Rimfire Accuacy Testing

R

roy reali

New member
I own several rimfire handguns. They are my favorite carry weapons. Cheap to shoot, accurate enough, and just plain fun. I have begun accuracy testing them. I have purchased a dozen different brands and styles of cartridges. I am shooting paper targets set at 25 yards. Sandbags are the method of rest. Its too soon to have complete results, but I am finding two common things.

Stinger rounds are not liked by any of my rimfire handguns. At twenty five yards, they group more like a shotgun pattern, and a lousy one at that. Now the Federal Gold stuff seems to do well with all my rimfire handguns. It isn't the most accurate for any of them, but pretty good with all of them. If I was limited to one brand of amoo, this might be the one. It also shoots wel in my rifles.

Has anyone done any extensive rimfire ammo testing?

It would be interesting to compare notes.
 
I haven't done extensive testing, but I've tried a good number of different brands through my revolvers and rifles. My general take is that while match-grade ammo generally produces good results, I have typically found something considerably cheaper and available locally that my guns like as well or nearly so. In my case, both revolvers and all my rifles have done very well with Federal 714 and CCI standard velocity.

Since Fed 714 is only available at Dick's, and then only occasionally, I called Federal and they told me the Gold Medal 711B was the very same stuff. It did well in my guns, but consistently less well than 714, so I'm skeptical that's it's identical to 714.

You might cruise on over to rimfirecentral. Undoubtedly, there are numerous threads devoted to rimfire ammo testing.
 
I read an interesting article years ago where the author used a cailper to measure rim thickness and an accurate scale to measure cartridge weight. By seperating his ammo into groups with minimal variation he was able to cut his group size in half from rounds shot in a gun locked into a mechanical firing device.

When you buy match grade ammo you are paying for ammo that is made with higher tolerances. By segregating ammo by weight and rim thickness you are getting rid of rounds that have different ammounts of powder and primer compound and variations in bullet sizes. Basically you're increasing tolerences after production instead of doing it during production.
 
Rimfire target ammo is subsonic to avoid the turbulence of the sound barrier. Hyper velocity ammo doesn't work too well for most folks when it comes to accuracy.

Every rimfire gun likes something different. I start with the cheap ammo and work my way up until I find something that meets my needs for each gun.

If you find something you like, run back to the store and buy all you can afford of that lot number. Look inside of the end flaps.

The one ammo that most of my guns like is the early Wolf Match Target and Match Extra. By early I mean before they changed the type of powder they used. Back when a brick of WMT was $15 or so. ;) I bought A LOT of it.

The expensive match ammo is usually pretty good, but $10 or $12 a box/50 is just too expensive for me for everyday plinking.

John
 
Everytime I get a new rimfire I go and buy a 50 box of everything I can get my hands on. That allows me to get a good idea of what that gun will shoot and also lets me waste a whole day "researching".
Overall I've found the same thing with Stingers. They just aren't that accurate, except out of my dad's 39A, but they tend to be accurate enough for their purpose and very impressive in their results. I've found across the board that subsonic loads are more accurate, unfortunately every one of my guns likes a different sub sonic load better. My 14" contender barrel is just magical with CCI subsonic HP's, the 10 inch barrel shoots them okay but shoots aguila subsonic. My Dan Wesson shoots both of those ok, but thrives on Aguila match pistol whcih doesn't shoot well in either of the contender barrels, and it just goes on and on.
 
Of the non-target variety, I've found CCI Standard Velocity to be the best performer out of my Buckmark. Relatively inexpensive, consistent quality, good groupings. The Buckmark is good, but no Olympic caliber pistol (to say nothing of the joker pulling the trigger - namely me ;) ).

Of the target lines, CCI Green Tag and Federal Gold Target are pretty darn good, but more dollars there. Also, my skill level and firearm aren't up to taking full advantage of the target-level quality.
 
I spent over a thousand dollars ordering and trying every match grade ammo I could find for my new, (at the time), Match 10/22. turned out what it really needed was to be broken in and Winchester Super X for the long 100 yard shoots and Remington Gold in the boxes of 100, (not the bulk stuff), for anything 50 yards and under. I have several thousand rounds of some very pricey stuff in my ammo locker not being shot because it's too pricey and waiting in case I ever get back in really serious competition again.

Lots of ammo got scratched early including bulk ammo and stingers. There is a large amount of ammo fairly priced that works nearly as well as the really "Good" stuff. You don't need to buy a Cadillac to get good results.

Turns out I didn't need the match 10/22 either, My 46 year old Marlin 60 is so close to the 10/22 it's scary. The better gun is the one I'm having a really good shooting day at the time, go figure.
 
Strangely enough I've found that Federal bulk box shoots almost as well as anything else until I stretch past 50yrds. And that goes for every 22 I've tried it in across the board.
 
I recently send my S&W Model 41 back to the company for service. I also spoke with their gunsmith who has 40 years experience with the Model 41. Here is part of what he told me. He said that all .22 ammo is inherently dirty. The Model 41 is a target pistol and is very sensitive to the ammo used. He warned specifically against using either Federal or Eley and said the best ammo this pistol was CCI Standard. Price for this ammo has recently gone through the roof and it is also in short supply. I just bought 3 bricks of the stuff and had to pay $ 34.95 for each.
 
