What's your favorite bulk .22 ammo?

TruthTellers · May 14, 2019, 04:54 AM

By "bulk' I mean ammo that comes with bullets loose packed in a box. There are only three brands I know of that sell .22 like this, if there are others I don't know about them.

For me it's Winchester. Accurate in my guns and I've seen the hollow point opens up from rifles.

punkinhead · May 14, 2019, 05:03 AM

I compared all of them in a totally unscientific range session about 10 years ago. I used whatever I had on hand, mostly from partially used boxes of indeterminate age. CCI Blazers gave me the best groups and fewest duds. You can't argue with research like that.

zukiphile · May 14, 2019, 06:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TT

For me it's Winchester. Accurate in my guns and I've seen the hollow point opens up from rifles.

In the 1990s, they made PowerPoint 22lr, a copper plated high velocity round. I loved it in pistols and CZ shooters often found good accuracy with it. I bought a few boxes of Marksman SuperX in a grey and black box. It was real garbage in a biathlon rifle 20 years ago. Last summer, I gave the remnant of my last box to someone with a 10/22; he came back to my bench to ask if I had anymore because it was so accurate.

I had never owned a rifle that shot accurately with Federal, until this last spring when I came across a barrel that likes Federal Automatch, the stuff in the boxes of 325.

stangbangr · May 14, 2019, 06:53 AM

Federal Automatch for sure. I’ve never had any “duds” with it. I have a CZ 455 that likes it better than anything except for Eley Match and Tenex.

NoSecondBest · May 14, 2019, 08:39 AM

For the life of me, I can't understand restricting yourself to "bulk/loose" ammo. If you're trying to save some money, there are a few very economical brands of rimfire ammo that shoot very well. I have NEVER found any bulk ammo that was even close to being good ammo, at least not to my expectations....which are rather high. If you're looking for very good ammo at a very affordable price, check out GECO which is made by RWS. It can be had for around two hundred bucks for a case of 5,000. A few places will break up the case and sell it by the brick. Aquila is another very good ammo at a great price. FWIW, when I say "good", I mean it will group five shots at 50 yards in .5" or less from my out of the box CZ455 sporter. It will do it repeatedly, not a one time deal.

zukiphile · May 14, 2019, 09:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NoSecondBest

Aquila is another very good ammo at a great price. FWIW, when I say "good", I mean it will group five shots at 50 yards in .5" or less from my out of the box CZ455 sporter. It will do it repeatedly, not a one time deal.

That's great, and I agree about Aguila. I've been singing its praises since I bought my first case for $400 when the drought was breaking.

I would note that the OP didn't purport to restrict himself to bulk boxes. Also, not all games require even mediocre accuracy. If youtube is any indication, rimfire steel target speed shooting is a thing, and not getting a dud or misfeed is the metric for ammunition selection.

pete2 · May 14, 2019, 09:12 AM

CCI Tactical.

NoSecondBest · May 14, 2019, 11:47 AM

Quote:

I would note that the OP didn't purport to restrict himself to bulk boxes.

What the OP said:

Quote:

By "bulk' I mean ammo that comes with bullets loose packed in a box. There are only three brands I know of that sell .22 like this, if there are others I don't know about them.

Kind of sounded to me like he was "purported to restricting himself to bulk boxes". Anyway, I very rarely get any duds with either brands I pointed out to be inexpensive. I've shot both of the "inexpensive" brands and I wouldn't hesitate to use them in speed plate shooting competition events. In those events accuracy really isn't a requirement.

TruthTellers · May 14, 2019, 12:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NoSecondBest

For the life of me, I can't understand restricting yourself to "bulk/loose" ammo. If you're trying to save some money, there are a few very economical brands of rimfire ammo that shoot very well. I have NEVER found any bulk ammo that was even close to being good ammo, at least not to my expectations....which are rather high. If you're looking for very good ammo at a very affordable price, check out GECO which is made by RWS. It can be had for around two hundred bucks for a case of 5,000. A few places will break up the case and sell it by the brick. Aquila is another very good ammo at a great price. FWIW, when I say "good", I mean it will group five shots at 50 yards in .5" or less from my out of the box CZ455 sporter. It will do it repeatedly, not a one time deal.

