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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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#63 ·
Has anyone else had trouble with CCI Blazer shaving off lead and leaving it in the chamber when the barrel gets hot? I, ve had it happen with three different guns. The first time I thought I let the ammo get hot inthe sun in the summer with a match chamber, but ive had it happen twice more. The other day it happened with my SR 22.

Sent from my GT-P5113 using Tapatalk 2
 
#65 ·
I've tried several types of bulk ammo in my SR22p, Federal Bulk, Golden Bullet, Super-X, Thunderbolts, American Eagle.... Contrary to what others report, my SR22 definitely will not eat anything without problem. Fail to eject, fail to load, fail to fire (second trigger pull almost always fires), etc.

Yesterday I took my 13 year old to the range, and while I was mainly shooting something else I gave him the SR22 and 2 boxes of CCI Mini-Mags as a test. One box each of the 40gr round nose and 36gr hp. For the first time ever, the SR22 was flawless. Only 200 rounds through it, but zero issues of any kind. Typically it was having some kind of problem roughly 1 in 10 to 20 shots fired in previous outings.

To keep things in perspective.. My kid tends to limp wrist, I think I finally got him to understand what limp wristing is and how to avoid it - on the way home after shooting. I let him shoot a 15 round mag through my 9mm, and he managed to get 1 stove pipe and 1 fail to load jam in those 15 shots (I have never had a single stovepipe/FTE/FTL in that pistol). However, with the 150 rounds through the SR22, a gun that even I have always had issues with, it was flawless. I don't really keep track of how many rounds I put through guns, but I'm guessing the SR22 has roughly 500-1,000 rounds through it. My gun just may have needed an extra bit of break-in, or it could be entirely ammo dependent.

Next trip I'm going to try some American Eagle and Game-Shok - both of which I'd rate as on par or better accuracy than CCI mini-mags in my "I didn't think a .22lr could be this reliable" Neos Carbine. It would be nice if it's break-in related and I can get to where Federal Bulk is near 100% reliable, but if CCI mini-mags are the only thing that works then I'm ok with it.

Up until this weekend, the SR22 has been a pistol that I really wanted to love, but junk reliability was a real downer. I'm rapidly warming up to it.
 
#67 ·
I've tried several types of bulk ammo in my SR22p, Federal Bulk, Golden Bullet, Super-X, Thunderbolts, American Eagle.... Contrary to what others report, my SR22 definitely will not eat anything without problem. Fail to eject, fail to load, fail to fire (second trigger pull almost always fires), etc.
...
Yesterday I took my 13 year old to the range, and while I was mainly shooting something else I gave him the SR22 and 2 boxes of CCI Mini-Mags as a test.
Next trip I'm going to try some American Eagle and Game-Shok - both of which I'd rate as on par or better accuracy than CCI mini-mags in my "I didn't think a .22lr could be this reliable" Neos Carbine. It would be nice if it's break-in related and I can get to where Federal Bulk is near 100% reliable, but if CCI mini-mags are the only thing that works then I'm ok with it.

Up until this weekend, the SR22 has been a pistol that I really wanted to love, but junk reliability was a real downer. I'm rapidly warming up to it.
Mine always had trouble with any non-plated bullet early on. Blazers, Federal 510, what have you just wouldn't run reliably unless I loaded a plated round in between every 1 or 2 LRNs. Mostly FTLs.

MiniMags were 100% from the start. As was Federal Bulk. Winchester bulk and American Eagle not quite as good but ok.

With thousands of rounds down-range, she'll now eat LRNs like 510s and AutoMatch.
 
#71 ·
Seems as if the spouses SR22 runs anything she can fit in the magazine(s) and groups like my Nighthawk customized Combat Commander.

Happiness is a happy woman.

seabreeze:D

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.
 
#72 · (Edited)
I scored some auto match at wally world. I have had a few duds, and serveral FTE, on the FTE's, the rounds were noticably weak. When I use up what I have, I plan to steer away from it unless it is all I can find.

