Good vs Bad 22lr brands?

[Simon6101]

Any

I own over 50 .22 handguns and rifles. My primary ammo is Federal Bulk pack. I do use CCI, and some Winchester. If I am shooting for excellent accuracy then I use Wolf.

I refuse to use any Remington Golden bullets in any of my firearms. They burn very dirty and gum up the action on everything. Whatever lube Remington uses acts like glue and is extremely hard to get out of the action and trigger groups.

 

[ckcollins2003]

My GSG-5 will eat the Winchester 555 bulk pack as well as the 550 Federal bulk boxes. However I've went back to Winchester since I've had more than my fair share of bad bullets out of Federal lately. The last 3 boxes I've bought has had rounds that somehow forgot to get plated, were severely damaged, or just wouldn't shoot.

Most of those problems are common with .22 bulk boxes, but with Winchester I might have 1 or 2 that won't feed or fire. Used to be that way with the Federal as well. As for Remington... I'll never buy that crap again. I couldn't even get them to fire through my uncles .22 S&W revolver or his Savage .22/.410 over-under. They won't even feed through my GSG and I actually counted 7 failures to feed/fire out of a single 22 round magazine. This was about average throughout the entire box and I ended up burying my second box so I would have an excuse to buy something different.

 

[mbaza3]

If I clean and lube the Mosquito before going to the range and bring CCI Mini-Mags with me I have no problems. I tried going cheap on ammo with Mosquito and it was a jamming machine. I also installed the heavier spring that came in the box when using high velocity ammo and that seemed to help.

 

[wintram]

Havent had any luck with federal bulk count or any bulk pack. on average 50 rds or so have been duds. I have yet to have a problem with cci's, but the price of a box of 20 stingers compared to the price of a bulk pack with 50 no fires in it I think it is more cost effective to buy the cheaper ( for me ).

 

[GM_Geezer]

I really beloved its what the firearm likes. Federal bulk won't cycle worth a *&#* for me. CCI good but expensive for plinking. Golden bullets cycle and group good with an occasional ftf. PMC zappers great (wish they still made them). But for target work and hunting wolf mt. Expensive but goes where you point.

 

[BrentTheBoat]

Agree remington golden bullets are the worst. Only use them in my bolt action marlin .22

 

[ThrottleJockey]

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.

+100 crappiest cartridges ever made. Here is what my last box of them looked like!

I have no .22 handguns, but have a Marlin 60 and a couple 10/22s. Until about a year ago they would all eat anything I fed them(except remingcrap). I think federal changed something because now their bulkpack jams pretty bad in all of them. I am currently liking the winchester bulk stuff and the Blazer seems to be the best bulk stuff I've bought surprisingly enough.

 

[Quad]

+100 crappiest cartridges ever made. Here is what my last box of them looked like!

I have no .22 handguns, but have a Marlin 60 and a couple 10/22s. Until about a year ago they would all eat anything I fed them(except remingcrap). I think federal changed something because now their bulkpack jams pretty bad in all of them. I am currently liking the winchester bulk stuff and the Blazer seems to be the best bulk stuff I've bought surprisingly enough.

That's pathetic! You should send them that picture. You might get some compensation for that crap.

 

[doublebarrel]

+100 crappiest cartridges ever made. Here is what my last box of them looked like!

I have no .22 handguns, but have a Marlin 60 and a couple 10/22s. Until about a year ago they would all eat anything I fed them(except remingcrap). I think federal changed something because now their bulkpack jams pretty bad in all of them. I am currently liking the winchester bulk stuff and the Blazer seems to be the best bulk stuff I've bought surprisingly enough.

Wow, I've never seen Golden Bullets that awful. The ones I bought from Wallyworld tend to have more duds than Federal 550's, and since they are priced the same, I've been buying Federal for many years...

 

[ThrottleJockey]

Back in the '80s when the golden bullets came in the "milk carton", they were fine. When they did away with that packaging they changed something else too. I've been around and around with remington about it and all they can do is lie to me and make excuses. They even went so far as to tell me they would replace the ammo....then never did. No coupons, no offer to pay postage, no NOTHING but lies and empty promises. Even got one of their corporate big wigs to chine in on another forum and offer to fix the problem.....long story short...corporate is remingtons problem. Did you know that a semi-auto remington centerfire rifle is only rated to last through 400 shots fired? I guess that's a lot if you just sight it in and hunt deer once a year.

 

[Birds Away]

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...

I would love to hear what you think of your GSG 1911. I am in the market for a .22 plinker and have been seeing these at many LGSs.

 

[jfw46544]

I bought a bunch of Blazer a while back. Feeds ok thru my Browning with an occasional FTE but on the Beretta Neos it wants to FTF. I have not tried on the 10-22. Not sure if I would buy again. The Federal bulk packs always work better for me.

 

[MattCFII]

CCI Blazer too is my current favorite. I bought a 5000 round case recently.

My two main semi-auto .22s, an AKT98 and ISSC M22 need round nose bullets to feed the best (the ISSC will feed Stingers but not any other HP, the AKT98 does fine with a lot of stuff until I use the BDM 30 rounders).

Winchester Wildcats even though they are round nose, they have a slightly different profile and induce cycling problems with those guns.

Remington and Winchester suffer from too inconsistent priming. I really think this is key to not only dud reduction but also semi-auto cycling. You can notice sometimes with those two brands of bulk ammo that you get a quieter report on occasion that also may not cycle the slide/bolt and I think in a lot of ways it can be drawn back to the priming (and maybe overall bullet seal on the case when dealing with older ammo). Winchester is the slightly better of the two.

I've been pulling bullets of mangled misfeeds and have found that those two brands have spotty and dark priming. The spottiness is what leads to duds since a portion of the rim may not get priming (and why you can often still fire a dud if you rotate it for the firing pin to strike a different spot). When you fire off just the primed case they are quieter than a cap gun in most instances. CCI cases tend to have a even coating of green colored primer material that's primed cases are as loud as a cap gun. The bulk pack Federal stuff is the surprise here. They have very even, bright green priming. The first time I fired a primed Federal bulk case I wish I would have been wearing ear protection because it was noticeably louder and did make my ears ring a little. FWIW, Federal and CCI are owned by the same company, but I don't know if their production lines are the same. You can tell that the Federal 36 gr HPs bullets are slightly different from CCI Mini Mags 36 gr. HPs, not to mention the different headstamp of course.

 

[45fan]

Federal American Eagle has been the best cheap ammo, and for what it is, the Remington Golden bullets arent bad, just the occasional dud. I run both in several different rifles and pistols, including single shot, revolver and semi auto. There is the occasional FTF/FTE, but for cheap stuff, I can deal with it. The most reliable for me has been the CCI Velocitor, but I cant comment on any others as I stopped looking when I started using them.

 

[buford t justice]

Have had good luck with federal bulk pack,bought one box of rem golden bullet and would not buy another.
If you want something more accurate but are not concerned about price get some wolf match extra.