Fed 510

RC don't you know that you shouldn't say that you did not have trouble with Remington Golden HP bulk pack cartridges ??? FlysAlot and IHMSA80X80 will not allow you into the "I HATE REMINGTON AMMO CLUB ". The count down starts now. Just saying.

 

On average I've had much more problems with Remington ammo mainly with duds and inconsistent loadings. But because this rifle will run on Remington and CCI SV ammo, I know it's the Federal ammo that's my problem. I feel as the ammo companies have merged, production quality has suffered. I've even had a bad batch of Mini mag hollow points that had a very high standard deviation but it was still reliable in semi autos. I've used a lot of Winchester Wild Cats in the past and while greasy and dirty, they were usually very reliable. I will get around to trying some different ammo in this rifle now that I've worked out some of the problems and it has had a chance to break in a bit.

Sadly, the U.S. doesn't produce the best 22 ammo anymore. While I have never had a bad batch of Winchester Super X, I've seen some defective promotional ammo from Winchester. Aguila from Mexico and Armscore from the Phillipines has put out some outstanding ammo in the last 20 years and we are seeing a lot of ammo from Europe pour into the U.S. that puts our ammo to shame. rc

 

... a lot of ammo from Europe pour into the U.S. that puts our ammo to shame. rc

CCI is still very highly regarded by the Europeans.

 

Sad.
I still have a brick of Power-flites and another of Lightenings in my inventory from the 70's.
I had always found them preferable to Winchester Wildcats (the competition) in that I always found more "cock-eyed" bullets per box of Wildcats. Skewed Federals were, in those days, very rare.

 

rc,
Would you mind clarifying your post a little for me? You said around 2006 or 2008 you stocked up on a few cases of "this" staple. In the next paragraph, you said you tested your Kidd build with "this" and a few other types of ammo with disappointing results. I,like you, purchased several pre-Obama cases when Walmart would order them for me and have had no problem with them, although I use the 510 as a plinking rather than a target ammo. Were you referring to the old or the new 510? Thanks, Ben

 

I have some not so good lots of Mini Mag HP's too that shoot bigger groups than usual. Even had CCI SV duds. I am seeing this across the board with most of the domestic ammo manufactured from 2014 to present. Bulk and cheaper ammo (like 510) have suffered the most. Imported ammo remains pretty much unchanged.
That's what happens whey they produce more to try to keep up with demand. I suspect now that the shelves are full and no one is running to grab all the 22LR they can find, they will start slowing down production and the quality and consistency of ammo might get a little better, I am hoping.

 

federal 510

I've used CCI SV in all rifles and handguns for years, but recently became curious about a few other ammos and tried them to see if I was missing anything. One I tried was Federal 510 and results were surprising.

I bench tested handguns at 25 yards and rifles at 50 and 100 yards. No tuned, modified, or target guns were used. I only fired a few ten-shot groups, but the 510 equaled or slightly exceeded CCI SV accuracy in several handguns (two S&Ws, a K-22 and an M63, and a Colt Diamondback) and one of the two rifles (Ruger bolt-action vs. a reproduction Win. 52.)

Granted, I have more groups to fire before I can say anything conclusive, but initial results were certainly far better than expected.

 

Yes, you can absolutely have some really great groups with even low end ammo, especially the 510. I used to get decent groups with 510 (and inexpensive Blazer). What I was saying is that I believe the variation between lots has been greater the last few years than before. It's the inconsistency I think we are talking about. Not that 510 is not capable of shooting well in some guns. At least that's what I think the OP is implying, not sure, but that's what I was stating.

 

Pete this is stuff that I picked up right when Walmart hiked prices from 98 Cents a box to 1.25 a box. I have ammo from several AW and BW lot #s purchased around the same time. I'm not sure of the exact year of production. So no, it's not 2017 production and it feeds and fires fine in bolt guns but the trouble I've had with it recently in my Kidd 10/22 build has shaken my confidence in Federal 510 and I'm not inclined to buy any more in the future when there are better products available that a similarly priced. rc

 

I've been shooting some new 510 and Blazer stuff in two 455s, a 452, and an RAR Predator, and while I've had ONE 510 fail to fire, the Blazers have been pretty good. For accuracy's sake, they both do quite well, in fact. Maybe I'm lucky with my lots, I hope not, but they both seem to shoot quite well in those four rifles.

I haven't had any issues with one of two SR-22 pistols, and an S&W M&P 22C, either. The wife's little purple SR-22 will sometimes have a failure to fire with an assortment of ammo, so I think it's the gun and not the ammo, in its case. I have several other rimfires collecting dust, but have had no issues with them regarding these loads. I just enjoy those rifles more than the autoloaders, and Dad's old Stevens doesn't work right with anything in the past 30 years, it's just OLD and worn out.

 

More Testing is in order.............

I've pulled out a few 10/22s I've collected and will test them with 510 from the same lots that have given me trouble to see if the malfunctions are persistent in several 10/22s. I'll record stoppages and then check head space on each and post the results here. Stay tuned, this should be interesting.