She likes MiniMags and Blazers, and even CCI standards do well.

Yesterday, my LGS had 22LR ammo for the first time since the madness began.

500 round bulk M-22.....I was going to snag one to keep from using my stash of MiniMags......at $60.00 a box :eek:....I passed.
 
#73 ·
I scored some auto match at wally world. I have had a few duds, and serveral FTE, on the FTE's, the rounds were noticably weak. When I use up what I have, I plan to steer away from it unless it is all I can find.

She likes MiniMags and Lazers, and even CCI standards do well.

Yesterday, my LGS had 22LR ammo for the first time since the madness began.

500 round bulk M-22.....I was going to snag one to keep from using my stash of MiniMags......at $60.00 a box :eek:....I passed.
Seeing a lot of that these days. No reason for the prices, just greedy gun shop owners taking advantage of this craziness. Glad I stocked up 2 years ago. I'll be on the other side of the grass before I use it all up.
 
#74 ·
Finally took the boy out for some range time.
Took my SR22PS to run a reliability test, here are the results:

CCI minimag 36gr HP - 100 rounds = zero failures
Centurion 40gr RN - 200 rounds = zero failures
Federal AutoMatch - 325 rounds = 2 failures
Both were failure to chamber, this was after about 800 rounds - just had to assist the slide forward on these two rounds.
CCI Velocitor - 10 rounds (was all I had left) = zero failures
Remington golden bullets - 225 rounds = one failure
One failure to fire. Second hammer strike took care of it, not bad for Rems.
Remington Thunderbolt - 250 rounds = two failures
Both were failure to fire, considered them duds after the third hammer strike on each.

5 failures out of 1,110 rounds. Pretty good in my book. It didn't even gripe when I loaded the different rounds mixed in the magazines. I could rapid fire through all ten mixed rounds without a hitch. Did that with four mags.

I did perform some enhancements before testing :
Polished feed ramp
Polished firing pin housing
Polished hammer face and slightly rounded top front of hammer where the housing meets the hammer as the slide begins to cycle.

Future mods:
Install gsgpro SS guide rod
Install Twin tech tactical's take down lever
De-anodize and polish the slide
pick up a Fobus paddle holster

Should make wabbit hunting vewy interwesting
 
#75 ·
Finally took the boy out for some range time.
Took my SR22PS to run a reliability test, here are the results:

CCI minimag 36gr HP - 100 rounds = zero failures
Centurion 40gr RN - 200 rounds = zero failures
Federal AutoMatch - 325 rounds = 2 failures
Both were failure to chamber, this was after about 800 rounds - just had to assist the slide forward on these two rounds.
CCI Velocitor - 10 rounds (was all I had left) = zero failures
Remington golden bullets - 225 rounds = one failure
One failure to fire. Second hammer strike took care of it, not bad for Rems.
Remington Thunderbolt - 250 rounds = two failures
Both were failure to fire, considered them duds after the third hammer strike on each.

5 failures out of 1,110 rounds. Pretty good in my book. It didn't even gripe when I loaded the different rounds mixed in the magazines. I could rapid fire through all ten mixed rounds without a hitch. Did that with four mags.

I did perform some enhancements before testing :
Polished feed ramp
Polished firing pin housing
Polished hammer face and slightly rounded top front of hammer where the housing meets the hammer as the slide begins to cycle.

Future mods:
Install gsgpro SS guide rod
Install Twin tech tactical's take down lever
De-anodize and polish the slide
pick up a Fobus paddle holster

Should make wabbit hunting vewy interwesting
You apparently have a winner, and an OTB prodigy. Enjoy!
 
#76 ·
I also polish all the moving parts especially the rail fit on all my semi autos pretty much the way TSkaz does, however I really try to be very sparing on polishing the feed ramps. I have a dozen semi autos that are not in any way finicky. I also don't use anything but Frog Lube after using everything on the planet.

