Good vs Bad 22lr brands?

[skseifert]

So, when I was purchasing my Ruger MKIII target pistol, I commented to the salesman that I can now get rid of the crappy Sig Mosquito (can't believe I said Sig and Crappy in the same sentence) because it perpetually jams. He said "you must be using a bad brand of ammo in your Sig". Not discounting his argument, but what exactly would be a good and a bad brand/type/load of 22lr to be using.

btw, the Ruger absolutely awesome, and fired anything I put into it.

 

[rockhopper46038]

Been lucky with my .22lr's, never had much trouble. That being the case, I seem to force feed Wally World Federal 550 bulk pack to mine. I've heard that the CCI Minimags are generally considered "good", but never had any reason to stray from what I've been using. Alternatively, I've heard the Thunderbolt stuff called "bad", but once again, no personal knowledge. Just for reference, my .22lr bang sticks are limited to a Marlin 785 and a GSG1911, so YMMV with the Federal bulk...

 

[Amattern]

I use american eagle bulk pack and winchester bulk pack in my 10/22, never had an issue. Some guns will eat up federal bulk packs but they have their fair share of problems as well.

 

[UncleMike]

I feed my Mosquito Mini Mags, WW Wildcats, and Federal bulk pack.
The Mosquito is sensitive to "weak wristing" and will malfunction unless you provide proper resistance to the slides rearward movement.

 

[turnandshoot4]

Remington Golden Bullets!

Those suck my left pinky toe all day. Aren't accurate, won't feed, dirty, and it is a Remington product to boot. I have issues with ALL of my .22's with these. Yes, even my 10/22.

 

[RichardR]

For the past 10 years or so for general .22LR plinking I use a mixture of Federal 550 bulk pack & Remington Golden bullet bulk packs, before that I used to be a Winchester Wildcat guy, it's pretty accurate & reliable but I got tired of cleaning all of the lead fouling out of my barrels so I switched to the Rem & Federal copper washed bulk packs.

Anyway the Federal seems to be a bit more reliable when it comes to primer pocketing/ignition but the Remington is more accurate, at least it is out of my guns but I do tend to get more failure to fires with the Remingtons, not a real big deal out of a bolt action though, since I just open the bolt, turn the bullet 90 degrees and stick it back in the chamber & it will usually fire, with a semi-auto that's more of a pain in the butt so I usually run the Federal bulk pack stuff in those.

However if I am shooting for really tight groups I will normally use Federal Premium Gold Medal Match, which shoots phenomenally out of my precision .22LR's & the primer pocketing/ignition problem like with the Federal bulk pack doesn't seem to be an issue with their premium stuff.

 

[U.S. Patriot]

My Buckmark will eat anything along with my 15-22 and Marlin 60. My P22 does not like standard velocity ammo. I normally only run mini-mags through my Savage MKII.

 

[Outlaw]

Ive been curious about this myself. The wally world bulk packs seem to dirty my 22s up pretty quick.

Is there a cleaner shooting ammo that is close to the same price?

 

[rugertoter]

I find that the biggest difference is in the priming myself. Lots of times the Golden Bullets seem to have a squib every now and then, so I try to shy away from them. I like the CCI brand and have also had good luck with the Federal red box brand too.

 

[jedi]

Remington Golden Bullets!

Those suck my left pinky toe all day. Aren't accurate, won't feed, dirty, and it is a Remington product to boot. I have issues with ALL of my .22's with these. Yes, even my 10/22.

^ This

Note however that the Henry AR-7 Surivial Rifle uses this particular brand and loves it. back when I had the AR-7 I feed it various other .22 (federal, cci, and thunderbolt) and it hates all the others ones. Failure to feed, failure to eject,. Yet the RGB it had no issues with it.

The manual even says to only use RGB!

 

[eldirector]

I've run a few common brands through my .22 rifles and P22 handgun. I get the fewest squibs and misfires with CCI. The Remington Golden Bullets seems to work OK, but I have maybe 1 "dud" in 100. The Federal bulk packs have also worked OK, but with a "dud" per 75-ish.

In the P22, I broke it in with CCI Mini-mags, but it runs best on the CCI Standard Velocity. It HATES CCI Stingers. Cycles the action WAY too hard. Bulk-pack stuff is fine for the most part.

A friend has a Mosquito. It seems to like the Mini-Mags and Stingers more than the standard velocity. I assume the slide and recoil spring is heavier than the P22's.

For the Marlin Model 60 - It feeds anything pretty much the same. High velocity stuff (Mini-Mag or Stingers) seems to be hard on it, but accurate. It is very accurate with the low velocity stuff.

For the old single-shot Remington - Stingers and Mini-mags might be a tad more accurate than the standard velocity rounds. At least at 100 yards. At 50 yards, I didn't see any difference between bulk stuff and CCI (other than a dud now and then).

I'd like to try some match grade stuff in the rifles, just to see if there is any real difference for me. I don't shoot matches (yet), so it would just be for fun. Right now, the bulk packs tear up the paper just fine.

