.22 ammo test

[Tempest455]

Thought some may like this that enjoy shooting .22LR. I have a Savage TRR-SR that likes CCI Green Tag and Eley Red the best. On a good day will shoot sub 1" groups at 100 and sub 1/2" at 50 yards with the Eley or Green Tag. However, what about cheap ammo?

I tried a bunch overall (Remington, Federal, Aguila, Winchester, CCI etc.) overall, CCI seems to have the most accurate, both the cheap and expensive depending on the fps and grain. Subsonic Green Tag and Eley has been best, but bulk Blazer has been ther most accurate bulk I have found.

Many of the match grade ammo's are wax coated. So I spent a morning at the range coating the bullet heads with different coatings. In this video, all the targets are the same ammo, "CCI Blazer", only the coatings are different.

I used bulk Blazer (550 per box) as the control. I also tested with 30 wt oil, silicone spray, non-stick cooking spray and carnauba auto wax.

I started with the Blazer out of the box. After every 10 rounds, I pulled the bolt, sprayed some solvent down the barrel and ran a bore snake to minimize material left from previous rounds.

In this video, the two left targets are just sight in targets for adjustments if needed. The 2nd from the left on top is Blazer, the next is the cooking spray, oil. Lower row, silicone and to the right wax. I shot 10 rounds for each but could only video 5 here as I had to stop and re-load.

The oil and silcone seemed to actually increase the groups and have some flyers. This video is the wax coated rounds. It was clear to me, they grouped the best. Perhaps the reason the match .22 LR rounds appear to have a wax coating?

Here was the group from the widest point on all of these.

Blazer control - 2.60"

Cooking spray - 1.90"

Oil - 2.95"

Silicone - 3.30"

Wax - 1.80"

*Update on this. On a better day the wax has now done a best of .900" at 100 yards with one flyer. The 4 round group was .500".

Seems to be a good alternative to using match grade ammo for plinking.

[Dolomite_supafly]

I have found that most ammo takes 20-25 rounds to foul a clean barrel before it begins shooting better. I have one gun that when clean will shoot like crap but after 50 rounds it is a MOA shooter out to 100 yards.

One of the best and cheap rimfire lubes is a toilet wax ring. I have lubed a lot of bullets using it and it works well. The only down side is during hot weather it does melt. I liken it to the lube on Wolf ammo as far as softness and temperature sensitivity.

Something else is bullet lube from one maker may not play well with another. I have tested this and it holds true for me. And although it take 20-25 rounds ot foul a clean barrel it can take even longer when lube from another maker has fouled the barrel first.

And all of this depends on the rifle too. Some rifles foul and shoot better quicker while others may not.

I bet if you tried Lee Alox it would work very well.

Dolomite

[Tempest455]

Sounds like you had good luck w/ wax as well. As far as the clean vs. foul barrel, this rifle it does not matter. It likes a hot barrel but clean vs. 200 rounds, does not matter a bit. To clarify, it has shot best with Eley Tenex red. However, that's $20 per box. Waxing the Blazer appears to be a cheap alternative if I'm not trying for absolute best groups.

[Guest alloyguitar]

This is great to know. I'm working on building a budget "target" rimfire out of an old stevens 35 I have laying around (built a target stock, working on wrapping the barrel in carbon fiber, trigger job, etc) just for giggles, so I'm definitely going to try that toilet ring idea. Anybody know how paraffin wax would compare to them? or maybe beeswax?

[Dolomite_supafly]

Paraffin tends to have a higher melting point than beeswax. The Toilet ring is soft at room temperature., like I said about like Wolf lube.

The easy way to lube using beeswax is to just use Lee Alox. It is pure beeswax suspended in a solvent that evaporates leaving the beeswax. It works wonders with the centerfire bullets I cast so I know it will work with rimfire as well. You could probably just tumble lube the entire bullet.

Dolomite

[Oh Shoot]

.... but bulk Blazer has been ther most accurate bulk I have found.

Yep. Agree totally, it's my mainstay.

- OS