What is good .22lr ammunition & what to avoid

[NorCal55]

Hello,

I just got into shooting a few weeks ago and have been picking up .22lr when i can find it.

I am wondering what I should avoid mainly. Ive been able to get the following:
Remington Golden Bullet value packs (525 packs)
Remington 22 Yellow Jacket HP
Federal Target Grade Performance (325 packs)

I travel around Northern California for work and always look at different places when I have time. I just don't want to buy "anything" because it's .22lr in stock.

I shoot with a Ruger Mark II 22/45 and and picking up a Ruger 10/22 this weekend. Just target shooting and plinking :-)

Thanks, love this site and all of the help!

[bob7122]

buy it all and when .22lr gets slim again, trade the nasty batches for women.

[Sunday]

For plinking what ever ammo you can find. Usually the cci mini mags should be better. But the price of the bulk packs makes the purchase worth while.

[joepamjohn]

What is good? Any you can find.

[foxtrotuniformlima]

My rule of thumb is if it comes all loose bulk packed, it is plinking.

If it comes in 50 rd boxes, it is worth the effort to aim and squeeze.

[JAGACIDA]

This isn't the time to get fussy, buy what you can when it's available. These are the good old days.

[as_rocketman]

As the others have said, these days you can't be too picky...

In the five years I've been teaching Appleseed (over 900 students) there are some patterns. The most trouble-prone ammunition I've seen on the line is Remington Thunderbolt; however, I see a lot of this ammo since it's cheap and plentiful, so that means more chances for something to go wrong.

Of the brands you listed, Golden Bullet runs but my Marlin doesn't like it for some reason, although other rifles do well with it. Yellowjacket is on the dirty side in my experience. The Federal Target ammo is a step up from the others in terms of consistency, and you'll pay for that difference.

If the shortage ever ends I plan to replenish my stocks with at most two brands, all standard velocity, solid round-nose. Eley Club and Wolf Match are at the top of my list. Recently I'm settling for Remington Subsonic, which has pleasantly surprised me with its accuracy, and I might get more; and Armscor which sure doesn't look like much, but my Marlin likes it. You just never know. Rimfire firearms can be a little bit fussy with their diet.

[Cowboy T]

My 10/22 seems to really like both Federal and Winchester in the bulk-packs. Remington Golden Bullet seems to have some quality-control issues, and in addition to somewhat inconsistent charge weights, it's kinda dirty, so I'd stay away from that unless that's all that's available (even so, it shoots reasonably well, though). CCI is pretty decent stuff, including their unplated Blazer bulk-packs.

We have a Ruger Mark III and a 22/45 (Mark III in a 1911-ish shape) as two of our rental guns. They see mostly CCI, since that's what we carry. Seems to work pretty well, but our Mark III pistols definitely prefer to be clean to function right.

[mcisniper]

Gemtech came out with some 42gr subsonic (1020fps) .22lr. Shoots great and burns cleaner than most stuff out there.

[roger1022]

What is good? Any you can find.

This isn't the time to get fussy, buy what you can when it's available. These are the good old days.

My thoughts exactly. If I can buy it, I will. Availability will play a large part. Earlier this year, there was nothing but Remington Golden Bullets and Winchester Bulk for months on end. Quality sure didn't stop people from buying it.

I know Remington Golden Bullets and Winchester bulk get a bad rap but my 15/22 eats them like candy. The 10/22 is a bit picky on ammo so I try a few different brands and see what it likes the best. Besides, I'd like to have some spare ammo just in case there's a new shooter who couldn't find any 22. Better to have some fun right?

[NorCal55]

Thanks for all of the responses! Ive been buying what i can find that is a good deal and I will continue to go that route.
It still seems like the best deals are online.
I was in line at at Sportsmans Warehouse in Rocklin this morning and they were 75+ deep before the doors opened, still got my limit :-)

I was talking to a guy in line and he said he was friends with a Manager at a Big 5. This manager would hold anything he wanted to buy for him every week and would sell over the minimum that the store had set.
Kind of rubbed me the wrong way but to each his own.

[postal]

Rem golden bullets are junk.

I have more fail to fire with those than anything else.

They also seem to splatter my hands with powder in my 22/45. Dunno why- doesnt happen with any other ammo.

Avoid them like the plague.

Win/fed bulk are both MUCH better. For bulk, I really like the fed

In these rough times, buy what you can... but when you have a choice... RUN from rem.

[G21Shooter]

Fortunately, Ruger MKIIIs and 10/22s are very reliable guns and will function fine with most any standard, high, or hyper velocity ammo you can load in the magazine.

My Ruger MKIII likes Federal bulk and Remington Golden bullets.

[Fishslayer]

I shoot with a Ruger Mark II 22/45 and and picking up a Ruger 10/22 this weekend. Just target shooting and plinking :-)

Thanks, love this site and all of the help!

I own both of those & both have been combat brick reliable with everything.

These are some targets from a bit of testing I did awhile back with my 10/22 All Weather. The results with Remington bulk Golden Bullet really surprised me. The wife shoots a ton of it & we haven't experienced any of the problems the haters report on.

Recently I've been on the Winchester M-22 40gr solids. Seems like great ammo but haven't done any serious testing with it yet.

[trigger945]

I like Rem GB for cheap(er) plinking. When I can afford it, I go with CCI mini-mags preferrably round nose.

Buy what you can at this time as many have suggested above.