Well I finally got around to testing 10/22 and my 2020 and 2021 ammo. I tested silencer and no silencer. Old remington subsonic 38gr 2017-2021 New remington subsonic 40gr copper plated 2021 CCI stinger 2018-2020 Winchester silvertip 2021 Winchester powerpoint 2021 Winchester copper plated HP @1,435fps from 2021 First thing shooting silencer vs no silencer. Removing the silencer raised the elevation at lest 2 inches so leave the silencer on, worse with the hotter ammo like cci stinger. Looks like the best subsonic ammo was the new remington copper plated 40gr. And the best supersonic ammo was winchester powerpoint. But winchester silvertip did pretty good too, tight group but high and to the left. The subsonic and standard velocity ammo shot dead on. All the hot ammo like stinger, silvertip and winchester 40gr @ 1,435 all shot high and to the left. Now I know what to stack and what to sell. Walmart has a shit load of that $40 a short brick (325 rounds) winchester powerpoint. But in have only seen that remington subsonic 40gr copper plated HP one time. I could definitely off load that silvertip, stinger and winchester copper plated HP 40gr @1,435fps and not lose any sleep, probably also my cci velocitor which is also a 40gr bullet at 1,435fps and I would expect to shoot high and to the left. I still need to test federal 45gr subsonic copper plated, cci quiet, winchester 36gr copper plated HP @1,280fps and winchester super suppressor 45gr copper plated HP. Ideally I have subsonic and supersonic ammo that shoots almost the same, supersonic obviously shooting a bit higher but with the same windage. Ammo that throws off the point of aim I don't need to mess with. It's good to learn this while the electricity is still on and ammo is available. Buy the shit that agrees with your guns, avoid the stuff that doesn't.
Before you unload the ammo that shoots high and left, do you have a different .22 that might like it? Perhaps a handgun that would likely keep the velocity down some? Just thinking out loud here...
I need to do a handgun trip. If I remember correctly the revolver likes cci stinger. And the silvertip is supposed to be for 22lr handguns, but the segmented HP doesn't do anything on the milk jug test.
And then the front sight tried to fall off my 22. I'm going to tack weld it in place. Testing is good. It would have sucked to have that fall out in the field and never seen it again. Looks like my best subsonic ammo is new remington 40gr copper washed. Best supersonic ammo looks like winchester powerpoint. The super special fed and win 45gr subsonics aren't shooting that good. The cci quiet sucks it won't even attempt to cycle a 10/22. So it's as good as gone.
I learned that the closed bolt suppressed sten liked everything. Same Pont of aim no matter if it's a powderpuff silencer load or stupid hot sten only supersonic 147gr out of a 5 inch barrel. Some loads grouped tighter than othera as to be expected.
After 3 long range days shooting almost everything in almost everything as far as 22lr goes I found 1 trend that stood out. The more exotic the ammo the more exotic the grouping and more exotic the point of aim change. Even 45gr subsonic acted exotic more than not. Best best is boring. Standard weight standard velocity ammo. 36 to 40 grain high subsonic about 1,000fps to normal supersonic 1,280-1,300fps. Almost like they had it all figured out over 100 years ago.
Tested winchester M22 today for the first time, rifle only. It's acceptable. Found out today my lever action shoots those Aguila 60gr subsonics, really, really well. Groups were consistently half the size of of the next best ammo, Remington new subsonic 40gr. That was unexpected. I bought some because I have heard they can give great accuracy in bolt and lever actions. Tried them in the revolver before, they sucked. Was expecting for them to end up on the "for sale next ammo panic" ammo pile. Now I think I need bricks of them.
I like the thread title. I'm there all the time. My goal is to invite others to come out. I'm doing introduction to .22 rimfire class tomorrow. You know you've got a winner when they ask "what's a twenty-two?"
I love my .22 guns. I only have two that like the same brand and speed of ammo. My fathers old .22 tube feed loves the 30gr hyper velocity Mexican rounds (I moly coated the inside of barrel). Shoots old 12 gauge shotgun shells set at 100 yards and never miss. It is my rodent gun of choice to 125 yards (my bull barrel .223 and 14 power scope takes over to 350 yards). The old gun can't get a real tight group with the standard 40gr 1000fps round. My little old bolt action only likes the 40gr standard and lobbing 60gr subsonic rounds. My 10-22 likes the 1200fps 36gr round a lot and it is what I shoot the most. My Buckmark will eat anything. It only has a little issue cleanly ejecting the short brass of the subsonic round. My conclusion is that just like people guns have favorites and do their best with what they like. It's worth it to find out what they shoot best with... Plus it's just fun to shoot....
