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SR22 Pistol Ammo Likes and Dislikes

17K views 82 replies 53 participants last post by  amd6547 
#1 ·
Since most rimfires have their prefered ammo, after about 1000 rounds I thought I'd compile a list of ammo brands my new SR22 pistol likes and dislikes. When I say "like" I'm talking primarily about cycling the action. Accuracy has been similar on all brands so far.

Likes...

MiniMags
CCI Blazer
CCI Stinger - loves (this stuff is a lot of fun out of this pistol!)
Federal 510
Federal 550 Bulk (walmart)
Remington Thunderbolts (when they have primer in the rim)

Dislikes...

Winchester Wildcats (won't reliably cycle slide far enough back to strip next round from magazine)
Federal AutoMatch (won't cycle this at all. won't even push the slide back far enough to cock the hammer. This happend about 30 out of 50 rounds fired)

I'll continue to add to the list as I try different brands. Overall this pistol is a very good shooter. Glad it will happily digest the cheap stuff.
 
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#2 · (Edited)
I just got back from shooting my SR22 this morning for the first time. I was testing for reliabliity and function and not accuracy ( I'll do that next time :D )
I fired a minimum of 50 rds of each type and more than that of some of the bulk ammo. This was one dirty puppy when I was done..LOL Here is a run down of what I tried :

Federal Lightning - no issues
Federal bulk - one ftf, fired on the second strike
CCI Velocitor - no issues
CCI Stingers - no issues, much fun !
CCI Mini Mags - no issues
CCI Tactical - no issues
Federal Automatch - no issues
Remington Goldens - no issues
Winchester Super X - no issues
Winchester Dynapoint - no issues
Winchester 555 - no issues
Winchester M22 - no issues
Aguila Super Maximum - no issues
Aguila SuperExtra - no issues

That's it, not one fail to feed or eject. My barrel did not loosen at all so hopefully that will be a non issue for everyone now. My serial number is in the 16,000 range so maybe they are using loc-tite on them now. I also checked the slide and there was no irregular wear so this one iis a keeper. My safety /decocker and double action pull were very stiff so I fired a couple hundred rds working the decocker and firing double action. They both smoothed out pretty nice. I'll post some pics for accuracy after the next time out. Very happy with this little pistol so far, seems like a great gun.
 
#6 ·
I can't wait for mags to become available at some of the online vendors, hopefully for a little better price than the list price they show for them. these little pistols shoot so good you will want to have a bunch of spares to load up.I love my MK II but it is a brick to carry around. I can see taking this out all the time hiking or in the woods.
 
#8 ·
std vel ammo

I have had great performance with any of the higher velocity stuff - Mainly Velocitor 40gr HP and Winchester M22 but mine doesn't seem to like any of the std vel stuff - seem to get at least one cycling problem every clip.
you all have a good day now - missing1944 - charles
 
#10 ·
I also had problems with Federal Automatch. Mine would cock the hammer, but would fail to pick up a new round. Shot about 100 Automatch, about 100 CCI Blazer which seemed OK, I think one didn't pick up. Federal bulk worked perfectly, around 200 rounds. The Federal bulk occasionally won't lock the bolt open on the last round in my Mark III 22/45, but the Automatch worked flawlessly in it.
 
#11 ·
Its funny how most 22's have their own "personality". I have a Bersa Firestorm that will eat Fed AutoMatch all day but won't go more than two rounds in a row of Fed bulk (walmart) without a failure of some sort. My SR22 seems to eat up the Fed bulk with no issues but won't cycle Fed AutoMatch to save its life. Whenever I get a new 22 part of the fun for me is taking out a wide variety of ammo to see what it likes and doesn't. I'm fortunate to own 11 22 autoloaders (pistols and rifles) and the one that will literally eat any ammo I feed it is ironically my Walther P22Q. I know its reputation is the opposite but to this point (knock on wood) I have over 3000 rounds through it with not one stovepipe. There have been literally only 3 or 4 times where an audibly underpowered round failed to cycle the slide back far enough to strip the next round from the mag but that's it.
 
#12 ·
marb4, how do you keep track of what to feed each of those 11 children? :D What picky eaters 22's can be at times. One reason I love my Mk pistols is they shoot my favorite, mini-mag, with no issues. And so does my wife's Henry (although the Henry will eat about anything).
 
#14 ·
Most of my "children" are pretty good and eat most of the more common bulk ammo. I stock a lot of CCI Blazer and all of them seem to do well with this. I have a couple though that are picky so I have to keep in mind what ammo to bring along when they get out to the range.

I shot 100 of the Winchester 333 tonight. I had 2 audibly underpowered rounds that failed to cycle the slide back far enough to strip the next round from the mag. This seems to be the most common "failure" I have with the SR22. Everytime it happens though (which isn't that often) its due to a cheap bulk round with not enough pop.

My range is outdoors and was finishing my time around dusk. I put a box of CCI Stingers through and had great fun watching the fireball erupt out the end of the barrel in the low light! These rounds are a lot of fun in a short barrel pistol.
 
