What's the best bulk 22 rimfire ammo?

[rcupka]

I use the Federal Bulk packs all the time, I have quite a few in the closet that were still only $8.99 when purchased a few years ago. Even at $11.97 it is still a bargain. I keep buying them every time I'm in Walmart to beat the ever increasing prices. It makes me mad when I pull out an old one and see how much it has gone up.

A few years ago I did a test with several different brands of ammo for accuracy in my Izmash Biathalon Basic. I used Federal Bulk and Champion, CCI Stingers, Velocitors and Mini Max, Remington "Golden Bullets" and Thunderbolts, Eley Match Target. Winchester Expert, and Wildcat and Wolf Match Target.

The best in my rifle was the Wolf match Target, followed by the Federal Bulk in the Brown/Gold box and the CCI Velocitors. The worst was were the Remingtons. Not to say they may not be great in your gun, but all my .22's work great with the Federal bulks.

This past year I went through about 3000 .22 rounds and have not had any Failure to Fires or Failure to extract. The only bad round was one empty case that had been primed, but was never filled or had a bullet seated.

3 weeks ago we had a NRA "Women on Target" event at our club. I ran the .22 Pistol Range and we were using 9 Ruger Mark II's with Standard Velocity Aguila ammunition we got from the CMP in bulk. A couple of the guns would not run the Aguila, so I brought out 3 boxes of Federal bulk I had in the car and all guns then funtioned normally.

Best Value on the market, Try some.

Dick Cupka

[22-rimfire]

You have a good 22 rifle. Pick up a carton of Federal Bulk Pack (550 rounds) and a few boxes of the Federal Champion 50-round boxes ($1.28 ea). They are just a tad more expensive than the bulk pack and most have better accuracy and results in general with them. Head out and shoot them and give them a try.

Walmart prices are just about the best of the best for what they carry. Online sellers offer much more variety and usually it is more expensive. But it is hard to buy target grade ammo at Walmart except for the Remington which is generally not as good as some of the others. A local gun shop stocks Wolf Match Target and sells by the box at $8.50 or so. You can buy it online for about $45/brick (500 rounds) when it is in stock. Price has been going up just about everytime the sellers get new in stock however. Not so long ago, it was $30 a brick.

Places like Sportsman Guide, Cheaper than Dirt, and a few others will ocasionally offer something cheap that they bought in volume. I bought a bunch of PMC Moderators from Sportsman Guide when they had them for $125 (more or less) per case (5000 rounds) about a year ago. It's good ammo and seems to shoot well in a couple of my rifles. But it is not match grade ammo. You visit Rimfire Central, I believe. They will frequently alert you to online bargains.

You just have to try different stuff out and see how it does in your rifle.

[grampi]

Next question; why is Eley, Fiocci, and Lapua ammo 6-8 times more expensive than most other brands of ammo? Is their ammo made from 24K gold or something? And who's buying their ammo at these prices? They're ridiculous!

[22-rimfire]

This ammo is all foreign made and imported into the US. Yes, I buy it and yes, I think it's expensive. My favorite target ammo is Wolf and SK. There seems to a direct correlation between price and general accuracy. You need put the price into perspective relative to centerfire ammo. Few shoot the expensive stuff just to plink. It just depends on what you are trying to accomplish with the 22 rifle.

For hunting and general shooting, the lesser priced stuff works just fine. CCI would be the considered higher end price wise. What do you get for the added cost? Consistancy. Shoot the bulk ammo at targets and you will often see a flyer that hits a half-inch or more outside the other shots. Does this make it unexceptable for general use? No. Does it make it unacceptable if you try to shoot targets at 50yds or more... Yep. Do the fail-to-fire or fail-to-feed shells bug you? That is what you get with bulk ammo these days. Shooting with a bolt action rifle makes it a bit easier to deal with the ftf and would-be jams from my perspective.

