Favorite .22 Ammo?

[Halo]

In the next month or so I'll be testing about a dozen brands of .22 LR ammo to see which shoots best in two rifles, the Savage I-G and the Chipmunk, both single shot bolt action.  

I finally got motivated to test different brands after seeing how horribly the Chipmunk shot several Long and Short brands, although it does fine with my present choice, CCI Mini-Mag Long Rifle hollow point 36-grain.

The Savage so far does great with all types of ammo.  Still, it's time to see what brand it likes best.  

I use my .22s for target shooting and plinking, not hunting.  So far I'm biased toward Long Rifle copper plated standard American brands, and vacillate between 36-gr or so hollow point and 40-gr round nose.  I don't need hollow point particularly, so whichever is most innately accurate is my preference.  

I'm not enough of a marksman to need Eley or other expensive premium brands.  

So what .22 ammo brand and type is your favorite?  Does it do the best in all your .22 long guns and hand guns?  If not, which brand does which gun prefer?

[FrodeMk3]

Federal sells a pretty good LR hollowpoint. But I've got nearly a full brick of Winchester sitting on a shelf, because it got to the point that every empty would fail to extract out of my kids' Savage cub.

[lasersailor184]

To be honest, most guns and ammo are more accurate then I am.  I usually pick up the brick that costs the least.

[Chairboy]

I really like the copper plated rounds like you mentioned, they really help w/ fouling.

[DieAz]

in my Marlin Model 25, I use CCI long rifle solid nose. it likes it and CCI is fairly consistant from one round to the next in the same lot number. I  bought a case all the same lot# around 20 yrs ago, I have a variable 3X-9X scope on rifle. got it zeroed perfect using the CCI.
can hit a dime every shot at 50yds zoomed in 9X.
I still have a brick or 2 left of the ammo, lotta squirrels got assasinated.
50 yd shot zoomed to 9X see nothing but shoulder on squirrel. no way to miss with it.  
 
hmm come to think of it, I never shot a snake with it. might need to get it out and go snake hunting.

click crack = good snake

[eskimo2]

Originally posted by Halo
In the next month or so I'll be testing about a dozen brands of .22 LR ammo to see which shoots best in two rifles, the Savage I-G and the Chipmunk, both single shot bolt action.  

I finally got motivated to test different brands after seeing how horribly the Chipmunk shot several Long and Short brands, although it does fine with my present choice, CCI Mini-Mag Long Rifle hollow point 36-grain.

The Savage so far does great with all types of ammo.  Still, it's time to see what brand it likes best.  

I use my .22s for target shooting and plinking, not hunting.  So far I'm biased toward Long Rifle copper plated standard American brands, and vacillate between 36-gr or so hollow point and 40-gr round nose.  I don't need hollow point particularly, so whichever is most innately accurate is my preference.  

I'm not enough of a marksman to need Eley or other expensive premium brands.  

So what .22 ammo brand and type is your favorite?  Does it do the best in all your .22 long guns and hand guns?  If not, which brand does which gun prefer?

Cheap is best and good enough.!

For destructiveness of soda cans and such: CCI Stingers HP.

For stealth: CB caps.

[lazs2]

so long as it functions in the gun and is not too expensive I am happy.  It is normally just the semi autos that are real fussy.  

really good bolt actions or old pump guns and revolvers don't much care.  the older guns are not fussy at all... I don't know if it is because they were made better or they have just been smoothed up over the years.

My k22 outdoorsman was made in the 30's and it shoots all brands with extreme accuracy..  A ruger semi auto of my dads will jam on about half the ammo out there.    My 1952 Hi standard semi auto will eat anything by the brick and is deadly accurate.

I have a model 90 winchester pump built in the 20's that was originally a 22 short gun and probly used in a shooting gallery.. there was no rifling left to see because of all the lead built up.   I spent days getting the lead out and it went from a 8" group at 25 yard gun to a 1" group at 25 yard gun... it likes all types of ammo.

lazs

[Maverick]

When I used to shoot small bore silhouette with my target rifle I used to buy green tag CCI's. I used minimag's for hunting at the time as well in my other rifle. Now I just get what's on sale as it's plenty accurate and likely far more so than my light weight rifles and pistols. As long as it functions, I'm pretty happy. If I were to go back to serious targets I'd look for the CCI green tag again first.

[Hornet33]

I've tried a bunch of different ammo in my Ruger 10-22 but the only ammo that seems to give me consistent performance is Winchester XX 37 grain hollow points. They are a copper jacketed round with low fouling and good accuracy.

All the other brands of .22 ammo have given me nothing but trouble. Bad accuracy, misfires, jams, double feeding, failure to feed at all. At first I thought it might be my rifle, but when I started shooting Winchester ammo all those problems went away. My rifle eats that stuff up.

[Angus]

22 long or 22 magnum?

[Halo]

(QUOTE) In the next month or so I'll be testing about a dozen brands of .22 LR ammo ...  (UNQUOTE)  

I think it's always understood to be .22 LR (or .22 Long or .22 Short or all three) unless specified as .22 Magnum, usually .22 WMR.

[Angus]

.22 short and long fit the same barrel, while Magnum is the same bullet, but only takes magnum.
Long is roughly twice the length of short, while Magnum is twice as long as the long.
Magnum = always supersonic BTW, while there may be some of the long ones who make that.
From long, I use "high-powe" from a brand I remember not, to drop bulls actually.

Me bad

[TalonX]

Well, if you are shooting .22's, I wouldn't spend hours worrying about the ammo.    That is, unless you are shooting indoor 50 ft...then use match grade.

For outside, what you are doing rocks....get some ammo, see which holds the best grouping.... Voila, done.

For larger caliber, you can't beat your reloads...no factory ammo, except maybe .308 match grade, could touch my own reloads...

Get a gun with sub MOA, reloads, and poke out some eyes  

[eagl]

CCI stingers are very inaccurate in both of my .22s as well as in my Dad's K22.  I'm not sure what kind of gun you need to shoot those things accurately.

[Excel1]

I haven’t used them in years but CCI Stingers never shot well in any rifle I tried them in. They were novel and they sounded good - "Stinger" screamed high velocity. But I found them to be expensive to buy, extra noisy, inaccurate and the cases had a habit of rupturing in some of the semi autos I tried them in. The Stingers just had too much starch for them I guess.

It's not the cheapest, but the best overall .22lr round that I have used which gave good accuracy in all the guns and excellent in some that I used it in was Remington Yellow Jackets. The Yellow Jackets accuracy combined with its grease filled hollow point made it the best .22lr cartridge that I used for not only paper punching and plinking but also pest control and hunting.