Mainly because it's the best price per round and they're all the same in that they're high velocity 36 grain hollow points. Stuff like CCI Blazer (which is good ammo, I like it) or other stuff that comes in a 500 rd brick can vary between standard velocity LRN to high velocity CPHP bullets.

I wanted to restrict it to the most apples to apples comparison. If I opened it up to 500 rd bricks with non-loose packed ammo, I may as well have just asked "what's your favorite .22 ammo?"

Pahoo · May 14, 2019, 01:12 PM

Quote:

What's your favorite bulk .22 ammo?

I really do not trust any of them in my autos. I will buy just about any of the ones you listed and my least favorite, is Federals.

Be Safe !!!

zukiphile · May 14, 2019, 01:57 PM

Back when I shot a lot of Thunderbolt, it came in 50 round boxes, but they weren't in 5x10 plastic trays in a box; they were just arranged in a little box. I don't know if that counts as bulk packed or if it is still sold that way.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TruthTellers

Mainly because it's the best price per round and they're all the same in that they're high velocity 36 grain hollow points.

I'd look around. As NoSecondBest noted, Aguila turns out a very good product and it costs less than most bulk packed ammunition. I believe my last case of Aguila was $180 delivered from Target Sports. Aguila does make a 36 or 38 grain hollowpoint; I find it slightly less accurate than the cheapest stuff they make.

Even though bulk packed ammunition can be accurate, one benefit of the boxes of 50 is more orderly loading. My range habit has always been to load five rounds; the boxes make that a bit easier.

Pathfinder45 · May 14, 2019, 02:03 PM

Accuracy is but one issue and every firearm will have its own preferences in that regard. But functional reliability can be a lot more important than tiny groups. At the top of my list of inexcusable ammo reliability problems is misfires.[LIST=1]
[1]Misfire!
[2]Inconsistent velocity and thus, power.

[3]External dimensional variance that affects reliability

In the first situation, the ammo has to fire. You can only excuse the ammo if it's the gun's fault.

In the case of inconsistent velocity, you may hardly notice with a revolver or bolt-action rifle. But if you are using a semi-auto, under-powered ammo will cause plenty of frustration; failure to extract, failure to eject, stove-pipe jam, double-feed jam, oh, hell! We're not talking about the wrong ammo here, but the right kind made wrong by inconsistent powder charges. Last box was great; this one is a great disappointment.

In the third case, what has affected me personally is rim size that is a little too large for my tube-magazine to get over some of the rounds without difficulty with the worst ones having to be manually chambered like a single-shot rifle. Some of you may have experienced other dimensional problems.

I have found a lot of variability in quality in rimfire ammo, and the bulk stuff is no exception. I have had excellent results with Federal Champion 525 Value Pack. The Federal Auto Match has been excellent in some boxes and problematic in others. The Winchester bulk ammo has been excellent at times and another lot, not so good.
I'm of the opinion that the machinery that manufactures even the best ammo, needs to be serviced from time to time. Furthermore, when it does need to be recalibrated, etcetera, the ammo being produced is likely to be less consistent than the first runs. Do the folks in the Quality Control department decide that the ammo is still acceptable enough to let the machines keep running a little longer before servicing sometimes? No doubt, or we wouldn't ever have defective ammo. But what to do with all this marginal ammo when we should have shut the machines down sooner? Brilliant idea; discount bulk packs! That being said, I have had excellent bulk packs and some dismal premium ammo.
Anymore, I pretty much will only buy CCI, Winchester, and Federal when it comes to 22LR. I didn't vote on the bulk-pack poll as I couldn't decide between Winchester and Federal. Historically, the best 22 ammo I have ever shot is Western XPERT from the 1970's yellow box. The best reliability by brand name across all lines of 22 LR ammo, in my experience, is CCI. Emotionally, I'd rather run Super-X than just about anything else.

