Does the military use .22LR at all?

I'm not aarondhgraham but on the whole the Remington (green box match) was pretty good in standard guns. In our target guns, such as our Anschutz Rifles (including the guns use for ISU and Biathlon) there was much better ammo.

They worked fairly well in our H&R 5200s, and the Ruger pistols, not so well in our High Standard and Model 41 Smiths.

Unless you went to the Ely 10X or so, the most accurate was the Winchester White Box for pistol and rifle. Winchesters Rifle ammo was a bit greasy (not as bad as the Remington) but the Winchester White Box Pistol ammo was best for reliability in our Model 41s and High Standard Target Pistols.

Unless you're shooting ISU International Matches, the Remington Green box will work quite well. It would be good for plinking and your NRA Light Rifle or CMP Rimfire Sporter Matches.

The thing about Anschutz Rifles, they were picky about ammo, I've had several variances even with the same brand of ammo but different lot numbers. Ely was bad about the difference between lot numbers. If we found a lot that works we'd buy as much as we could find. When that ran out, we'd have to start all over.
 
Hello BPowderkeg,,,

aarondhgraham, how reliable is that ammo ? accuracy @ 50 yds. ?
Click to expand...

Reliability is 100% so far,,,
That's over 14 bricks of 500 rounds fired,,,
I originally purchased 5 of the 5,000 round cases,,,
I honestly can't remember having even one dud round so far.

Accuracy is acceptable for my plinking uses,,,
One of the 4-H kids is shooting 1.5" groups at 50 yards using it,,,
That's with him shooting my old Mossberg 340KC and precision peep sights,,,
That's about the same relative accuracy as he gets from Wally-World Federal Bulk Pack.

In general it's great plinking ammo for revolvers and bolt/single-shot rifles,,,
It's a bit waxy/greasy for use in my semi-auto pistols,,,
It is lead round nose and not copper washed.

As far as value goes,,,
At 1 penny per round it's fantastic ammo. ;)

Aarond

.
 
I shot some Captain's Cup local competitions at NAS Pensacola using Navy provided S&W Model 41 pistols. I don't think I saw .22LR used anywhere else during my active duty days, but I suspect the thread ScottRiqui linked was probably on the money about JROTC and ROTC making use of it.
 
I'd like to point out that aarond's post was only yesterday and the link today shows that the 22LR is already sold out; thanks to all you ammo hoarders out there.

(edited; sorry, I see that it was sold out in February...so the only blame goes to aarond, who just teased the heck out of all of us with his 5000/$50 ammo notice. Worst tease I've seen since my first girlfriend:D)
 
Sorry berettaprofessor,,,

I didn't mean to tease,,, :o
I just showed the CMP website to show what it was.

I bought this from a private individual,,,
It was from his grandfathers estate.

Aarond

.
 
well i certainly got the answer to my question none the less... thanks for all the replies again. if they weren't sold out i'd definitely be buying some of that .22 ammo, oh well.
 
I don't remember who made the ammo but I shot quite a bit of .22lr out of single shot rifles on a shooting team with the Tennessee Army NG back in the Eighties.
 
I don't remember who made the ammo but I shot quite a bit of .22lr out of single shot rifles on a shooting team with the Tennessee Army NG back in the Eighties.
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If they came in Green boxes they were Remington, if they came in White boxes they were Wincherster.

Unless of course you got some special civilian manufactored ammo.

In the early 80s (forgot exactly what year) my unit won the CNGB Postal match using the M16a1 and the sub-cal device. We were flown to Nashville, (the Hqrs of the NG MTU before they moved to Little Rock),

We were issued Remington Green Box which functioned quite well in the sub-cal devices.
 
During WWII in the Alutian Island invasion by the Japanese, there existed a lagistics problem. Seems the islands were so large no individual could carry enough food to actually travel the distances required to spy on the Japs. The militaries solution was to employ an outfit called Castners Cutthroats. These were mainly Alaskan sourdoughs and outdoorsmen familiar with the wild places. When asked what they need to go on extended inland reconisence missions, the one thing every cutthroat was supplied was a 22 handgun. This allowed the reco guys to secure needed food in a lightweight quiet gun. Google Castners Cutthroats and look at some photos and you will see their 22 pistols.
 
I still have, and occasionally shoot (against my Colt collector friend's advice) a Service Model Ace .22lr that presumably was used to train Army troops sometime prior to the early 1950s (it was bought as surplus from the Army). It was the first semi-auto I ever shot, handed down by my dad around 1956. There seem to be modern equivalents available. They give the heft of a 1911 and ammo costs of near-zero compared to the ACP rounds. There was also a civilian version and a fair number come up for sale on Gunbroker. The downside is that real military Aces are expensive, so while there is a "cool" factor, the cost sorta defeats the advantage of cheap ammo. But it was a very creative solution for its original purpose. I was surprised that a puny little .22 cartridge could cycle a slide that heavy.
 
We used a device in the 105mm M68 gun as a sub-caliber device to help with crew training. It fired .22LR ammo from a rifle device mounted in the breechblock. As I recall, it fired tracer ammo and was woefully inadequate even for training purposes. There is no way a .22LR can be made to simulate a 105mm round.

But, when I was in college our ROTC department had a range and they shot a lot of .22LR ammo, teaching basic marksmanship to the cadets.
 
The only sub cal conversions for the M16FOW I saw in the marines was a 9mm conversion kit for sim rounds.

I know the training version of the AT4 uses a small caliber tracer, I think they told us it was a .22 but I don't remember. Heck I don't even remember what I ate for breakfast
 
Green box & White Box ammo,,,

If they came in Green boxes they were Remington, if they came in White boxes they were Wincherster.
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The stuff I have is definitely Mil-Surp,,,
It comes in a white box,,,
It's Remington ammo.

22_ammo.jpg


Just saying,,,

Aarond

.
 
What is the year of that, I've never seen Remington in white box, though I got out (retired) in 1992.

Learn something every day.
 
Hello kraigwy,,,

This is from the CMP website:

DESCRIPTION: Remington .22 Long Rifle Ammunition.
US Military contract Remington .22LR ammunition dated 1995 production.

Aarond

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When I was in the new York National Guard we had 22LR conversion units for the M-16s. Used them only 1x IIRC to allow the troops to qualify when for whatever reason we couldn't get to the range.
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How novel! A conversion kit to convert a .22 to a .22.:):):):)

Bob Wright
 
I've been told the US Air Force used to train with the Ciener Partner .22 conv. in M16's. Some trained with the Colt 1911 Ace .22 (the gun also had a 45 top-end to go with it, i've seen a few)
And.....what was the full auto Ruger 10/22's used for?
 
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