Yes 10/22 seem to like that standard velocity 1,050 to 1,200fps and weight of 36-40gr. Once you go outside of that window you see point of aim shifts more than just elevation differences.
Got some federal punch ammo. It's a 30gr round nose, supposed to be doing 1,000fps out of a 2 inch bbl. Sounds like winchester silver tip, a 38gr about 1,000fps out of a 2 inch barrel. I'll only run a handgun tests with it. Since its "hand gun ammo".
Pistol ammo shoot off. Federal punch vs winchester Silvertip. Looks like they are nearly equal. The federal punch is super sonic out of a 4.4 inch barrel so it's much, much louder. Kind of a buzz kill when you run a silencer. Between the 2 I would pick the Silvertip as it was way quieter. Minimal point of aim change between the 2.
I have been saying 5 shot groups are useless since forever and 3 shot group are even more useless. If you can't shoot more than 5 or 6 shots with out a flyer, after trying a few different kinds of ammo then boating accident that gun. If you want 3 to 5 shot tests for a gun you better do multiple, multiple tests. Say you have a light weigh sport rifle that heats up quick you might be looking for cold bore versus how it's going to shoot after its heated up from shots 1, 2 3 and 4 for that 5th hot shot. I say 10 shot groups minimum. If you buy ammo I say shoot at least 20 shots each time over a few range trips. You probably only have 2 to 5 different ammos to test. With 22lr there's no excuse to not shot at least 10 shot groups, the ammo is cheap, shooting a box of ammo is not going to wear you or the gun out as 22lr barrel life is some where in the 50,000 to 300,000 shot range. I consider a box of ammo group a decent test when they are consistent. Many years ago I leaned about the uselessness of 3 and 5 shot groups from mini14 people. They would show off tiny 3 and 5 shot groups supposedly shot at 50 or 100yd, but then had trouble keeping shots on a b27 target at 150yd or a refrigerator sized target at 200yd. If my scoped 10/22 shot like that at 100yd I would be shit canning that ammo. On the flip side you don't want to go blow off 100 rounds just to refine loadings, for some guns 100 shots is 7 to 12% of your barrel life. You would be in the middle of load development and have the barrel on a 264win mag shot out. Or with a 300win mag just as you finish load development, it's time to change get the barrel. For me an my 6.5mmanbun 100 shots is around 2 or 3% of barrel life.
Doing weapons testing today. Found that Winchester silvertip 22lr out of a 4 and a half inch barrel does break apart. It's a "segmented hollow point". When the 3 segments break away it goes from 37gr to 25gr so the fragment aren't very significant.
In the Army we ran 3 to 5 round groups AFTER we've got the rifle sighted in. There's nothing wrong with the 5 round group, it's a solid and tested method. Years ago we would run multiple 5 round groups (maybe 4) to test our consistency, but as I recall it didn't change at all throughout, at least not for those of us who can shoot. I do, however stress the importance of the gun user being of average intelligence or better. There's just no fix for 'stupid', you can't solve that one. Trigger squeeze, stock/cheek hold, and breathing all come into play and let's face it -most shooters SUCK. Then again, from my generation, we've been shooting since we were small children. I don't know much about barrel life, but my old Mossberg 151k can outshoot anything I've got new (except the Savage MKII) and that old dog will keep shooting forever. They don't make 'em like they used to...
The army already tested that ammo. To pass quality they picked a random sample of I believe 100 rounds form a lot and accuracy test it. If it fails 3 consecutive times they can reject the lot. Even commercial factory ammo has to pass accuracy standard in an accuracy test barrel, only problem is that test barrel is nothing like most guns. I'm saying 5 shot groups are especially useless when you hand load, you have no idea what your load combination is going to do in your gun. If you followed load data only thing you know for sure is your gun won't blow up and you shouldn't be sticking a bullet in the bore. I have found some particularly horrible load combinations over the years. 5 shot groups will usually tell you if you have a shit load recipe. When figuring out what bullets weight is best or when trying to get the most accurate power charge you need more than 5 shot groups. I had one load for my 6.5mmanbun that produced great 5 shot groups usually. About every 7th or 8th shot was a flier. Went a half grain more and the whole group moved over to where the fliers where hitting.
