Does 'target' .22 ammo make any difference?

[hminsky]

You can buy bricks of cheap .22 ammo for cheap, and you can pay 10x or more for the fancy target products. Does anyone know if it makes any noticable difference in the accuracy at 50-100 yards?

 

[Nickle]

If you're not using a Match Grade gun, buy the cheap stuff.

 

[Chris]

When it really matters, stuff like Eley Tenex can make the difference between you getting an extra point or two. But you and your firearm must be TOP NOTCH for that to matter.

The big thing that the high end ammo gets you is a guaranteed consistant performance. Until the shooter and the gun are consistant, the ammo does not help.

 

[hminsky]

When it really matters, stuff like Eley Tenex can make the difference between you getting an extra point or two. But you and your firearm must be TOP NOTCH for that to matter.

The big thing that the high end ammo gets you is a guaranteed consistant performance. Until the shooter and the gun are consistant, the ammo does not help.

I see, that makes sense..

 

[Coyote33]

I had better luck with some CCI Velocitor when I tried that as compared to the cheap 550 box of ammo I usually use. I wanted to try the Velocitor for how loud and if any more kick than regular .22 ammo. It was a bit louder and stronger, but not a lot. Supposedly, this is decent for up close work on foxes and coyotes if real close, just in case. It was when they were in season, by the way.

 

[firtree]

In the past, I have preferred match grade .22 ammo for hunting. A tiny bit
extra accuracy for a lot more cost is worth it, IMHO, when you only use
8 rounds in a day and you want each one to be as accurate as possible.
For plinking, no way, waste of money.

F

 

[SKS Ray]

A while back when Natchez used to ship ammo here I ordered all diferent kinds of 22 ammo to find what worked best in all my 22 rifles and pistols. Most of the time Wolf Match Target ammo made a big diference in grouping but not in every gun. Oddly enough some of the worst performing ammo was CCI Green Tag which is supposed to be really good.
Point being, its better to try as many diferent kinds as you can before you can decide what you'll shoot better with and what rifle/pistol it works best in.

 

[JimB]

depends

It depends on what your doing. If you just plinking no matter what the distance it makes no difference. If your looking for accuracy, you might want
to buy several boxes of 50 each and see what your gun likes. Cost is not
the factor here. When you find the ammo sight your gun in and your in
business.

JimB

 

[RKG]

As a general proposition, .22 rifles are all pretty accurate. The reasons are complex, but a major one has to do with the ratio of barrel wall thickness to bore diameter. In a perfect world, a rifle that was consistently pointed at the same target point (say, in an effective rest) would put all rounds through the same hole. This doesn't happen; the rounds tend to be in a more or less circular group. Accurate rifles have smaller groups; less accurate rifles have larger groups.

Part of the reason for the group is single-anchored harmonic vibration of the barrel, which starts when the slug leaves the case and long before it leaves the bore. The result is that the muzzle is zipping along in a circle, and where it is in that circle at the instant the slug clears the muzzle determines where it will print in the group. The more cross-sectional rigidity the barrel has, the more the low-frequency vibrations (which make the greater contribution to widening group size) are damped.

The contribution that ammo makes to this is consistency: of dimensions and of velocity.

For more years that I will admit to, I've used nothing but plain old green box Remington 40-gr RN lead "standard" velocity ammo. Test after test have shown these to have SDs (standard deviation of chronographed velocity) as low or lower than anything else.

 

[Coyote33]

So, if you take some plywood and make a concrete form, and drill a hole and mount a .22 rifle through the concrete for the length of the barrell, will the accuracy improve for that rifle? I know it sounds odd, but it makes sense based on what you said above. Of course, it is hard to carry and use a scope. (-:

 

[drgrant]

Unless you're shooting competitively on a high level, I doubt it would
make any noticeable difference.

That being said, 95% of .22LR ammo is "free", so buy whatever
works best with your gun, if you feel the price is right. I personally can't
justify paying more than $9-$20 a brick/500. for something im going to shoot
a lot of.

-Mike

 

[Divine Decree]

i do 22 3p rifle competitions. i've shot cci, gold medal federal, and eley target & 10x.

if your just plinkin cci is good ammo.

gold medals a good practice round. it's accurate and cheap.

The eley target isn't much different than the gold medal and its a little more
expensive. not that great for the price.

eley tenex is an amazing round i put 10 shots through the same hole in practice. its a extreamly accurate round but at 100 bucks its best used only
in competitions.

above all else the ammo is only going to be as good as you are. if you don't have your skills finely tuned your ammo isn't going to make any visual difference. it may mean the differnece between a 9 and a 10 but not a 6 and a 10. if anything it might make your worry about your equipment less and make you focus on your technique. This gives new shooters a psycological advantage

 

[RKG]

I don't think, even as a theoretical matter, that encasing a rifle barrel in concrete would improve machine accuracy. Concrete is a mix of cement, sand and aggregate and is not monolithic in construction. You'd end up with wildly differing impacts and damping along the length of the barrel, and who knows what effect on machine accuracy. Worse, you spall a bit of concrete with every shot, so that whatever the effects, they'd vary from shot to shot.

On the other hand, "encasing" the barrel in more steel (i.e., a thicker wall barrel) will, all other things being equal, increase machine accuracy, at least up to the point where the changes are too small to be detected.