I took my 16-year-old daughter and her boyfriend out shooting the other day and she unexpectedly fell in love with shooting my Bushmaster M4A3. Once she found out what the sights were used for and I taught her not to shoot six feet above the target toward houses and livestock, she caught on fast and started getting damn close to target at 100 yards.

Her boyfriend is a dam good shot for a teen and I think she believes it would be cool to shoot with him (she can definitely keep him in line now).

To shorten this up, I am now going to buy -- along with her excitement -- a Ruger 10/22 from the local Academy Sports. I'm glad too. Now I'll have something else to burn ammo up with aside from my precious Q3131 and Fed XM193.

So, what's the recommendation on bullet grain weights and muzzle velocity advice in .22LR  caliber? I'll probably buy a ton of the stuff -- a few thousand rounds for sure. Mostly for target and plinking that won't foul up my Ruger's innards. I can also spring for a 100 or so rounds of some superior stuff as well. What your advice there?

I don't shoot the Russian stuff in my Bushhy baby. But it is the Wolf and Barnaul stuff ok in the Ruger. How about the Aguilla stuff? Should I just stick with Federal and Winchester, etc.

Also, is there a really cool ammo out there for a .22, like tracers or penetrators? Any such thing as millitary surplus for .22LR?

Would appeciate some good input from fellow Jarheads ... or even some of you Army pukes as well.
Semper Fi!

I have no idea what someone in the military know's about .22's...  Likely not much as a rule...

I buy Remingtons for my 10/22.  Federals seem to cause stoppages much more regularly for me.  Of course you should buy a brick of each and see what it likes.  

Tracers are available though spendy.  Cheaper than dirt has them to name one place.

Wolf is excellent ammo. You also may want to look into CCI.  I mostly buy 525 round pack at Wal-Mart of Remington though.

As far as .22's go, I just buy the cheapest 500 round box available. Sometimes its Remington, sometimes Federal, neither seems to shoot any better than the other in my Marlin Model 60 or my friends 10/22. CCI aint bad either.

CCI Mini Mags work great in my10/22's

Most cheap ammo is going to be +/- 40gr

500 rd brick can be had for less than 10.00

a 10/22 will shoot almost any ammo.( .22lr  that is standard velocity or faster )

REM / WIN / FED     just about any thing will work



Invisiblesoul

I agree with above. I also keep some of the hot loads like stingers, yellow jackets etc for small handguns.
JRandyH

I highly suggest you go to a store that sells a big variety of .22lr and buy a 50rd. box of each kind.

DO YOUR OWN TESTING in your 10/22 and see what it likes.  

You'll find some brands will function well, some may give you jams and stove-pipes.
Some will be more accurate than others.  

THE FACTORY BARREL has a "sporter" chamber, so it'll feed a fairly wide variety of ammo.
BUT NOT ALL AMMO.  Like I said, buy a little of every brand and test for yourself.

Also, dont think that just because some ammo is cheap, that it'll be less accurate.
My aftermarket GM bbl. shoots the cheap CCI Blazers very well.  It shoots those better than some of the more expensive match ammo i've tried!  It's even on par with wolf MT!  

In my factory bbl. Wolf MT gave me the best accuracy, while Win. Dynapoint fed/ejected well, they werent as accurate, good for plinking though.  

      The standard answer for 10/22's is you will want to shoot a "better" ammo such as CCI MINI MAGS  for the first 500 rounds or so to get it broken in. After that most folks will want to look around and try to find something cheeper. In my neck of the woods CCI sells for $4.00+ for the plastic 100 pack. Wolf MT is fine standard velocity ammo,but the going rate is near $30 for a 500 round brick. I have used lots of PMC rimfire ammo-Zappers,Scoremasters and such but I believe the PMC rimfire line is no more.
      When you find a brand and type of ammo that runs ok and has the accuracy you desire (they do varry a lot,even from gun to gun) ask your local gun guy to give you a price for a case,many times this will give you good ammo at close to the chain store prices on the bulk cheep stuff. Most of the cheep bulk stuff doesn't impress me with function or accuracy.
      Consider the 10/22 T model  when gun buying. Better stock,better barrel,beter trigger. It costs more but to me the stock 10/22 gets boreing fast (I only own 2 of them). You can add all the stuff but unless you like to tinker you will end up spending the money anyhow. The 10/22 T  does weigh more,this helps you shoot better but this same weight can be a problem for smaller kids and small stature women.
       I like a decent scope myself but some folks would rather go with irons or a red dot-pick your posion!
The 10/22 is a disease much like the dreaded Black rifle disease in that there is a wide variety of "stuff" out there for it.

