Very disappointed with CCI Stingers.

[Adamantium]

Well, After far too long I finally got out and had some quality time with my 22LR. This time I took up 3 different kinds of ammo with me. I am contemplating rabbit hunting(sub 100 yards) so I desided to buy some premium ammo for my .22

I bought CCI Stingers and Mini-Mags to test out. And the good old $8.25 a brick Rem. Gold bullet HP's. After resighting in my scope for the slightly longer distance and 'warming up on the cheap stuff, I shot 10 round groups of each of the 3 different kinds of ammo. Accuracy on the Gold Bullets was excellent as usual. At 75 or so yards, 7 of the holes thouched each other, 2 more were within 1/2 an inch of that group, and one went way low and to the left. One of the rounds got kinda "roughed up" being loaded into the chamber, so I'm assuming thats the one, but it's not like I can prove it. The CCI Mini-mags had good accuracy also, no flyers and 6 of the holes touch another one.

But the Stingers, man where do I begin... The first one shot fine, but several of the ones after that I had to practically force the bolt closed on my gun. Using my extensive vocabulary I realized, "Hey, this ain't right." After Try a handful of cartriges in the box I finally got 10 that would allow me to close the bolt on my gun wihout too much force. Accuracy wasn't very good. No bullets touched one another, it was about a 3 1/2 inch group. I was so ashamed of my target I trashed it it the second I made it back to my car. And the singers secured thier place in my "Favorite Brand Hall O' Fame" when accuracy on my gun promtly went down the drain after I was done with that group. But I of course didn't realize this till 10 more shots later. After I shot what I felt was the best group of my life. As I was walking to my target I remember saying to myself "Man I gotta show this target to my friends, 10 bullets in one hole!" Well, I would pay money to see the shock on my face when I realized that my bullets had sprayed all across the target, same thing goes for the next 3 targets also.

So anyway(rant mode off), does anyone else here experiance the same problems that I have?

1. Cartriges have trouble fully chambering.

2. Poor accuracy. I guess this problem varies from gun to gun, but I just want to make sure I'm not the only one.

3. Prompt death of accuracy after shooting Stingers.


Sincerely,
Adam

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Self improvement is a hobby of mine

 

[George Hill]

Sounds like your gun had a hygene issue.
How many rounds did your fire before you got to the Stingers?

Intresting - If you didnt take to the Stingers, Remington Vipers are very good.

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"I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant." -Nixon

 

[Hal]

Adam,
Stingers have a longer case than standard or high vel .22 lr, kind of like trying to chamber a .357 after shooting a lot of .38 Specials. Clean the gun, pay very close attention to the chamber area, then fire only Stingers or some other hypervelociy round. Switching from one brand of .22 lr to another without cleaning often means poor performance. Use a spent Stinger case to scrape the chamber walls after a good cleaning. You will be amazed at the amount of crud that is left.

Stingers hit hard, but aren't tops for accuracy in most guns. There is a good reason that most expensive match ammo is sub sonic. Consistant velocity is key to group size. Stingers are primaraly hunting rounds, and 50 yard min of rabbit is generally good enough.

Face it also, your gun may not care for stingers. .22's are pretty picky about ammo, but nowhere near what they were 20 years ago. Even the cheapest stuff today is pretty good by comparison.

Lastly, if it ain't fix, don't broke it!!!!! I mean really!!! You can buy ammo your gun loves for $8.95 a brick!!! These are bunnies man, not an African safari! Sounds like a decent cleaning, and a lot of Rem $8.95 bricks will sharpen your skills with the same load you use for hunting. Shot placement. Drop the cottontails with a good shot and leave the expensive stuff to some other sucker


One last thing,,don't trash those bad targets. You other groups show the fault wasn't a lack of ability, but a poor combination of events. Absolutly nothing to be ashamed of there. Keep the bad ones, as well as the good ones so you know what to avoid in the future. Make a few notes on them as far as conditions and such, and stick them in a box or something. You can often learn a whole lot more from the bad ones, than you can the good ones.

[This message has been edited by RAE (edited March 28, 2000).]