You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
Best 22LR match grade ammo
- Thread starter Stats Shooter
- Start date
Stats Shooter
New member
Well, one thing seems to be a common theme here, and that is: each rifle may like different stuff. Regardless whether it is the cheap stuff or not.
I rarely buy factory ammo but sometimes I buy factory lake city.223 ammo just for the brass. My select match AR with 20" bull barrel shoots a shotgun pattern with 55 Grain fmj's lake city ammo while my plinking AR shoots that stuff sub moa.....You just never know
I rarely buy factory ammo but sometimes I buy factory lake city.223 ammo just for the brass. My select match AR with 20" bull barrel shoots a shotgun pattern with 55 Grain fmj's lake city ammo while my plinking AR shoots that stuff sub moa.....You just never know
I shot rimfire benchrest for about 18 years. It's a very expensive, ammo and rifle dependent game. Test ammo to see what brand/lot# works best in your rifle and buy as much of that as you can afford, then buy more!
It's very equipment-dependent as well. Rests, scopes, tuners, wind flags/indicators are all very expensive. In some venues, you need three rifles, sporter, Light Varmint, and Heavy Varmint. Then, there's Unlimited!
Each rifle will usually like a different ammo brand and/or lot#. There's also some ammo that shoots like a dream, but will throw one or two flyers in a box.
I finally sold my Unlimited rifle and got out of the game, after on one day, shooting two perfect 250 targets and a 249, with the last shot, a 9. The person who bought the rifle has shot several perfect scores and is ranked 7th in the country. He just spend thousands of dollars for very good batch of Eley.
Lot to Lot, the most consistent ammo for me was RWS R-50, but some lots also seemed to have a flyer or two in each box that would give me an eight or nine.
Wind and mirage are major factors in match shooting. Bench location, usually allocated by luck of the draw, is often critical, especially when there are side earth berms and trees that create weird wind currents.
It's very equipment-dependent as well. Rests, scopes, tuners, wind flags/indicators are all very expensive. In some venues, you need three rifles, sporter, Light Varmint, and Heavy Varmint. Then, there's Unlimited!
Each rifle will usually like a different ammo brand and/or lot#. There's also some ammo that shoots like a dream, but will throw one or two flyers in a box.
I finally sold my Unlimited rifle and got out of the game, after on one day, shooting two perfect 250 targets and a 249, with the last shot, a 9. The person who bought the rifle has shot several perfect scores and is ranked 7th in the country. He just spend thousands of dollars for very good batch of Eley.
Lot to Lot, the most consistent ammo for me was RWS R-50, but some lots also seemed to have a flyer or two in each box that would give me an eight or nine.
Wind and mirage are major factors in match shooting. Bench location, usually allocated by luck of the draw, is often critical, especially when there are side earth berms and trees that create weird wind currents.
Guns in 22 LR are notorious for having ammo preferences. Nobody can say what ammo will work best in your gun except your gun. In my experience any gun related question that starts "What is the best..." cannot be answered. There is no single "best" gun, ammo or anything else.
You usually pay for what you get when it comes to match .22LR ammo, because the cost of the manufacturer's high quality QA really determines the price and shows up in group sizes, especially at 100 yards.
Here are my rankings based on about 7 years of testing and about 10,000 measured 5 round groups using 17 different rifles.
Highest cost ammo is Lapua X-Act but is shoots best in my most accurate rifles. At 26.50 a box it is too expensive for me to shoot a lot.
Lapua Midas Plus and Eley Tenex are very good but just a bit less expensive.
Midas Plus performs best in most of my rifles. Only the match rifles with tight chambers shoot Tenex as well or slightly better than Midas Plus over long term averages.
Lapua Center-X and Eley Match are just bit less expensive and shoot almost as well. Center-X performs better in most of my rifles. Again the rifle with the tight chambers seem to get good results with Eley.
So I buy Center-X by the case for under $10 a box for most of my shooting. I think it is a great all around ammo for target shooting. Tests of my last two case lots averaged 0.001 difference at 50 yards across two boxes - averaging 20 groups of each lot.
SK Rifle Match and Wolf Match Extra (both made by Lapua in their Jagr factory on the same production line) are one step below them in accuracy but they are cheaper. Lot to lot variation can be significant. Most non-match rifles won't know the difference. Over the last few years, SK Rifle Match seems to have had a bit better lot to lot variation than Match Extra. That could just be the luck of delivery since it is near impossible to test a lot and then go back and order from the same lot these days, unless you go to a Lapua or Eley test site.