Almost all ammo is more accurate than I am,,,

I go out to the silhouette matches at my range,,,
Some of these guys are super serious about the sport,,,
They weigh and separate their very expensive subsonic match ammo,,,
I even know one old dude who sits with a rag and polishes each and every cartridge.

I'm nowhere near their level of fanaticism,,,
But one day I found I had about 7 different brands of .22 Ammo,,,
I had stuff ranging from el-cheapo Centurion all the way to ELY Match grade stuff.

I decided to do my own test.

I selected my Henry Accu-Bolt single-shot .22 rifle,,,
It is supposedly the best of my .22's.

I tried to nail the variables down as closely as I could,,,
The rifle was kept in the shade as I shot,,,
I waited 1 minute between shots,,,
I shot 5 of each ammo type.

I even let the barrel cool for 5 minutes between strings of five,,,
And I ran a clean patch after each 5 rounds.

At 100 yards my groups were virtually identical,,,
All shots (well almost all) were within 3" of dead center.

I know the rifle itself is more accurate than that,,,
Because a lady sharpshooter at my range,,,
Once used that rifle to shoot 3 in 1",,,
Don't ask me how she did it,,,
But she shot Sub-MOA.

The only logical conclusion is that I am not a good enough shooter,,,
For the ammunition to make any appreciable difference.

This is a great thing for me,,,
'cause now I just buy the cheap stuff. :D

.
 
Stinger rounds are not liked by any of my rimfire handguns. At twenty five yards, they group more like a shotgun pattern, and a lousy one at that.
Click to expand...

I've found that Stingers are pretty worthless. The only thing they have going for them is their speed and when you compare them to a Velocitor, the Velocitor has them beat hands down.

Back in my ignorant days I committed the sin of feeding Stingers in a S&W M-41 of course embarrassing the M-41 because it'd never shoot anywhere near its potential on those things. :D

A few years ago on the advice folks here and THR I bought a Browning Nomad I found in a gun shop in Sitka.
I tested several brands of ammo and found that I could print 5 round groups that touched with CCI Subsonics @ 25 yrds. It also shoots Federal Bulk okay, Velocitors, CCI SGB and Mini-Mags. CCI Pistol Match is anything but. It did not like Remington or Winchester Wildcats. Aguila 60 gr. SSS keyholed, but I expected that, because that stuff is barely stable coming out of my 20" barreled Winchester beater.

If you looked at my .22lr supply, I have a crapload of Federal Bulk for my rifles and the Nomad. One bulk box of Remington I can't even give away and and about 1000 rds of CCI Subsonic that I pretty much use exclusively for the Nomad on my trapline and for general use.
 
I've tried a bunch of different ammos from my 617. What does it like the most? The el cheapo Federal Bulk Pak from Walmart! At ten yards I can sometimes put six in one big hole. At 25 it spreads out a bit but, frankly, it's still much more accurate than I am at that distance.
 
rimfire accuracy

I'll swear by Federal's gold medal match and ultramatch. I have not done much comparison testing, but what i have shows Winchester's T-22 is pretty consistant in my 10/22.

CCI's SGB is not bad either. Winchester's powerpoint is generally god, but always seems to produce 1-2 flyers in 10 shots. maybe it's me getting impatient, i do find myself taking more time with the good, expensive ammo.

I _will_ be reporting results once i pick up a new 6" 617 later, but more than centerfire ammo- some rimfires just work better with certain guns.
 
What you have to look out for is lot to lot variation in .22 ammo. If you "play" with .22's long enough, you will that one particular lot of a brand will shoot well, and another lot of the same brand will shoot crappy. You can sort .22 ammo by weight, rim thickness and OAL to find what your gun likes in a particular brand & lot. When you find a lot of ammo that shoots well, you should buy as much of it as you can.
 
Finding which round works the best in any rim fire gun is half the fun. Since everyone is different and each lot of ammo is different too, it becomes a challenge. For semi-autos, I first find what cycles well before seeing how accurate those rounds are. Once that is done, it is time to shoot from a rest and preferably with optics to see what is the most accurate. For plinking I generally go for what cycles well and the lowest price. Accurate is nice but not my first concern in plinking ammo. When I shoot with optics, I like the most accurate ammo with the lowest price. On short barrel pistols I find most of mine are accurate with CCI SV. Some do better still with other ammo that may be higher priced but not always. I also noticed that CCI Green Tag works just as well in a short barrel (4" and under) as the CCI SV. I only notice a difference between them with longer barrels such as rifles. The SV is about half the cost of Green Tag.

If I wanted to shoot completion then I would go into greater research to find the right ammo to use for each gun and buy as many cases of the that ammo with the same lot number as I could find. I would also have to get different guns first that were made for competition.

I got the last CCI SV ammo from Natchez Shooters Supply. They had some in stock again so I restocked too. I recently checked and they still have some more.
 
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