P5 Guy · May 14, 2019, 03:22 PM

OTHER
I do not use bulk 22LR.

Pathfinder45 · May 14, 2019, 04:00 PM

Well, P5 Guy, have you tried any of that Browning Performance Rimfire ammo in the plastic 100 round box? 40 grain hollowpoints at 1435 fps; says so right on the box.

Hanshi · May 14, 2019, 05:07 PM

Actually, my favorite is whatever is the best deal when I'm shopping. I've had Federal, Winchester, Remington and different varieties of those such as Golden bullet, Thunderbolt, etc. I checked Federal on the poll just to make a choice as I have no favorites.

Mike38 · May 14, 2019, 06:17 PM

Federal Auto Match AM22.

SamNavy · May 14, 2019, 06:22 PM

Another vote for Federal Automatch in the 325ct boxes.

Back during the Great Obama Ammo Frenzy, I bought any .22lr that I came across that wasn't "astronomical" in price. After a few years of that, I had about 40 different ammo's laying around in quantities varying from 50 to 5000. Of course, each ammo shoots differently, and I got tired of re-zeroing or re-learning where each one shot with each different gun I had.

So... I consolidated. I traded away all the .22lr I had over the course of a few months and now I only buy:

1: Federal Automatch (for all my semi-autos)
2: CCI Quiet (for training new shooters)
3: CCI SV (for precision practice in my bolt-gun)
4: CCI Velociter (for when I need it)

Trust me, consolidate down to just a few types that work for you and stock up on those.

Also... I cannot say enough about how awesome it is to teach new shooters with those Quiets. It's a whole new ballgame without ear-pro and no recoil.

stinkeypete · May 14, 2019, 08:14 PM

Since it seems it doesn’t have to come loose...

My last brick of CCI Blazer shot as well as CCI SV (a standard.)
My 10/22 likes Aguila regular velocity stuff better, at least for these lots.

My favorite is now Eley Edge but I am too darned cheap to pay more for a box of 50 .22 rimfire than a box of 50 .380 Auto. But the stuff is really accurate.

After trying the Eley, I shot cast handloads in my 30-06 and realized the handloads were a lot cheaper and maybe not grouping quite as tight but knowing it’s 175 grains of “hi there!” makes up for it.

CCI quiet is fun in a rifle even if it doesn’t group so well. In a revolver, wear ear plugs!

littlebikerider · May 14, 2019, 08:22 PM

Last Christmas Federal had the rebates going on their "black label" ammo, and with a store sale I got a pretty good deal on the 1600 round box of .22 ammo. I have been very happy with it. It shoots tight little groups from my Ruger MKII Competition pistol, and after many hundred rounds I haven't had a FTF or squib with it yet.
One issue I did run into was that the rim would deform enough when struck by the firing pin that it would drag in my wife's S&W revolver. It's an 8-shot, and after 4-5 shots the cylinder would barely turn. I have never seen that with any other ammo. I haven't tried to duplicate the issue yet in my S&W 617.

Dufus · May 14, 2019, 09:05 PM

I bought a box of 500 22 LR with the Browning tag on them. I haven't shot any yet.

JERRYS. · May 14, 2019, 09:24 PM

Remington golden bullet bulk packs have been great for me, and surprisingly so have the thunderbolts.

TruthTellers · May 15, 2019, 12:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SamNavy

Another vote for Federal Automatch in the 325ct boxes.

Back during the Great Obama Ammo Frenzy, I bought any .22lr that I came across that wasn't "astronomical" in price. After a few years of that, I had about 40 different ammo's laying around in quantities varying from 50 to 5000. Of course, each ammo shoots differently, and I got tired of re-zeroing or re-learning where each one shot with each different gun I had.

So... I consolidated. I traded away all the .22lr I had over the course of a few months and now I only buy:

1: Federal Automatch (for all my semi-autos)
2: CCI Quiet (for training new shooters)
3: CCI SV (for precision practice in my bolt-gun)
4: CCI Velociter (for when I need it)

Trust me, consolidate down to just a few types that work for you and stock up on those.

