Bad .22lr Ammo?

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rebelracer79

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I just got a .22 in a trade and decided I would try and test it out so I got a target and my old plastic box of mixed .22(bulk federal mixed with bulk remington) I started shooting at about 35 yds, rifle was shooting about 6" high, so I lowered to rear sight all the way and it was still high, I shot 2 tubes of ammo to figure this out, 30 rounds, I had 2 duds, one remy and one fed. , the more I shot the more duds I had, at least one every 15 rounds. I decided to back up to around 80 yds and this ammo was hitting 6" low, yea a foot of drop from 35-80 yds. Most importantly to me the rifle only jammed once in about 150 rnds, Thats perfecly fine with me as I have had .22s in the past that jammed every other shot. but also with this ammo when I was shooting at 80 yds, you could hear the difference in the rounds, some not as loud as others, I was kinda worried about a squib, but I always heard them hit the backstop.

My theory, my big box of .22 is far from airtight, and has been stored in a non climate controlled metal building, probly 2-3 years old, anyone else had the same type of expirence?
 

Buzzdraw

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The .22LR does have a good bit of bullet drop. From some data I used for NRA Rimfire Silhouettes, with a 44 yd zero it took 2.25" up for 66 yds, another 2" up for 79 yds and another 6.5" up for rams at 109 yds. The preceding data was for CCI Blue Label (Standard Velocity).

The .22LR cartridge, being lubed the way it is, is very subject to accuracy degradation in high temps. Summer temps, like in a car or worse yet a car trunk, would cause groups to double in size. Cold temps caused no degrading; we often transported our ammo in a small cooler with a cold pack in the hot months.
 

rebelracer79

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peanut said:
Firing pin channel clean?
I've had .22lr ammo for more than 3 years Rem and Fed bulk packs that I'm currently using and they all go bang.

I wondered if it was the gun at first too, but when I backed up to 80 yds I could hear the difference in the ammo. That makes me think it's the ammo, this morning I remembered that it has been in my truck for about the last 4-5 months. I have a fresh box in the closet I will have to try out.
 

dennishoddy

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With all of the .22 matches I shoot, I've noticed more "low power" loads from the bulk Remington vs bulk Federal. I can tell from the muzzle blast, and the action cycles noticibly slower.
At our range, we have live ammo containers for people to put dud rounds, rounds they have found on the ground, etc.
The vast majority seem to be the Rem rounds. Just a personal observation.
 

Old Fart

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I have in the man cave a Rem 22lr round that is missing about a third of the brass case.
Says something about thier quality control.
It's been hit and miss, but over the years lots of members here have experienced it.
 

elcaBob

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I bought two straight boxes (about 3 months apart) of Remington lead nose. It looked like a chop had been taken straight down to about 1/8" depth just off center of the bullet portion of about every third round. I called Remington. I emailed Remington. Remington would NOT return my messages. I even told them in those messages that I don't want a refund, I just want to know that they are made aware of the problem. I won't buy anything from them now. I now generally buy Federal or CCI bulk 22 packs.
 

1fast8

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i see severals neg post about rem bulk .a few months ago i bought 3 bulk boxes of ammo fed,win,and rem win cycled so poorly got tired of clearing the gun gave the rest to a friend with a revolver.but the rem was better than the fed so i went back and bought 4 more boxes of rem
 

Buzzdraw

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i see severals neg post about rem bulk .a few months ago i bought 3 bulk boxes of ammo fed,win,and rem win cycled so poorly got tired of clearing the gun gave the rest to a friend with a revolver.but the rem was better than the fed so i went back and bought 4 more boxes of rem
The quality of the bulk .22 ammo is spotty from lot to lot. Any one of the three makers mentioned can produce either good or cruddy ammo at any given time. For best results, buy a box of each (if there is ample backstock of same lot number at the store), promptly try them out to determine if a "winner" then go back to the store to buy all you can of the same lot of the given maker.

The same "try a little before buying a bunch" strategy also works with better quality ammo. I've found lots of CCI Blue Tag standard velocity that were every bit the equal of the more-expensive Green Tag at times.
 

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