22lr bullet lube question

[my human host]

I've finally gotten around to spending some serious time with a 64 MPR I bought a couple years back. After trying a few different types of Eley, I bought a brick of Center X to try. Saying the rifle likes it would be something of an understatement. An extra bonus is that I find the lube on the Center X to be less annoying than the type Eley uses. I'd like to try to find something a bit cheaper than Center X for shooting on windy days that has a similar lube. Obviously the gun will have the final say. Pretty new to precision rimfire and really don't know what's all out there.

Thanks in advance.

 

[justin amateur]

With rimfire, it all comes down to ammunition quality.
You can have the best rig in the world, but without consistent ammo, target results will be disappointing.
The big 3 for 22lr are RWS R50/R100, Lapua Midas+ and Eley Tenex.
I spend most of my range time at 100 and 200 yards. In order to determine if it's me or the ammo
I set up the ballistic chronograph out front so that I can see what the mv was on that last stray.
If a 40 fps jump shows up, I know what to blame.
At 100 yards 10 fps difference between shots is about 1/4 inch of vertical.
At 200 yards 10 fps is about an inch of vertical difference between poi's.

 

[my human host]

Thanks, man. I appreciate your input.
I'm cool with using Center X for when I'm looking for precision. I was seeing sub 1 inch groups at 100 during testing. I had dead calm long enough to squeeze off 5 and they went into 3/8 at 100. Plenty good for me.

Really just looking for sub $100/brick ammo for testing and would prefer it had a lube that was more "oily" than "waxy". Norma? S and K ? Wolf? Just wondering where to start. The chamber in the rifle is ridiculously tight and Eley gets to be a pita after 50 rounds or so. No issues at all with Center X or even the crappy Remington Sub HP's I shot up getting to know the 64.

John

 

[justin amateur]

You'd probably be ok with Wolf ME or SK Rifle Match.
Both produced under license by Lapua. SK and Wolf are practice ammo,
CenterX is Midas+ that failed final quality control testing.
Still pretty good, especially when you find a batch that snuck by the statistical sampling.
It can actually be as good as any match ammo when that happens.

 

[JG26_Irish]

You'd probably be ok with Wolf ME or SK Rifle Match.
Both produced under license by Lapua. SK and Wolf are practice ammo,
CenterX is Midas+ that failed final quality control testing.
Still pretty good, especially when you find a batch that snuck by the statistical sampling.
It can actually be as good as any match ammo when that happens.

What he said. I have had batches of Wolf that would out shoot Center-X for about half the price. My Annies all prefer Lapua to all other ammo. The Norma match is pretty good but it is made by RWS. SK & Wolf are the best mid priced ammo for me. SK was selling for about $57/brick local. I find Wolf harder to get for some reason.

Irish

 

[Erud]

CenterX is Midas+ that failed final quality control testing.

I'd be interested in hearing where you got that information.

 

[jbell]

As said above, SK & Wolf are similar but not the same as CenterX

 

[justin amateur]

CenterX is Midas+ that failed final quality control testing.



I'd be interested in hearing where you got that information.

I'm going from an on-line article read years ago at accurateshooter.com.
To be sure, I've sent an email to Lapua to verify whether or not I remembered correctly.
When I get a response, I'll post it.

 

[justin amateur]

By what procedure does Lapua determine if a lot of 22lr coming off the assembly line
is X-act, Midas+ or CenterX. The question came up in an online discussion.
A previous article related that it's accomplished by shooting random samples,
from each batch, from a number of barreled actions and checking muzzle velocities
for standard deviation and extreme spread.

Could you describe the process and the numbers that define the grading?

Hi Justin,

You're on the right track, but I'm afraid I can't divulge the exact nature of the testing
in terms of standards that you're after. Proprietary, and strictly in-house info there.
I will say that every run of ammo, either Lapua or S-K, is accuracy tested in a series of five 10-shot groups,
as well as a 50-shot composite. The SD and ES are measured and are required to fall within a strict set of parameters,
but ultimately, it's accuracy that makes the final determination. Those that pass this initial testing
and show the best promise, are then retested. There are repeats of this same testing in several different test rifles,
in essence winnowing down the field. If it passes that testing at a certain level of accuracy,
it becomes X-Act, or is downgraded to Midas+ or Center-X, depending on where the measurements fall.
Testing of rimfires is problematic, as the ammunition tends to be so rifle specific and,
for lack of a better term, temperamental. In doing such testing at one of our Service Centers
in either Germany, Finland or Mesa, AZ, I've seen countless examples of Center-X or Midas+ outshooting X-Act,
regardless of how they tested during acceptance testing.
In those cases, count yourself fortunate that your rifle prefers the less expensive stuff.
The bottom line is, you simply can't rate match grade rimfire ammo from best to worst
strictly by the showing it makes in the test rifles. It's a start,
but you ultimately HAVE to test the lot in your particular rifle to know.

I hope this answers your, at least as far as I can answer it
without violating the specifically proprietary methods and specs.
If there's anything more we can do to be of service,
please don't hesitate to let us know. As always, we'll be glad to help.

Sincerely,

Kevin Thomas
Sales Manager
Nammo Commerical Ammunition

 

[ballisticdaddy]

I have the same rifle and mine seems to prefer the Eley Tenex over the others you have mentioned. You also need to be aware that the target ammo is subsonic while the standard ammo will be mostly supersonic which made a huge difference in consistency in my rifle. Once you find something you like buy as much as you can in the same lot number would be my recommendation.

 

[Erud]

By what procedure does Lapua determine if a lot of 22lr coming off the assembly line
is X-act, Midas+ or CenterX. The question came up in an online discussion.
A previous article related that it's accomplished by shooting random samples,
from each batch, from a number of barreled actions and checking muzzle velocities
for standard deviation and extreme spread.

Could you describe the process and the numbers that define the grading?

The bottom line is, you simply can't rate match grade rimfire ammo from best to worst
strictly by the showing it makes in the test rifles. It's a start, but you ultimately HAVE to test the lot in your particular rifle to know.

Sincerely,

Kevin Thomas
Sales Manager
Nammo Commerical Ammunition

This really is the bottom line with rimfires. I brought my smallbore rifle to the Lapua test center 2 years ago to do lot testing, and went through 12 or 14 lots in about 5 hours of testing. One particular lot of Center-X stood out above everything else, including several lots of X-act and Midas. That was fine with me, as I ended up spending less than $1k on ammo, instead of the $1700-ish I expected to spend.

 

[jbell]

Eley Tenex and Match are segregated the same way. Select attributes are what determines Tenex and Match.

 

[Tucker301]

My 54 loves Center-X and it has shot SK and R50 very well. Norma is crap.

 

[my human host]

Appreciate you fellas taking the time to respond. I'll order some S and K to try.

The wind rarely lets up here in western MN. It doesn't make a bit of sense to shoot expensive (by my standards) ammo some days...

I have to say I'm a little shocked by what the 64 MPR is capable of. It's more than I would expect from a $1000 dollar rifle. I haven't seen anything go much over 2 inches at 100yds. Even the Remington subs shot reasonably well, though many obviously went supersonic. Some old bulk pack Winchester X pert I had laying around shot into 1-1/2" at 100. I can't bring myself to shoot any of the copper plated stuff I have through the barrel.