Every time I buy Federal .22 target ammo

L

Lavan

New member
I just shot up the last of my T22 Win. and bought 2 bricks of Federal Gold Medal .22 and out of the 1st 3 boxes have had 5 misfires. Can turn the shell and it will go off. Had this happen 10 yrs ago and they said the lot was old. This lot is 2 mos old.
Using High Standard Trophy bull barrel circa 1975 or so.

Frustrating. They want me to send the bad ones in and I probably will but has anyone else had the experience?

ALL other brands will fire fine. The Federal is slick looking and groups tighter IF it fires.
 
My problem with their gold medal ammo is that my gun would fire three round bursts of fire a round after racking the slide.
 
Same here. 7 misfires out of 200 rounds. The top was loose and you can turn it and remove the copper. Horrible. Also, I had 2 that had side dents!!! Talk about potential kb! good thing it's a .22, otherwise I'd be SERIOUSLY worried.

I'm disappointed, federal should be of higher quality. I have 800 rounds left...

Albert
 
I recently bought a few bricks of Federal Lightening because it was cheap... and Federal. The stuff is complete crap. Misfires continuously, double fires, etc. It doesn't seem old, Bricks wrapped in plastic and the ammo looks clean...just garbage. I finally just gave it to the neighborhood kids to play with. It seems to fire OK when they bash it between two rocks. Go figure!
Regards,
SM

By the way, just kidding about the kids. Ammo is still crap.
 
I have the same problem when I buy ANT of the 22 in bricks. I think they sell cheap stuff in the large boxes.
I have bought plenty of the Federal in single bixes (can't remember which line of product it was) and they all shot fine. But not so with the bricks.
But for the difference in price, I'll take afew misfires.
 
But David, all .22 ammo leaves the factory in bricks of 500 (10 boxes of 50). It's the retail dealer who breaks up the bricks and sells it in boxes of 50. Your statement may be true of the bulk boxes, that is, the ones that have around 500 dumped in a single box.

Lavan, I haven't had any problems with any Fed ammo like you describe. Sometimes it does fail to hit the X. No wait, that would be my fault, wouldn't it? Whenever I start seeing problems with misfires, stovepipes, etc., I initially want to blame the ammo also. But usually a spring job fixes the ammo problems. If your 1975 H-S hasn't had at least the firing pin spring replaced, I'd do that right away.
 
I'm a cheap son of a bitch so I normally buy the least expensive ammo on the shelf for plinking.
What I've found is that the Blazer .22 is usually the cheapest and by far the cleanest and most reliable .22 ammo.
My Buckmark (like most semi-auto .22's) is sensitive to dirt and fouling. When I use Winchester, Remington or Federal I need to clean the gun after about 200 rounds (less with "Lightnings") or I start to get jams and misfires.

I think the reason you get misfires with a lot of .22 ammo is that its so dirty that it fouls the firing pin and you get soft hits.

Blazer uses some kind of propellant that turns to "talc" and just blows away. Its good stuff and accurate enough for my purposes.



------------------
Keith
The Bears and Bear Maulings Page: members.xoom.com/keithrogan
 
I've also had problems with the Federal .22 Gold Medal also. Especially failing to fire (even thought the case shows a good hit by the firing pin) and slam-fires. It's not the gun (Ruger 10/22) - I have no problems of this type with other ammo. The Federal Gold Medla is nice and accurate but seems to have ignition problems.


- gabe
 
Federal Gold Medal .22 ammo comes in three grades:

Ultramatch - excellent, Olympic-grade stuff and very expensive.

Match - Good and expensive.

Target, a.k.a. 711 - Cheap stuff that sells because of the reputation of the Ultramatch line. It seems to group about as well as T22 or CCI Standard Velocity, but I've seen several bullseye shooters suffer alibis with it. At the same price level, PMC Scoremaster is much better ammo. JHMO.
 
Mal,
I think I should have said 'bulk', rather than brick.

Keith,
thanks for the idea of trying the blazers. I also use the Buckmark. I haven't noticed that it is any more sensitive to dirt than any other 22. they all seem to be. And anything I can do to cut done on work is fine with me. Lazy I am. Cheap is just an added benefit.
 
I've only shot 2 'bricks' of the fed. gold medal but it seems good for me. It tested more accurate in my ruger 6.5" and 5.5" high standard than rem standard vel and all hi velocity stuff I tried. 1000 rounds went bang and printed small groups as long as I did my part.
 
I got a few "Bucket o' Bullets" from Remington. (3 lbs, 425rnds. ea) The firing pin in my 21A hits'em so hard, it creases the shell and nearly cuts it, but there are a lot of misfires. Sad thing (aside from the misfires), they are the most reliable cycling ammo for that gun.
 
Just came back from the range right now, shot my Ruger 10/22, out of 300 rounds, I had about 20 failures.

The count is down to 500 rounds left, can't wait to get rid of these things... I few had heads that were loose... So it wasn't my imagination last time.

Albert
 
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