“Tactical Application” multiple .22LR ammo reviews
The scope of this little ‘test and show’, demonstration is to try and find an ammo brand which functions best for my personal training efforts. I do NOT use .22lr extensively; but, I’ve found that I can get good trigger time in along with some weapons manipulations too.
I set up small courses of fire and drills where I challenge myself to draw, move, reload and shoot in a variety of ways. I just try to ‘keep it fresh’. It’s like exercise or basketball, you have to keep trying and returning to the basics to maintain memory.
I wanted a .22lr round that would function reliably in.22lr kits and firearms that help me to train and also train operating under the least costs possible. Ammo may not be a free market commodity someday so I want to conserve the ‘real’ stuff and save some $$$.
In the past, after a major plant closed and my income tanked, I learned that spending $150 a range trip is just not feasible!
List:
Armscor Precision High Velocity hollow point 40gr.
CCI ‘Tactical’ .22lr
Federal Bulk (Wal Mart)
Eley Prime SSS Subsonic 60gr.
Eley Prime Superextra 40gr.
Firearms:
16” midlength, AR
Ruger 10/22
M22 ISSC Austrian Arms 22lr pistol
Ruger 22/45
Accuracy Test:
25 yards
10 rounds each
Bench rest off sandbags
3x9 scope turned to 9x
Slow fired
User reliability test:
AR15 CMMG kit, 26 rounds
Rapid fire (sight picture maintained—fired slow enough to keep on target—but rapid enough to test reliable function)
M22 10 rounds rapid fire
Ruger 10/22 rapid fire
Accuracy
Best group: (close race) Out of 16” AR 1 in 7 twist!!
1st place-Aguila Superextra 1.25” group
2nd place-Aquila SSS 60gr. 1.5” group
3rd Federal Bulk 1.75” group
4th place-CCI ‘tactical’ 1.85” group
5th Armscor Precision 2.40” group
Reliability
I documented how each manufacturer’s ammunition functioned under fast fire.
I used the CMMG kit in a FN Barreled, midlength AR15 upper.
Palmetto Rifle, AR15 with .22lr conversion kit.
Armscor Precision-10 round initial accuracy test, NO fail. No fails during fast firing in CMMG kit, whole magazine.
Federal Bulk- no initial 10 round test failure. There was 1 failure to eject correctly malfunction during fast firing.
CCI ‘Tactical’ had NO fails during accuracy tests and DID NOT malfunction during fast fire as well!
Eley Prime Aquila SSS –subsonic- 1 fail to eject. During the fast firing session the ammo simply demonstrated the inability to produce enough bolt movement to eject the spent casing. It was a complete fail.
Eley Prime Aquila Superextra- no failures during the accuracy testing. There were no failures during the rapid fire session either.
M22 ISSC Austrians Arms 22LR pistol
The second session consisted of loading the M22 magazine full and emptying it as fast as possible.
Armscor Precision would not feed, but would fire and eject if hand fed. It is a hollow point round and kept impacting the bottom of the feed ramp.
Federal Bulk ammo functioned fine.
CCI ‘Tactical’ functioned fine.
Aquila SSS 60gr. Ammo functioned fine.
Aquila Superextra functioned fine.
Ruger 10/22,Ruger 22/45 ALL ammo functioned in these two firearms as well.
Bottom line and for the money, Federal Bulk ammunition from WalMart is pretty much hard to beat. It was accurate in my AR conversion kit and it functioned ALMOST perfect in everything.
CCI ‘Tactical’, a few $$ more per box of 375 (versus the Federal at 575), DID function perfectly. Straight through all firearms, the AR15 conversion kit with 1x7” twist rate, the M22 pistol, the ammo fed, fired and ejected every round. This could not be said of the Federal bulk pack.
Interestingly, the CCI had a soft of film on each round. You can see it on the inside of the box. There were white spots on the inside of the box, sort of a ‘sticky’ texture. I am not for sure; but, I’m wondering if this is a coating to aid in feeding???
CCI ‘Tactical’, though more expensive, to me, is ALMOST, almost worth the money spent. For functionality alone, it WINS hands down.
If you don’t mind the $4 extra per box; and, if you can find the stuff locally to save on shipping, Pick it up!
