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Bang for your buck ammo suggestions

DeauxJoe

DeauxJoe

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Sep 15, 2011
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Hear me out...

I know all the high end 22LR out there will shoot exceptionally well, however a lot of that ammo starts to approach .223 ammo prices. I'm wondering which ammo are people using on the cheaper side that performs well.

I was running the black box Norma Tac-22 and it was fantastic. <10 SD, <1" consistant grouping at 50 yards, but the new red box stuff isn't quiet as good. The SDs are great, but the groupings are very inconsistent.

So is there anything out there that ppl are getting decent results without spending >.30/rnd?

TL;dr Running out of black box tac-22, need suggestions on low cost stuff to try.
 
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For prices I'm in Canada so ca 30% higher than yours. I find SK-Rifle Match a hair better than SK+ and a lot better than SK Magazine - SK-RM @ $15/BOX, SK+ @ $13/BOX, SK Magazine @ $100/500 tennis-can in order of quality. ALL are Out of stock across Canada now but Distributor says new shpt 'coming soon'. The next best I've found is CCI-SV and I feel the paper boxes (ca $8/box) are more consistent than the plastic sleeves (diff factories?). Then the Norma Subsonic is fairly accurate and only ca $10/box. These are my 'go to's in my CZ-457 VMTR, CZ-455 Lux and SAV-B22, all of which do ca 1/2" @ 50 until I get down to CCI and Norma. And of course the Lapua Center-X and Midas are better but ca $30+ up here.
 
Interesting that you see a difference in the CCI in plastic vs paper, but good to know.

I see the ELY Target available for a decent price. Does anyone have any insight on that stuff?
 
DeauxJoe said:
Interesting that you see a difference in the CCI in plastic vs paper, but good to know.

I see the ELY Target available for a decent price. Does anyone have any insight on that stuff?
Click to expand...
As stated previously…it’s a bit of a rimfire ammo lottery, every rifle is different.
What platform are you using?
For instance, Vudoo’s typically shoot better with Lapua/SK.
 
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I use Eley target for practice with my Duece and Target for matches. Works fine, wouldn't want to shoot it in a match.
 
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Picked up a case of Norma 22 for 400 bucks and it is accurate in all my competition rifles. Just can’t beat the price for practice ammo and keep my match ammo for NRL/ARA
 
DeauxJoe said:
Hear me out...

I know all the high end 22LR out there will shoot exceptionally well, however a lot of that ammo starts to approach .223 ammo prices. I'm wondering which ammo are people using on the cheaper side that performs well.

I was running the black box Norma Tac-22 and it was fantastic. <10 SD, <1" consistant grouping at 50 yards, but the new red box stuff isn't quiet as good. The SDs are great, but the groupings are very inconsistent.

So is there anything out there that ppl are getting decent results without spending >.30/rnd?

TL;dr Running out of black box tac-22, need suggestions on low cost stuff to try.
Click to expand...
I shoot long range steel matches. I use SK Long Range for matches. I have found Eley Contact shoots way above it's price point $5.25/ box.from Killough's $5.00 and free shipping if you buy a case.
 
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MarkCZ said:
I shoot long range steel matches. I use SK Long Range for matches. I have found Eley Contact shoots way above it's price point $5.25/ box.from Killough's $5.00 and free shipping if you buy a case.
Click to expand...
I've also had good luck with Eley Contact and have been using it NRL22 for a few months. I have also tried SK Rifle Match and SK Long Range Match and both were pretty good and will be switching to those once I run through my Eley Contact. For the price, I would recommend all 3.
 
Great information here guys. Thanks a ton. I will give some of these a try. Yeah the black box Norma 22 was perfect but now all I'm seeing is the red box stuff and it's not quiet as good.

FYI I'm shooting a Bergar B14
 

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My 457 had really like the Eley Team flat nose stuff.
 
With rimfire, there is no magic bullet. You're just going to have to try a few types (named above) to see which one YOUR rifle likes.

I got lucky. My 457s like TAC22 just fine

M
 
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To answer your question: My B-14r seems to like the CCI Standard Velocity well enough to be a positional practice round inside 100yds. It chambers tight and may or may not extract an unfired case, so the tight fitment may be contributing to accuracy. For $4-$5 a box, it may be worth testing on your gun.

Tangent: I don't know how many rounds you have through your rifle, but with Center-X, mine shot very well, 0.2s-0.3s 5 shot groups at 50 yards up to 200 rounds, then opened up to 0.3s-0.5s 5 shot groups at 50 yards until ~1000 rounds, then settled back down to 0.2s-0.3s again. With lot tested Center X, 0.1s at 50 yards is an occasional, but not a surprising result.