You need to think of Walmart as a pleasant enigma in today's market for 22 ammo. I think you will see substantial price increases in the coming months at Walmart on 22 ammo. If you like a particular ammo, I suggest you buy what you can now. But the price increases should not be more than 30% regardless. It's like buying gas and chasing $0.05 per gallon savings... If you could stock up, would it be worth it? Probably not unless you use tons of gasoline.

[grampi]

22-rimfire

What is driving the continuing price hikes for ammo? One would think there's got to be a breaking point where the price gets to be so high that people stop buying ammo in large enough quantities to keep the ammo companies in business, and yet prices just keep going up.

[Dobe]

Federal bulk pak is cheaper, but the Rem bulk pak shoots well in my two Thompson Center R-55's

[22-rimfire]

The driving force as to price increases is open to speculation and many here and on other forums have made their own appraisal of factors. I tend to agree with the following: Commodity prices on metals is UP (way up); demand is up; energy prices are up; manufacture of military calibers offsets production of non-military ammo; and transportation costs are up on both the production and retail side of things. Much of this could be blamed on a weak dollar. I don't know how much impact it has. It would be easy to compare the price of the US dollar with the Euro and Yen on a given day. The historical aspects are more difficult to determine for the everyday consumer. I have not really researched this aspect of it, but I would guess it would require some subscriptions to some of the business journals or web sites. (I could be wrong here. )

There has to be a limit as to what people will pay for 22rf ammunition. I don't think we're there yet. People are still buying centerfire ammo at prices that are double what was paid only a couple years ago. The demand is there regardless of whether you feel the price is too high. My guess is that rimfire prices are going to have to double again before there is any reduction in demand. The same applies to gasoline although there is little you can do but pay the price other than economizing where you can.

I compare time now with the Jimmy Carter years when inflation was more than 10% per year. We don't have the inflation nor do we have 12% CD's, but inflation is rising now with fuel and enegy prices going up. Those years saw price increases on firearms that eventually caused manufactures to go out of business. Colt comes to mine as their pricing (costs) eventually out-paced the market. Folks were buying now and paying later then as they believed the price would be higher next week or month. It is probably bad economics to buy stuff on credit, but it was done and it is done now.

As to the selection of specific ammo over another. You get opinions all over the place. We all have different standards by which we judge the preformance of ammo. An occasional fail to fire is not a big deal especially if you shoot bolt action, single shot, pump or lever action rifles. Same applies to handguns. I would acqure a reasonable supply to satisfy your needs for about 6 months. I would choose the Federal 510's sold in 50-round boxes at Walmart as my first choice for the less expensive ammo. But you still have to try it out and make sure it shoots okay and cycles the action in your Marlin M60.

[grampi]

Dobe

With pretty much the exception of your comment, I've heard nothing but bad things about Remington ammo in general, and especially their bulk ammo.

[Magnum Wheel Man]

one of my buddies has a box of Remington bulk he's trying to figure out what to do with...

there was a very noticeable "audio" difference between each shot... the groups were bad... ammo was bought at Walmart...

maybe better grades would be OK, but the bulk packs hmmm...

[22-rimfire]

Remington Golden Bullets tend to be better than Thunderbolts. Years ago, I couldn't tell any difference.

[T-Ray]

the high velocity stuff cycles better in my 597. I shot high velocity when i first got it, but that was only a 50rd box, now i have a brick of winchester hollow points ($10 or so at wal mart) and i have a lot of fte's. My friend, who also has a 597, says his does best with high velocities.

[grampi]

T-Ray

Are you actually talking about high velocities or hyper velocities?

[Dobe]

Dobe

With pretty much the exception of your comment, I've heard nothing but bad things about Remington ammo in general, and especially their bulk ammo.

I know, I have been reading these comments. I have a T/C R-55 Stainless and an R-55 Benchmark that seems to love them. Now, I have the typical duds that you get from cheap ammo, but other than that, I like the round. Once a month, I buy 10-14 boxes. I shoot about 2-3 boxes a month, and horde the rest.

[T-Ray]

Are you actually talking about high velocities or hyper velocities?

