Who shoots crappy ammo the best

Yotarunner said:
For those of you saying I should just shoot the good quality stuff il just throw this out there for perspective. I'm not shooting a few squirrels here and there I'm doing high volume eradication work. Depending on the year my numbers go up and down but as a whole I'm usually good for almost a full case of 22 between me and my wife.
Numbers based of a case (5000 rounds) no solids only hollow points for gophers.
CCI mini mag $918
Eley HV HP $1300
Cci segmented HP $800
Federal champion HP $650
Work provided ammo $30 in cleaning supplies due to the dirty cheap ammo.
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I'm surprised you wouldn't consider a Semi for what you're doing. Especially with free ammo. I've got over a dozen 22's, some for competitive shooting, some for speed, and some for fun.

the only bolt guns that come out are the 17's. for high volume shooting I'd never consider using a bolt for the day. On a few occasions we've shot more than a brick between my dad and I without ever moving the truck, and having to go home early because we burned through two bricks of 22 and a brick of 17 before lunch. the last few years hasn't been great for gophers in my area so the match rifles have come out a few times for some long range fun. But for high volume? forget about it. I've tried and tested most commerically available ammo for sale in Canada. My preference for gophers is the CCI segmented HP's as well. but that gets pricey. Federal offerings make it out quite often too.
 
Craig0ry said:
I'm surprised you wouldn't consider a Semi for what you're doing. Especially with free ammo. I've got over a dozen 22's, some for competitive shooting, some for speed, and some for fun.

the only bolt guns that come out are the 17's. for high volume shooting I'd never consider using a bolt for the day. On a few occasions we've shot more than a brick between my dad and I without ever moving the truck, and having to go home early because we burned through two bricks of 22 and a brick of 17 before lunch. the last few years hasn't been great for gophers in my area so the match rifles have come out a few times for some long range fun. But for high volume? forget about it. I've tried and tested most commerically available ammo for sale in Canada. My preference for gophers is the CCI segmented HP's as well. but that gets pricey. Federal offerings make it out quite often too.
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Well I actually have a dolled up 10/22 but the Mrs has claimed it as her own 😂 I prefer a bolt gun cause it helps me stop and assess between shots. The semi I find myself getting caught up taking excessive makeup shots and then coincidentally loading mags too often 😂
Love shooting it but I find for everyday gopher stuff I prefer the bolt gun
As for ammo I fully agree. If I could afford to shoot all segmented HP i would.
 
In my Ruger semi auto gopher gun it prefers the Win. Hp bulk ammo over the Federal Hp bulk ammo. You still have to try which ammo works best in a given gun though. The bulk ammo isn't match grade by any means but the Win. bulk ammo delivers minute of gopher accuracy in my gun. 👍
 
My CZ 457 Likes Winny hollow points. MV is higher than Federal. Gophers blow up almost as good as Stingers.

Had more duds with Federal. Vortex 2-7 Crossfire works great for what I do.

I have plastic stock my son has wood CZ with longer barrel. Both shoot cheap ammo fine.

Buddy just bought Bergara 22. I sure like my Bergara 17 HMR. You get 2 mags with the gun, better stock and a rail over a CZ. I’d imagine they shoot well too.
 
Crappy ammo is Crappy ammo but my experience with CCI SV and Blazer in my Tikka T1X proved accurate for gopher requirements.
Both were about 1"+ at 100 yards and using the various reticle stadia for varying distances.
That said, a competitor at 100 metres tried Federal Target 1250 fps. His Vudoo could not keep the shots inside the 3" scoring ring.
He switched to Blazer and was able to keep his shots inside the 3" ring.
 
horseman2 is absolutely right. Crappy ammo is Crappy ammo. Some may be less crappy than others.

The important thing to remember is that, like any .22LR ammo, the quality varies throughout a batch.

Bulk HV ammo will have a lot of variation. Some (a few) rounds will be more consistent than others, some will be wildly inconsistent. Most will be in between.
 
horseman2 said:
Crappy ammo is Crappy ammo but my experience with CCI SV and Blazer in my Tikka T1X proved accurate for gopher requirements.
Both were about 1"+ at 100 yards and using the various reticle stadia for varying distances.
That said, a competitor at 100 metres tried Federal Target 1250 fps. His Vudoo could not keep the shots inside the 3" scoring ring.
He switched to Blazer and was able to keep his shots inside the 3" ring.
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Id love to shoot blaser. I always have decent luck with them in my guns but on gophers I find solids just aren't effective enough. Way too many runners and "did I hit that?" With hollow points there's a lot more of an audible report from the hit along with faster death.
 
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Yotarunner said:
Id love to shoot blaser. I always have decent luck with them in my guns but on gophers I find solids just aren't effective enough. Way too many runners and "did I hit that?" With hollow points there's a lot more of an audible report from the hit along with faster death.
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My son & I can be shooting, with ear pro, and can hear the whack with Winchester HP ammo to know whether each of us are hitting or missing. There are very few runners. Blows up gophers similar to Stingers.