SK Standard Plus and Wolf Match Target are one more step down but it is a small step. Lot variations also can be significant. In fact, I bought one case of Match Target years ago that challenged the more expensive Lapua ammos for accuracy. I haven't seen another lot like that in 6 years.
Here are my rankings based on about 7 years of testing and about 10,000 measured 5 round groups using 17 different rifles.
Highest cost ammo is Lapua X-Act but is shoots best in my most accurate rifles. At 26.50 a box it is too expensive for me to shoot a lot.
Lapua Midas Plus and Eley Tenex are very good but just a bit less expensive.
Midas Plus performs best in most of my rifles. Only the match rifles with tight chambers shoot Tenex as well or slightly better than Midas Plus over long term averages.
Lapua Center-X and Eley Match are just bit less expensive and shoot almost as well. Center-X performs better in most of my rifles. Again the rifle with the tight chambers seem to get good results with Eley.
So I buy Center-X by the case for under $10 a box for most of my shooting. I think it is a great all around ammo for target shooting. Tests of my last two case lots averaged 0.001 difference at 50 yards across two boxes - averaging 20 groups of each lot.
SK Rifle Match and Wolf Match Extra (both made by Lapua in their Jagr factory on the same production line) are one step below them in accuracy but they are cheaper. Lot to lot variation can be significant. Most non-match rifles won't know the difference. Over the last few years, SK Rifle Match seems to have had a bit better lot to lot variation than Match Extra. That could just be the luck of delivery since it is near impossible to test a lot and then go back and order from the same lot these days, unless you go to a Lapua or Eley test site.
SK Standard Plus and Wolf Match Target are one more step down but it is a small step. Lot variations also can be significant. In fact, I bought one case of Match Target years ago that challenged the more expensive Lapua ammos for accuracy. I haven't seen another lot like that in 6 years.
I definitely get better results with "standard" or subsonic velocity ammo than high velocity. Anything "auto" has typically not done as well in a bolt action for me, especially at 100 yards.
There is a very good reason for that. The same reason centerfire shooters want a round that is supersonic all the way to the target, the transition from supersonic to subsonic is a turbulent place, and while some bullets handle it better than others, it affects all of them.
With a .22LR, even the fastest like CCI Stingers or Rem Yellow Jackets are subsonic by 100 yards. The way to avoid this in a .22LR is to never be supersonic in the first place.
Another factor with your 100 yard accuracy is wind. Wind at that range for most certerfire rifles in not enough to be bothered with, but for a slow bullet with a horrible BC, it matters.
At sea level, a 22LR Federal 40gr Match bullet at 1080 FPS has about .4 MOA drift for each MPH of full value wind, which is roughly the same as my 6.5-06 Long Range rig at 625 yards (140AMAX @ 2818 FPS). At 200 yards it has about 1.5 MOA/1 MPH FV wind, which matches my 6.5 at about 1200 yards.
Don Fischer
New member
While stationed in Germany in the late 60's I shot on the base small bore team. It was new to me and I just used something like remchester match ammo. One guy on the team had been shooting small bore all his life and wouldn't shoot anything but Eley Match. I don't know if it helped him or not but he always beat me!
Stats Shooter
New member
Well I went out today and tried ELEY, Wolf Match, Federal Ultra Match, Norma, all against my bulk supply of CCI Mini mags.
The ELEY was the worst. Norma, Federal and CCI all shot about the same....They were about 3/4" x10 shot groups repeated 5 times each. (50 yards)
Wolf shot dime sized 10 shot groups at 50 yards....NO FLYERS!!!
Maybe my rifle just doesn't like ELEY or my rifle doesn't like that batch of ELEY. But the wolf was super accurate in my gun. The wolf match ammo is what the 4H kids all use so it must be decent, but it ain't cheap..Like $6.99/50.
The ELEY was the worst. Norma, Federal and CCI all shot about the same....They were about 3/4" x10 shot groups repeated 5 times each. (50 yards)
Wolf shot dime sized 10 shot groups at 50 yards....NO FLYERS!!!
Maybe my rifle just doesn't like ELEY or my rifle doesn't like that batch of ELEY. But the wolf was super accurate in my gun. The wolf match ammo is what the 4H kids all use so it must be decent, but it ain't cheap..Like $6.99/50.