.22 Match Ammo

With match grade .22 rf ammo, as others have said, you pays for what you gets.
You can find some less expensive ammo that will give you some impressive 3 or 5 shot groups. Then when you go on to several 5 shot groups, you find that you get what is charitably called "fliers". That's a round that gives you the unexpected 9 or worse, an 8. Variations in priming mix, powder charge, bullet weight, bullet lubrication, bullet shape, bullet crimp, brass thickness, and on and on. The more expensive stuff will have fewer of these problems.
Yes, SK standard plus shoots well in my Anschutz rifle. BUT I get the occasional 9 and (rarely) a dreaded 8 in practice.
In serious rimfire competition, dropping an X, much less a 9 will lose you a match.
There is a reason that folks use high end, expensive rimfire ammo. Believe me, sir, if I could shoot consistent 200 / 15+ X targets with cheap ammo, I would. I cannot, nor can my fellow competitors. (I sure wish that they would buy cheap ammo, it would make my life easier :D
I'm sure that there will be several folks come on this forum and claim that they consistently shoot little tiny groups at 50 & 100 yds with inexpensive ammo & rifles. Unfortunately, they never show up a Perry or any other match.

Roger
 
I'm sure that there will be several folks come on this forum and claim that they consistently shoot little tiny groups at 50 & 100 yds with inexpensive ammo & rifles. Unfortunately, they never show up a Perry or any other match.

I hear it all the time Roger. I keep a dime target with me at the range when I'm told my rifle & ammo will stay under a dime at 50 yards.
 
Here's what my Anschutz 1911 did back in 2005 With Eley Tenex. All 40 shots touched (a few just barely) or went into the .39" X ring enroute to almost setting a new smallbore prone record at 50 yards .....

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The third shot on the shoot-off target left the barrel as the wind gusted and its inside edge landed about 1/16th inch off the X ring at 3 o'clock to score a 10. I quit shooting.

That ammo shot about 2/10ths inch at 50 yards when it was tested. It was made in early 1985 before Eley changed their priming compound mix.
 
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That's some impressive shooting.

Although I am of the opinion that someone starting in precision rimfire probably wouldn't benefit from shooting Eley Tenex so much as just getting more trigger time practicing the fundamentals.

It's like air pellets, the cheap ones are good enough until you can't get any better without getting better pellets. And when you need better pellets, you've shot tens of thousands of the budget pellets.

Of course there is the other school of thought, you should always use the best. In a perfect world where budget doesn't matter, I would agree.

But no one pays me to shoot competitively (and the Army only provides me enough ammo for basic qualification plus a little extra). I'd be in hog heaven if they did.

Jimro
 
My opinion on quality of stuff to learn how to shoot accurate is to start with the best. The more accurate it is, the faster you'll learn why your shots don't strike where you thought they shood. Bullet holes from accurater ammo shot in accurate rifles best show where the barrel was pointed when the bullet left the barrel.

If you call the shot 1 MOA off dead center out to the right and your bullet strikes dead center, what adjustment do you make on the sights?

With a 2 MOA rifle and ammo, you may not need to make one; that shot may well have been a normal wide one with that ammo from that rifle. You'll need to shoot a few more shots to see where they tend to center at before you can make a good sight corrrection.

With a 1/2 MOA rifle and ammo, you'll know right away the correction is about 3/4 or 1 MOA right. Make it then take another shot.

And what if it was your position or trigger control that put that shot way out there from where it was called? How many shots will it take to figure that out for both accuracy level systems?

If you decide later to sell your shooting stuff and instead take up contract bridge for fun, you can sell good quality, accurate stuff for more than the other stuff and save a greater percentage of your investment.
 
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Bart B.

Like I said, if cost isn't a factor then by all means buy an Anshutz and buy a single lot of 50,000 Tenex. However, the OP is talking about a Savage which retails for around 400 bucks as a "budget" smallbore affair.

And most folks adjust their rifle by group, since rifles shoot groups and not one ragged hole, even from a rest (although those benchrester guys get groups smaller than the projectile fairly often). And you know it doesn't do you any good to adjust your sights on your first bullet from a pristine bore.

Then again, shooting the best stuff you can from the start produces shooters like David Tubb and Sherri Galagher. On the other hand, Annie Oakley shot what she had.

Jimro
 
Ammo and used equipment or sale

I shot rifles competitively in college and Lapua shot really good through my rifle. I usually shot Lapua SK Standard Plus in Practice and either Lapua Master L or M or Lapua Midas Plus in competitions... I tried shooting Eley and I know a lot of people had good success with it but my rifle didnt seem to shoot it as well as the Lapua. Infact if you are looking I have some ammo for sale if your interested in any. I a bunch of left handed equipment and rifles for sale also.

(50 rds per box)
Lapua Master L - 36 boxes
Lapua Master M - 14 boxes
Lapua SK Standard Plus - 60 boxes
Eley Target Match (Black Box) - 14 boxes
Eley Silhouette - 2 boxes
Aguila Golden Eagle - 20 boxes
 
I shot rifles competitively in college and Lapua shot really good through my rifle. I usually shot Lapua SK Standard Plus in Practice and either Lapua Master L or M or Lapua Midas Plus in competitions... I tried shooting Eley and I know a lot of people had good success with it but my rifle didnt seem to shoot it as well as the Lapua. Infact if you are looking I have some ammo for sale if your interested in any. I a bunch of left handed equipment and rifles for sale also.

(50 rds per box)
Lapua Master L - 36 boxes
Lapua Master M - 14 boxes
Lapua SK Standard Plus - 60 boxes
Eley Target Match (Black Box) - 14 boxes
Eley Silhouette - 2 boxes
Aguila Golden Eagle - 20 boxes
 
22s

you really need to let the gun tell you what it wants.
Very true. You may well be surprised.
Any time I had a new target gun...rifle or pistol....I bought as many types and brands of .22 ammo as I could afford. I sat down and shot those twenty shot strings.
In general, the more expensive ammo shot demonstrably better. The one exception was a High Standard Victor which really liked the old Federal 711s.
Federal gold medal match ammo proved to be a good choice for my guns.
Pete
 
We shoot USBR 50 yard Bench Rest at the Club. Most of us shoot Wolf Match Target or Match Extra, or the same stuff in the SK mostly Standard Plus. Most of us are shooting for a good time.
The serious guys drag out the Hi Dollar Eley Black and Red Box, or the Hi End Lapua.

This seems to be how accuracy runs in a target rifle at our range starting with the low end stuff:

Auto Match / Aguila / Federal Champion

Wolfe / SK / Ely Club / Gold Metal Match

Eley Teem / Eley Black Box

Eley Red Box / Lapua's good target ammo.

Seems like Federal does make a version of the Gold Medal Match that does shoot better. The box I tested was not any of it however. My box was about like Auto Match.

In my experiance as was said above you will get flyers until you get into the expensive stuff.

My Gunsmith has a sign that says: Accuracy is just a question of money. Just how accurate do you want it to be. This pretty much covers rimfire ammunition too.

My budget likes Wolfe and SK just fine.

Bob
 
With rimfire ammo the more you pay the lower the likelihood for flyers or off call shots. That is not to say they won't happen but the potential is reduced. Occasionally a lot of lower grade will meet the accuracy of the good stuff. I had a case[5000 rds] of medium grade RWS that was excellent up until the last two bricks. Investigation showed that there were two different lots in that case. A shooter/retailer explained that some makers of high grade .22's maintain lot integrity. That is they won't mix lots to fill cases. The best one can do is try as many as possible and then buy as much of the best as possible.
 
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