Also... I cannot say enough about how awesome it is to teach new shooters with those Quiets. It's a whole new ballgame without ear-pro and no recoil.

I'm with you on that, I looked at all the .22 and different brands/loads I have and said, "I need to cut down."

I cut it down to 6, maybe 7 (depending on how Winchester Super X Hyper Speed shoots in my guns) different kinds.

1. CCI SV- cheapest accurate ammo that's the most common/easy to find
2. CCI Velocitor- best business .22 LR available
3. CCI Stinger- handgun self defense
4. CCI Quiet- great for revolvers and non-semi auto's. Quiet (go figure) too.
5. Aguila SSS- excellent penetration, low noise, and seems to be accurate in my rifles
6. Winchester 555 bulk- cheap hollow point
7. Winchester Hyper Speed- cheaper than Velocitor, but dunno about accuracy, need to test more.

I've been sticking to this, but if there are killer sales for .22 ammo that's not on this list, I'd get it, but only for plinking.

riffraff · May 15, 2019, 08:39 AM

I avoid bulk ammo, .22lr is just too cheap to be splitting hairs over. The only ammo I buy now are CCI mini mags in 40 grain round nose, it runs well in everything I own.

jackstrawIII · May 15, 2019, 11:05 AM

I've had phenomenal success with Aguila Hyper Velocity. The Federal auto match rounds never had enough power to cycle my semi auto pistols reliably, but the Aguila does great.

My CZ 455 also really likes it.

Prof Young · May 15, 2019, 05:11 PM

I shoot a lot of 22LR. I have about 2k rounds of Remington Thunderbolt and unless I get desperate those are the last Remington 22LR I'll shoot. I have far more FTF with Remington than with other brands and when I shoot Remington my gun goes . . . BANG, BANG, BANG, pop, BANG, BANG, pop . . . etc. Some of the rounds are clearly underloaded.

Life is good.
Prof Young

View Poll Results: Favorite bulk .22 ammo
Federal	25	59.52%
Remington	1	2.38%
Winchester	2	4.76%
Other	14	33.33%
Voters: 42. You may not vote on this poll

May 14, 2019, 04:54 AM	#1
TruthTellers Senior Member Join Date: October 22, 2016 Posts: 3,890	What's your favorite bulk .22 ammo? By "bulk' I mean ammo that comes with bullets loose packed in a box. There are only three brands I know of that sell .22 like this, if there are others I don't know about them. For me it's Winchester. Accurate in my guns and I've seen the hollow point opens up from rifles. __________________ "We always think there's gonna be more time... then it runs out."

May 14, 2019, 02:03 PM	#12
Pathfinder45 Senior Member Join Date: January 7, 2008 Posts: 3,224	22 LR Ammo Reliability Accuracy is but one issue and every firearm will have its own preferences in that regard. But functional reliability can be a lot more important than tiny groups. At the top of my list of inexcusable ammo reliability problems is misfires.[LIST=1] [1]Misfire! [2]Inconsistent velocity and thus, power. [3]External dimensional variance that affects reliability In the first situation, the ammo has to fire. You can only excuse the ammo if it's the gun's fault. In the case of inconsistent velocity, you may hardly notice with a revolver or bolt-action rifle. But if you are using a semi-auto, under-powered ammo will cause plenty of frustration; failure to extract, failure to eject, stove-pipe jam, double-feed jam, oh, hell! We're not talking about the wrong ammo here, but the right kind made wrong by inconsistent powder charges. Last box was great; this one is a great disappointment. In the third case, what has affected me personally is rim size that is a little too large for my tube-magazine to get over some of the rounds without difficulty with the worst ones having to be manually chambered like a single-shot rifle. Some of you may have experienced other dimensional problems. I have found a lot of variability in quality in rimfire ammo, and the bulk stuff is no exception. I have had excellent results with Federal Champion 525 Value Pack. The Federal Auto Match has been excellent in some boxes and problematic in others. The Winchester bulk ammo has been excellent at times and another lot, not so good. I'm of the opinion that the machinery that manufactures even the best ammo, needs to be serviced from time to time. Furthermore, when it does need to be recalibrated, etcetera, the ammo being produced is likely to be less consistent than the first runs. Do the folks in the Quality Control department decide that the ammo is still acceptable enough to let the machines keep running a little longer before servicing sometimes? No doubt, or we wouldn't ever have defective ammo. But what to do with all this marginal ammo when we should have shut the machines down sooner? Brilliant idea; discount bulk packs! That being said, I have had excellent bulk packs and some dismal premium ammo. Anymore, I pretty much will only buy CCI, Winchester, and Federal when it comes to 22LR. I didn't vote on the bulk-pack poll as I couldn't decide between Winchester and Federal. Historically, the best 22 ammo I have ever shot is Western XPERT from the 1970's yellow box. The best reliability by brand name across all lines of 22 LR ammo, in my experience, is CCI. Emotionally, I'd rather run Super-X than just about anything else.

