Posted: 4/29/2006 6:16:41 PM EDT
|
i keep seeing guys posting about "i have 10K+ rounds of .22 ammo on hand. My question is why? I know "because i can" is a valid answer but will you actually shoot that much? Every year i have some people hand me 2-3 bricks of 22 they have had for 5+ years. almost all of it fails to fire or is corroded to the point it won't chamber. do you guys actually shoot that much 22 ammo to stock it like that? |
|
It's a common, inexpensive caliber.. There are a lot of firearms in .22 caliber and many uses for those firearms, ranging from emergency self-defense to target shooting and small game hunting/pest control. Emergency self-defense as in if that's all you have available, it will do the job. One would be remiss in choosing .22 specifically for self-defense. .22 is one of the most useful calibers available and probably the best to have with you in any wilderness survival/SHTF situation that doesn't involve combat. The usefulness and price factors alone justify having a lot of it on hand. |
LOLOLOL. IIRC, there are kits available to make a 10/22 look like a MG42. The design of the 10/22 is loosely based off of the M1 Carbine, so I'm sure if someone wanted to, a 10/22 could be made to look and feel like a M1 Carbine (would be a nice little trunk gun with the M1A1 folding stock). |
Was it Sidewinder? That was the worst stuff ever. It turned my 10/22 into a jam-o-matic. I have about 1500 rounds of it left now. The only thing that will eat it is my Winchester 68 or 67 and that is a lot of shooting for a single shot. |
FWIW/IMNSHO:  1. Cheap 2. Fun to shoot/plink with 3. Can be used for hunting and self-defense 4. Can be reasonably easily suppressed (ALL NFA RULES APPLY) 5. Cannot be reloaded 6. Common caliber 7. Can be used for trade fodder (10k+ IS a bit, though...) HKO |
Maybe it was your gun? It runs fine in my Weatherby semiauto and a buddies 10/22. Will have to try it in my FA Tippman 1919, it's finicky. |
|
AHHH MAN. All i can ever find it is in 50 rd. boxes. I love CCI Stinger. I found though that when my gun gets dirty (usually after 150 rds) they start to not feed so well, while the federal box of 550 feed fine. To anyone who hasnt, compare brass from a CCI Stinger to the brass of your avg box of 550rds. And during the summer ill shoot around 1100 rds of 22lr per weekend. I figured i ahve a total of 25000 rds through my 22 by now. PJ |
I don't know what kind of ammo you have that crapped out in just 5 years. I have about 6000 rounds left of Russian .22lr ammo made by the Klimovsk Plant simply labeled "Sport-Hunting JUNIOR" brand. The best I can tell this ammo is a minimum of 20 years old. I got them from my stepdad that had got them from someone else 20 years ago. He gave me 8000+ rounds and I have shot about 2000 rounds with only one failure to fire. That is good even for new Winchester .22lr ammo. I keep it in an ammo can, but my stepdad had it in his basement (a damp one) in an old gym bag. I have about 13k rounds of 22lr on hand, I doubt I will ever see it go bad. |
|
I have scads stored up. As long as it's kept dry I've never seen a problem with it not working. Maybe it'll degrade a bit in accuracy but I seriously doubt I'll miss 1/4 at 50 yards anyways. I've shot 30 year old stuff and the failure rate, [1 or 2 per 100-150, most pop off on second try so it's usually just a bare primer spot] is about the same as new ammo. The oldest .22 stuff I was about 40 years old. I was surprised every one went off normally and I did not even get those ocassional "piffs" I get with some of the cheapie new stuff. BTW I've been shooting some old western super X stuff and it's been perfectly fine, lot number is 6327. Works great in my ROmanian .22 bolt training rifle. .22s gone up also in case you have not noticed, and one of the companies shrunk the box in quantity. |
| My dad and I just shot up some old dark blue box Federal Lightnings dated 1989 (purchase date). They fired fine and had no corrosion on them. I stock up because I shoot probably 1-2k per year,because they're cheap and very compact to store. We have cheap .22s available now. As Wolf 7.62x39 availability teaches us,that might not always be the case. |
+1 When i was poor in HS I shot up 1k of 60+ year old scary old peters that i sure was uber corrosive 22 ammo that bought at a garage sale for $5 stuff worked great I keep about 5 brick most times though I like the Rem golden bullet stuff |
Depends on how much work you want to do on the gun yourself.... As was mentioned, the CMP sells some good guns, as does Sako, Kimber, Remington etc. It's a question of your budget and mechanical ability-personally I don't see the wisdom in buying a $900 rimfire with a good trigger, barrel etc. when a gun a third the price can often be made to do the same or better with trigger job and head recess being set to .042". For iron sighted .22 benchrest shooting, you can't go wrong with one of the CMP Kimbers. I don't own one, but have shot a handfull (some with period correct sights!  ) and they all did well. For a bolt gun, some guys like the Sako FinnFire. To do it on the cheap, get a CZ!Hope that helps. Dave |
Does your rifle still shoot accurately after eating that many rounds of ammo? Can someone tell us the life expectancy of a .22LR barrel and how do you guys clean the bore to get rid of the lead deposit? Thanks. |
At shorter ranges (less than 75 feet) accuracey is fine. Using a solid rest the grouping looks like a solid hole the size of a dime. When i get out to ranges of roughly 50-60meters groupings open up alot , and this is using a solid rest too. To clean the bore i just use a wire bore brush, some small patches and a little nitro solvent. Its worked fine for me. PJ |
One other reason, not yet mentioned, is that when you find a lot that works well in your gun, you buy as much of that lot as possible. Sad thing about rimfire is that you can't reload, so you're stuck looking for that brand and lot of ammo that works best in your gun. |