#13 ·
in my SR22, i've found Aquila SSS is tumbling (~85% of rounds) at as close as 4yards.

Heard many reports of SSS tumbling, but in all the guns i've tried it in this is the first i've seen. To bad its as potent a 22round as you'll find.

Crimped style 22 shot cartridges, like Federal Gameshok No.12 are a no go [ long neck expands and sticks in barrel throat], cup type shot cartridges like CCI should be good to go.
 
#15 ·
Seems like I have to shoot plated bullets in my SR22P. When I shoot waxed only bullets I get leading in the barrel with lots of traces of it on the crown. I have a Single Six that is the same way. To bad because CCI Blazers are my favorite 22LR ammunition for all around (performance, cost, and availibility). With luck Federal Champions Value Pack shoot very well in both. They all like CCI Mini Mags but what gun don't.
 
#16 ·
The Chamber is so rough in my sr22 i said it will never work, but after 200 rds it shoots fine. looks like someone took a Dremel tool to it, hope the threaded barrel (IF they ever sell it) will be better lookin! my barrel does not look like look like its have any leading up with un-plated ammo. i have fired app 200rds of CCI standard down range. in almost every mag i get a fail to chamber 1 round and 1 rd only in a magazine NEVER in the begining and Never in the end always around in the center of the 10 rds. i would buy another spring and cut a coil off but i am almost out of that CCI anyway. i have 2000 rds of that new Winchester Tactical 22lr ammo with the Black coating and i know that stuff will make it run. john
 
#17 ·
sr22---federal automatch

my sons SR22 ill NOT function with this ammo, we tried it at the range today and it would not work the slide over 50% of the time. also, it is REALLY dirty compared to fed bulk. as soon as we changed over to bulk it ran perfect . just another case of try different ammo and the stick with what works the best.:):bthumb:
 
#18 ·
We have shot:

36gr HP Mini-mags
40gr RN Mini-mags
36gr Winchester Xpert HP
40gr CCI Blazer

Strangely only the mini-mag 40s have had issues. We have had 5 fail to feeds that occur when the bullet jams into the face of the chamber and then locks the slide up. You usually have to pull the slide back as fas as it will go so the mag will release and then the stuck round will release.
 
#19 ·
So far after about 2,000 rounds my SR22 Likes :

CCI Stingers
CCI Mini-Mags
CCI Blazers
Remington Goldens
Remington Thunderbolts
Winchester Wildcats
Winchester Bulk Packs (333, 555).

My SR22 has occasional issues with:

Federal Bulk (325, 375, 500, 525 bulk packs). Sometimes its ok, sometimes it hates them. I would guess a 5% rate of problems with this ammo.

My SR22 HATES :

Federal Lightening : So bad I quit trying after 50 rounds (1 of 10 boxes), one magazine reload I had a problem every round (failure to feed, failure to go into battery, stovepipes, failure to eject, etc). At first thought maybe it was the magazine, but it shot 10 perfect Winchester Wildcats next reload. Well over 20% problems with this ammo. The other 9 boxes I bought will be feed to the rifle.
 
#20 ·
Funny how they're all different. Mine hates Blazers, hates Federal 510s.

Loves MiniMags, Federal 710s, and Federal bulk.

The factor seems to be whether it's a lead/waxed bullet or a copper-plated
bullet.

With lead, I'll get an FTL or two every magazine. With copper it's as low as
one in 100 rounds.

If I load alternating lead and copper rounds, it's as reliable as with all-copper.

I'm not going to complain about having to run the Federal bulk-pack. That's cheap enough for me!

The FTLs are always he same--- stuck on the ramp. Anointing it with Break Free helps.
 
#21 ·
Saw a 235 pack of Winchester copper plated 1280fps hollow points for $8.49 and my local. Thought "what the heck" since I could always burn it in a rifle.

Kind of ugly ammo; dinged up bullets; burns dirty. But...

Works beautifully (80/80 which was all I had time for) and seems to group better than the Federal bulk. At 3.6 cents a round, well, hard to beat.

I assume it's the same stuff that goes in the 333 and 555 packs.
 
#23 ·
My particular SR22 is very peculiar. I've posted it in a couple of threads already, but my gun has the same issue my old 22/45 did. If often fails to load the very last run in the mag when using some of the hotter ammo like CCI Mini-mags or Winchester SuperX. It does this with CCI Blazer as well. Otherwise, rounds 1-9 in the mag has been 100% reliable.

Thus far, the only ammo that has been 100% from rounds 1-10 are CCI Stingers and CCI Standard Velocity 40gr RN. It's been 100% with what little Velocitors I had on hand as well, but I don't count that as I haven't shot that much to really make a solid judgement.

Federal 525ct bulk (36gr hp) is probably the only ammo I can say that hasn't been completely reliable overall, but in this case, it's clearly bad ammo. Some rounds were very under powered and failed to completely cycle the slide. Very inconsistent. The good news is that this ammo didn't exhibit the "last round in the mag" problem as much as some of the other hotter high velocity loads.