May 14, 2019, 05:07 PM	#15
Hanshi Senior Member Join Date: April 23, 2017 Posts: 239	Actually, my favorite is whatever is the best deal when I'm shopping. I've had Federal, Winchester, Remington and different varieties of those such as Golden bullet, Thunderbolt, etc. I checked Federal on the poll just to make a choice as I have no favorites. __________________ Young guys should hang out with old guys; old guys know stuff.

May 14, 2019, 08:14 PM	#18
stinkeypete Senior Member Join Date: July 22, 2010 Location: Madison, Wisconsin Posts: 1,293	Since it seems it doesn’t have to come loose... My last brick of CCI Blazer shot as well as CCI SV (a standard.) My 10/22 likes Aguila regular velocity stuff better, at least for these lots. My favorite is now Eley Edge but I am too darned cheap to pay more for a box of 50 .22 rimfire than a box of 50 .380 Auto. But the stuff is really accurate. After trying the Eley, I shot cast handloads in my 30-06 and realized the handloads were a lot cheaper and maybe not grouping quite as tight but knowing it’s 175 grains of “hi there!” makes up for it. CCI quiet is fun in a rifle even if it doesn’t group so well. In a revolver, wear ear plugs! Last edited by stinkeypete; May 14, 2019 at 09:05 PM.

May 14, 2019, 05:03 AM	#2
punkinhead Member Join Date: June 29, 2014 Posts: 23	I compared all of them in a totally unscientific range session about 10 years ago. I used whatever I had on hand, mostly from partially used boxes of indeterminate age. CCI Blazers gave me the best groups and fewest duds. You can't argue with research like that.

May 14, 2019, 06:53 AM	#4
stangbangr Member Join Date: March 8, 2011 Posts: 92	Federal Automatch for sure. I’ve never had any “duds” with it. I have a CZ 455 that likes it better than anything except for Eley Match and Tenex.

May 14, 2019, 08:39 AM	#5
NoSecondBest Senior Member Join Date: December 7, 2009 Location: Western New York Posts: 2,736	For the life of me, I can't understand restricting yourself to "bulk/loose" ammo. If you're trying to save some money, there are a few very economical brands of rimfire ammo that shoot very well. I have NEVER found any bulk ammo that was even close to being good ammo, at least not to my expectations....which are rather high. If you're looking for very good ammo at a very affordable price, check out GECO which is made by RWS. It can be had for around two hundred bucks for a case of 5,000. A few places will break up the case and sell it by the brick. Aquila is another very good ammo at a great price. FWIW, when I say "good", I mean it will group five shots at 50 yards in .5" or less from my out of the box CZ455 sporter. It will do it repeatedly, not a one time deal.

May 14, 2019, 09:12 AM	#7
pete2 Senior Member Join Date: May 15, 2012 Location: Texas Posts: 2,566	CCI Tactical.

