So I decided to do an ammo test. I had some American Eagle, some Remington Thunderbolts, and some Remington Golden Bullets, but I went to the gunshop to buy some .30 carbine ammo and found some other interesting choices. I bought some Winchester Super-X, Winchester Supreme, and some CCI Stingers.

The gun:

Yes, that's a cheap Wal-Mart Chicom BSA red dot.

The ammo:


The results:

These are 10 round groups fired offhand at 7 yards.

The Remington Thunderbolts (Upper Left) had zero malfunctions with one flyer. I was actually impressed to a degree.
The Remington Golden Bullets (Upper Middle) had one fail to fire, but kept a decent group overall.
The American Eagle (Upper Right) had one failure to eject, and had an OK group.

I noticed after this group that the mount had come loose. The American Eagle might have actually done better.

Winchester Super-X (Lower Left) had a pretty good group going, but it seemed underpowered and would not lock the slide to the rear.
Winchester Supreme (Lower Middle) had a good group going, then I noticed a couple of flyers. I reshot the group, but experienced flyers again. Anyway it had one failure to fire and one failure to eject.

Then I shot the CCI Stinger (Lower Right). It felt like I was shooting a laser beam. I was able to shoot a one hole group and had zero malfunctions.

I have not looked back since. It's nice to find a gun/load that is more accurate than you are.

I agree stingers are the shit in anything I own .22LR.

10/22, taurus model 94.

Every other ammo seems to suck ass.

You should try MiniMags.

If your gun will cycle Stingers they are quite nice rounds but you are not really getting much of velocity potential out of them from a pistol though.

Interesting. I only punch paper, so would the velocity loss really be that important?

I have been considering Mini-mags and Aguila ammo.

Stingers rock, man.

It is great ammo but damn expensive for plinking.

I'm limited to what .22lr ammo is available to me but I was able to find some CCI Mini Mag and Stingers for sale from a buddy of mine.  Normally what is available at the local Sports Authority is Winchester bulk ammo and Super X.  I've tried Mini Mag, Stinger, and Winchester bulk through my Ruger Mark III Hunter and all these ammo performed well through this pistol with the Mini Mag doing well in the accuracy department.  Looking forward in trying out my new S&W Model 41 this weekend and see which ammo will perform well in this handgun.

Good report. Those cheap red dots are great for .22.

You need to do the test again with the sight tight and rechecked after each ammo change.

I will say this about .22 ammo and firearms, they usually are VERY picky about what they like and even lot numbers can make a HUGE difference. I have some cheapass Wildcat .22 that my Ruger MK II LOVES and scoped it'll shoot a 1/2 group all day. I went back an bought every round of that lot number that the store had in stock. With most other .22 ammo it is not even close to what the Wildcat will shoot.  It's not like Wildcat was ever anything more then cheap plinking ammo but that lot shoots extremely well. Different lots of the same stuff never came close to the accuracy of that particular one.

CCI mini-mag lover here.

I would have, except that I had tested the first three before and had shot those three ammo types extensively in the preceding days and weeks the results I obtained this time were nearly identical to the previous tests and my observations in less formal shooting sessions.

After the third group, I did check for tightness after every group.

An odd thing about Stingers is that the casing on them is just slightly longer than normal 22LR which is why it can cause function issues.

CCI MiniMags would use the quality bullet as the Stingers.  Also there is a CCI Green Label 22LR that is used for bullseye matches, you should give it a try for accuracy.

Well allrighty then.

Have you tried the Fed Gold Medal Match??? [I don't know if they even sell it anymore, I picked up a couple of K about 4?? years ago.

I think .22 ammo quality has sorta gone downhill a bit over the past few years, especially in the cheap stuff. Even a few years ago, the cheap stuff seemed more reliable and consistant, I have older Rem that is quite a bit more accurate and consistant then the newer stuff even tho it's "aged" [1522]

Have fun shootin!!!!

It is a valid criticism, I should have explained better in my first post.

