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OT 22 Ammo


General Ledger

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OK, I know it's not SASS, but Ive just bought a new S&W 22A and am shooting a bunch of old, cheap, ammo through it. Occasionally I get a misfeed which I'm attributing to the ammo. Any suggestions on good, reliable ammo? I'm wondering if I need something with a bit more punch behind it.

 

Thanks for any suggestions, and a Merry CHRISTmas to the Wire!

 

Gen Ledger

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I'm not familiar with that model but if it's an automatic stick with name brand hotter ammo such as CCI Stinger. Most auto loaders don't like the cheaper standard or lower velocity ammo.

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Guest Hardly Dangerous Updated

I had my 22A-1 out today with some CCI MiniMag and had no failures to feed or misfires. The Federal or Federal Champion bulkpacks seem to generally run pretty good. I have had a lot of trouble with misfires with Remington, even the "golden bullet" type and that's also through a Single Six, Kimber Conversion and Henry Carbine. Relatives often get me a BulkPack of .22 ammo as a stocking stuffer and I've told everyone not to bother with the Remington. That's just my experience.

 

Hardly Dangerous

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Guest Hardly Dangerous Updated

I had my 22A-1 out today with some CCI MiniMag and had no failures to feed or misfires. The Federal or Federal Champion bulkpacks seem to generally run pretty good. I have had a lot of trouble with misfires with Remington, even the "golden bullet" type and that's also through a Single Six, Kimber Conversion and Henry Carbine. Relatives often get me a BulkPack of .22 ammo as a stocking stuffer and I've told everyone not to bother with the Remington. That's just my experience.

 

Hardly Dangerous

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Red River is right Federal Auto Match is very good only ammo that will function all my 22's, some are really acient 1915. 1947 and a host of others.

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I found that anything that Eley made worked every time in my S&W 41. Remington target was very accurate, but several out of every brick were duds. I use Federal Champion in my Single Sixes and Marlin 39A; works fine and is a reasonable price.

 

Trying a box of everything in the store is also a good idea.

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There are a bunch of us up here who shoot falling plates during the winter, mainly with 10-22s. Timed course of fire with 8 rounds and a malfunction can ruin your day. I know the 10-22 isnt a handgun but the point is many have had them tuned to run with plain old bulk pack federal bulk pack HP. Cheap and a regular wally world stock item.

 

Have three auto pistols all different brands and for gen purpose plinking the bulk pack work fine in all of them. For better accuracy my favorite is still the Remmie subsonic HP, works great on squirrels as well. I'm not good enough to get the value out of Eley in a handgun, no matter which type it is. One thing I have found is the PMC match, not even sure if its still made, was a waste of money in everything I tried it in.

 

Take the good advice youve been given and go to a good gun store with $50 and buy one box of everything they have on the shelf.

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My 02

The club that I shoot at up home has 140 indoor shooting .22 gallery nights 3 times a week and as one of the safety officers, I can correct 99 % of the miss feeds and miss fires in autos with issueing 2 mags of cci ammo and convincing shooters to keep gun clean and use cci ammo Mule

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Fed makes a Auto match 22 thats real accurate and not overly exp. A match round with enough punch ta cycle an auto.

 

I dont know what a Smith 22A is ? (Auto)?

 

 

RRR

Federal Auto Match comes in a white box at Wally World for about $15 for 325 rounds. It's pretty accurate ammo and is designed to work in a semi. The velocity is about 1200 fps so it's a little hotter than standard.

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Howdy

 

Miss feeds with 22 semi-autos can be attributed to a few things. First off, make sure the gun is set up as well as it can be. Make sure the ramp that guides the nose of the round into the chamber is smooth and does not have any burrs on it or anything else that could prevent the round from feeding smoothly into the chamber.

 

Make sure the extractor is getting a good grip on the rim. Some 22 semi-autos rely on more than just simple blowback to extract the empty. Some require the the extractor to yank the empty out all the way. If the extractor slides into an opening in the breech face, be sure it is not crudded up, preventing the extractor from closing around the rim. Most 22 ammo is very dirty burning and crud builds up fairly quickly.

 

I shoot the falling plate matches that Iron Pony was talking about. Some of us have tuned up our 10/22s so they will shoot just about any ammo reliably. Mine does fine on a diet of Federal bulk pack hollow points. However, my Ruger Mark II occasionally stove pipes with that ammo and prefers a steady diet of CCI Mini Mags. The CCI ammo really is superior to most other 22 ammo, that's why it costs more. For one thing, the shape of the rim is subtly different than most other 22 rims and an extractor has an easier job getting ahold of the rim.

 

If you notice the reliability of your pistol goes down after you have been shooting it awhile, you might want to give it a quick cleaning. That 22 waxy fouling can build up causing stovepipes. This from the guy who never cleans his guns.

 

The advice about trying lots of different ammo is good. I suggest the two I just mentioned.

 

By the way, how is the trigger on that Smith 22A? A friend bought one and couldn't hit anything with it. I tried it and found it had just about the worst trigger of any semi-auto I had ever tried. I was able to do a little bit better with it than he did, but after he tried my Mark II he is going to look for one of those.

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My comments mostly mirror Boss and DJs. Federal promo of 10 years ago approached near match quality...it has slipped from that pedestal and sure not the same. American Eagle is pretty dang good. Remington promo will gunk up and cause my Ruger Govt Target and Ruger 10/22 to malfunction in short order...probably the nastiest ammo ever produced. Winchester promo ranks right with Remington.

