22 ammo

J Miller · Post by **J Miller** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 12:49 am

Our closest local WalMart finally got a shipment of the bulk boxed .22 Ammo in.
My wife was shopping and picked up two boxes. One was Winchester XpertHV 36gr Hp and the other was the typical Remington 36gr Golden Bullet HP stuff.

I'm familiar with the Rem ammo, but have never used any of the Winchester XpertHV stuff. Has anybody used this and if so how did you like it?

I don't shoot much .22 ammo so this is a new item to me.

Joe

meanc · Post by **meanc** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 1:37 am

I picked up about 4 boxes of the Xperts a few years ago. They cycled flawlessly in my levers and all went bang. I seem to recall them being pretty accurate but also a little dirty. I've actually got one of the boxes left too.

Now, I really like the Remington Golden HPs. More accurate than I need them to be, with a nice broad hollow point that expands perfect. Makes a great small critter getter.

J Miller · Post by **J Miller** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 10:35 am

meanc,

Thanks for the review. Hopefully my guns will like the stuff too.

Joe

BobM · Post by **BobM** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 1:42 pm

The Xperts shot accurately in one of my 10/22s but they were very dirty. They also shoot to point of aim, and fairly accurately, out of my Bearcat.

ceb · Post by **ceb** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 1:53 pm

I'll have to let you know Joe, my local Walmart had been out of .22s since November and got one case

of the Experts in. I bought all 6 boxes they had left. Hope my guns like em.

Hillbilly · Post by **Hillbilly** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 3:35 pm

I sub the experts when i cant find the wildcat. I have never had any problems with the winchester bulk ammo... Remington (thunderbolts anyway) always has a few duds per 500.

J

.45colt · Post by **.45colt** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 3:50 pm

It's kind of funny You ask this Joe,After working six days for years I now find my hours cut because of the economy. Yesterday I went to wally mart and bought a 550 pac of Remington. the sun was even out

so I went to the back fourty with a handfull. they shot pretty accurate but in around 75 rounds I had 5 duds. all fired when reloaded and tried again. I'm not impressed. there also seemed to be quite a different sound comeing from the gun from shot to shot .I sure don't understand this.

jnyork · Post by **jnyork** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 3:59 pm

The Remington leaves quite a bit to be desired, IMHO. Lots of misfires, some go bang while others go "pfft", hard to hit a hat at 100 meters, the Winchester is not too bad, the Federal bulk is much better in my experience, YMMV.

dennie · Post by **dennie** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 4:52 pm

I have found that most Winchester ammo works pretty well in my guns, the Remingtons are kinda iffy. I recently bought a brick of Peter's 40gr solids. They were about $9.00 for the brick. I had not seen any Peter's ammo in many years. Now I know why, they are just flat lousy! There are many rounds that sound almost like duds, some sound normal. I am only into the second box but found one where the bullet was bent so badly in the case that I could not get it to chamber! I will try to shoot up the rest, if they will work, just to make the world a little better place without them!

Guess I will stick to the Federal bulk pack. They work much better than the others, at least for me.

J Miller · Post by **J Miller** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 5:50 pm

A couple years ago when I shot a postal match over at TRF I bought several bulk packs of the Federal ammo. Some of it was the Auto match stuff. It functioned and fired with very good accuracy. Even my ancient Ruger .22 Auto liked the stuff. That is what I'd prefer to buy, but I haven't seen any at any WalMart or any other store either.

It's been quite a while since I've done any real .22 shooting. So when I do get out to test this stuff I'll know what's what.

Joe

66GTO · Post by **66GTO** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 6:22 pm

Winchester Dynapoints and Powerpoints work well for me. I haven't tried the Xperts. The Federal 510's, 711b's, and AutoMatch also work well for me. My favorite cheap ammo is the Federal 510's and the Winchester Dynapoints.

To put it bluntly, Remington rimfire ammo isn't worth a flip. It shoots dirty, when it shoots. Too many duds and low powered rounds. I hang out on RimfireCentral.com and the consensus over there is that Remington has not made any decent .22lr ammo in decades. The only Remington rimfire round that gets any respect over there is the SubSonic. It is OK accuracy wise, but I can't shoot more than 50 rounds without stopping to clean the chamber. The rounds get harder and harder to chamber because the Remington SubSonic is so dirty.