My SR22 will shoot Automatch, Federal bulk, Federal 510, Blazer, CCI Standard and Mini Mag without a hiccup. I have some standard velocity for my bolt guns so I tried Eley Sport, Eley Yellow box, Eley Orange box, SK, Wolf and RWS. All functioned great but obviously threw the empties pretty weak.

Accuracy is of course all over the place but cycling is fine. Every once in few hundred rounds I will have a dud, hit my hand on the slide or limp wrist the gun etc.

I won't shoot Winchester or Remington in any of my guns so I really can't help you there.

This little gun has exceeded my expectations. As far as enhancements... I think I will leave the gun alone.
 
#79 ·
LIKES. More like Loves CCI tactical. Been 100% reliable after over 500 rounds. Federal 550 and 525 bulk is good too with the exception of the expected few duds in each box. Blazer is good for me also, very reliable. Mini-mags, velocitors, and stingers are 100% so far for me. CCI SV is kind of weird for me, sometimes I have no problems at all, sometimes I have a few fail to feeds in a day.

Dislikes. Winchester m-22. Will not cycle at all, by far the worse I've tried. Fail to feed almost every shot. Disappointed because the ammo looks nice, cant go by look I guess. Winchester 555,333 suck for me too. Averaging 1 fail to feed every 10 rounds with those. I also tried federal spitfire I bought from gander mountain and they had a fail to feed at least once a mag.

I am sticking with CCI tactical and federal bulk with my sr22. Mainly because its reliable and I have a little supply of those. I would buy blazers too if I could find them.
 
#80 ·
I wish mine was reliable with federal bulk - but I still had 1 or 2 fail to loads per mag in my last outing. Too bad because this is my favorite cheap bulk ammo. Flawless in my other .22 guns, best accuracy in my rifles of all the really cheap bulk ammo, and it's what I have on-hand. With the current ammo shortage, it's my only option for bulk.

CCI mini-mags are perfect, too bad I don't have any stored and when I can find it on shelves it's $12.95+tax per 100.

Federal Game-Shok is my favorite ammo all around. Accuracy is on-par or slightly better than CCI mini-mags in the one rifle I have done actual accuracy testing with, and 100% reliability in all my guns including the SR22. Before all the ammo shortages, they were reasonably cheap as well. Now it's all but impossible to find. :( Oh well, good to know that on my last trip I ran 200 rounds of game-shok through the gun with zero issues.

American Eagle MAY be on par with Game-Shok. I believe my wife shot a couple boxes of AE though the SR22 last trip, and she didn't complain about failures. Price is between Fed Bulk and Game-Shok, as is accuracy with rifles, so I can see myself stocking up on AE instead of Fed Bulk if I can confirm reliability in the SR22 and it becomes widely available again.
 
#82 ·
Went to the range today. Took off without my target/ammo bag and didn't realize it till I got to the range.

Needing some ammo, unbelievably, they had some. What they had was some Aguila "Super Extra" 40 grain sub sonic. Not wanting to go all the way back home to get my ammo, I decided to try a 50 round box for grins-n-giggles. It was also reasonably priced by today's standards at $3.50 a box.

It worked flawlessly! I burned thru the first box in no time. Got two more and burned thru them. No problems at all with them, and pretty good on accuracy.

I now have approximately 3000 rounds thu my SR-22 and it works well with this ammo. To summarize the types it likes really well: Mini-Mags, CCI Standard, Wolf, Blazers, the last box of AutoMatch worked well with no failures, and finally, now I add the Aquila.
 
#83 ·
Shortly before the ammo shortage began, I bought a brick of Aguila Interceptor ammo. I wanted to try it since I had good results from Aguila Supermax.
I shot 50rds through my SR22 today, and it was great. The Interceptor is Hot. Muzzle blast and recoil seemed hotter than CCI Velocitor. I shot it at the falling steel bowling pin silhouettes my club has, and it smacked them down good.
The SR seemed to like them. Were I to carry my SR, I think the Interceptor may be the round to use.
 
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