22 LR Match Ammo

Mil-Dot

Mil-Dot

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Hi All,
I recently purchased a high-end target pistol (22 LR) and have been using Federal Gold Ultramatch. Great Stuff! It's difficult to find and I just found out that Federal has discontinued it. Match ammo is difficult to find in these parts and was wondering if anyone had any recommendations for 22LR match ammo. I don't mind spending a lot because I was paying 10.50 a box for the Ultramatch. Also, if you know of a place that I can purchase and sent to me please PM me the info. I would really appreciate it. Thanks, MIl-Dot
 
I don't know how it would work on a pistol but SK Match/Wolf Match Extra is scary accurate in my Anschutz rifle.
 
I've been using SK in my Pardini for a few years. You can also look into Wolf, or Aguilla. CCI doesn't fit well into Pardini magazines, but might be okay in Walther mags.
 
SK-Jagd/Wolf Standard Plus/match target is what I use. It was about $300/case when I last bought it. Probably around 340 or more now.

RWS Target Rifle is pretty good too. About $380?/case.

Aguila is very good for the price.

These comments are made about good cheap ammo.
Save up the top shelf stuff for Perry.

Economically, I would go out and buy a Caldwell Hammr pistol rest and make a custom grip insert for it. Send down all kinds of ammo and pick the best. The Hammr will save you money by giving you the best choice.
 
When one is serious about competition, the top shelf stuff is not saved for special occasions. It is the only thing used.
 
22 match ammo

You sound very serious about getting the best accuracy. I'd suggest that you find a machine type rest, ransom or the new one available thru Midway, and test all the match ammo available to you. I have found my pistol likes the CCI, but my Anschutz match rifle prefers a cheap PMC brand. 22 rimfire guns are all individuals when it comes to ammo. I buy my ammo thru Gun and Sport North in Lawrence, Ma. He has the PMC and CCI plus several others at very resonable prices until his current stock is depleted.
 
Just saw this thread and rarely post in this section but figured I'd add input from experience.

When I built my 10/22, someone on rimfire central recomended I buy a box of every type of high end ammo I could find and figure out what my set up shoots best. I did just that and settled on Wolf Match Extra.

My father who shoots .22 gallery on weeknights tried it and swears by it now so much that we went in on a few cases.
 
hhrgprez said:
I'd suggest that you find a machine type rest, ransom or the new one available thru Midway, and test all the match ammo available to you.
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+1 - and don't restrict yourself to match ammo, try some "regular" standard velocity. When I changed my primary Bullseye gun to a Walther GSP a couple years ago I tested a range of standard velocity .22s from a rest and found that my particular gun liked CCI SV. I could get slightly better groups with CCI Pistol Match, but not in my opinion better enough to justify the extra cost (for my low 270s league average). CCI Green Tag, for whatever reason, was not as good as either of those. Other brands, some of which performed just fine in GSPs owned by others on my team, didn't work well in mine. Each gun/shooter is a rule unto itself and you'll only know what's best for you by testing carefully.
 
boomerang said:
Economically, I would go out and buy a Caldwell Hammr pistol rest and make a custom grip insert for it. Send down all kinds of ammo and pick the best. The Hammr will save you money by giving you the best choice.
Click to expand...

+1 on trying a bunch. I found that Green Tag grouped the best for my gun (S&W Mod 41). I tried 5 different high-end brands, shooting them all from a rest.
 
Mil-Dot said:
Any gun shop near Leominster that sells a variety of 22LR?
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I've been working off the same two cases of CCI SV that I bought over a year ago, so I'm not the best source of info on this, but Blue Northern in Ayer may be your best hope. I know they've got a few different kinds at least, and you can always call before you drive over there.

We had a discussion on the ammo thing at my pistol match last night, largely bemoaning the latest price increases. A few of our shooters (and these are guys who have well upwards of $2K invested in their target pistols) have started using Eley Sport, which is manufactured for Eley in Mexico. It's about half the price of the normal target offerings, and of course a small fraction of what the high-end Eley goes for. I saw some test targets that were very impressive - essentially one ragged (and small!) hole for 10 benched shots at 50'. Now that the price of CCI SV has officially gone through the roof, and my last case is nearing its end, I'm planning to get some of the bargain basement Eley and give it a try in my gun.
 
