Testing For Reliability In My Revolver

[AzShooter]

I tried a mix of ammo today in my S&W 617 to get ready for our next Steel Challenge Match. My goal is to find accurate, reliable ammo that will extract easily from my chambers. I tried CCI Mini Mags, CCI Blazer, Remington Golden Bullet 1400 bucket, Wolf Me, Eley Force and Federal Auto Match.

I got a variety of conclusions and a few surprises. Mini Mags are very consistent in both accuracy
and reliability.attachFull1100231 They run very clean and in 200 rounds I did not have to clean the cylinders once. This may become my ammo of choice.

Blazers were actually the most accurate ammo. This is judging from off hand double action shooting at 15 yards. This is the distance I normally sight in at. All my shots were within 4 inches pulling straight through the trigger without staging it. After the 6th reload with my DS-10 speed loaders I had to run a brush through the cylinders because I started experiencing difficult extraction.

After cleaning my 617 with a bronze brush mounted on a portable hand drill, I run the brush through each cylinder for 20 seconds which makes it very clean, I tried Wolf ME. Surprisingly all the rounds fired on first try. Very accurate but again hard extraction. Good practice ammo but far from being my competition rounds.

Remington Golden Bullets are the surprise of the bunch. No miss fires with 140 rounds. Accuracy wasn't as tight as Mini Mags or Blazers but they ran well enough for me to consider them my go-to ammo.

Federal Auto Match was my go-to ammo until this year. I've had more clickers then I'd like to admit with at least 2 per hundred rounds. I know, with a revolver that's not bad because all you have to do is pull the trigger again and the next round will go off. The problem is that Steel Challenge is strictly a speed event and the second or two it takes to go past the miss fire is just too much to give away, Especially if it happens more than 2 per match.

 

[Aguila Blanca]

Federal Auto Match was my go-to ammo until this year. I've had more clickers then I'd like to admit with at least 2 per hundred rounds. I know, with a revolver that's not bad because all you have to do is pull the trigger again and the next round will go off. The problem is that Steel Challenge is strictly a speed event and the second or two it takes to go past the miss fire is just too much to give away, Especially if it happens more than 2 per match.

FWIW, the rimfire guru at the range/shop where I shoot says Federal Auto match is the worst .22 RF ammo ever. I have a couple of boxes of it, and I rate it a solid :meh:

 

[rodfac]

I've had no issues with Fed Auto Match...accuracy ~equal to Mini Mags but not quite up to Wolf Rifle Match....From a rest in my Smith M18, Ruger Mkll, Smith M41, & a Colt New Frontier, it averages just over 2" at 25 yds. This is good enough for me as I'm not a Bullseye competitor anymore.

While I don't record misfires, I haven't noticed any difference between Fed AM and CCI Mini Mags...I'd rate both as good/excellent plinking/informal target ammunition. I'll confess that I run a bore snake through each of my guns after a range session, and that I very rarely shoot more than a 50 round box at a time. Dirty chambers, in autos as well as revolvers, are a source of misfires IMHO.

The above comparisons are from three 325 count boxes of current production. Mini Mags are from more or less current production as well, tho I tend to hoard the MM's as they've proven their worth over literally decades.

YMMv, Best Regards, Rod

 

[stinkeypete]

-1 for Fed Auto Match as well. None of my .22s can group with it and aside from a bucket of thunderbolts (which cost a fraction) I’ve never had so many duds.

Your experience with Blazer matches mine. Good stuff. In a handgun revolver, I wonder what the velocity of minimags is.

If you can get your hands on Aguila (regular no-extra-letters standard velocity) I recommend it. As good as Blazer, just some guns have ammo preferences and that’s a possibility. Price is good, a “step up” from bulk.

CCI SV is no longer the magic sauce it once was. I have old stock and new… the old stock still drives tacks while the new is no better than Blazer, except for costing more. Yes, Blazer costs less by enough to notice. Aguila is even cheaper.

 

[Drm50]

I’m beginning to think that duds are more of a lot or batch problem than brand. Only new ammo I’ve shot for over 20yrs was CCI standard velocity. Bought it to plink with S&W 41s to conserve match ammo. The CCI has been good stuff as far as dependable and accurate. I shoot it in 17s too.
I’ve seen Rem, Win & Fed run high percentage of duds. The rate is about 50% on those struck twice. But have been with those who had present fresh ammo from these manf and run flawlessly.

 

[Lavan]

I've had to send Federal back to the mfr. TWICE!
Both times for misfires.
Sent back loaded rounds with GOOD primer indents.

They would fire if rotated. But who wants that?

They sent replacement bricks.

This was in the 70s so maybe they're okay now but I never used since.

 

[Hawg]

I have yet to meet a .22 that doesn't like CCI Mini Mags be it a revolver, rifle, pistol, single shot, whatever. I have one old semi auto rifle that won't reliably function with anything else I've tried but it will hammer out Mini Mags all day long..

 

[Lavan]

I think Smith & Wesson used to (maybe still does) set all their cylinder hones on their 22 revolvers like they are 21 caliber.