I should see if I can get local store to get a case for me to buy.
 
I picked up a Savage FV-SR in 22LR with the short barrel when WSS went under. Got it for $110. Honestly I really detest anything from Savage for a lengthy list of reasons but I figured it would make a good extra and it could get bashed around behind the truck seat. It turned out to be a great shooter. I always favoured Yellow Jackets and Velocitors in my good rifles but this Savage keeps nearly any cheap ammo shooting tightly.
 
i use probably the most bad mouthed 22 ammo out there,Remington Thunderbolts,i have a ton of it,bought it originaly because it was $20.00 a brick,yes.about 8 years ago,LOL.
but i my older rifles,i have a bunch of nice Mossbergs,that stuff gives me dime size ragged hole often,BUT it is the brick stuff,not the loose bulk stuff,i also have a bunch of that stuff,it's hit and miss what you get,not always to accurate with more flyers,but it's cheap plinking stuff,
i have a lot of almost every popular 22 ammo out there,but this thunderbolt stuff out shoots it all for some reason,even tried out Lapua stuff one time in one of my Mossberg 144LSB's once,which was Mossberg's top target rifle at the time,and groups were bigger than the crappy Thunderbolts,so there really is something to testing various ammo,not sure why,but all my older Mossbergs shoot the cheap stuff better,
 
I have a savage mk 2 fv-sr and like it quite a lot, not a fan of the factory stock at all but I've read a lot of people spray foam the hollow core and it changes the feel considerably. It's just very light feeling and it's odd attached to such a sturdy feeling action.
 
I use a Cortina Tuner V2 - you can easily dial-in ammo to shoot ... thats the Purpose of a Tuner ✔️ Then buy ammo based on cost/savings/availability etc or then use the stuff the Farmer gives you for Gophers

Shooting flys landing on target patches or shooting 'designs' with perfect measurements is rimfire fun
 
9.3 Hunter said:
I use a Cortina Tuner V2 - you can easily dial-in ammo to shoot ... thats the Purpose of a Tuner ✔️ Then buy ammo based on cost/savings/availability etc or then use the stuff the Farmer gives you for Gophers
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Wouldn't it be great if a rimfire tuner turned the "crappy ammo" of this thread into something else? You could use inexpensive bulk ammo and shoot it like it's not inaccurate because of what it is.

This is the dream of shooters looking for improvement. Get a tuner and, like Rumpelstiltskin, it will turn straw into gold. If it sounds incredible it's because it is.

If an off ramp is needed, the suggestion that a tuner will make inconsistent ammo into good ammo may be seen as an April Fools joke (today is April first).

The other alternative is to find the rifle that shoots all .22LR ammo, regardless of make or cost, into small one hole groups at 50 yards.
 
S-mike - Buying from Cabelas is a poor guide to pricing, as is CanTire pricing. If that's all you can find, maybe get a few friends to 'pool' and buy a $300+ bunch of 'good ammo' from one of the Sponsor/vendors that have free shipping. And watch GP for 'deals', too. I used to buy 'practice ammo' SK-Magazine for 450/500; now vendors have it ca $125/500 ! ! Just a little less than CCI-SV.
IMO A tuner can give 'cheap ammo' a little 'better average' accuracy, but you'll still have the fliers that make Cheap ammo a poor choice. As said, "TANSTAAFL".
 
Here's why a tuner won't help. If tuners work to achieve positive compensation that means they cause slower and faster rounds to have a similar POI. In other words, they work to mitigate differences in MV between rounds. They don't "fix" other problems.

Unfortunately, inexpensive ammo is inaccurate not only because of its typical wide variation in MV but because of inconsistencies in the other factors that go into .22LR ammo performance. These include variation in primer, variation in bullet seating and crimping pressure, as well as variation bullet shape, form. The delicate yet very important bullet heel is especially at risk of imperfection with inexpensive ammos.

Ammo with these kinds of problems (cheaper ammo usually has them in spades) can't be cured by a tuner because a tuner does what it does only on MV.

While more expensive .22LR match ammo isn't immune from these kinds of problems, they have less of them.
 
Tuners only work when there is a fundamental mismatch between the bullet exit timing and the barrel's vibration cycle, but the ammo is of sufficient consistency to be capable of producing the desired results.

Backed up by real world results, I spent several days testing every possible configuration with a Harrell's tuner and the weight set you can purchase for it. The case of SK Semi-Auto I bought last year, is quite possibly the worst ammo I've ever had. I've had Remington Thunderbolt shoot better. What I found: No amount of weight or setting resulted in a noticeable improvement in this rifle with this ammo. The ammo is bad, the results were bad, and there was nothing I could do about it.

I'm still waiting to get my hands on good ammo so I can at some point demonstrate the opposite, where the tuner DOES work to improve results significantly. That scenario is much more difficult to gather solid data on.
 
Speaking of ammo performance, interesting results out the Crossno liners. The way they install (possible due the dampening effects) or how they are chambered or whatever, they don’t seem to be as sensitive as my single-shot rifles are to cheaper ammo.
 
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