If it was made in Mexico, it was almost certainly made by Aquila. Its own .22 ammo is marked "Eley primed."
 
Scrivener said:
If it was made in Mexico, it was almost certainly made by Aquila.
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Yes, no doubt. There are some who claim that it's simply repackaged Aquila SV, but the consensus seems to be that it's a different product. Either way, at $140 per case I'm going to give it a fair test, and hope that my Walther GSP likes it.
 
My Anschutz likes odd ammo but always shot best with Tenex when i was competing. Recently, some of the match ammo ive used actually performed worse through it than some of the cheaper, older ammo i had laying around. Match .22 shooting seems to always be a trial and error thing. When I was competing, I would get small samples of various lots from a distributor, find which one grouped the best, then buy a ton of that same lot number.
 
Dick said:
There are some who claim that it's simply repackaged Aquila SV, but the consensus seems to be that it's a different product. Either way, at $140 per case I'm going to give it a fair test, and hope that my Walther GSP likes it.
Click to expand...

That's CHEAP! The Aquila was about $18.50 in October, then jumped 45%. It's now about $24/brick.

The only .22 LR I've seen for $14/brick was the Remington bulk stuff.
 
Nickle said:
Scriv, I've been buying Federal 550 packs for about $11 (currently) from Wal-Mart.
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And a good price that is.

Then again, the subject was MATCH ammo. Loss-leader/promo ammo is not my first, second or even third choice, even for just a run-what-ya-brung club match.

I do keep a box to train kids and other newbies on, however.
 
Yup, agreed. NOT Match ammo. I do think they were getting around $15/325 for Federal Auto Match, but, I won't recommend it. I wasn't impressed with the amount of malfs I was getting with the box I bought. Used it in several 10/22's, all malfed with it. Stovepiping, IIRC.

Only reason I mentioned the $11 stuff at all was you referred to the Remington at $14 a brick.

Decent Match ammo is going to cost you some $$$ folks. Even the cheap bulk stuff is going up.

I probably should mention that ANYBODY attending an Appleseed can get away with using the cheap bulk stuff. It's certainly good enough ammo to learn with.
 
I bought a brick of the Eley Sport in the purple box. I thought it was possibly the worst quality ammo that I've ever used. Some went bang and some went pop, but all of them threw a lot of sparks and it was very dirty ammo.
I don't think it compares with the Aguila Golden Eagle or even subsonic.

It doesn't feed reliably in my FWB because the rim isn't flat to the breech and the extractor jumps off it, yet my gun will even reliably feed and cycle 22 shorts, so I think its bad.
 
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I tried some of the Eley Sport at the range this evening, and I think it may have possibilities. I only fired about 50 rounds through my GSP, but I had no feeding problems, no duds, no sparks, no unusual noises . . . really nothing out of the ordinary except for some curious spiral smoke patterns a couple of times that appeared to be coming from the ejected brass (others have mentioned that to me from their experience). The burnt powder smell is typical of Eley (yeah, I know the range needs better ventilation), and very distinctive. I did have one hole that looked like the bullet was tipping a bit, which is something I don't usually see.

I did a bit of bench testing, comparing it to my usual CCI SV, and couldn't really detect any difference in group size. I'm not satisfied that that's the final answer, and plan to do a bit more testing. Firing offhand, I couldn't see any difference in my scores vs. the CCI - I can usually put 9 or 10 shots in the black in timed and rapid fire, and I was able to do that with the Eley as well.

Others had mentioned that it burns dirty, and I can't say I noticed with the relatively small number of rounds fired. As long as the gun is cycling reliably (and GSPs are legendary for that), I really think cleanliness is much overrated in a .22 target pistol anyway, and tend not to do much cleaning during the league season, which with training sessions and matches combined probably adds up to several thousand shots in total. Maybe if I start using the Eley I'll have to change that.
 
I have been using cci sv lr and thought it was me...I have the paper box and the plastic box...I benched some cci hv hollow points and almost shot ragged hole at 50'. Then I tried some solid cci hv and these were better. I have some wolf coming and will try that... I am looking for something my kadet conversion likes and so far it is the hv stuff.
 

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