Best quality .22lr ammo

5whiskey

New member
CCI tall brass is too hot. I need something along the lines of good ol' remington thunderbolt for a semi-auto pistol. It's blowback operated and the CCI tall brass was a tad too tall. It didn't seat fully in the chamber, and firing caused the base to swell up. Not only could this cause serious problems, it's also a problem just because the swelled up base causes a FTE.

So think high quality, not too hot, hopefully jacketed .22lr ammo.
 

5whiskey

New member
That's usually the default plan as opposed to asking on the internet, but buying ammo is easier said than done nowadays, Chris.
 

Beentown71

New member
I have had luck with Federal Lightning. It is getting very frustrating to not be able to find .22lr regular stuff anywhere. Pretty bad when I have 9mm available around here but could only find 2 boxes of .22lr

Beentown
 

Ruger Packer

New member
How is it too "tall"? If its .22 LR..... all .22 LR should fit the chamber. I'd give the chamber a good cleaning and see how that goes.
 

darkgael

New member
tall

I've never heard of "tall" brass. Twenty-twos headspace on the rim, so the stuff really should chamber. .22s may differ as to the thickness of the rim. I've seen match shooters sort their .22s by measuring the rims (there's a tool for doing it). Could also be that you have a tight chamber and the ammo is sized a little large.
If, by "best", you mean most accurate, the top shelf match ammo tends to be standard velocity or subsonic. That may not be what you are looking for.
The advice about trying a number of different brands is related directly to the fact that your .22 may not work well with ammo that runs 100% in mine.
Yeah, it can get expensive.
I have had success with the Federal 700 series in my match guns. The 711 was "goto" ammo for years. Their 900B was my choice for prone .22 matches.
I have a bunch of brands of the Hyper-vel stuff but rarely use it so I can't help you there.
One of my .22s leaves the brass with a bulge just above the rim. That is because, it that gun, the chamber is unsupported (or the case is) a la the situation with Glock barrels. The bulge, in that case, has nothing to do with whether or not the cartridge is fully chambered. Yes, very hot ammo might cause a problem.

Pete
 
Last edited:

jg0001

New member
I find that hollowpoints tend to have a lot more trouble feeding than solid points... and this is a Federal (745/750) vs Federal (510) match up.

As to the "tall" 22's, the 22HP's actually do "appear" taller than the round noses. Perhaps this is what the person is alluding to.
 

5whiskey

New member
CCI stinger the brass is definately longer than regular .22lr. I would take a picture but I don't have a camara. I'm well aware that the round headspaces on the rim... but I'm thinking that the taller casing (yes, I promise it's there) was impeding the round from properly seating on the rim.

The OAL of the round is almost the same, with the stinger being maybe 1/32" longer. The casing of the stinger is probably 1/8" longer... or at least 1/16"
 

Ruger Packer

New member
Not sure how quotes work with this format.... so will use italics...

CCI stinger the brass is definately longer than regular .22lr. I would take a picture but I don't have a camara. I'm well aware that the round headspaces on the rim... but I'm thinking that the taller casing (yes, I promise it's there) was impeding the round from properly seating on the rim.

The OAL of the round is almost the same, with the stinger being maybe 1/32" longer. The casing of the stinger is probably 1/8" longer... or at least 1/16"


That makes sense! The Stinger does have a longer case. I was wondering that last night when I posted. I still think if you clean the chamber it will work. My idea is that you might have some carbon build up from using regular .22 LR rounds. Which prevent the Stinger from chambering completely. The same thing can happen when trying to chamber a .357 round after shooting a considerable number of .38 Specials.

CCI Stingers sacrifice bullet weight for a longer case to hold a bit more powder. Which in turn generates a bit more velocity.
 

Tom2

New member
If you have a pistol that has some potential for high accuracy, try Eley ammo. It is the best in the world-Olympic grade, in it's top most expensive line, and the lower lines are very good. I am speaking of the British made Eley. If they are making some of it for the lower cost market in Mexico, I have no idea if it exceeds the quality of the better US or European match ammo. Well at least visit their website and see what measures they go to to make the top ammo. You might not be able to afford much of it but it will decide whether your pistol or you are accurate for sure.
 

csmsss

New member
Hmmmm. Funny to hear that CCI Stingers (and presumably the Mini-mags too) are out of specification, because when all else fails in my .22's, CCI rounds chamber unfailingly. They're awful expensive for plinking, but I wouldn't consider any other round for hunting.
 

oneounceload

Moderator
Eley has long been considered some of the best .22 ever made - used by most Olympic-type teams that do serious shooting because their quality is top-notch
 

5whiskey

New member
Hmmmm. Funny to hear that CCI Stingers (and presumably the Mini-mags too) are out of specification, because when all else fails in my .22's, CCI rounds chamber unfailingly. They're awful expensive for plinking, but I wouldn't consider any other round for hunting.

The Stingers are not out of spec, but they push the very high end of SAAMI specs. CCI says not to run them in match barrels. While I'm not saying I have a match barrel, the pistol was made in spain in 1958 so who knows what they had in mind. The mini-mags are fine. I tried some of the them today and the pistol runs like a singer sewing machine with them. Lower velocity ammo is sometimes what's needed, especially with a blowback pistol.

Oh, one last thing. Thanks for the help guys. One of the first things I did was clean the chamber because it was obvious that the round wasn't seating fully. That would make sense for alot of firearms that have trouble with stingers, but not the case here. I guess it just has a tight chamber??? Oh well, I've found something it'll eat and that's cheaper to boot.

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=176666
 
Last edited:

skydiver3346

New member
CCI ammo for .22?

I have shot so much .22 ammo in recent months its not funny.
I have never had one single problem with any of my CCI bullets (shot numerous different types of CCI rounds). My favorite is their "Velocitor" 40 grain hollow points. Shot through automatics and revolvers and zero problems. Very reliable..
Also, one of my favorite .22 bullets is the Winchester "Supreme" Target .22LR Match ammo. It funtions perfectly as well and is very accurate too. Give them a try if you can find some. You will be pleased.
 

troy_mclure

New member
i wont buy any cci products(if i can help it). i bought 2 boxes of maxi mag, .22 mag.
both boxes were crap, it took multiple primer strikes to get most of these to fire.

i wrote cci about it, with the lot #'s and everything. i got a response back a week later basically saying tough crap.
 
Top