22 ammunition - better or worse than years ago?

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bedbugbilly

New member
I'm not trying to stir up a big debate . . . I'm just curious. In following a number of threads - it's evident that there are "failures to fire" once in a while on 22 ammunition. Some brands work better than others in certain guns as well.

I cut my eye teeth on 22s when I was a kid 50+ years ago. In the small town that I grew up in, we could get 22 ammo at one of two places - the hardware store and a sporting goods store. We usually got ours at the hardware store - Remington brand. Once in a while we would get some at the sporting goods store - Winchester. We usually used 22 shorts but once in a while we used longs and long rifles. We used these in several 22s that we had - Winchester bolt action, Remington pump, an old Stevens Favorite, etc. To be honest, I don't ever remember a "failure to fire" and we ate up thousands of rounds squirrel and rabbit hunting, plinking, etc.

I know this is a handgun forum so I will also say that I never remember a "failure to fire" in any of the 22 handguns that friends had - revolvers or semi auto. (H & R revolver and a Hi-Standard Sport King).

Maybe my memory is getting senile - which could be. I'm just wondering . . . was the 22 ammunition that we had 50 years ago better than what is available today? If so, why? It has to be manufactured the same way (I presume) or are the "failures to fire" that are talked about today due to the pistol (or rifle)?

Just curious . . . . .
 
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Mike38

New member
Now that you mention it, it does seem the .22 ammo of my youth was better then today. But my youth was 40+ years ago, and memory is the first thing to go, or so we hope…..
 
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aarondhgraham

New member
We bought our .22 shorts by the round,,,

Old Doc had what was the pre-7/11 version of a minimart,,,
He sold some food items, a few necessities, and gas.

But he always kept one box of .22 shorts open,,,
And sold them to us kids for 2-cents each,,,
More than double buying a whole box,,,
Which I believe was 49 cents.

If we got a dud he would replace it though,,,
I can only remember taking one round back to him,,,
I bought ammo from him for at least three years and maybe more.

This was back in the very early 60's,,,
On the south outskirts of Oklahoma City.

Aarond
 
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johnbt

New member
Let's see if I can make a comparison. I'm 61. When I was a kid a box of 50 Winchester Super-X were about 50 cents and it always worked. What was minimum wage, a dollar? Hold that thought.

Now people long for the ability to buy a big box of 500 or 550 rounds for what, $10? What's that a box, a dollar. Minimum wage is $7 or $8, right?

Fifty cents a box 50 years ago compared to $1 a box now for bulk pack. What the heck do you expect for a dollar a box? Stop buying trash. :)

John
 
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L_Killkenny

New member
I have no idea about 50 years ago but ammo from 25 years ago was not better. Maybe not worse either. Back then we shot what was cheap and what was available. That usually meant thunderbolts, wildcats or lightnings and they pretty well sucked then. But heck, it didn't stop us from blowing off a brick once or twice a month and too tell the truth I don't recall misfires and the such that much either yet I'm sure it happened. Thunderbolts did feed like crap though, that I remember BIG TIME. But I'll also add that the guns we were shooting weren't the greatest things either.

Basically I think most of it's in your head. Is the cheap stuff today great or even good? No. But don't kid yourself into thinkin the cheap crap you shot back in the day was any better. It's just that we didn't know any better or dwell on it. We bought it, we shot it. It's what we had. We had a miss fire we pitched it in the weeds and went about our business. Rimfires having the rep for inconsistent reliability didn't just come about in the last few years. It's a rep it's had for a long, long time. Earned or not.

CB
 
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Buzzcook

New member
The only FTF I have with .22s will work the second or rarely the third time through the gun.

I can't remember any FTF from the 60s or 70s. That doesn't mean there weren't any. I don't pay much attention to them now so I'm pretty sure I didn't pay much attention to them then.
 
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Aguila Blanca

Staff
I've officially been a senior citizen for a few years now. I don't ever remember a dud round in a .22 when I was a kid. That includes my grandfather's rifle, my uncle's revolver, all the marksmanship training we had at camp over the course of several summers ... not a one. I suppose in honesty there could have been a dud round in there that I don't remember, but I don't think so.

Today it's a rare session that doesn't produce at least one dud round per box -- if not one per magazine.

So, yes ... I would say .22 ammo today is inferior to what we had 50+ years ago.
 
