Backlighting
Single-Sixer
- Joined
- Jun 9, 2012
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Paul Harrell tests various 22lr ammo with several different guns. A good watch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiMNASuw69U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiMNASuw69U
How reliable is 22lr ammo?
- Thread starter Backlighting
- Start date
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I agree with snake on that. No expert by any measure, but had plenty of misfires with
22s. Thinking about it I do not believe I have ever had a center fire failure. ps
22s. Thinking about it I do not believe I have ever had a center fire failure. ps
Enigma
Hunter
powder smoke said:
I have; more than once.
I've probably shot that many .38s, 9mms, and .45ACPs, including handloads. I have a vague memory of one dud .38 round many many years ago (M41 military ball). I have one 1911 slide with a misdrilled firing pin hole that gives primer strikes noticeably off-center, and I never even had a misfire with THAT stupid gun.gunzo said:
OTOH, I'd had dud rates of one to two percent with some lots/brands of .22LR, and have left the range with five or six duds from a single session--each one having been struck in at least two different places.
About 30 years ago I shot up a bunch of imported (Argentine) .22LR that was giving misfires of up to 50% in some guns. I eventually found a gun that would set 90% or so of it off, so shot it all up, threw out the duds, and NEVER bought that brand again.
8 rounds in a revolver, my wife is fine. I assure you, she can pull the trigger faster on her LCR than she could ever clear a malfunctioning semi auto of any type.
Because of how it is designed and manufactured, rimfire will ALWAYS have a greater failure 'potential' than centerfire. If we are talking going plinking or range shooting? Even those nasty Remington Thunderduds are just fine, dirty shooting but who cares? I've found CCI ammo to have very good performance.
If we are talking self-defense ammo, as in use it to possibly save MY life? Rimfire ammo does not meet MY personal threshold for 'acceptable' failure potential and I will always select centerfire ammo for that task.
If we are talking self-defense ammo, as in use it to possibly save MY life? Rimfire ammo does not meet MY personal threshold for 'acceptable' failure potential and I will always select centerfire ammo for that task.
I dunno what is used or where some get their 22 ammo, but I have found failures very rare, and see no reason for and experienced no more than any self contained ammunition. Got my first 22 in '66.
When I get a new 22 lr, I buy 2 boxes of all the 22 lr ammo I can find, cheap, premium, match, standard velocity, high/hyper velocity, subsonic, hunting, imported, whatever, to find what ammo my gun likes the best. I have had misfires, poor performance and dirty shooting only with Remington rimfire ammo. "Golden was OK, so-so, but Viper gave 10%-20% failures to fire and failures to feed in 4, 22s (even in a Remington rifle).
How reliable? I have mostly shot .22lr in bolt action high dollar match rifles and never had a failure with any SV match ammo. Unknown number of rounds, likely in the 10s of thousand. Never seen a failure on any range at any match,but that could have happened. A friend once told me he thought the Eley tenex he was using one day was bad. I think he had a bad day, not the ammo.
When shooting pinking ammo through a plinker and buying the least cost ammo available. Yeah I have had failure to fire in about 8 different rifles and 1 handgun from time to time. Never really knew if it was the gun, ammo or magazines. I suspect at times it was a combination of the 3.
When shooting pinking ammo through a plinker and buying the least cost ammo available. Yeah I have had failure to fire in about 8 different rifles and 1 handgun from time to time. Never really knew if it was the gun, ammo or magazines. I suspect at times it was a combination of the 3.
Bucks Owin
Hunter
I wouldn't be surprised that the old stuff isn't more reliable than recent manufacture... :shock:
I can't but wonder if this isn't falacious statistics. I know folks that go through 10,000 to 50,000 rounds of 22lr a year, but I know few folks who go through 1,000 rounds of center fire a year. The folks who shoot a lot of center fire just clear the miss fire and go on, particularly if courses or competition. At least one train fire course loads a dummy round to see how it gets handled, and I was on one course where they loaded a blank (intended to be on a can't miss target).
I don't doubt 22lr is less reliable than center fire but I question how much. Particularly if you buy quality ammo. (Reloaded 22lr is pretty unreliable and falls into the singing dog category!)
I don't doubt 22lr is less reliable than center fire but I question how much. Particularly if you buy quality ammo. (Reloaded 22lr is pretty unreliable and falls into the singing dog category!)
Rick Courtright
Hawkeye
Bucks Owin said:
Hi,
I'm pretty sure you're right, Bucks: every once in a while I come up with an old box or two, and since I figure .22 ammo was made to be shot, not collected, I go shoot it. I'd guess I've covered a range of 15-40 years in age. Sometimes I've gone thru several boxes without a single hiccup, almost unheard of today's world of bulk ammo.
However, in defense of today's ammo, I wonder if there are failure patterns which are more gun related than ammo? I wonder this because I have an old Marlin single shot bolt action rifle, one of those that you must manually cock to fire. It has a pretty substantial spring that drives the striker/firing pin mechanism, and produces an indent in the case head that looks like you hit it with a sledgehammer. I took a half box of Win 333 (I think they're about on par with Thunderbolts!) out and shot 'em thru it, after burning the first half of the same box in my Mk II, 10/22 and a few in the CZ Kadet conversion. Numerous failures to fire happened with the three of those guns. None of them leaves near the firing pin indent the Marlin rifle does. Zero failures happened with the ol' Marlin.
Having experienced that, I may have a theory: with all the moves toward "green" in ammo as elsewhere, i wonder if some of the newer priming compounds just have to be hit a lot harder to work reliably.
Rick
Funny/ironic that older ammo dependability comes up. I also have Remington golden 22 from the 70's. It's not only old, but for about 3 years it was stored in some pretty bad conditions; a tool shed in the backyard with a black roof. I've seen it 117 degrees in there & know the lower temps were zero or less. 3k rounds of it were in a 50 ammo can, it's a wonder it didn't cook off.
I've only dipped into it a few times, but as of just last fall it is totally dependable. Sometimes I think I should shoot it all up. Other times, I think I should save it for hard times when I need some really good ammo.
Funny, & again ironic, hard times is why the 5000 rounds were put back to begin with. The stickers on the 100 round box say $2.59. But every couple months the hardware store would put it on sale for $1.99. I would buy a sleeve, "if" I had enough money. A box or 2 if I didn't. Can remember some lean times in the 70's.
I've only dipped into it a few times, but as of just last fall it is totally dependable. Sometimes I think I should shoot it all up. Other times, I think I should save it for hard times when I need some really good ammo.
Funny, & again ironic, hard times is why the 5000 rounds were put back to begin with. The stickers on the 100 round box say $2.59. But every couple months the hardware store would put it on sale for $1.99. I would buy a sleeve, "if" I had enough money. A box or 2 if I didn't. Can remember some lean times in the 70's.
If one considers the billions upon billions of 22 rimfire rounds manufactured and compared that to the "failure rate" the stats would probably be less than .01%. I have nearly always taken a 22 pistol with me whenever I go shooting and fire at least 100 rounds per session. When I only shoot 22s on a range trip, I often go through 300+ rounds. I cannot remember the failures in any of my 5, 22 guns (except the Remington stuff during testing for a new gun). I started shooting 22s in 1966 and cannot even guess at how many rounds I've fired...
