All of them.
Best results are obtained with benchrest quality 22lr.

link to ammunition test results at 100 yards in a tunnel

https://www.rimfirecentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1212529

 

I like Tac-22 OH. Groups well and the generous slathering of lubricant keeps my hands soft and supple

Frank the Plinker

 

For consistent results you'd want to use subsonic ammo like Wolf Match (or Match Extra), Lupua center-X, Eley Tenex.

The downside being their expensive. But consistant, closer groups, less chances of a flyer etc.

CCI SV is OK but not as consistent

 

My cz 457 vpt mtr hated the eley tenex I tried last weekend. At least the box I had to try. Mine likes cci sv, eley club and wolf match.

 

I run Center-X in my Anschutz 1761, Eley Semiautomatic Bench Rest Precision in the Kidd Super Grade, and RWS Rifle Target in everything else.

 

My kidd barrel shot the Eley semi auto very well and the RWS TR shot best in my 457...go figure

 

...and the final answer is....

For best results, match grade standard velocity ammunition (multiple lots) tested for YOUR rifle.

 

Don't let anyone tell you that ammo that is good at 50 yards will fall apart at longer ranges and it might be good at 100 yards but not at 50 yards. Bullets don't just "go to sleep" as the range gets longer.

This is a very good point that's well worth keeping in mind. Compared to ammo that doesn't shoot as well at shorter distances, ammo that shoots better at 50 is more likely to shoot well at 100. It holds for greater distances as well.

As distance increases, it becomes more challenging to determine the specific causes of group size variation between different ammos. Is it the wind? MV variation? Other ammo-related reasons? Shooter-related error? All of these problems can be compounded as distance grows. Not knowing exactly why one ammo performed as it did can make performance evaluation at long distances tricky.

 

Last night I used Lapua Center-X for a 400-30x on the NRA A25 target.

12-15mph wind from 9 o'clock, but not shifting directions.

Shot my 1964ish Winchester 52D with Lyman 15x Super Target Spot.

 

Eley EPS variants and the top lines of Lapua are the consistent winners for any serious form of target shooting. Sometimes RWS will come close. It has been my observation that as with most things precision follows price. You can good groups put of mid priced ammo, but not consistently.

 

However!

What sort of target shooting are you wanting to do? There are quite a few very good mid priced rounds that are fine for informal shooting that wouldn't get you anywhere in real competition. The best stuff has gotten extremely expensive.

 

What sort of target shooting are you wanting to do? There are quite a few very good mid priced rounds that are fine for informal shooting that wouldn't get you anywhere in real competition. The best stuff has gotten extremely expensive.

100yards just hit 1" dots. 50yards 10 ring benchrest shooting

 

Wind will turn a $25 box of ammo into a $2 box of ammo. Go with the euro ammo , wolf sks , eley, lapua, RWs from bottom of the line to top of the line it can be fantastic if there is no wind.

Imho American Ammo, is never fantastic. However it is cheaper, so when it’s windy , i shoot American Ammo

 

Springer ain't wrong.
Any test results produced outdoors has to be looked at with an understanding
that the results need to be compared to the conditions they were produced under.
That also applies to the setup used and the skills of the trigger puller.

Expecting a box stock 10/22 to produce the same results as a custom built bench rifle
is not something that is going to happen. Results produced off an old wood bench and bipod
are unlikely to be as good as those shot from a custom mechanical one-piece rest atop a concrete bench.

Reliable ammo testing should be done indoors, from a fixture, across a chronograph,
with at least 50 rounds sent, in order to provide a large enough sample to prevent statistical anomalies.

 

Impressive!

That's really hammering them in there!

What rifle did you use?

 

That's some fine shooting sir! Sub MOA at 200 meters is no small feat.

Frank

 

I have two cz 457 rifles. One is a training and the other one a varmint precision trainer mtr in the orange manners stock. I have tested the same lots of ammo thru both and I have yet to find a lot of ammo that shoots in both rifles. Eley club shoots pretty good in the mtr but double the group size in the trainer. the trainer will shoot fed gold medal under .5 at 50 yards but the mtr will give almost a double sized group. Fed HV gold medal is great from the mtr and horrible from the trainer. All groups were shot from the same box of ammo back to back. Based off my experience I dont believe that a good lot of ammo out of one gun means it will be good in all guns. MKnarr you say as long as you have a good barrel and bedding in 5 rifles a good lot of ammo will perform the same in all 5. With my two rifles if I am getting very tight groups with some types of ammo wouldnt you say they have a good barrel and bedding is good? If so then they should be shooting the different types of ammo consistently based on your theory and they dont even come close to it. What are our thoughts on my experience?

 

Barrels -- or more specifically, their bores -- can be different and yet shoot as well as others.