If not, Federal Bulk is your guy.
The scope of this little ‘test and show’, demonstration is to try and find an ammo brand which functions best for my personal training efforts. I do NOT use .22lr extensively; but, I’ve found that I can get good trigger time in along with some weapons manipulations too.
I set up small courses of fire and drills where I challenge myself to draw, move, reload and shoot in a variety of ways. I just try to ‘keep it fresh’. It’s like exercise or basketball, you have to keep trying and returning to the basics to maintain memory.
I wanted a .22lr round that would function reliably in.22lr kits and firearms that help me to train and also train operating under the least costs possible. Ammo may not be a free market commodity someday so I want to conserve the ‘real’ stuff and save some $$$.
In the past, after a major plant closed and my income tanked, I learned that spending $150 a range trip is just not feasible!
List:
Armscor Precision High Velocity hollow point 40gr.
CCI ‘Tactical’ .22lr
Federal Bulk (Wal Mart)
Eley Prime SSS Subsonic 60gr.
Eley Prime Superextra 40gr.
Firearms:
16” midlength, AR
Ruger 10/22
M22 ISSC Austrian Arms 22lr pistol
Ruger 22/45
Accuracy Test:
25 yards
10 rounds each
Bench rest off sandbags
3x9 scope turned to 9x
Slow fired
User reliability test:
AR15 CMMG kit, 26 rounds
Rapid fire (sight picture maintained—fired slow enough to keep on target—but rapid enough to test reliable function)
M22 10 rounds rapid fire
Ruger 10/22 rapid fire
Accuracy
Best group: (close race) Out of 16” AR 1 in 7 twist!!
1st place-Aguila Superextra 1.25” group
2nd place-Aquila SSS 60gr. 1.5” group
3rd Federal Bulk 1.75” group
4th place-CCI ‘tactical’ 1.85” group
5th Armscor Precision 2.40” group
Reliability
I documented how each manufacturer’s ammunition functioned under fast fire.
I used the CMMG kit in a FN Barreled, midlength AR15 upper.
Palmetto Rifle, AR15 with .22lr conversion kit.
Armscor Precision-10 round initial accuracy test, NO fail. No fails during fast firing in CMMG kit, whole magazine.
Federal Bulk- no initial 10 round test failure. There was 1 failure to eject correctly malfunction during fast firing.
CCI ‘Tactical’ had NO fails during accuracy tests and DID NOT malfunction during fast fire as well!
Eley Prime Aquila SSS –subsonic- 1 fail to eject. During the fast firing session the ammo simply demonstrated the inability to produce enough bolt movement to eject the spent casing. It was a complete fail.
Eley Prime Aquila Superextra- no failures during the accuracy testing. There were no failures during the rapid fire session either.
M22 ISSC Austrians Arms 22LR pistol
The second session consisted of loading the M22 magazine full and emptying it as fast as possible.
Armscor Precision would not feed, but would fire and eject if hand fed. It is a hollow point round and kept impacting the bottom of the feed ramp.
Federal Bulk ammo functioned fine.
CCI ‘Tactical’ functioned fine.
Aquila SSS 60gr. Ammo functioned fine.
Aquila Superextra functioned fine.
Ruger 10/22,Ruger 22/45 ALL ammo functioned in these two firearms as well.
Bottom line and for the money, Federal Bulk ammunition from WalMart is pretty much hard to beat. It was accurate in my AR conversion kit and it functioned ALMOST perfect in everything.
CCI ‘Tactical’, a few $$ more per box of 375 (versus the Federal at 575), DID function perfectly. Straight through all firearms, the AR15 conversion kit with 1x7” twist rate, the M22 pistol, the ammo fed, fired and ejected every round. This could not be said of the Federal bulk pack.
Interestingly, the CCI had a soft of film on each round. You can see it on the inside of the box. There were white spots on the inside of the box, sort of a ‘sticky’ texture. I am not for sure; but, I’m wondering if this is a coating to aid in feeding???
CCI ‘Tactical’, though more expensive, to me, is ALMOST, almost worth the money spent. For functionality alone, it WINS hands down.
If you don’t mind the $4 extra per box; and, if you can find the stuff locally to save on shipping, Pick it up!
If not, Federal Bulk is your guy.
