Is it decent shooting stuff? I'm looking to buy a few thousand rounds for plinking, small game hunting, etc.

I'm sure it's hell on suppressors, but what isn't.

It’s my preferred stack deep of choice. It’s good. It’s not cci but it’s good

It has the best accuracy and reliability out of all the major bulk pack brands in my experience. Not quite as tight as actual match grade ammo but more than accurate enough for general purpose use.

Thanks guys. Looks like Target Sports USA has some at a decent price.

Buds gun shop has it at good price too

I was not pleased with it.

Still have several boxes that I'll probably never shoot.

Not particularly accurate for the price.

No better than any other plinking ammo imo.

Very erratic.  Our club has had good lots and bad lots.  More bad than good.  Not a fan of it.  It is anything but match ammo.  We’re down to our last two  cases and this lot has been especially bad.

I shoot a ton of it in my rimfire pistols and 10/22. Good price and free shipping here. Local Walmart usually has it at about the same price.

https://www.sgammo.com/product/22-lr-ammo/3250-round-case-22-lr-federal-automatch-bulk-pack-40-grain-lead-1200-fps-ammo-am2

It looks like Aguila has some at a similar price point. Any opinions on the Aguila?

I tend to like copper washed better than lead.

I tried it.  Had two boxes.  One box shot ok.  Like serious plinking ok.  The other looked like a shotgun pattern on paper.  Same results across three different rifles.  Shot the worst in a 10/22T.

Will not be buying more.

At around $21 per box I rotate between either buying a couple sleeves of Mini-mags or a box of AM when I'm at Walmart. Been stacking both for awhile now.

The last time I bought any Auto Match was during the great rimfire shortage when Obuma was in office. That stuff wouldn't even cycle in my Marlin 60, Ruger 10/22 or Ruger MkII. Needless to say I haven't bought any since then.

For those that do use Auto Match, I hope Federal has improved that ammo since the last time I bought any. I personally won't take the chance on Auto Match or Remington Thunder Duds or Golden Turds due to past experiences with them.

The term auto match is a pure and simple marketing gimmick.
It is bargain basement bulk pack blasting ammo, nothing more.
Same can be said for all domestic bulk pack ammo, with CCI being a tad better quality ( more consistent reliable and accurate)
Coming from a background of precision shooting activities ( traditional bullseye, prs/nrl 22) I admit being a bit of an ammo snob when it comes to 22’s.
I don’t buy or shoot bulk pack ( if I get some for free, that is about it)
Bulk pack is fine for tin can shooting, or activities that have a very low accuracy requirement like steel challenge.
For anything more demanding I look to European ammo like eley sk and lapua.

My grading criteria for moderate to economy ammo:
CCI
Aguila ( actually find in my experience it is just a hair below CCI in quality)
Big step down federal ( it I was in a situation of buy federal or don’t shoot I wouldn’t feel too bad about it)
At the bottom of the staircase Remington / Winchester ( fyi browning ammo and cabelas herters brand is also Winchester) I would have to be very desperate to buy or shoot Remington or Winchester

During covid times of ammo shortages sometimes this was the only stuff available, and was priced right. I've probably put thousands of rounds through my mkii of this stuff with zero complaints. A fair bit in my 10/22 as well.

I'm still sitting on quite a stash of it.

Some people swear it's awful but I don't mind it one bit. I'd not hesitate to buy it at a good price.

Outdoor Limited has it for $189.90/3250 rds.  Free shipping if your order totals $200 or more.  My .22s handle it just fine.

I do the same and have had similar experiences with 22LR ammo. I usually stick with CCI or Aquila for most of my shooting and will use European ammo for when I need to shoot tiny groups.

As we all know there are always exceptions when it comes to 33LR ammo and different rifles. here is my experiences with CCI, Aquila, and Federal:my Savage MkII BTVLSS does best with CCI Mini Mags, My reworked Chiappa AR upper does best with CCI AR Tactical, Heavy CMMG barrel does best with CCI Standard, and my Romanian M69 trainer does best with Federal Champion 510. Aquila Super Extra is a close second in most of my rifles. The CCI AR Tactical also shoot very well in my Kel-Tec CP33 pistol.

Auto match is blazer in the 50rd packs with the wax lube not the moly lubed bullets. They shoot the exact same for me. I buy the blazers because it is cheaper. But it has to have the wax type of lube not the moly like regular federal.

I normally would agree with you but this last batch I bought tumbles I’m almost everything I’ve tried it in.

@KTM300XCW

Aguila has been some of the most accurate "cheap" ammunition I have ever found.

Extremely accurate actually.

It also uses Eley style priming that has a distinct smell that some say stinks.

The only downside besides the smell is the cases and bullets are fairly soft so some semi-autos will jam with it, but my Marlin model 60 loves them and is the only cheap ammo I have found that shoots well out of it.

Shot a ladybug that landed on my target one summer day at 25 yards with that Marlin.

Just left an orange ring as the bullet hit it dead center.

Federal Auto-Match is garbage and the only reason I bought any was because it was all I could find in the 2013-2017 great rimfire drought.

Federal is pretty meh.  Aguila is good, but stinks like hair spray.

Yeah,
I got 24,000 rounds plus stacked in the back

12 boxes of the 325 rounds fit perfect in a 50 cal can...

If I'm going to shoot HV bulk stuff I MUCH prefer CCI Blazer.  Auto "match" never quite lived up to the hype for me.

Aguila is better then federal auto match.