Some good lots will shoot well in many good barrels. There's nothing to say that a lot that shoots well in one good barrel will shoot well in all of them.

 

I always end up with questions during these "like" discussions.

Things like....

What else was different besides the rifle?

Was the testing done indoors?

If not, did conditions change and affect trajectories?

Was turbulence a factor?

Did the shooter get impatient?

Were wind flags used?

Was a chronograph out front to monitor muzzle velocities?

What was the sample size for each test?

Small samples skew conclusions, badly.

Give me well made cartridges and uniform muzzle velocities,
that ammo will produce good results from all my rifles.
Variations in results are due to differences in cartridge quality, conditions and my ability to judge wind.
Not rifle to rifle affinities for specific brands.

Don't make the mistake of assuming all the cartridges are identical.
Not even those from the same case, brick or box. They aren't.
Easily proven by checking appearance, dimensions, weight and muzzle velocity.
Results on paper are pretty good indicators, also.

 

MTVH, I think anyone who shoots long enough will have an experience like yours. The one that sticks out in my mind was a BRNO 4 I ordered from Jerry's in the mid 1990s. Kind of a lot of money for a rifle made in 1957, but it looked neat. I was sure I'd bought a piece of junk when the Blazer I had with me was making pie plate sized groups at 25 yards. It wasn't until I put some Thunderbolt (not exactly premium stuff) through it on a subsequent trip that it impressed me.

Unless every lot of ammunition will rank in exactly the same order relative to all other ammunition across all rifles, the rifle is a variable in accuracy. Where we know that the rifle is a variable, finding what your rifle likes, i.e. finding where the variable of your rifle and ammunition gives a better result than other combinations may produce, isn't cryptic.

That you can find variability within a lot or brick or box doesn't mean that a rifle owner can't offer insight into which cartridges give better or worse results in a particular rifle. That there are variables other than the rifle should not suggest that the rifle isn't a variable.

 

I have never used rimfires for anything other than pest control or plinking until I recently bought my two cz 457. So I don’t have a stockpile of ammo. It kinda sucks that I can’t go buy some different types of ammo local to test then buy larger quantities of what shoots good. So I have been trying to soak up as much info on types of ammo that routinely perform for most people. I bought a box of eley tenex based on performance from some eley club I tried. My mtr gave some of the worst groups I have seen from it so far. I was a little disappointed and even more frustrating is the fact that I could buy a couple other lots and get the best performance from one of them. Not having any higher quality ammo local makes it tough to cherry pick top lots. My mtr does shoot most of what I have tried reasonably well with 4 or 5 types being very accurate. My trainer on the other hand has only one ammo that it shoots extremely accurate from the types I tried. When you order online do you request specific lot numbers that are known to shoot good in your rifles? I don’t ever see lot numbers listed when looking online.

 

My experience has been, the best of my rifles shoot the best groups with any ammo compared to the groups shot with the same ammo from lesser guns. And that better ammo shoots better in all my guns than the crappy ammo.

Unless it’s windy, then the gun or the ammo dont make much of a difference.

 

Purchasing by lot number is possible through a few suppliers.
Killoughs is one, I believe GoodShootingInc is another.


Something that makes me disagree with the "likes" scenario
is that cartridge irregularities can not be repaired by chambering them in a different rifle.
Velocity spread creates vertical dispersion. It is not a variable that can be fixed by the rifle.
Damage to the bullet heel or drive bands will cause strays no matter which rifle it's fired from.
Yes, you can use low quality ammo at short range and produce small groups.
But push that cheap stuff past 30 yards and those cartridge defects show up.
Cartridge quality determines results, not the name on the label.

 

Jaia, I'm not writing this to give you a rash. We intermittently discuss this and it is alwys good natured.

Something that makes me disagree with the "likes" scenario
is that cartridge irregularities can not be repaired by chambering them in a different rifle.
Velocity spread creates vertical dispersion. It is not a variable that can be fixed by the rifle.
Damage to the bullet heel or drive bands will cause strays no matter which rifle it's fired from.
Yes, you can use low quality ammo at short range and produce small groups.
But push that cheap stuff past 30 yards and those cartridge defects show up.
Cartridge quality determines results, not the name on the label.

Nothing in the text that follows your first line undermines the idea that a rifle can "like" a particular ammunition relative to other ammunition; they can't be the reason you disagree with the notion of a rifle liking a sort of ammunition.

All 22lr cartridges have irregularities, and you would hope that the priciest has small irregularities. That doesn't mean that the rifle from which it is shot isn't a variable. Lapua Pistol King may have very minor irregularities, many fewer than Armscor 22 magnum. Yet that Lapua may group very poorly from a 22 magnum barrel. While an extreme example, this shows the way that fit influences accuracy.

