Sig Mosquito Report

Rimfire

Rimfire

Regular
Rating - 100%
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Location
Abbotsford, BC
Hey everyone

I just got a Sig Mosquito as a B-day gift! I've seen lots of "don't get one" threads out there, but I have to say, this is one sweet little .22 autoloader.

People have mentioned that it's ammo fussy and they're right. It doesn't like garbage ammo. I did some comparisons between the fussy mosquito and my take anything you throw at it Ruger. I found that crap ammo was crap in either gun, so the Sig is not as bad as you think

Here are the results of my on going ammo test, ranging from Very Good to Fair or Poor

So far I have tried:

Federal Bulk Pack - 525 rounds copper plated HP - Fair
Federal Champion - Lead round nosed - Fair
CCI Stinger - Poor (cycles action well, but mags don't like them)
Remington Thunderbolt - Very Good!
Remington Yellowjacket - Very Good!
Standard Remington .22 High Velocity - Very Good!
Winchester Bulk Pack - 500 rounds Lead RN - PISS POOR

So far anything that says Remington on the box has performed almost flawlessly. It is cheap, has enough power to cycle the action properly, and the magazines have no problems feeding. These were the only rounds that could be loaded to ten and not have problems

The federal stuff is powerful enough as well, but there are always a few weak rounds in the bulk packs, and there are occasional feed problems

The CCI Stingers do not go into the magazine without a fight, so they naturally don't want to come out either

The Winchester stuff was just too weak to cycle properly and the spent casings were getting jammed in the barrel so it couldn't be ejected. Pure crap in either gun I found.

Please post any of your own findings with ammo, or if you have any performance tips!

Thanks!
 
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I have the stainless version, here she is!

sig001small.jpg
 
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Yeah! They don't run well in the gun, but they make for a pretty picture!

By the way Ghostie, that was a kick arse thread, sorry I didn't link to it. I was hoping to raise "ammo awareness" for fellow Mosquito users. Do you have any other recomended brands?
 
I tried my friends mosquito with some thunderbolt and some other cheap ammo . With thunderbolt it worked flawlessly even though i can get a brick for 14$ . But with other cheap ammo and even remington targets it didnt cycle as well .
 
Rimfire said:
Yeah! They don't run well in the gun, but they make for a pretty picture!

By the way Ghostie, that was a kick arse thread, sorry I didn't link to it. I was hoping to raise "ammo awareness" for fellow Mosquito users. Do you have any other recomended brands?
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For the Mosquito, I have generally used CCI Mini-mags or those Federal "Game-Shok" rounds that come in the Mini-mag style 100 round boxes and are obviously made by CCI. The gun should work flawlessly with these rounds.

CCI Velocitor is a somewhat heavier and faster version of the Mini-mag. These work well too. I have not had any problems with CCI Stingers in my Mosquito or P22 or my girlfriend's 22/45. I find these to be more of a "for fun" round, as they are louder and sometimes you get some really nice muzzle flashes.

All of the above are premium rounds that are 7 cents each or more. For cheap rounds I find CCI "Standard Velocity" to be a good reliable round. last time I found them, they were $22.99 for 500 or something like that (4.5 cents each). Unfortunately I have not been able to find any of these in the stores lately. Same goes for CCI "Blazer" .22LR and Remington "Thunderbolt". Where have these bulk boxes gone? I don't find "Blazer" and "Thunderbolt" to be as good as "Standard Velocity", but they are decent rounds and they are a bit cheaper (3 cents each instead of 4.5).

The bulk box that I have been using the last two weeks is the Federal "Champion" 525 round box for $15.99 (3 cents each). The ammo is a 36 grain copper plated hollow point. I have only used this with the P22 so far, and it has worked surprisingly well. I've only had one problem - which was a dud - in about 800 rounds so far.

Normally I think that .22LR ammo under the "American Eagle" name (a brand of Federal) really sucks. The normal lead American Eagle stuff does indeed suck, lots of duds and misfires, but I have tried some new stuff which comes in boxes of 40 which has the name "Copper plated high velocity" on it. This stuff has also been surprisingly good. It is not exactly the same as the Federal "Champion" stuff (the hollow-point is bigger, for one thing), but it seems to be pretty close.

I find Remington "Gameloads" to be a crap round for pistols. My girlfriend and I have also had sometimes as many as 10-15 duds in a box of 400 - plus, they don't feed as reliably as other brands.

So, in general my recommendations for ammo for these pistols...

1. Lead sucks. The only lead round I've had good luck with is the CCI "Standard Velocity", and if you look closely at this round you'll see that it is smoother than most other .22LR lead rounds.

2. Copper plated is good. A smooth hard bullet surface makes lading more reliable than softer lead rounds.

3. CCI or CCI-made is always a good thing. Their stuff is in a different class from the other .22LR rounds as far as I am concerned.

4. Generally I like the higher velocity rounds, but the CCI "Standard Velocity" (1000 ft/sec vs. 1400 ft/sec for some of the high velocity rounds) shows me that velocity is not the key issue.

5. You get what you pay for. If you buy Mini-mags, you will do fine but they are more than twice as much as "normal" .22LR rounds. I like to hunt for bargains that work well though, as I go through a lot .22LR ammo when shooting these pistols.

Here are some photos that I've taken from another post I did awhile back:

Left to right (in both photos) are:
CCI Velocitor
CCI Mini-Mag HP
CCI Mini-Mag
CCI Blazer
CCI Standard Velocity
Remington Gameloads
Remington Thunderbolt
rimfire1.jpg

rimfire2.jpg


More pics... left to right:
CCI Stinger
CCI Velocitor
CCI Mini-Mag HP
CCI Standard Velocity

All good ammo to blast away with using a P22!
rimfire_4.jpg

rimfire_5.jpg

Notice that the Stingers have a longer case that pretty much every other .22LR.
rimfire_3.jpg
 
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Thanks Ghostie

I probably shouldn't have said anything with Remington on the box is good, cuz I've only tried the ones listed!

I like the CCI stuff too, but I found Thunderbolt worked just as well if not better, and cost way less. They're hot little rounds and the lead is well polished (as the pictures show). I think the Stingers are actually longer than the rest of the rounds overall, so my magazines don't like them :(

If you're a local Abbotsford guy, Hub Sports has a pretty good selection of .22 ammo. If they don't have what you're looking for they can get it in within a day (so they tell me) Their prices seem to be very fair. Just google them, they have a website

If that doesn't work, SIR lists Thunderbolt on their website for around $20.00 for 500.

Happy Shooting!
 
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PS I heard the reason that ammo is hard to come by is that 95% of the production is for the extremely busy U.S. Military. I've been having problems tracking down good bulk ammo myself.
 
Are you sure it isn't Zinc?

This was the reason why people were slaggin the Mosquito (Aluminum would have been better, but more expensive).

Looks good though!



Rimfire said:
I have the stainless version, here she is!

sig001small.jpg
Click to expand...
 
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I've read that it is Zinc, but it's not supposed to be a problem with a light round like the .22. I guess aluminum would be a good alternative, but we'll see how it stands up to the test of time. I still freakin' love the thing!
 
Rimfire. Thank you for the info on ammo. I just got my mosquito yesterday and havn't had a chance to hear her bark. I was a little worried reading all the negative comments about the gun. A question though...did you use the utility spring or the heavier spring that came with the pistol when you did the test?
 
Rimfire. Thank you for the info on ammo. I just got my mosquito yesterday and havn't had a chance to hear her bark. I was a little worried reading all the negative comments about the gun. A question though...did you use the utility spring or the heavier spring that came with the pistol when you did the test?
 
Rimfire. Thank you for the info on ammo. I just got my mosquito yesterday and havn't had a chance to hear her bark. I was a little worried reading all the negative comments about the gun. A question though...did you use the utility spring or the heavier spring that came with the pistol when you did the test?
 
deuce_wild said:
Rimfire. Thank you for the info on ammo. I just got my mosquito yesterday and havn't had a chance to hear her bark. I was a little worried reading all the negative comments about the gun. A question though...did you use the utility spring or the heavier spring that came with the pistol when you did the test?
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Don't use the heavy (shorter) spring. It sucks. Even with the most smokin' high velocity cartridges it does not help anything and makes the gun more prone to malfunction.
 
Hey Deuce, just like Ghostie says, use the lighter spring. Even with the heavier loads like stingers it will work just fine.

I just picked up two bricks of Remington Thunderbolt, so I'll soon find out if my theory is correct!

Don't get discouraged. You will probably have a few hickups if you're using the wrong ammo. Your gun may be different from mine, so just buy a couple of boxes of every type you can get and find the one it likes. Even when the gun is not having a perfect day, I still get a kick out of using it!!
 
I test fired my newly acquired Mosquito today and like Rimfire, I love this pistol! With the exception of few hiccups, the gun function well. I had 3 different ammos with me today, the Federal Value Pack, CCI Mini Mag and Winchester Wild Cat.

I had more problems with the Wildcat than the other two. For some reason, the pistol would not properly feed after I fire the first round in Double Action mode. The empty casing is ejected but the chamber remains empty. I suspect that the slide was pushed far enough to eject the case, #### the gun but not far enough to pick up the next rounds. I had no such problems when fire in Single Action mode. I must add that this problem occurs about 20% of the time and that I was using the Heavy/Short recoil spring. When switched to the Light/Longer recoil spring, everything is back to normal.

As with the other rounds, no problems with the CCI Mini Mag, either in Light or Heavy spring. The Federal Value pack caused some stove pipe jam a couple of times when used the Heavy recoil spring.

Overall, it is a great pistol. Great for plinking and teaching newbies.
 
Hey Deuce,

Glad to hear it's going well for you. I'm sure your gun will let you know what ammo it likes soon enough.

People complain about the reliability and accuracy sometimes, but I haven't heard one complaint about looks!

Happy shooting!
 
Update:

I have gone through almost an entire brick of Remington Thunderbolts and they have performed flawlessly. An awesome development considering a brick of these will only set you back $20.00!

I also tried using them with the heavier recoil spring and still had ZERO problems. The gun cycled perfectly and the heavier spring reduced the muzzle flip and felt recoil.
 
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