NOTE: Hats off to Ruger CSR for sending me two replacement mags (practically no questions asked) to help me test whether or not this was a mag issue. I sent back the mags after I confirmed that this was not a problem with the ones that came with the gun.
 
#24 ·
Did an interesting experiment yesterday. The SR22P has really "dialed in" and now fires several hundred rounds of Federal 525 without a single hiccup. I had a 50rd box of Federal GameShok 40-grain copper-jacketed in my range-bag. So I decided to see how those, which were formally the most reliable for me until I got the Federals, ran.

Well, lo and behold, as soon as I started shooting them, I began to have the classic 2nd round FTL consistently, along with the odd random FTL! Went through 4 magazines that way. Not as bad as Blazers, but 10-20% FTL rate.

Then I switched back to Federal Bulk, against the possibility that the gun had crossed the "too dirty too shoot" line. I loaded the last 10 GameShoks in one mag, and 3 more of Federal Bulks.

She came right back to her smooth self on the first bulk mag. I then loaded the GameShok mag, and had an FTL. Shot 60 more rounds of bulk without a hitch after that.
 
#25 ·
So far, mine likes:

Remington Golden bullet bulk
Federal bulk copper plated
Peters Bulk lead RN
Remington Thunderbolt.

I haven't shot anything outside of that and have had zero feeding failures, jams, stovepipes, FTE's in ~1250 rounds.

If I shoot straight lead, it fouls and keyholes in less than 120 rounds. Once cleaned, accuracy is restored.

Tony.
 
#26 ·
I've got to retract my statement about the Xpert HV. They are awful.

2 weeks ago they wouldn't cycle in our Charger which had never had a problem so we put them in the 10.22 and SR22p. They fired and we moved on.

This weekend I brought a box of it to the range for the SR22p and it was like shooting a freaking shotgun.

At 30' they might have had a 12" group. At 15' they would go where you aimed them but I watched the impact on the backstop and they were probably within 6' of each other.

Awful.

After 100 rounds we were starting to have to manually push the slide forward too.

We thought maybe the barrel was fouled or loose, nope. Need to take it with some proven ammo and make sure something isn't off.

They also had several loose bullets that you could spin in the case and ejection was very weak for a gun that usually slings them 20' they were going maybe 4', sometimes just dribbling out.
 
#27 ·
When I bought my SR22 last week the first thing I wanted to do was try all sorts of ammo (crappy stuff that failed in my 10/22 and the good stuff). So far here's what i've tried:

- CCI Mini-Mags
- CCI Stingers (woah, amazing through my SR)
- CCI Blazers (surprisingly love these as bulk ammo for my SR)
- Federal Bulk (automatch, 510, 550....whatever, everything is good)
- Federal Champion (the little 50 packs)
- Remington Thunderbolts (i was really surprised it did well with these)

This is honestly about the extent of the ammo I typically buy. So i'm really stoked to see it does well with the Federals & CCI stuff, since that's the majority of what I like to buy for my 10/22 as well.

If anyone has any really good recommendations for ammo to try definitely keep up updated and link if you find something good online :bthumb:
 
#29 ·
Well, now. Seems like the finicky girl is starting to acquire some broader tastes as she approaches maturity.

After about 1500 rounds, the last 500 of which were Federal 525/550 bulk pack which now works 100%, I decided to try some of a box of Federal Auto-Match, just to prove to myself that they were lead, therefore they'd jam.

Made a liar of me. Shot 80 without a hiccup.

It used to be the gun wouldn't shoot Federal 510's either. Of course not, they're lead, right? So the Auto-matches were a fluke, or an exception, right? Loaded 4 magazines with 510s. 100% perfect.

So I broke out some Winchester bulk-packs, you know, the ugly, dirty smoky stuff? It was getting to the point where I wanted to see how far I could push my luck. And finally, got some FTLs.

Albeit by this time we're talking a good 350 rounds with the only cleaning being a receiver brush followed by some CLP to annoint the ramp. When I pushed an ejected shell into the chamber by hand just to fire it to get rid of it, it was feeling pretty gritty and dirty. So we decided to call it a day and go home for a bath.

Still, it seems like the SR22P does get less finicky about what it eats with use.

I'm not quite ready to give Blazers another go, though :)

I'll probably just stay with the Federal Bulk, as it's as cheap and available as anything. But it was a worthy experiment, with rather surprising results.

Don't even mention Remingtons.
 
#30 ·
I've been playing with mine off and on since late March. I've been interested in other projects and haven't devoted a lot of time to the Ruger. I have probably 5-600 rounds of various brands of ammo thru it without a single glitch.

Monday I sat down at the bench and shot 25 yard groups off a rest. Nothing to brag about but it's my fault and not the pistol's. I only shot Remington Golden Bullets and Federal Bulk, the cheapest of the cheap. I was surprised to find the Feds out shot the GBs. It's the only one of my various 22s that has done this. I'm kind of glad about this as the Feds are cheaper by a little bit than GBs where I shop.
 
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