Winchester bulk - the whinging continues :p

fat tony

fat tony

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I had some of this that I had picked up at Hnatiuks last fall. I was going to buy more than one box, but thought better of it.

In any case, finished it off yesterday at the range (good riddance).

The rifle used to dispose of them was a a Squires Bingham 20 which are known to be quite reliable as long as you feed them .22 LR high velocity with a bit of extra chutzhpah. If you have never seen one, they are marked: ".22LR High Velocity only" on the magazines.

Types of failures experienced:

  • rifle fouled very quickly around the breech / chamber / ejector / firing pin area.
  • light firing pin strikes after firing for some time. I think the most likely cause would be excessive fouling of the firing pin and recess.
  • stovepipes.
  • I tried taking off the ejection port case deflector but this did not make a difference.

If I was thinking I would have taken along a single shot .22 to aid in troubleshooting the ammo, but did not bring one.

Possible reasons for the excessive fouling with this ammunition.

  1. Maybe Winchester is cheaping out with their .22lr priming. If there is less priming mixture in there, and if it is of a lower quality than before the shortage, then it could account for a cooler, dirtier burn of the powder charge.
  3. Might have to do some further work on polishing the internals of my S&B (friction reduction measure). I have heard it is best to run the S&B dry.
  5. Stick to Federal if I can ever find it again. Federal bulk .22lr seemed to be of a higher quality than the current Winchester bulk .22lr.
  7. Take a second look at my .22 bolt actions Lol.


Regards, Tony
 
My box (333s I think?) has lasted forever....don't have a gun that likes them. (and they've all tried it) Cruddy stuff, always available though...so I had to try it in spite of it's reputation.
 
The cheapest of the cheap, for a reason.

A box of 555 Winchester bulk sometimes seems to end up with either 222 or 333 of them duds. This, I suspect, is why they split them up into those smaller boxes. Now just need to figure out which box has the good ones in it lol!

Besides reliability of ignition, we got accuracy, fouling, and the loosest projectiles I ever see. I get more bullets hung up feeding in a semi and cutting the lead on the chamber edge.

If you have a S&W Model 17 revolver with its characteristically tight chambers, you will find you need to place each round in, then push it all the way down, then give an extra push on each to ensure it's seated fully. Otherwise the cylinder might bind with a small amount of protrusion of the bases, or even give light strikes since the rim isn't supported on the anvil side. Extraction will also not be pleasant. Decent ammo slides right in.

Don't get me wrong, I buy it at the rock-bottom Wal*Mart price when I see it, but that's just a commentary on the .22 situation as a whole.
 
B said:
I wouldn't say it's the most accurate ammo I have used but it runs as close to 100% as I think it gets with bulk rimfire.
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You are the only person singing their praises so far. Could you tell us more as to why you find them satisfactory?

Next time out I will be trying some Winchester Super X. That stuff disappears from the shelves much faster than Winchester bulk, which may be a hint as to its relative quality.

rodregier said:
I've had fairly good success with the Winchester Dynapoints in the past.
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I fired quite a few boxes of that in the past several years. I believe the hoard I had was pre Obama hysteria, so I don't know how it compares. I don't have any ideas where Winchester Dynapoint is going, but I dont see any around. Yesterday I was going to try a few boxes of Remington Yellowjacket, but time was against me.

In a perfect world we would be able to purchase good quality rounds like Yellowjacket, Viper, Velocitor, and Stinger.

^Imo this short list is probably some of the rare ammunition types that will operate the S&B as intended.

Back in the 1990s, you could get Armscor .22 ammunition, it would be very nice to see it for sale here again. IMO they know how to load ammo to get it to work in an Armscor rifle.
 
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It runs fine in all of my guns, I have taken plenty of gophers and two badgers with it as well. I am hardly singing its praises or whatever but it runs good for me. I wish I could be running CCI like I was before the nonsense began but that's simply not an option these days.
 
Tony give some of the Aquilla hv try available at CT clayton park .I ran a box through my 10 22 yesterday .accuracy was good and it cycled 100% and ejection was strong .
 
I usually only shoot .22 offhand at steel targets for practice, never really shoot it for groups to see how accurate it is, but it all cycles fine in my 10 22 and my old Mossberg semi. I also have a Marlin lever and a Cooey bolt, none seem to complain about any of the bulk ammo, very few ftfs in any of them. Go figure...
 
B said:
It runs fine in all of my guns, I have taken plenty of gophers and two badgers with it as well. I am hardly singing its praises or whatever but it runs good for me. I wish I could be running CCI like I was before the nonsense began but that's simply not an option these days.
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Are all of your guns bolt action? I am assuming bolt actions & other types of repeaters will eat more stuff. We are talking apples and oranges here, if you know what I mean.
 
The quality of Winchester rimfire ammo has gone to sh!t. So many duds these days and their 17 HMR is just scary. I've gotten sealed boxes with projectiles pushed into the case or just laying loose in the bottom of package (but no powder anywhere) and the ones that can be fired split the necks about 40% of the time. I'll never spend another dime on Winchester rimfire ammo.
 
I have a CZ 452 varmint in 22 lr. The Winchester 555/333/222/ works very well in it as well.
Seems that all who are shooting CZ rifles report positively on that brand of bulk.
 
My club is using a bunch if it for our Jr .22 program.

It's giving us fits when shot from the Savage Mk I's. One round in 6 needs to be pried out of the chamber like it's glued in place. Some other guns seem to be that way too.

But the Ruger 10/22's that a few bring along to use eat it just fine. And my Henry that I take along for them to shoot also eats it just fine.

The issue seems to be an excess of the wrong sort of wax on the cases. I made some of the ammo a little less prone to sticking by rubbing it iightly between two layers of paper towel lightly dampened with oil paint thinner. This made the cases noticeably less waxy feeling. It also reduced the number of stickings to around 1:15. So it did help but didn't cure the issue.

We've used the Winchester bulk before and never had this sort of problem. It's only on the current batch. The problem is that we've got another 5K or 6K of it to use up....That's a LOT of stuck casings.
 
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