Agreed.

I shoot quite a bit of Aquila Super Extra HV ammo and it is usually not too far behind CCI AR Tactical or CCI Mini Mags as far as accuracy and reliability goes. I'll buy Aquila when I can't get CCI over any other brand. The only good 22lr ammo from Federal that I have used is their Champion HV 36Gr HP and 40 Gr RN.

In case I didn't say it already, I lump Federal Auto-Match in the same junk category as Remington Thunder Duds, Remington Golden Turds and Winchester Wildcats.

Hit and miss accuracy.


Plinking fodder.   I mostly avoid any loose milk carton ammo.  Shipping can loosen bullets crimps in the cases.

Even CCI SV can be made in the federal plant.   They have a different lot number format and did at least have different trays.  IIRC real CCI had clear plastic 50 round holders without legs and Federal made CCI had white plastic holders with legs.   The real CCI always shot better for me.   The driving bands were different too.

Get ready for some blasphemy:


CCI is not as good as it used to be.  I formerly considered SSI SV as kind the metric for ammo.

Ammo was either better, or worse, than CCI in any particular category as a point of reference.

Lately CCI is not as good, or as consistent as it used to be in any category.

Agree. Since the merger with federal ( or however these corporate deals go) CCI is lesser than it used to be, however it is still the best domestic made 22

True.  I was lucky during the SH panic to score a couple thousand "real" CCI Blazers.  They shoot almost as accurately as CCI SV in all my guns.  I put them in storage for the future droughts to come as I mainly shoot suppressed with various CCI subsonic fodder.  I'm glad to know it's there in a pinch though.

I’ve had good luck with the Blazers. That’s a great choice for informal target shooting.

Accuracy doesn’t need to be PRS match level but a middle school kid will have more fun if he can hit 12ga hills at 25 yards off hand or drop to prone and hit a soda can at 100, so accuracy is more fun than when it’s lacking.

Aguila is Mexican CCI to me. They even have the same approach with a big variety of loads and the loads are quite similar to CCI offerings.

Auto match has always done well for me.  Very few duds.  I use it in my ruger mark 2 and 3 pistols and in various older 22 rifles.  Only bulk ammo I found to shoot better is the remington golden bullet which is more expensive.   I've tried things like cci minimags and while they burn cleaner I've never got great accuracy from them.  Accuracy has been better than I can shoot from a handgun.  It's just fine for plinking in a rifle but not a match ammo.

It isn't reliable in my Buckmark but works in everything else. We actually get really good accuracy with the Automatch through my CZ452 and my wife's Ruger precision rimfire.

Solid MEH ammo.

Automatch seems good enough for making noise and holes in beer cans.

If you actually want to make small groups or kill small game, you should look at other brands/models.

While I often hunt with subsonic shells, there is no doubt that HV options deliver significantly more horsetorque on target. I believe it is entirely invested in the impact speed being supersonic. I think the SS shockwave in flesh makes a great improvement in lethality from the increased stretch cavity. Particularly notable in small game size cartridges.

My favorite general hunting load is the minimag HP. Not much that it won’t kill. Probably the gold standard for 22lr hunting ammunition by cost and performance. Availability is excellent as well.

Most all 22lr HP will not expand if subsonic. This includes MM-HP when fired from a pistol.

Segmented bullets, from CCI and Win work as advertised and do very well to mitigate collateral damage from pass throughs and misses when varminting around the farm. The Win “varmint HE” are superbly accurate (for the barrels I tried) and loaded significantly hotter (1450fps on the box) than minimags, they will put the hammer down on groundhog/coon where a minimag (1250fps on the box) leaves something to desire. Most of the CCI segmented loads give me poor groups on paper, limiting effective range. Some people get amazing groups with them, so worth testing.

Of course good old fashioned CCI SV is the standard to beat for cost/availability/groups. The subsonic RN lacks lethality compared to a HV-HP. It has still put plenty of food on my table. I view it as the standard by which ALL other 22lr is judged. If a gun won’t shoot CCI SV worth a darn, I don’t want it.

FGMM is pretty dang good for making small groups, along with a whole host of other more expensive and less available options of match grade 22s.

I have not had good luck from any of the bulk Federal loads. I don’t blast enough for the cost savings to be worth my trouble.

It’s good enough for Tin cans, charcoal briquettes and squirrels.  It’s
my “plinking” ammo of choice.

Yep. Their standard velocity gives great accuracy for the most part but you do get fliers. All of the Aguila 22 seems more reliable than Federal, Remington, or Winchester bulk stuff. It seems to burn cleaner and had a “different “ smell. Lube on the cases is annoying to some but doesn’t bother me. I bought cases of it a few years ago and an happy I did

Someone commented that lot to lot variance was pretty erratic, and my experience is that this is pretty much the whole problem with Automatch. It has a good profile for reliable feeding, it generally cycles the guns I shoot, and it's the cheapest option I trust... but 100% reliability is just not in the cards like it is for CCI Mini-Mags. It's about 99%, but 99% isn't good enough. My kids and I shoot a lot of 22lr competitively, and if it's a match we care about, we're not shooting Automatch. Practices? Yeah, we're using Automatch, because it's cheap and usually works.

It's my favorite bulk pack 22 ammo.

It's not match ammo, but it's pretty decent for cheap plinking ammo.

CCI, Fiochi, Blazer, and Aguila have been my favorite in my MkIV and 10/22, clean and consistent as 22 can be.

Automatch is ok