That Lapua might have very consistent velocity, but if not well fit to the barrel, the group will be large enough that you may not have modest vertical variation.

I'd offer an analogy. My foot is very comfortable in a size 13 Wolverine navy oxford that used to be a service shoe. It isn't an expensive or finely made shoe, but it's a better match for the comfort of my foot than a size 10 Allen Edmonds.

My small experience with reloading 45ACP indicates that the length of brass and position of the bullet influence how accurate that ammunition will be in a specific pistol. Make every cartridge exactly the same, but get those dimensions wrong, and you won't get the desired accuracy.

 

Trying to find certain lots (lot numbers) of match ammo can be a challenge. Consider that the top varieties of match ammo are produced in relatively small quantities per lot -- usually no more than five to eight cases or 25,000 to 40,000 rounds. There's not a great quantity of any one lot to go to the various ammo dealers. One dealer can get all the ammo of one lot or no more than a few cases.

Almost invariably, the most desirable or sought after lots are sold by the case and don't stay long in the dealer's warehouse.

 

I think at 100 yards conditions matter more than anything else.
These targets were shot consecutively, but conditions were changing. The first target was with a cold clean bore (and a cold shooter) with wind swirling 4-6 mph. The second target it had started raining and the wind flags were moving a lot less. The first two were shot with CenterX that I chose from the Lapua testing center. The second target was my best ever 100 yard 6x5. At this point I had bested my many, many attempts at the 100 6x5 and it was raining. I decided to try some Standard Plus that I knew shot good at 50 (but not as good as this Center x) since I had another target out.

By the third target it was raining moderate to heavy, but it was coming straight down and the wind flags were lifeless. I couldn’t believe it. The wind did more for me at 100 yds than the ammo testing.

If the targets look like they’ve never been wet it’s because they were printed on card stock. I have a video, but can’t seem to post it here.
CZ 452 American

 

I agree with you zukiphile. Eley tenex should be a very good consistent ammo yet it fails miserably in my mtr and is out shot by much cheaper less consistent ammo in that rifle. So just quality consistent ammo is not the only factor. Just to add to that eley club gives me consistent groups under .5 @ 50 ds in my mtr. cci sv gives me consistent groups under .5 @ 50yds in m mtr. Wolf match consistently gives me under .5 @ 50 yds in my mtr. Tenex consistently gives me over 1.0 at 50 yds in my mtr. Thats quite the difference between tenex and the other three. To answer another question that will surely pop up yes they are all shot off a bipod with rear bag and I can shoot groups of any of the three performers switch to tenex and the groups fall apart then switch back to one of the other three and be right back into tight groups. So no I am not getting tired or changing shooting rest or shooting conditions with the tenex to create bad groups. I can mix and match and switch around between the four ammo and the results repeat regardless of whats shot first or last or how many times I shoot tenex trying to get better groups.

 

No complaints from my side zuk and MTVH.
I prefer the discussion and the opposing points of view.
My comments are solely based on my results and my rifles.
That means limited to a couple of CZ 455's and a couple of Marlin 60's.
Admittedly after purchasing 9 different 455 barrels in 3 different calibers
and everything from factory stocks to conglomerated scrap wood barrel blocks,
it does provide for a range of barrel quality, mounting and calibers
to provide a baseline for my conclusions and observations.
It's a shame I can't spend a day with y'alls rifles to see how they react to different ammo.

And I sure would like an indoor 200 yard range...

 

And I sure would like an indoor 200 yard range...

I'd settle for a 50 yard indoor range. I'm a simple fellow with simple needs.

A few years ago I got lost driving around inside an old tank plant. I'd love to see your array of 200 yard results shot inside one of those. Maybe make your UPS guy hold the targets himself.

So just quality consistent ammo is not the only factor.

I've a Ruger P345; it's a 45ACP, and I've brother with a Dillon (650?) press. A P345 isn't a pistol you get to impress anyone. My brother did whatever he does to measure the overall length that would put the bullet just touching the lands of the rifling, and then he put together test lots to see what worked best. When he had the best solution, he made a bunch of it. That inexpensive pistol will put a magazine into just a couple inches at 60 yards with me holding it, and it is gentler than my 9mm Sigs.

What sets 22lr apart is that you are going to shoot whatever the manufacturer puts in the box. Except for those new long range kits, 22lr isn't a reloader's cartridge. Isn't it possible that one rifle's barrel has an ideal fit with Federal Automatch, and another rifle has an idea fit with Aguila SV? Is it possible that Tenex is a more consistent round in its dimensions and powder charge than CCI SV, but those dimensions aren't as well suited to your MTR?

If the answer is "yes", it seems reasonable to conclude that your MTR doesn't "like" Tenex.