For answers to anything 10/22 or .22 go to   rimfirecentral.com

I use either FED. HV(break-in), Wolf MT, or my favorite.... REM subsonic. -Justin

I have 2 10/22's and always used Reminton Hyper Velocity Yellow Jackets (Hollow Points) and Vipers (Solid Points).

The Ruger 10/22 is known for reliability, not target accuracy.  It's possible to make them accurate, but that generally involves trading up to a higher grade barrel with a tighter chamber.

The "other" reliable and inexpensive 22LR rifle is the Marlin.  IMHO the Marlin is at least as good a gun as the Ruger (maybe better), and it costs less -- but it doesn't have all the aftermarket magazines, stocks, and other gadgets that you can put on a 10/22.

I've had good luck with Aguila, CCI and Winchester.  I couldn't do much with Remington.  However. . .

Specs of 22LR chambers and barrels vary so much, you can never predict what ammo will perform best in a particular gun.  You just have to try different ones until you find out what it likes and what it doesn't like.  Your gun might love Remington ammo, who knows?  Before you run out and buy 5,000 rounds of ammo, I suggest buying a box of this and a box of that, and test the different brands before you decide what to stock up on.

Standard 40-grain high-velocity ammo works about as well as anything in a 22 rifle.  You can get hollowpoints, but they're pretty much useless -- except CCI Stingers.  Stingers tear up armadillos pretty dramatically, but they are a bit expensive and their accuracy is lackluster in a lot of rifles.

The 10/22 is a great little rifle. There might be other good choices out there but you won’t regret buying on, you probably won’t regret buying two, or three.

Get copper plated bullets. There will be less lead fouling that way, (and less lead exposure for your daughter if she’s the one cleaning it.)

The 10/22 will get dirty fast, no matter what you shoot in it. The action doesn’t lock (blowback) so soot ends up covering the receiver and bolt. Fortunately it’s not that hard to completely disassemble and clean.

When I was that age I used to spend a couple hours after a shooting trip carefully detail stripping my 10/22 and cleaning it. Loved every minute of it, but that was me.

Whatever she is going to shoot (after break in) get yourself  "Exact Edge" extractor...save you a lot of grief
down the road...

for cheap ammo, hands down winchester dyna points. most accurate and consistant of all the bulk ammo packs, at least in 10/22's. if your looking for  more accuracy than that you need to look around over at rimfire central.com and get the credit card out. you can get better ammo and pay alot more but the factory barrel on the 10/22 isnt known for a tack driving.

you really have to try a bunch. 22lr rifles are kinda funny and what works in one may not work in another. read the forums at rimfire central and you will find that it's not uncommon for someone to find that cheap (Not Crappy) ammo works better in their rifle that the expensive stuff.

BTW, this is a case when Wolf is not a dirty word, their 22 match ammo is very good. It's not made in Russia, I think it's Spanish.

Quoted: for cheap ammo, hands down winchester dyna points

+1  I have several bricks of Win DynaPoints.  Great stuff for the money.  For accuracy out of a stock 10/22 these will be fine.    Great to hear she likes to shoot.  You could build a lower and put a DPMS .22lr dedicated upper on top. You'd each have an AR and she could shoot cheap .22lr.


TS

I would also recommend the Remington bulk packs for a Ruger 10/22.  I work in the Sporting Goods department at Wal-Mart and can say that these work the best for the price in a 10/22.  You an get 550 rounds of 36 grain copper coated hollow points for $8.96.  I use these in my 10/22 target  model without any problems.  I have had and heard of problems using the Federal Bulk pack ammo.

Yup.  Federal .22lr may be cheaper but it has uneven loads, FTF, etc.  In short it is teh suck.

TS

ndkid, are you getting Dynapoints in at your Walmart?
My local Wallymart hasn't been able to get Dynapoints in for 2 or 3 month..
JR

No, we have never carried dynapoint at our store.  We only carry the Xpert which never sell and went up in price making them more than Federal and Remington.  Now they will never sell.  I order most ammo and do not bother ordering them because everyone here buys Remington which I recommend.  I will say that a store 120 miles away did carry Dyapoint because a friend of mine shot it in NRA comp. but am not sure if they still do.  If they do however, I am sure that the price went up.

Dynapoints in .22LR are no longer being made by Winchester. Only the .22mag.

I personally prefer shooting CCI mini-mags. Other ammo has given me problems, but when I go to matches....Mini-Mags. Never failed.

