a consistent issue with chambering and pulling the brass back out of the barrel.

thanks for all the input.
Click to expand...

I had this happen initially when I first got it, mainly with Winchester ammo. What solved it was a thorough chamber cleaning, I used a brass brush that fit tighter in the chamber and then a good soak in cleaning solvent with a patch. A couple rounds of this cleared out whatever factory lube and crud was in there, I notice the odd fte a spent shell on any ammo with a heavy wax lube on the bullet after shooting lots but it’s about 1-2 in a trip to the range. It always extracts on the second cycling of the bolt, hope this helps a bit.
 
84wankel said:
yeah i got the heavy barrel. i have no complaints on the winchester in the way of accuracy, much the same to you i can knock the center out of the target sheet without issue. however its just a consistent issue with chambering and pulling the brass back out of the barrel. i did not have any issues with cci and other higher end brands. just wanted your guys opinions on a cheap but good shooter. something that works well in a semi should be perfect in the bolt action.

thanks for all the input.
Click to expand...

The Winchester gray box stuff is the most dimensionally inconsistent crap around. I run mine through a waltz die @.225 without the eps tip or hollow point adapter and the amount of drag varies quite a bit as it swages the bullet down to size, most anything else doesn't even touch the walls until it is upset with a hollow point etc. Doing so makes the groups a fair bit tighter (30%) even though its only plinking stuff.
Hard to go wrong with CCI blazer, Standard velocity or mini mags .
 
Butcherbill said:
I had this happen initially when I first got it, mainly with Winchester ammo. What solved it was a thorough chamber cleaning, I used a brass brush that fit tighter in the chamber and then a good soak in cleaning solvent with a patch. A couple rounds of this cleared out whatever factory lube and crud was in there, I notice the odd fte a spent shell on any ammo with a heavy wax lube on the bullet after shooting lots but it’s about 1-2 in a trip to the range. It always extracts on the second cycling of the bolt, hope this helps a bit.
Click to expand...

i scrubbed it down pretty good before i used it, especially the barrel. i now have just under 1000 rounds through the thing. 200 ish rounds of the winX left before i start shooting the other stuff full stop.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom