What the next best load for .22 semi pistols if no CCI?

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av80r

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I have a new semi on its way. I have read that a lot of the .22 pistols are ammo sensitive.

If no stingers or mini mags can be found anywhere near me, what is a decent alternative? Any suggestions?

I can find thunderbolts (never liked them), winchester m22 bulk , remington regular bulk, american eagle 40pk, and federal target bulk. All are in the 1200fps range. Any tips on what might feed ok? Will be most bummed if my new .22 pistol shows and I have a million fte and ftf issues. Been looking for mini mags for a couple weeks...no joy....I am not paying .15 a shell for 22s

Thanks.
 
I've had good luck with Federal, even the hollow points seem to feed well. I've heard the Federal Auto-Match is pretty decent, but it's a lubed round and apparently feeds and ejects pretty smoothly. Again, I haven't tried it yet, so don't write it in stone.
 
Which semi-auto handgun are you getting? Make sure you give it a good detail cleaning, especially the rails and slides (or bolt).

I've been doing some testing of various .22 ammo on a few of my handguns and even ran test shots over my chrono to see what the actual velocity was.

Net was with a light reciprocating mass like the bolt on my ruger 22/45, it runs ANYTHING! For something with a heavier slide like my K22 X-Trim, it was happiest on 40gr ammo and speed was not as big a factor as I thought it would be. It was of course fine on Mini-mags that chrono'd at avg'd 1043 fps, but was also great with Blazer at 996 fps. Surprisingly it completely sucked with American Eagle 40gr that avg'd 1040fps.

BCrider raised an interesting point in another thread that powder burn rate is important. The slower burning powder may result in a longer sustained push on the slide/bolt. I have no idea how to measure that though lol

Btw - the next best ammo I found for a heavy slide was Winchester M22. But as most people will tell you, buy a brick of a couple of different types and test it out before you start buying cases of it :)
 
Blazer has been working flawlessly in my wife's Ruger MKIII, since the normal Ruger break-in point has been passed.
It also runs well on Federal 525 bulk copper-washed 36gr HP.
 
Federals are best, then Thunderbolts. A round-nosed bullet works best so avoid those pointy cone-shaped tips except for the old Wildcats which had more power and seemed to work better than I expected.

Flush things out with something like WD, then if Federals don't work perfectly, a little WD on your hands as you load clips will help things run properly.
 
I bought a issc m22. Looked at a few of the small .22 pistols and it was a tough call. Walther and sig mosquito seem to have even worse reports for fte and ftf. The smith m&p looked pretty good but costs a lot more. Lots of guys like the issc as long as you feed it high velocity stuff.

Will see. For $300 new, seemed like a good deal and lots of fun to teach my son to shoot with. Been shopping all over and there is a decent supply of .22 around town but no CCI to be found anywhere..... Grrr..
 
Depends on the spring set-up in your semi.Too light and slide will smack frame,too heavy and failure to feed and eject.Most have a medium spring set-up.My Browning Buckmark will get 10 rounds (full clip)in a pop can bottom diameter bulls-eye at, 25 yards on a sandbag, with Federal Auto-Match.American Eagle is pretty good also.Winchester bulk feeds fine but not so good for accuracy.The bulk Federal is so-so for accuracy also.I find that the lighter the bullet (36-38 grains) is quicker but accuracy drops.The best is 40 grain round nose with a tad slower speed for accuracy.Don't even get into ELEY,RWS ,Lapuna ammo unless you are loaded...:onCrack:
 
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