For suppressed shooting in the 10/22 I use CCI Standard Velocity.

   Another vote for CCI Mini-Mags here. The 10/22 will eat anything but Mini-Mag are the best as far as readily-available off the shelf ammo.

  I have a few Marlins as well as 10/22 rifles. They tend to choke on the bulk pack Federal and Remington I've tried, but they thrive on the MiniMag

I hesitated to post here because all of the above advice given is very good. I just thought a jarhead might want to hear from a puddle pirate.

CCi mini-mags are usualy a good choice.  I happen to really like the Aqulia Super maximum, shoots great in my stock 10/22 and my very old (1940) WesternField singleshot .22.

I wanted to add to my original post.

This mainly comes from shooting suppressed .22s.

Mini-mags I think are great. Some of the best General Purpose .22 out there. Granted, it costs a bit more...a whole $5-10 per brick. On noes!

However, Mini-mags are supersonic in everything I put them in, including pistols. As a result the crack is a bit loud. It's just unconfotable enough for me to wear hearing protection.

However, if you start shooting the subsonic or "standard" velocity loads (anything less than 1070-1090 fps) the crack is gone. Thus a very quiet firearm. The main consequence is that you are now pretty well limited to lead bullets with no copper wash. Dynapoints were standard velocity and copper washed, but Winchester has discontinued them in .22LR.

So, something to consider. I personally think it's much more fun shooting without muffs or crap jammed in my ears.

As far as .22 ammo, the 'bricks' (500 or 550 rounds) will do just about anything. They are all 38-40gr and have a hollow point that means nothing.

You may want to take a look at the Remington 597 that has been out a couple of years. It's far more accurate out of the box than my 10-22 was. In addition it has a synthetic stock which for may son was important as it fit him better.

In order to make the 10-22 (that had shot 5000-6000 rounds through it) as accurate as the Remington was out of the box I replaced the barrel with a Green River bull barrel.

Buy a brick of the Winchester, Federal, and Remington. Which ever is the most accurate in your rifle is the one to go with. My stock 10-22 was better with Federal, my 10-22 with the new barrel is still better with Federal, my son's Remington 597 is better with Winchester so we stock both Federals and Winchester.

Terry
============================

Quoted: I took my 16-year-old daughter and her boyfriend out shooting the other day and she unexpectedly fell in love with shooting my Bushmaster M4A3. Once she found out what the sights were used for and I taught her not to shoot six feet above the target toward houses and livestock, she caught on fast and started getting damn close to target at 100 yards. Her boyfriend is a dam good shot for a teen and I think she believes it would be cool to shoot with him (she can definitely keep him in line now). To shorten this up, I am now going to buy -- along with her excitement -- a Ruger 10/22 from the local Academy Sports. I'm glad too. Now I'll have something else to burn ammo up with aside from my precious Q3131 and Fed XM193. So, what's the recommendation on bullet grain weights and muzzle velocity advice in .22LR  caliber? I'll probably buy a ton of the stuff -- a few thousand rounds for sure. Mostly for target and plinking that won't foul up my Ruger's innards. I can also spring for a 100 or so rounds of some superior stuff as well. What your advice there? I don't shoot the Russian stuff in my Bushhy baby. But it is the Wolf and Barnaul stuff ok in the Ruger. How about the Aguilla stuff? Should I just stick with Federal and Winchester, etc. Also, is there a really cool ammo out there for a .22, like tracers or penetrators? Any such thing as millitary surplus for .22LR? Would appeciate some good input from fellow Jarheads ... or even some of you Army pukes as well. Semper Fi!

As others have stated get a bunch of different ammo to se what the rifle will shoot best.  Since I dont shoot huge numbers of round through my 10/22 I only buy the good stuff that shoots well out of my rifle- Federal Gold Medal Target and RWS/Dynamit Nobel Target Rifle.  They are both fairly inexpensive and very accurate for me.  FWIW RWS make several grades of ammo and the Target Rifle is on the bottom end.

+1 for getting the 10/22 target model.  One of the best firearm investments I have made.

Seydou

ETA: Off bags with good ammo, I get nickle size groups @ 50yds, with just an out of the box 10/22 target model.  

For cheap bulk we have had good luck with Remington 525ct bulk boxes, Federal American Eagle, and Thunderbolts. Stinger shoots great! But gets expensive. For accuracy we find that the Wolf Target Match shoots very well, even better than Federal Gold Match in some rifles but Wolf .22 target ammo is not cheap.