The best way IMHO is to get your rifle lot tested at the Lapua or Eley test centers and get yourself a case+ of lot tested ammo.
It greatly reduces the ammo and weather variable and now I have full confidence that it's the loose nut behind the trigger when groups open.
And for me, I rediscovered the fun (vs. the frustration) in rimfire shooting again.

YMMV, happy shooting
 
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Just in add to Post-8 RE- CCI-SV, here's a thread from 2020 about CCI and other ammo. NO definite info about 'different factories' but Federal DID make some of the CCI-SV at 'some times'. You will need to register to CGN to read the thread but lots of 'current' info on that forum, for all types of shooting.
Ganderite on CGN RE-CCI Stnd Vel - Cheap and Accurate
AND I did a chrony test of several ammos back in 2022, that showed those days the CCI-SV and MMs had the best ES out of my Sav B-22 ->
Chrono 2-Tests Aug 2022.jpg
 
Eley contact gets another vote. It is hotter than most sub sonics. My anschutz was seeing 1145fps. Groups are comparable to the lots of tenex I have fired through that rifle at 200 yards, at only 1/4 of the price.
 
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I’ve had good success with Wolf match target. It’s not outrageously expensive and seems to work well in a couple of my rifles. Use it for practice and save the expensive stuff for matches. It works good enough in one rifle that I’ll use it in the standard NRL22 matches 100 yds and in.
 
I have the same issue, and can't find the higher end stuff locally even if I wanted it (Alaska). I've shot CCI SV almost exclusively through my Tikka T1X, but it does seem lacking out towards 200, and now that I have a Xero, I'd noticed some pretty crazy ES while shooting it (70 - 80 across just 10 rounds). So today I thought I'd compare the best options I can find locally (that are subsonic, this is an important consideration for me). Results are below. TLDR is that Eley Target was way better than CCI SV, in almost every way, although it was a little fast. Shooting suppressed at around 35F, sea level, there was never a supersonic crack, for any of the shots. I didn't cherry pick groups, I didn't call fliers, I seasoned the barrel with 10 rounds and then shot a 30 round groups at 100 yards, measuring every round. Wind was pretty minimal, maybe most pronounced when shooting the CCI SV, but SV had both the highest vertical and horizontal dispersion and the group was generally less tight all around. My prices locally are Federal Gold Medal Match ($8/50), Eley Target ($8/50) and CCI SV ($5/50). I don't know who makes the Federal Gold Medal Match, but the priming smelled like Eley, while the wax looked different. Going forward I will likely shooting Eley Target instead of SV, at least in the Tikka, because the performance difference was pretty amazing. I don't know that I would bother to make the switch in handgun.

FGMM
30 rds @ 100 yds - 2.4" center to center
40rd Chrono
Avg: 1082
Min: 1047
Max: 1120
SD: 16.4
ES: 73.1

Eley Target
30rds @ 100 yds - 2.8" center to center
40 rd Chrono
Avg: 1102
Min: 1086
Max: 1123
SD: 8.5
ES: 37.2

CCI SV
30 rds @ 100 - 4.1" center to center
40 rd Chrono
Avg: 1060
Min: 1018
Max: 1111
SD: 20.6
ES: 93.1
 
In the same month I did the chrony tests of Post 21, I shot some 100-yd targets with that Sav B-22 w-CCI-SV and got a 10-round low of 1.550" and avg 1.651 of 30 rounds. I didn't have the chrony set that day. Also, last Oct-2023 I shot those same targets and ammo w-only 5-shots per bull. I got a low of 1.242" and avg of 1.633" with 4-bulls and a temp of ca 60*F. Finally, back on Sept-30-2023 I shot my CZ-457 VMTR at 100-yds with SK Flat Nose SV. Using 4 bulls and 5-shots each I got a low of 0.896" and an avg of 1.173". The temp was ca 70*F and under 5mph breeze in my face. Again no chrony, I just rely more on performance altho back in '22 the Flat-Nose did have a ES of only 35. As for accuracy with the CZ 457 & 455 I've found SK-Rifle-Match or SK+ generally better than other ammo excepting the FN. And I'm on my last 150 of the FN and it's now out of production.
 
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The new CCI SV in the light blue box isn't as good as the older stuff in the dark blue packing. Last outing shooting the newer stuff, lots of variation in velocity with several super sonic cracks. Usually, at least one in a 10 round magazine.
 
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