Remington's reputation got so bad at RimfireCentral.com that a Remington customer service rep from the factory began posting trying to smooth things over. He hasn't been heard from in a while and the ammo hasn't improved. It really is a shame because I like Remington centerfire ammo and the Remington Model 870 is the best pump shotgun ever made. Why they sully their reputation with substandard rimfire ammo is beyond me.

J Miller · Post by **J Miller** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 7:01 pm

Well, so many of you have had lousy results with the Remington ammo that I'll tell the wife to stick with the Winchester or Federal next time she's at Wal Mart.
Joe

MikeS. · Post by **MikeS.** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 9:15 pm

Speaking of WM I stopped in this morning all they had was 3 boxes of Federal bulk. No Remington or other .22lr. They did have some .22magnum. So I bought all 3 boxes.

meanc · Post by **meanc** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 10:39 pm

Well, I guess I've been blessed with the Goldens.

I started off with just the one box. They shot so accurately with no failures that I went out and bought the remaining 8 boxes. Luckily seven of them were the same lot number

I've gone thru almost three bricks in the past couple of weeks.

Thru two different 10/22s, Ruger MKII Target, MKIII 22/45 Target, 9422, 39a, and a Henry H001 I've had only maybe six or seven "fail to fires" thru over 1300rds and those were with the semis.

I was also using new magazines so they may have been the culprit as well.

Post by **Chuck 100 yd** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 10:52 pm

I must be lucky, I have a couple bricks of Rem. 22`s and probably have 700 rounds left. They are about 10+ years old and they work great,nary a problem.
Has the problems been with newer Rem. ammo?
I usually shoot Federal or CCI and some of the Top end Target stuff.

Don McDowell · Post by **Don McDowell** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 11:01 pm

Well count me in with the odd man out crowd. I've shot several thousand of the Remington golden bullets from the bulk packs, bought from local slobbershop, Wal Mart, and Midway. One shot kills on prairie dogs to 200 yds isn't out of the question, and the only time I've had misfires, a good cleaning of the 10-22 solved that little problem.

Post by **Ysabel Kid** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 11:41 pm

Wally-Worlds must have got the shipments all over the place here recently, as my local one finally had them in stock again after a couple months of being dry. I picked up two bricks, and will probably grab another couple tomorrow if they still have them when I am by the store. I have not shot any of these so far, but since I can't find bricks of Winchester Wildcats at K-Mart anymore, these will need to do. At $12.97/brick, they are still reasonable.

I have had the same experience others have had with the Remington Golden Bullet bulk packs - a couple-few duds every hundred rounds.

brionic · Post by **brionic** » Tue Feb 10, 2009 1:22 am

I bought some of the Federal "Champion" 510 last week. They had been out for a while. I asked the "salesman" for a brick of it.
"What?"
A carton, I told him.
"Sorry, we don't sell it by the carton."
"Excuse me?"
"We don't sell it by the carton, sir."
"OK, then will sell me ten boxes of it?"
"Yes, sir."
"Will you give me the empty carton to store the ten boxes?"
"Yes, sir."
"Will you ring me up here please?"
"Yes sir. Is this ammunition for a handgun?"
"No. Why do you ask?"
"I'd have to check your ID, sir."
"But since it's for a rifle, you don't have to check my ID?"
"No, sir. Have a nice day."

revolverjunkie · Post by **revolverjunkie** » Tue Feb 10, 2009 1:56 am

guess ill put my 2cents worth in overall i like the federal champion solids.
the remingtons i am not impressed with, misfires, rim dia. that are to small to extract from my semi pistol and my 10/22 and the erratic change in sound from shot to shot i assume meaning erratic velocity as well. also they don't group at 25 yrds with my pistol
i recently got a batch of federal bulk that had plated HP's a few ftf's and a little dirty but decent shot grouping
i havent tried the box of gold medal match 22. ive been waiting for a calm day when a remeber them

i want to see the real potential of my 10/22 after a rebarrel , new stock, and a trigger kit.
with champions i shoot about 1/4" 10 shot groups at 50yrds just wieght sorting the heavy and light ones out.
im hoping for quarter size 10 shots with the match ammo.

JohndeFresno · Post by **JohndeFresno** » Tue Feb 10, 2009 2:34 am

ceb wrote:I'll have to let you know Joe, my local Walmart had been out of .22s since November and got one case of the Experts in. I bought all 6 boxes they had left. Hope my guns like em.

That seems quite odd, since Walmart is such a huge chain and they have a computerized nationwide stocking program, as I understand it. I have read several posts here about the unavailability of .22 ammo at this store; but I have never had any trouble finding and purchasing bricks of at least one of the leading brands, any time I've been at the Walmart store in my Central California town (it is not really a large city), during the last year. And it is cheaper at Wally World than anywhere else in my town, including a couple of gun stores and a Big 5.