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Brian48

New member
I think the CCI stuff is better these days, but Winchester, Federal, and all the rest seems to be have gone downhill.
 
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bedbugbilly

New member
When I posted this, I wasn't talking about "cheap" ammo versus "expensive" ammo - like anything else in this world, you get what you pay for. As I said, it just seems like you see more about FTFs on some of the fourms when it comes to 22s.

I'm just shy of 60 and when I was a kid - we bought what was available. If I remember correctly, if we bought a "case" of 500 rounds of shorts it was a little under $5.00 - of course those days are long gone!

For myself, I'm pretty much a 38 spl. guy although I do have a 9mm. Like everybody else, the cost of ammo dictates how much shooting I want to do - and I don't reload - yet. I have a couple of 22 revolvers and am going to pick up a 22 semi-auto sometime soon - primarily for punching paper and killing dead pop cans - possibly an occasional woodchuck on the farm.

As I said, I don't remember any FTFs years ago but again, maybe my memory is more nostalgic than realistic? :) I have read about FTFs on the forums (22s) but I have never had one in either of my pistols since I've had them - H & R 929 Sidekick and an older model Ruger Super Bearcat. I've used both cheapo and more exensive rounds as well.

So now I'm wondering - are FTFs more prevelent in Semi-autos or does the experience of others prove otherwise?

And BTW, when I was a kid I shot pretty much everything - CB caps, Shorts, Longs, Long Rifles and 22 Shot cartridges (these worked well on cleaning out Gophers from a lawn). We primarily shot Shorts though as as they were not only cheap but my Dad worried about the 22 LRs going too far. I only shot a 22 Mag once - we had a neighborhood kid who had a 22 Mag/.410 combination - I believe it was a Savage. He loved it but his situation was a lot different than mine - his Dad was buying the ammo for it - I had to earn the money to buy my own so price was an important factor! :D
 
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Newton24b

Moderator
they are worse. really are.

use a lot of cci cb longs. so eratice its not funny. 100 rounds for 10 + tax. yet 4 or 5 in a box will never fire. and about 3 out of every 5 need to be put back in the chamber again and given a second or third firing pin hit.

then when they do fire they have no consistency. one minute they shoot dead on, then they shoot a foot low, then they shoot 3 inchs above and this is in a rest.
 
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Sparks1957

New member
Maybe it's because I generally shoot CCI or Federal, but I never seem to experience the level of difficulty some of you do with .22 ammo, and sometimes I wonder if you making this up to have something to complain about.

There are certainly brands that are not hot enough to cycle my semiauto pistols, but a failure to fire or two every magazine? It's hard to believe.

Maybe memory is selective, but when I was a kid I shot any kind of .22 ammo that came my way, mostly in rifles back then, and never had a FTF back then either that I can remember. I've had some that went off on a second try, of course.
 
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Stevie-Ray

New member
Well, put it this way. I've just been introduced to rimfire failures in the last few years. Until then, I had NEVER had one fail on me, and I've been shooting rimfire for 47 years.
 
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Motownstan

New member
I'm with Sparks, It's hard to believe ANY ammo would have multiple failures per mag.
I don't know if people make this stuff up or need to have their gun looked at. :confused:
 
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5R milspec

New member
the only bad 22 ammo I can think of is the old fed stuff.you know the one that had the lightning bolt on the box.but know I stay away from the win stuff with the big X on the box.the old fed had at least 3-5 rounds that would not fire.same with the new win stuff.

so now I stick with the remmy stuff.the 550 count box for $21 at wal-mart.it just shoots no matter what.I will even have to say at 100 feet it shoots 90% of the time 5 shoot groups at a 1/2".
 
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Stevie-Ray

New member
My first and most failures have come with the brown 550 box of Federal and it's been bad-about 10-15% failure rate, mostly underloaded. Dangerous, because these can result in a catastrophic failure against a squib if the action cycles. Luckily, my GSG-5 has stalled on every one, but even so, it's report is a dead giveaway, long as you're not rapid-firing. I believe I'll leave the rapid-firing for the CCI Mini-Mags just in case, or even just use my old stuff and leave the new crap for the bolt guns.

I have even .22 Thunderbolts that are perfect because they were bought long ago. You can't get most people to buy them today, due to their bad reputation.

And anybody that thinks we make this stuff up, just do a simple search.:mad:
 
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