 

[sloughfoot]

Feeding can often be improved on blow-back pistols by putting a couple of drops of gun oil on the top round in the magazine and running the gun wet.

I have a S&W 41 and a tight 1911 for NRA bullseye. Both are new and not broken in yet. A drop of oil keeps them working in the rapids.

Ask any bullseye shooter, the oil in the shooters box is essential. Plus, now you don't have to clean it because the oil is getting changed with every 5 round string.

 

[skseifert]

Feeding can often be improved on blow-back pistols by putting a couple of drops of gun oil on the top round in the magazine and running the gun wet.

I have a S&W 41 and a tight 1911 for NRA bullseye. Both are new and not broken in yet. A drop of oil keeps them working in the rapids.

Ask any bullseye shooter, the oil in the shooters box is essential. Plus, now you don't have to clean it because the oil is getting changed with every 5 round string.

I've done that from a previous suggestion, and it does work - but just doesn't seem right that you have to go to that length to get a pistol to load properly.

 

[Sweetums]

My Dad's Mosquito only wanted to run the CCI Minimags or Stingers. Anything else, it always jammed. I have an ATI 1911-22, and it'll feed just about anything, but I prefer the CCI Minimags. For my Marlin 981 bolt action, it gets the Federal 50 round boxes from Wal-Mart.

I have a box of the "Gold" Remingtons that I absolutely despise. WAY too dirty.

 

[top hat 45]

Feeding can often be improved on blow-back pistols by putting a couple of drops of gun oil on the top round in the magazine and running the gun wet.

I have a S&W 41 and a tight 1911 for NRA bullseye. Both are new and not broken in yet. A drop of oil keeps them working in the rapids.

Ask any bullseye shooter, the oil in the shooters box is essential. Plus, now you don't have to clean it because the oil is getting changed with every 5 round string.

what rounds are you planning to use in your 41? mine only really likes eley match and rws r50s'. and it likes to be wet too....daryll

 

[BBSparkle]

I think it's all about the gun in this one, Put about 3500 rounds down my Mk III since I got it a few weeks ago and it has fed everything. The ONLY issue I have had so far happened this past Tuesday, I had 2 out of about 300 Remington Goldens fail to fire. Gun did it's job, though. This was the first time I had used this box and type of ammo, I got it at Gander I think last fall on sale for 8.99. Pretty good deal, I thought, but it's filthy, leaves this gold dust on my fingers after touching it, and the smoke that come out of my Ruger and goes straight up my nose was way worse with this crap. I noticed some definite lack of accuracy with it as well.

I prefer Federal Bulk Packs [and their American Eagle brand, but I hate the tiny boxes within a box thing] and CCI is always solid. My Remington Yellow Jackets work just fine in the Ruger as well, and do not share the same loss in accuracy as the Goldens. They are just about as dirty, though.

 

[JohnP82]

.22s can be a PITA when it comes to ammo. I am lucky and have never had an issue with any of my .22s, they all eat what I feed them. I mainly use the Federal bulk packs. I can tell a difference in performance between different ammo. While the Federal bulk pack functions fine for me in my p22 it isn't as accurate as some other brands I have found. It is accurate enough, but the groups do open up a bit compared to MiniMags and a few other brands.

Overall the CCI MiniMags are my favorite, but with the Federal bulk packs being twenty bucks for 550 rounds, that is what I use the most.

It seems when it comes to .22s every gun can be different. Just try a few boxes of different brands and find what that specific gun likes best.

 

[doublebarrel]

Almost all Walmart brands of cheap 22's run well in my P22, 22/45, Buckmark, AA 1911 upper, Taurus 990, and 10/22. One particular brand, this Winchester 555rd bulk, gives me some trouble in my AA conversion. The ammo is so underpowered, that the first round in a fully loaded 10rd mag, will most likely not cycle the AA's slide properly. Because the mag spring is compressed the most when fully loaded, that little extra friction between the slide and the top round slows down the slide so much that gives me empty chamber for the second shot. Only this ammo will do this, and only happens to my Advantage Arms upper often enough to let me remember it...

 

[sloughfoot]

what rounds are you planning to use in your 41? mine only really likes eley match and rws r50s'. and it likes to be wet too....daryll

I use Wolf Match Target. I am such a lousy bullseye pistol shot, it doesn't matter much what ammo I use. The pistol is far better than I am.

I have been told that after a few thousand rounds, running wet won't be needed and it will still be tight and accurate. But, I really do like it wet.

Of course, it is no good for a field gun.....

 

[MtnBiker6510]

For reliability I would vote hands down for the Wal-mart Federal 550 Bulk packs and CCI minimags. I've had issues with everything else, but can only remember 1 bad one out of the thousands of Federals and haven't had any issues with minimags. My guns like those two best.
The copper plated hollow points should provide more reliable feeding than lead round nose I believe.