Post by **Hobie** » Tue Feb 10, 2009 8:15 am

It is odd that Walmart's resupply system can't keep up in some areas but I think, maybe, I know what is going on. First, places with a surfeit of ammo just don't have a lot of shooters nearby (relatively that is). Walmart does ship more to the bigger sellers but that stuff is being sucked off the shelves. I personally know 10+ people who stop by Walmart every other day to check for ammo and buy all they can afford/all they have when they find some there. For the quantities they ship, you only need so many hoarders to keep the shelves bare.

Modoc ED · Post by **Modoc ED** » Tue Feb 10, 2009 12:08 pm

My area of the country (Northeast CA, Southeast OR, NW Nevada) is one of the premier Belding Ground Squirrel shooting areas in the country.

During the hight of the shooting season for these squirrels (Mar, Apr, May,), it is nothing for a shooter to go through 5,000 rounds of .22LR a week. We have a BIG squirrel shoot over in Cedarville, CA every March and it draws hundreds of shooters from all over the country. Hundreds of thousands of .22LR will be shot during the week of the shoot.

Our local gun stores have been hoarding cases of .22LR since last shooting season so they will have them on hand to sell for this years shoot. Shooters have been hoarding .22LR too. I myself have several 5,000 round cases on hand -- all Winchester Super X Power Point 40gr HP.

It's interesting to note that I still have a couple/three cases of the above ammo on hand that I bought back in 2001 for $96.00 and change per case (10-bricks) and I have two cases of the above ammo on hand that I bought this year for $350.00 per case(10-bricks).

EDIT: The cases of .22LR that I bought in 2001 were $169.50 per case not $96.00. Sorry for the error. Still that is one heck of a difference between those cases and the ones purchased this year.

No matter what you shoot or how much you shoot it is obvious that the cost of ammo is climbing by leaps and bounds and that the availability of it is getting less and less.

Around here as soon as a shipment of .22LR comes into any store, it is bought up off the shelves as quick as the clerks can stock them.

Post by **Hobie** » Tue Feb 10, 2009 12:18 pm

So THAT'S where MY PowerPoint all goes....

J Miller · Post by **J Miller** » Tue Feb 10, 2009 12:26 pm

$350.oo for a case of .22 LR

No wonder I don't shoot the stuff.

Over on Handloads.com forum there used to be a member that hunted ground squirrels in AZ with a 45-70. He said it did right well on them.

Joe

ceb · Post by **ceb** » Tue Feb 10, 2009 3:11 pm

I don't understand about Walmart either, but I've known one of the clerks that work sporting goods for over 20yrs. She's the one that told me they had only gotten the one case in since November. Course I haven't checked in a couple of weeks. Need to though, I'm down to about ......??? bricks!!

AJMD429 · Post by **AJMD429** » Tue Feb 10, 2009 9:46 pm

brionic wrote:I bought some of the Federal "Champion" 510 last week. They had been out for a while. I asked the "salesman" for a brick of it.
"What?"
A carton, I told him.
"Sorry, we don't sell it by the carton."
"Excuse me?"
"We don't sell it by the carton, sir."
"OK, then will sell me ten boxes of it?"
"Yes, sir."
"Will you give me the empty carton to store the ten boxes?"
"Yes, sir."
"Will you ring me up here please?"
"Yes sir. Is this ammunition for a handgun?"
"No. Why do you ask?"
"I'd have to check your ID, sir."
"But since it's for a rifle, you don't have to check my ID?"
"No, sir. Have a nice day."

+1 (...er, maybe +2, or 3...!

)

kimwcook · Post by **kimwcook** » Tue Feb 10, 2009 11:07 pm

brionic wrote:I bought some of the Federal "Champion" 510 last week. They had been out for a while. I asked the "salesman" for a brick of it.
"What?"
A carton, I told him.
"Sorry, we don't sell it by the carton."
"Excuse me?"
"We don't sell it by the carton, sir."
"OK, then will sell me ten boxes of it?"
"Yes, sir."
"Will you give me the empty carton to store the ten boxes?"
"Yes, sir."
"Will you ring me up here please?"
"Yes sir. Is this ammunition for a handgun?"
"No. Why do you ask?"
"I'd have to check your ID, sir."
"But since it's for a rifle, you don't have to check my ID?"
"No, sir. Have a nice day."