I was there with my wife. When I discovered the loose mount, I told her that I probably ought to shoot those groups over. She's the one who pointed out that they were very close to what we had obverved prior to.

To be honest, I wasn't expecting much in the way of accuracy. I was really looking for a blend of accuracy and reliability. Up until that point of the test, I was leaning towards the Remington Thunderbolts, simply because it was proving to be the most reliable. Let's face it, other than POI, there isn't much difference in any of those groups, until you get to the CCI where the reliability and accuracy were clearly superior. In fact, I don't think I have had a malf with the CCI in the Buckmark yet (knocks wood).

I have not, but I will keep an eye out for it. Thanks for the suggestion.

I have not come across that yet.

I'll give it a look see. Thanks for the suggestion.

Nope that's exactly how I took it.

not to mention "some" .22LR rifles don't like the longer case.  This is why I'm a whore for...

Unless you work for the company that owns CCI.  I can get a case of 5000 for 194.00. That's 1.94 for a box of 50. I am about to buy my second case.



Sorry,  I needed to have something to brag about.

Alright, so I decided to take people's advice. Here's round 2:

The ammo:

CCI Green Tag (What appears to be the old stuff)
CCI Green Tag (What appears to be a newer version)
CCI Mini Mag 40gr Copper RN
CCI Mini Mag 36gr Copper HP
Federal Premium Gold Medal Target

The results:


I think all the loads performed better than all the loads in the previous test with the exception of the Stinger rounds.

First up was some CCI Stinger, as a sort of calibration tool. All but two rounds were touching. I didn't shoot as well today as I had previously. As expected no malfs.

Next, I shot the Federal Ammo. All but one round touched, and I know I pulled that last round. No malfs. I shot a second group and managed to pull another round. So I had 9 rounds touching in two groups with one flyer with 0 malfs. I know had I been on my game they would have done just as well as the Stingers did the other day. I did notice a bit of vertical stringing.

The CCI Mini Mag 36gr HP was shooting POA/POI. The group wasn't quite as tight as the others, but impressive nonetheless. As expected no malfs.

The CCI Mini Mag 40gr CPRN did very well. For some reason this group strung out vertically similar to the Federal Load. Both loads are 40gr loads, I wonder if that is the reason or if for some reason I'm reacting differently to the 40 gr loads. As expected no malfs.

The CCI Green Tag (old style) shot very well, when it shot. I experienced two failures to feed. The first failure was a complete failure to chamber a round and it happened after shooting round #1. The second failure was a partial failure to feed (in this case the slide actually picked up the round but did not feed it completely) and it occurred after shooting round #2. I shot another group and had the exact same results. I ended up shooting these more, and I'll be damned if that wasn't exactly what happened 90% of the time.  (The second group I shot with these also had a failure to eject.)

The CCI Green Tag (new style) didn't have these problems. It functioned flawlessly. Eight rounds on top of each other, with two rounds that I must have pulled a bit.


The problem with the Green Tag ammo is that it costs almost $17.00 per 100 at my local gun shop. Stinger ammo and Mini-Mag ammo both go for about two dollars less, and quite frankly, even though I think the Green Tag (new stuff) will group better, I can't justify spending the extra cash because I can't group better. I think this is due in part because of the huge dot on the BSA RDS. I also can get Stinger and Mini-Mag ammo at Wal-Mart for ~$11.00 per 100, which makes them an even better deal.

I would not hesitate to buy the Federal Gold Medal Target ammo. Like the CCI Mini-Mags and Stingers, the Federal stuff goes for ~$15.00 per 100 at the local gun store. I have not seen them at my local Wal-Marts, however, making the CCI Stingers the best bang for the buck, for my particular circumstances.

ETA: My bad, these go for $9.00/100, so it looks like I may have a new round if I can't find that bulk packed Federal stuff to test. What can I say, I'm cheap!

The only thing I would stay away from is the CCI Green Tag (old stuff). I can only surmise, based on the malfunctions and the feel, that the old style was not loaded as hot as the new stuff.  I ended up just blasting the rest of this stuff at the end of the session. As noted before, this stuff caused a lot of malfs in my gun.