On the box, it says Remington 22 High Velocity. On the side, it says 22 Long Rifle High Velocity. In the specs, it says it's 1255fps muzzle velocity.

[ryalred]

For boxes of bulk ammo (cartridges laying loose in a box) I'd have to go with Federal with Winchester Super X in second place. However, neither have great consistency, but they are the best of the bunch. My nickels worth.

[CajunBass]

I've got a dozen 22's. Semi-auto (rifle and handgun), bolt, lever and revolver and I've found that while Federal 750 (Wally World) isn't the best in any of them, it's good enough in all of them.

[grampi]

Just ran some more ammo through the gun yesterday and found out it doesn't like the American Eagle stuff. It seems to have a problem loading from the mag to the chamber. I also bought a box of the Federal 550 bulk stuff yesterday it it seems to do pretty good. I had no cycling issues with it, but I can see a difference in accuracy though between it and the more expensive stuff. The most accurate ammo I'm shot so far believe it or not has been the Aguila Super Max hyper velocity. That stuff shoots incredibly accurately.

[CraigC]

I use 3000-4000rds of Remington Golden Bullets every month. They work great in most of my guns and have an easily acceptable dud rate.

[lmccrock]

I have not done extensive research into cheapest, so I may add to my list, but the only 22LR ammo I will not buy is Remington. When multiple boxes of different Rem 22LR are duds in multiple guns, I will not buy it, in fact, gave away what I owned. Winchester Wildcat was good. Other Remington ammo (like, UMC 223) is ok. Love their shotshells.

Brands like ELEY are made to a far stricter standard. They go bang every time and are designed for match use. Walmart bulk items are made to be as cheap as possible. If duds are acceptable, buy the cheap.

Lee

[grampi]

I went out agian this morning and shot about 200 rounds of the Federal bulk rounds. I noticed that about one round per magazine or two doesn't have enough blowback force to bring the next round into the chamber. I'm also noticing this stuff is widely inaccurate. Two or three shots will hit right where I'm aiming, then the next shot will be 2 or 3 inches off at about 50 yards. Don't even bother trying to adjust you scope using this stuff, you'll be chasing your own tail the whole time. I made this mistake this morning, now I'm gonna have to re-zero my scope using some accurate ammo. This stuff is only good for spraying targets with rapid fire or just shooting when accuracy isn't important.

[nemoaz]

My federal bulk holds 3/4 inch out of a cheap Rossi single shot. Not sure why you would be having trouble.

[mikejonestkd]

Grampi,

sorry to hear that fed bulk packs are inconsistent in your firearm. The good news is that there are tons of other brands and loadings that are left for you to try. I suggest fed auto match bulk packs then move to win xpert bulk packs.

IMO fed bulk packs tend to shoot about 1" 5 shot groups out of most of the rifles i have used them in. Not too bad for plinking ammo, certainly not match quality but more than adequate for my uses.

[grampi]

Yeah, I don't know what the deal is either. This thing will literally drive tacs when I use the Aguila Super Max ammo, but it doesn't like the Fed bulk stuff. I like shooting the hyper velocity stuff better anyway. It really tears stuff up too compared to the regular velocity ammo.

[Stevie-Ray]

The last feeding problems that I had with bulk, was with the Federals from Wal-Mart and found they were underloaded.

Same thing happened to me, and it was the first .22LR failures of any kind I've ever had. Underloaded, but at least they cleared the barrel of my GSG. But that has me now worrying about squibs. Hopefully the GSG will always malfunction with weak loads. I do find the Federal rather accurate out of the GSG when they work right.

So far I have not had the same problem with the Remington 550 or the Winchester bulk packs.

[grampi]

I actually misstated the problem I'm having with these rounds. They are loading from the magazine to the chamber just fine, but what they're not always doing is cocking the gun. About once every magazine or two I'll get a round where there's just nothing there when I pull the trigger, meaning the previous round didn't have enough back pressure to cock it. I guess I'll either have to try some of the other bulk ammo or just shoot the more expensive stuff.