High accuracy target ammo- Whats the top 10

ivanthehunter

I'm looking for high quality ammo that will allow me to see what my 22lr is really like.

Can you lads name some and give the prices and state where you bought it.

endasmail

sub-sonic?
high velocity?
i found the eley sub sonic hollow points the best rounds for target and hunting 10 or 12 euro a box of 100

It wasn't me!

It's entirely down to your barrel's preferences. For high-grade ammo with tight tolerances for consistency, try Eley Match EPS and Tenex EPS, RWS R-50, Lapua Midas, Centre-X, X-Act, anything top of the line from the biggest manufacturers, and maybe their second-highest product. The tightest tolerances mean these tend not to throw fliers, but it's down to which then groups tightest. To be fair, unless you're a serious target shooter, this is purely academic, and there's no harm in that, but you're ultimately going to be thinking in terms of minute of bunny, rather than minute of arc.

IRLConor

ivanthehunter wrote: »

I'm looking for high quality ammo that will allow me to see what my 22lr is really like.

What kind of rifle is it?

The brands It wasn't me! mentioned are all good but you have to be careful. Even if you go out and buy Eley Tenex which is pretty good ammunition, the batch you get could be much worse in your rifle than the batch in another dealer down the road. It all depends on what suits your rifle.

There have been some changeovers in naming recently, the following table should give you an idea of some of the top types of .22lr ammunition available in Ireland and how they're supposed to rank in comparison with each other (as far as I can tell according to the manufacturers):

Eley (Old)|Eley (New)|Lapua (Old)|Lapua (New)|RWS
Tenex EPS|Tenex||X-ACT|R-50
Match EPS*|Match|Midas*|Midas+|
|Team*|Master*|Center-X*|


I've shot the ones marked with a * and a bunch of other types which have been less reliable than the ones above.

The current record at the Eley test range is 13.9mm for a 40 shot group at 50m. For a 10 shot group, I think their record is around 9mm. That should give you an upper bound for how good your .22lr could be if it was a world class rifle shooting well-matched ammunition.

fish slapped

Simple Eley Target for my rifle super groups, followed by Lapua Master. The federal Champion my rifle did not like it at all 1.5" @50m. :eek: so don't know whats going on there!

rrpc

fish slapped wrote: »

Simple Eley Target for my rifle super groups, followed by Lapua Master. The federal Champion my rifle did not like it at all 1.5" @50m. :eek: so don't know whats going on there!

Federal can be quite fast; bordering on supersonic. If there's any kind of a breeze at all, it will not group well.

fish slapped

rrpc wrote: »

Federal can be quite fast; bordering on supersonic. If there's any kind of a breeze at all, it will not group well.

Could it be unstable as it so close to being super sconic without actualy crossing the barrier, as HV round will group better than them.

clivej

I have tried the lot in my CZ 22lr and found that the cheap Eley subs work just as well as any other.
And I mean the lot:
HV CCi, Ferderals.
Lupua Match, Eley match and Tinex, CCI's, Federals, Winchester, etc....etc I have now come back to using Eley subs in the green box @€;4.50ish a box.

Sparks

The higher-cost ammo is more consistently manufactured, which is not necessarily the same thing as more accurate. If your barrel is up to snuff, then just about anything will group from it reasonably well. If you want to be competitive however, you're going to be batch testing ammunition from several manufacturers to find the best match, because the demands of competitive shooting are out past the limits of our ability to manufacture barrels and ammunition at the moment (the very best barrel with the very best matched ammunition can not put ten rounds through the one 0.22inch hole the same way that air rifles can).

However, if you've got a CZ or something like that, which doesn't have a match barrel, then forget about batching and just buy any of the named brands above. You might find (and it'll be obvious enough so you don't have to worry till it shows up) that one brand suits better than another for velocity reasons (like federal) or feeding reasons (like lapua), but apart from that, you're just fooling yourself really, and if you had spent the time on the range that you spent in the shop humming and hawing over different ammo boxes, you'd be getting better results from it.

pm.

i have a CZ .22 and i find the CCI velocitor 1435 fps 40 gr one of the fastest rounds and the most accrute by far. i dont like eley anyone else notice the smell from the gun powder and i also find they are a dirty round.

IRLConor

pm. wrote: »

i dont like eley anyone else notice the smell from the gun powder and i also find they are a dirty round.

The cheaper Eley stuff doesn't smell the best all right. The pricier stuff (anything with an EPS bullet on it) smells OK. You'd want to be pretty rich to be buying them just for the smell though.

fish slapped

I have used HV round that are pretty accurate, but I am wondering if the bullet is becoming unstable because it's so close to breaking the sound barrier without actually crossing it, or weather its just that my rifle doesn't like them. Has anyone else used federal champion with good results, by good results I mean around 1 cm groups @ 50 meters for 5 rounds, not the 4 cm groups I've been getting.

(I know , just don't use them! :rolleyes: but I am just curious )

Vegeta

pm. wrote: »

i have a CZ .22 and i find the CCI velocitor 1435 fps 40 gr one of the fastest rounds and the most accrute by far. i dont like eley anyone else notice the smell from the gun powder and i also find they are a dirty round.

I always thought that smell was the wax on the round burning

clivej

I was told that the HV round comes out of super sonic speed to sub sonic speed and the round does a wobble which throws it off target.
I have never had a HV round that was able to group well, ie. under 1 1/2" @50m

ivanthehunter

The best i seen out of my Marlin 70PPS 16.25 inch barrel was the yellowjackets. I got a good batch a while back and i was hitting one inch groups on avg with the odd flier at 75m.
After that is was bog standard eley sub in a green box..

What sort of ammo do the Olympic teams use? Do the teams try and keep these secrets close to their chests?

Sparks

What sort of ammo do the Olympic teams use?

Whatever sort works. The brands quoted above are used a lot by most.

Do the teams try and keep these secrets close to their chests?

No. It's not the ammo, it's the time you spend training.