Favorite .22 round

Hey Folks,
A few months ago, I bought a pump action .22 rifle. It had been about 25 years since I had regularly shot one of these. It was the kind of rifle I learned to shoot with, with my dad.
I'm going to the range soon, so I thought I would solicit opinions on your favorite .22 ammo. I want to put different stuff through it to see what it likes. It'll shoot LR, long, and short (and maybe CB, we'll see) So far I've only shot LR CCI mini mags, and they did fine.
I'll be going to the shooting range with it this week. Any small gamers or plinkers who care to comment?
Thanks,
Parry

Howdy Newdovo,

Every .22 is a law unto itself. The best way to find what your rifle likes is to shoot a wide variety of ammo. If you're lucky, your rifle will like the cheap stuff.

When switching from brand to brand, you might notice that it takes a dozen rounds before your rifle settles in with a particular load. Some rifles shoot better dirty while some like to be squeaky clean.

Having said that, I've found the CCI minimag solids hard to beat. I've also had good results with Wolf brand. (made in Germany). Winchester Dynapoint has something of a cult following but it's never done well for me. The CB longs are great fun at short range or in the basement. Don't expect match accuracy from them, though. The same goes with shorts simply because most modern made rifles are tweaked to work best with the long rifle cartridge.

.22 longs are the red-headed stepchild of the rimfire world. I don't think I've ever pulled the trigger on one.

Be safe, have fun, let us know how it goes.

LG Roy (who loves his Marlin 1897)

A lot of it depends on the weapon. I have both a Ruger 10/22 rifle and a Mark II target pistol. The average, run of the mill, off the shelf round functions about equally well in either of them. Remington makes a round with a truncated cone that jammed miserably in the rifle, which could be a by-product of the magazine. The pistol likes to be kept a little cleaner, but the rifle has been thousands of rounds between thorough cleanings with no trouble at all. I don't have a lot of brand loyalty on 22LR. I usually buy whatever is on sale. The majority of rounds I have shot are all accurate enough to hunt with.

Not to change the subject here, but have you picked up a 25 round clip for your Ruger yet? These things are incredible! They were around up until the assult rifle ban, then they were unavailable in the US for years, but either all or parts of this ban have expired. There are few things like firing off 25 rounds in under 30 seconds.
I use the Dynapoints because there were the cheapest ones I could find.

I do have a couple of pre-ban 30 round magazines for it. I don't shoot nearly as much as I used to. I've even thought about selling my Springfield Armory 45ACP that is tricked out for IPSC shooting, and just replacing it with a Glock. I haven't entered a competition in probably close to 10 years now.

My S&W 2206 is quite happy with the CCI Blazer LR, although it seems to be dirtier than the Minimag. My Ruger 10/22 will start jamming on anything dirtier than Minimag, but it's got a match barrel on it so it's less tolerant in regards to ammo. If your gun is happy with ammo that is readily available (and cheap), then you are blessed. I have been happy with my Butler Creek magazines, much less so with the Ramline (aka Jamline) offerings.




Wayne

Ramline started off as a nice product (gosh... probably mid-to-late 1980's), but they got cheap and the quality went downhill fast. Jamline was certainly correct with the later models of their magazines.

I agree with the others that my Ruger 10/22 (doesn't everyone have at least one of these? ;)) will fire just about anything. Well, with the exception of low-velocity rounds, of course, but I have an old single shot I occasionally use those in. I really like the high-velocity ones with the Ruger - I've never had any problems with stovepipes or anything of the sort, and they make a nice, reassuring *crack* when you fire.

Blazer is fine for just going off to shoot off a whole bunch of rounds. I think I had some for my Glock with aircraft aluminum casings? Worked fine, especially if, like me, you don't reload.

-Keith

I've got a couple of .22's, and one bullet I've enjoyed using (and I've forgotten the name - it's been a while) was a long-range cartridge, with a somewhat hollow-point bullet. They were designed to have more power, too, and packed a bit more grain.

I sighted in the scope so well on one of my rifles that I could put these precisely through a critter's eye and then blow apart the opposite side of its head. Gosh, it's remarkably less gruesome when you're actually doing it and not typing it. Hmph. But rest assured, these animals were all evil.

I've shot the pump-action rifles you speak of, and they're a lot of fun. Peep sight?