 

All the above that I've slandered is not bad through a single six and will kill most cans though. However, I've a lot of misfires with Rem and occasionally Federal. When taken apart the priming invariably did not fully encircle the rim. Then , some rounds from either maker go poot and some really go bang.

 

IMHO, the best there is, that is made in the US and affordable, is the CCI mini-mag. If you really want some punch go with the CCI Expediter...more costly but it does pack a wollop.

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Guest Sheriff Pack Wolf, SASS #31917

You may be interested in an experience I have had.

In practicing for .22 competitions,. I was having misfires with various ammo. Bulk Remington and Winchesters were both giving me misfires occasionally, which causes some stresss as to when you are going to have that misfire. If it is in a match, well you have waisted a lot of time and expense with that misfire.

I began pulling the bullet of the misfires and found that the priming compound was not completely covering the inside of the case and the firing pin strike was exactly in the no primer compound area. Then I pulled live rounds, dozens of them and found that the primer compound was not uniform in many of the rounds. It is a random event when the firing pin hits a spot that has no primer compound, but that also causes a misfire. I began searchinig for a round that has primer compound completely around the case. CCI has been the best I have found. Not only is the primer compound completely around the inside of the case, it is about twice as thick.

I have switched to CCI for all of my .22 shooting since then and I don't have misfires in the matches.

EOT allowed only standard velocity last year, and some other clubs allow mini mags, so I usually have both. Standard velocity seem to have enough for any .22 plates I have seen.

 

Pack

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I know this post is about rimfire auto pistols, but an experience I had with my 10-22 may be relevant. There was some ammo that wouldn't feed well at all. CCI being 1 of them. It seemed to feed the cheap bulk ammo better but I would still get a jam every few mags. I really like the CCI mini Mag and was upset that a quality gun like the 10-22 wouldn't cycle them. One day after shooting in a rimfire shoot where I had about 5 jams I decided something had to be done. I started taking the gun apart looking closley for anything that might cause a jam. I didn't find anything until I took the barrel off of the reciever. You couldn't really see it, but you could feel a slight sharp edge to the chamber all the way around. It appeared it was never smoothed out after the barrel was turned. I took a ceramic stone and smoothed it slightly. It didn't take much to get it where it didn't feel sharp any more. I've only fired a couple hundred rounds since, but have not had the first jam out of anything I feed it. I can now shoot my CCI Mini Mags and Stingers. Check your gun well. Not just by looking, but feel everything where the ammo travels and make sure there are no rough spots or sharp edges.

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Howdy

 

Very interesting point about the priming not going all the way around. The original Henry Rifles had a 'split' firing pin. It would strike the rim in two places. This was for increased reliability with the 44 Rimfire ammo of the day. I'll bet if modern 22s did the same there would be less misfires. Next time I have one I will pull the bullet and see what the story is.

 

Thanks for the tip.

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I'm not familiar with that model but if it's an automatic stick with name brand hotter ammo such as CCI Stinger. Most auto loaders don't like the cheaper standard or lower velocity ammo.

 

Yep that's true CCI Stingers are a great round and hot enough to cycle even the tightest of 22 autos. :FlagAm:

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Oddly enough, mine likes remington bulk pack "golden bullets" hollowpoits as well as anything. Be careful NEVER to dryfire it, as you will ding the chamber mouth with the firing pin, making missfires more likely.

 

________________________________

This one gets my ditto vote. And it's very clean in the bore and accurate. Winchester is the worst. FTF and a dirty bore you can't hardly see through. YMMV.

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I have tons of .22 ammo, most of it is at least ten years old. It seems that with my older ammo that Remington's HV with the "golden bullet" was the best in most of my .22's and the Thunderbolts worked almost as well.

 

BUT, in recent years things seem to have changed and I have read more complaints on other forums about Remington .22 ammo than any other brand, although I also suspect they sell more than any other brand. The one .22 rimfire ammo that seems to have maintained high quality over the years is CCI Mini-Mag and it's the only ammo Kimber recommends for their .22 conversions (although mine seems to run fine with any high velocity ammo).

 

I'm assuming that you're not wanting to go with higher grade ($$$) target ammo-that's a whole different world.

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I have a few Auto .22 pistols and most of them will have problems form time to time (1 in 100 shots say) with the cheapest ammo but strangely the Ace conversion in my 1911 (not A1) almost never has a problem when it does it is a failure to fire and dropping the hammer again has no effect. but later single loading these failures so the pin hits a different spot on the rim they all will fire.

 

the only problem I have ever had with the Ace (a very early one still in its cardboard box) conversion kit was when I did not do a good cleaning job on the floating chamber. I wonder if the floating chamber is the reason for the Ace in the .45 being so good in its feeding and cycling if the primer compound in the rim is properly distributed. (Oh the High Standard HD Military is almost as good at the Ace but it does smokestack with cheap ammo once in a while)

 

Cheers

Windy

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CCI has a new ammo out called Tactical .22 just for auto loaders, rounded noses for feeding, a little better copper jacket and better lube.

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Interesting topic./ I have been shoting a fair amount the last year with my 2 10-22s and my Ruger m2 pistol... I have been having a fair amount of misfires with Remington bulk ammo. The Federals seem to work fine. I am going to go buy some CCI and see how they do. Wonder if Wally world is still open.

Merry Christmas to all those I have shot with here and those I hope to shoot with in the future.

Muleshoe

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