I hate you.

I don't remember seeing any Federal at my local Wal-Mart. I'll keep an eye out though.

They do carry it, thats where I pick mine up at also.

Am I an idiot for putting an Aimpoint T-1 on my Buckmark Hunter limited?  The gun only cost me $300...

Just to avoid the potential for misunderstanding, I wasn't implying he was a liar.

I do remember Federal rounds at Wal-Mart, just not at my local store.

Nah. If I had a T-1 I would have put it on my M-1 Carbine or one of my ARs or on my Benelli, but to each their own.

I settled on a cheapo Wal-Mart RDS because very little recoil is actually transmitted to the sight. It's on a non-moving rail, so I figured the BSA would be able to handle the stress.

Warm is good. I'm finding out quickly that my gun does not like slow rounds.

I made a mistake the Federal load was going for just over $9.00/100, not $15.

I know, just piping in that most of the stores carry it if they carry ammo. It works very well in Rugers usually, especially with the target barrel as the chamber is a bit tighter.

I thought that was a bit high for it [the fed match] but ammo prices are skewed different ways depending on where one lives.

I presently have an Aimpoint H-1 on my Ruger Mark III Hunter 6 7/8" stainless.  The H-1 costs more than the pistol.  I was going to put the Aimpoint on a project I scrapped.  Recently I got a Trijicon Red Dot (3.5 MOA) and that will go on the Ruger.  The H-1 will now reside on my new S&W Model 41 5.5".

I knew I wasn't the only one...

You sir deserve a beer.

Thanks for doing this and posting.

I found some Federal at the local Wally World. The bulk packed stuff came in la 550 round box. I skipped it because of my previous bad experience with the Remington bulk packed stuff. I did find some 50 round boxes of Federal .22lr, for $1.47 a box. The box was blue. Pics and review to come.

You're welcome. Although, I'm not sure if there is any utility in it, other than giving me something to do.

I think I will have a beer tonight though.

One last test is in order.

The Ammo:

Federal Champion 40gr LRN "High Velocity"

The Result:


I ran out of orange targets. This one is slightly smaller than the orange. This group is .75" center to center. That is about the same size as the CCI Stingers in the first picture. The difference is instead of $5.50 for 50 rounds this stuff is $1.47 for 50.

dport - Is that the standard Contour or the Contour Lite? If it's the standard version, how well does it balance? How light is it for say a kid or small woman to use? I was really wanting to buy one of those a year or so ago but couldn't find one anywhere. Ended up getting a MKII and a 22/45 MKIII but I'm not real thrilled with either one.

I thinking about getting a Buckmark URX but am torn between the standard version and the Contour? I think the Countour is pretty sweet and I like the full length rail but I want something light and handy and think the Contour might be a bit too big and heavy for my purposes? I'm not really planning on mounting an optic on mine but it would be nice to have the option.

Standard Contour. Balances very well for me, but for a child, I don't know. It might be heavy.

You may not plan on mounting an optic, I know I wasn't, but once I had it, I had to mount the optic.

It's good stuff, I have a few bricks of it kicking around, along with some mini mags, kinda pricey around here for everyday plinking. For those using 10/22's, Ruger says it's a no-no to use stingers. It's even in their manuals. I think it's because they are a bit longer though I haven't taken my calipers to them so don't take that as a true statement. I've been using the Aguila products lately. My .22 AR upper is the most pickiest .22 I've ever owned but it eats-up the Aguila's. Still up there in price (about $25-$27 a brick) but its very consistent in bullet placement, also, I've haven't had a single FTF or FTE across a number of types and/or actions. Grab a couple of loose boxes and try them. I've been using the (red box) Aguila SuperExtra 40 grain copper plated and the (gold/orange) box Aguila SuperExtra 38 grain copper plated Hollow points.

The fellas at RFC had a few warnings about Stingers, but I don't know how true it is:
http://rimfirecentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=260344

DPort...thanks a bunch for the review.

Good shootin.  I'll keep this sub'd for reference