Sure makes sense to me. Yeah, right.

awp101 · Post by **awp101** » Wed Feb 11, 2009 9:53 pm

Modoc ED wrote:I have two cases of the above ammo on hand that I bought this year for $350.00 per case(10-bricks).

I can buy a case of 5.45x39 for that!

Went by Wal-Mart today and they had the Federal Target ammo for $15/325. I let them keep it...

otteray · Post by **otteray** » Wed Feb 11, 2009 10:37 pm

Funny thing about .22s; many are finicky about what they are fed.
Both my Marlin and Glenfield semiautos prefer Winchester, Blazer or Federal and can't seem to digest Remington of any type.
Now my Model 39 levergun, is happy with any brand.
Go figure.

awp101 · Post by **awp101** » Wed Feb 11, 2009 11:07 pm

otteray wrote:Funny thing about .22s; many are finicky about what they are fed.

Very true. I stick with Remington because even with the inconsistencies I get better results if that makes sense.

None of mine liked Federal or Winchester, of course if I'd tried more than one bulk pack of each I might have seen a difference.

Then there was the Russian "target ammo" I bought one time, Vostok IIRC. It was so bad I couldn't get 3 out of every 5 rounds to chamber in a RUSSIAN BUILT rifle!

Alan Wood · Post by **Alan Wood** » Thu Feb 12, 2009 3:25 am

otteray wrote:Funny thing about .22s; many are finicky about what they are fed.
Both my Marlin and Glenfield semiautos prefer Winchester, Blazer or Federal and can't seem to digest Remington of any type.
Now my Model 39 levergun, is happy with any brand.
Go figure.

Got an example of how true that is in high school in Kalifornia no less. Lets see 28 years ago now... Now that cain't be I aint that old or er I guess I am aren't I. Well anyway the school had a smallbore shotting team and the captain the first two years was truely world class. She went to the colorado springs Olympic training center and made the olympic team but Reagan boycotted the Olympics over Afgahnistan. Anyway she had the Ahnshutz (spelling?) you would expect and mentioned seriously that at her level they had a rough time getting amunition. When there supply ran out they would go out and buy a 50 rd box of every lot of Ely 10x they could get there hands on shoot it and then when the found one to there liking would by every case of that lot they could lay there hands on!

I was never even close to her level best I ever did in offhand had the coach scratchin his head. The first 5 looked like I had used a drill press and center finder. The last 5 looked like I had done that then moved it the exact same distance the same direction. He thought I was shooting a different pattern over the target and it looked like precise dead bull then precise maggie, precise dead bull precise maggie... Oh yeah that was offhand. I really need to get a decent airgun and see what I can do these days. I begin to wonder if my very late 94ae in 44 mag has a serious accuracy issue. When I tried a friends bolt action 22-250 on a bipod I can place the bullet exactly where I want it on the second shot without touching the scope. My 94 on the other hand if every shot is on paper at the same distance (100 yards) I am indeed pleased.

JustaJeepGuy · Post by **JustaJeepGuy** » Thu Feb 12, 2009 2:39 pm

I don't recall Reagan boycotting any Olympics. I have a Taurus Mod. 94 that works best with Remington's original Thunderbolts--the truncated-cone type. As soon as I found the ammo it likes, Remington stopped making them because they wouldn't feed in Ruger 10/22s, or so I heard. I was very lucky a few years back and found four bricks of the originals at a gun show. I've shot maybe 75 of them since then. I need to go shooting more....

Modoc ED · Post by **Modoc ED** » Thu Feb 12, 2009 2:46 pm

J Miller wrote:$350.oo for a case of .22 LR No wonder I don't shoot the stuff.

Joe

Actually, at the price of ammo today, $350.00 for a case (10-bricks/5,000 rounds) of .22LR ammo isn't too bad especially since it is Winchester Super X Power Point 40gr HP ammo. That works out to .07¢ a round which tain't too dang bad. At least that's my .02¢

JustaJeepGuy · Post by **JustaJeepGuy** » Thu Feb 12, 2009 2:50 pm

That's $35.00 a brick. About 3 times what it should (used to) cost. WAY too much for me.

Modoc ED · Post by **Modoc ED** » Thu Feb 12, 2009 2:55 pm

JustaJeepGuy wrote:That's $35.00 a brick. About 3 times what it should (used to) cost. WAY too much for me.