 

And the Results are In

Information is Year of Manufacture Head Space Jams from Lot # AW424 and BW424 and special features.
1973 0.048 0/20 2/20 Light Wear, Fairly Smooth Guide Rod
1990 0.045 0/20 0/20 Well Worn, Polished Hammer
2004 0.045 7/40 8/40 Kidd Barrel Rough Receiver
2006 0.048 4/20 3/20 PC Hammer/Sear, Fairly smooth inside
2007 0.044 1/20 3/20 Polished Factory Hammer Face
AMT 0.045 0/20 0/20 GM Barrel, PC Hammer, Sear, Handle

Total Jams in 6 rifles was 28 out of 280 which is an average of about 10% but in the well worn 1990 carbine there were no malfunctions out of 40 rounds while in my 2004 Stainless 10/22 Kidd Build with a rough internal receiver the failure rate was much higher than average, possibly due to the guide rod and spring which will be replaced shortly. Headspace did not seem to be the main issue in terms of reliability. 0% were duds, all went boom. The Kidd barrel is the only one with a compensator and I'm not sure if that's affecting function. Of the jams there were failures to feed and stovepipe jams and the sound of the rounds was inconsistent even when the guns didn't jam. The most worn out rifle was the most reliable likely due to the spring being the most worn out/lightest and the guide rod being highly polished from wear. The second highest malfunction rate was in a low round count standard camo carbine from 2006 with head space on the larger end of the spectrum. From that gun, some rounds fell way off target at about 50 yards.

So in conclusion how bad is the Federal 510 I tested? Well, it depends on a few factors. One of these is your accuracy expectation. Most likely you won't win any matches with it but it's fine for training. in my green mountain AMT build it's actually quite good. How reliable will it function in a semi auto? Well it depends on how smoothly your gun runs, the strength of your springs and chamber/bolt dimensions. Something like a Remington 552 or Winchester 190 would run this ammo because they are calibrated to run shorts so even a low powered LR round would eject. My GM barrel will not chamber stingers and runs the 510 remarkably well. But in my Kidd Build which will chamber stingers and has a compensator I was getting horrible consistency with this ammo. Does that mean GM builds a better barrel than Kidd? No, just different with strengths and weaknesses. My GM barrel kaboomed a lot of rounds while I was breaking it in until I chamfered the opening for the chamber. The Kidd barrel has actually been quite trouble free except for an extremely tight installation that I would be afraid to remove it without a barrel press. Other ammo runs fine in but it also has more oomph! rc

 

Works great as a plinker ammo with no fail to perform. Beats the heck out of Remington Golden gopher bullets. When they fail to work you gopher the 510 brick.

 

I have a Ruger 77/22 that I was very disappointed in as far as accuracy went. Nothing shot well in it. I had pretty much given up on it, until I tried some 510 ammunition years ago. It was like someone had flipped a switch ! I wouldn't enter the rifle in a shooting match, but I can now hit squirrel heads at 25 yards. I recently bought another brick, we'll see if thing's change.

 

I have 4k rounds of the blue box Champion 510, and the red / black Lightning, from about 2009-12. All bought at Welfare Wally's. What got shot before it made "stash" status did well, even in my 10/22 Sporter, so I suppose the rest will be good at some date in the future.

 

Update

I tried more of the same lot of 510 in my 10/22 kidd build this time with a kid rod/spring/bolt handle installed. While the number of jams was reduced to just a couple in 50 rounds, I still got a short stroke jam and a couple failures to feed. However the same ammo in my new buckmark have functioned perfectly. Go figure.

 

Update testing.

I am trying to test all the lots of Federal 510 ammo I have to see which ones to shoot up and which ones to keep longer term. I tried 4 boxes of ammo from 4 different lots in a low round count standard ruger carbine with power custom hammer and sear. I polished the operating rod last night and this one is much smoother than the original Kidd build that was giving me fits. This particular 10/22 is reliable with good lots of high speed ammo. With all 4 boxes of 510 blue box tested I got at least 1 jam as a failure to feed or stovepipe with a maximum of 3 jams per 50 rounds in my worst lot. That is the same lot that had the worst performance in my kidd build. None of the lots was completely reliable in this 10/22. I believe I purchased these boxers right around the time when Federal Auto match was coming to market. In 1998 I did testing with Federal Lightning and some lots would shoot honest 1/2 inch groups at 50 yards. None of this Federal champion would come even close to that and many groups had shots inches from the group. I purchased a couple of bricks of current American Eagle 40 grain solids and when I tested it last week I was disappointed to get some jams with that stuff too in a 10/22. rc

 

IMO All usa makers of 22 rf need to up thrir game....usa ammo is junky when compared to import smmo.

Save the excuses.....it is shameful.

CCI is the only manufacturer thst can hold their head up high

 

Stuff is junk!!! I put it in the doomsday pile

 

Old and new 510 shoots fine in my Win 74 semi auto. Same in my bolts and revolvers. Probably shot at least 10 bricks of blue and black and can't remember ever having a dud or malfunction with 510. It's my plinking ammo but groups better than the other cheap stuff I've shot.

 

I shot these 2 5 shot groups the other day at 25 yards with some Federal 510 in my Remington 541T i bought last year at Academy. Federal 510 has been my favorite ammo since the late 70s

 

I’ve had great luck with Ferdersl 510 also .
Actually had some pretty crappy CCI stuff at times .