May 14, 2019, 03:22 PM	#13
P5 Guy Senior Member Join Date: December 1, 2005 Location: Tampa Bay Posts: 1,804	OTHER I do not use bulk 22LR.

May 14, 2019, 04:00 PM	#14
Pathfinder45 Senior Member Join Date: January 7, 2008 Posts: 3,224	Well, P5 Guy, have you tried any of that Browning Performance Rimfire ammo in the plastic 100 round box? 40 grain hollowpoints at 1435 fps; says so right on the box.

May 14, 2019, 06:17 PM	#16
Mike38 Senior Member Join Date: December 28, 2009 Location: North Central Illinois Posts: 2,710	Federal Auto Match AM22.

May 14, 2019, 06:22 PM	#17
SamNavy Senior Member Join Date: August 28, 2011 Location: Virginia Beach, VA Posts: 433	Another vote for Federal Automatch in the 325ct boxes. Back during the Great Obama Ammo Frenzy, I bought any .22lr that I came across that wasn't "astronomical" in price. After a few years of that, I had about 40 different ammo's laying around in quantities varying from 50 to 5000. Of course, each ammo shoots differently, and I got tired of re-zeroing or re-learning where each one shot with each different gun I had. So... I consolidated. I traded away all the .22lr I had over the course of a few months and now I only buy: 1: Federal Automatch (for all my semi-autos) 2: CCI Quiet (for training new shooters) 3: CCI SV (for precision practice in my bolt-gun) 4: CCI Velociter (for when I need it) Trust me, consolidate down to just a few types that work for you and stock up on those. Also... I cannot say enough about how awesome it is to teach new shooters with those Quiets. It's a whole new ballgame without ear-pro and no recoil.

May 14, 2019, 08:22 PM	#19
littlebikerider Senior Member Join Date: September 10, 2018 Posts: 131	Last Christmas Federal had the rebates going on their "black label" ammo, and with a store sale I got a pretty good deal on the 1600 round box of .22 ammo. I have been very happy with it. It shoots tight little groups from my Ruger MKII Competition pistol, and after many hundred rounds I haven't had a FTF or squib with it yet. One issue I did run into was that the rim would deform enough when struck by the firing pin that it would drag in my wife's S&W revolver. It's an 8-shot, and after 4-5 shots the cylinder would barely turn. I have never seen that with any other ammo. I haven't tried to duplicate the issue yet in my S&W 617.

May 14, 2019, 09:05 PM	#20
Dufus Senior Member Join Date: December 10, 2014 Posts: 1,965	I bought a box of 500 22 LR with the Browning tag on them. I haven't shot any yet.

May 14, 2019, 09:24 PM	#21
JERRYS. Senior Member Join Date: September 23, 2013 Location: Alabama Posts: 2,969	Remington golden bullet bulk packs have been great for me, and surprisingly so have the thunderbolts.

May 15, 2019, 08:39 AM	#23
riffraff Senior Member Join Date: January 21, 2016 Posts: 629	I avoid bulk ammo, .22lr is just too cheap to be splitting hairs over. The only ammo I buy now are CCI mini mags in 40 grain round nose, it runs well in everything I own.

May 15, 2019, 11:05 AM	#24
jackstrawIII Senior Member Join Date: July 20, 2016 Location: Upstate NY. Posts: 901	I've had phenomenal success with Aguila Hyper Velocity. The Federal auto match rounds never had enough power to cycle my semi auto pistols reliably, but the Aguila does great. My CZ 455 also really likes it. __________________ In God we trust.

May 15, 2019, 05:11 PM	#25
Prof Young Senior Member Join Date: August 21, 2007 Location: Illinois - down state Posts: 2,404	Just not Remington. I shoot a lot of 22LR. I have about 2k rounds of Remington Thunderbolt and unless I get desperate those are the last Remington 22LR I'll shoot. I have far more FTF with Remington than with other brands and when I shoot Remington my gun goes . . . BANG, BANG, BANG, pop, BANG, BANG, pop . . . etc. Some of the rounds are clearly underloaded. Life is good. Prof Young