That's what I said in my first post above BUT if ya wann play ya gotta pay and if you want to play with that particular ammo that's what it costs. It is going up as I type this and I'd bet that in the next 6-months it'll be up to $40.00 - $45.00 a brick or more.

JustaJeepGuy · Post by **JustaJeepGuy** » Thu Feb 12, 2009 2:56 pm

I ran out of money long ago--the question is merely academic for me.

O.S.O.K. · Post by **O.S.O.K.** » Thu Feb 12, 2009 2:58 pm

The wally world in our town is selling the "new" 333 count Winchester Expert packs for $10 and change - so, $30 for 1,000, or $15/500. That's about $4 more than it was a year ago. But, I figure its not going to be going down, so I've been buying some every few weeks - three boxes at time and storing them. Have about 9000 rounds total saved up so far.

The way I look at it, .22LR might be my primary target ammo in the coming years... even handloading centerfire ammo is getting rediculous...

J Miller · Post by **J Miller** » Thu Feb 12, 2009 2:59 pm

What JustaJeepGuy said. I know the Winchester stuff is good, but I am not gonna pay that much for a 500 round brick. I'll buy the cheap(er) stuff first and for as long as I can.

Joe

J Miller · Post by **J Miller** » Thu Feb 12, 2009 3:04 pm

O.S.O.K. wrote:The wally world in our town is selling the "new" 333 count Winchester Expert packs for $10 and change - so, $30 for 1,000, or $15/500. That's about $4 more than it was a year ago. But, I figure its not going to be going down, so I've been buying some every few weeks - three boxes at time and storing them. Have about 9000 rounds total saved up so far.

The way I look at it, .22LR might be my primary target ammo in the coming years... even handloading centerfire ammo is getting rediculous...

I've finally convinced my wife to stop at the ammo counter every time she shops at Wal Mart and buy at least one bulk box of ammo. It took me quite a while to do it.
But the news we've been getting has helped me convince her. I'm not sure how much .22 ammo I have, but it's not enough. I don't think target shooting is what it will be used for in the future.
And I believe the prices will escalate to the point very few can afford it. Those who have stocked up will be miles ahead of those who didn't.

As for hand loading center fire ammo, I'm afraid that will be ending in the near future as well. And it won't be the cost factor that ends it.

Joe

66GTO · Post by **66GTO** » Thu Feb 12, 2009 9:03 pm

awp101 wrote:
otteray wrote: None of mine liked Federal or Winchester, of course if I'd tried more than one bulk pack of each I might have seen a difference.

The Federal 550 pack bulk is not very good ammo for me either. However, if you haven't tried the Federal 510 (the blue box "Champion"), you should. I have never heard of anyone who was not pleased with it for the price. The last that I bought at my local WM was $1.47 a box of 50. Academy Sports also carries it at a good price by the brick. It is much better ammo than the bulk box Federal at about the same price. Try it, I'll bet you like it.

major · Post by **major** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 9:22 am

found bricks of winchester eXpert 22lr 36 grain hollow point for 13.99 a brick at wallyworld bought 4 bricks.

J Miller · Post by **J Miller** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 11:12 am

major wrote:found bricks of winchester eXpert 22lr 36 grain hollow point for 13.99 a brick at wallyworld bought 4 bricks.

Those and the R-P hollow points are what the locals here got in . We've picked up three boxes so far with more to come.

I'm thinking we should get another .22 Rifle. Maybe a Marlin 60 or something similar.
I'd really like to find an early Rossi pump w/o the safety widget.

Joe

AJMD429 · Post by **AJMD429** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 1:59 pm

J Miller wrote: Over on Handloads.com forum there used to be a member that hunted ground squirrels in AZ with a 45-70. He said it did right well on them.
Joe

I use a semi-automatic 10/22, but my .45-70 is lever action, and only holds four rounds...
What does he intend to do if he just wounds one, or the other ground squirrels rush him after he shoots their friend...?

Not to 'dis' the venerable old .45-70, but unless he's hot-rodding it in a Ruger No.1, I think he'd be way better off with one of the new short magnums in .338 (or perhaps 7mm, as long as he uses the Nosler partition bullets or something similar).

It simply isn't ethical to wound game, even ground squirrels.

awp101 · Post by **awp101** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 2:16 pm

AJMD429 wrote:
I use a semi-automatic 10/22, but my .45-70 is lever action, and only holds four rounds...
What does he intend to do if he just wounds one, or the other ground squirrels rush him after he shoots their friend...?

Keep a .45-70 shotshell handy?