Ammunition advice please

[Topic22]

From reading and what club members tell me, I understand different brands of ammunition can work very well, or rather badly dependent upon the rifle.

I'll follow the advice to try several brands with my newly acquired CZ 455 Varmint, 16 inch barrel but if anyone using the same rifle could give me a heads-up on their experience it would be much appreciated.

[WelshShooter]

22lr is a strange old round. Most people believe that the lubricant used plays an effect on the accuracy, and that you should clean the barrel before trying different brands.

My CZ452 has so far liked all brands of 22 except for Remington Thunderbolt, which is not all that great a round if truth be told.

I have tried Winchester T22, CCI Minimag, Emley Practice, Blazer, Lapua, Gecco and Fiocci ammo with good results.

[Topic22]

Thanks, that's a help, as is the tip about cleaning the barrel before trying different rounds....so much to learn aaarggh

[DaveB]

First question would be: What are you planning on using the rifle for? (Just because it's called a 'Varmint' doesn't necessarily mean that is what you plan to do with it.) Once we know that, we could perhaps offer some more tailored suggestions.

[FredB]

I have posted this before, but it is worth repeating;
One of our club members, the late Bert Brookes, ran the customer range at Eley. Testing was carried out with rifle actions mounted in a special fixture.
What Bert concluded after many years of testing, was that the bullet lube conditions the bore and affects accuracy. He did not recommend regular cleaning with solvents as this removes the lube conditioning from the bore. After shooting, Bert would push two dry patches through the barrel and that was his normal cleaning regime.
If the brand of ammunition was to be changed, the bore would be cleaned with solvent soaked patches, Bert never used a wire brush. He would then fire at least ten rounds of the new ammo through the rifle to re-condition the bore before best accuracy with that ammo was obtained.
Note that Eley does not use the same lubricant for all its different types of .22 ammo.
Fred

[AlieN]

I've got the same rifle (thumbhole version) and I've been through the same process. I don't compete, but I do shoot for accuracy. I started trying many of the Eley lines, starting at one of the cheaper lines (Eley Sport) and working upwards. None of them did badly, but to a small extent, I did find that the more expensive Eley ammunition gave better results than the cheaper. That's not to say that the cheaper lines were bad, just not quite as consistent. Then I tried the same thing with RWS and finally found that RWS R50 gave the most consistent results for me.

But, and this is a big but, RWS R50 is pretty expensive (£209 / 1000 from NSRA) compared to Eley club (£85 / 1000). Now I don't shoot all that much, so 1000 rounds of RWS R50 lasts me a good long time and the cost per shoot is still pretty reasonable.

You give the impression that you might be somewhat new to this (apologies if this is not the case). If this is correct, then don't get too obsessed about finding the most accurate round for your new rifle yet. Get yourself some quality time behind your CZ and practice, practice, practice. Until you have gained some proficiency this will make much more of a difference than any variation in ammunition.

[Topic22]

First question would be: What are you planning on using the rifle for?

Targets only, mainly at 50 metres but simply trying to practice and improve accuracy. Varmint barrel chosen as CZ advise this is a little more forgiving of ammunition choice and at least as accurate as lighter barrels although whatever choice of barrel or rifle at this stage will certainly outshoot me!

I have posted this before, but it is worth repeating;
One of our club members, the late Bert Brookes, ran the customer range at Eley. Testing was carried out with rifle actions mounted in a special fixture.
What Bert concluded after many years of testing, was that the bullet lube conditions the bore and affects accuracy. He did not recommend regular cleaning with solvents as this removes the lube conditioning from the bore. After shooting, Bert would push two dry patches through the barrel and that was his normal cleaning regime.
If the brand of ammunition was to be changed, the bore would be cleaned with solvent soaked patches, Bert never used a wire brush. He would then fire at least ten rounds of the new ammo through the rifle to re-condition the bore before best accuracy with that ammo was obtained.
Note that Eley does not use the same lubricant for all its different types of .22 ammo.
Fred

Thanks for posting that and interesting to me as the RFD suggested routine use of solvents was unnecessary and unhelpful.

I've got the same rifle (thumbhole version) and I've been through the same process. I don't compete, but I do shoot for accuracy. I started trying many of the Eley lines, starting at one of the cheaper lines (Eley Sport) and working upwards. None of them did badly, but to a small extent, I did find that the more expensive Eley ammunition gave better results than the cheaper. That's not to say that the cheaper lines were bad, just not quite as consistent. Then I tried the same thing with RWS and finally found that RWS R50 gave the most consistent results for me.

But, and this is a big but, RWS R50 is pretty expensive (£209 / 1000 from NSRA) compared to Eley club (£85 / 1000). Now I don't shoot all that much, so 1000 rounds of RWS R50 lasts me a good long time and the cost per shoot is still pretty reasonable.

You give the impression that you might be somewhat new to this (apologies if this is not the case). If this is correct, then don't get too obsessed about finding the most accurate round for your new rifle yet. Get yourself some quality time behind your CZ and practice, practice, practice. Until you have gained some proficiency this will make much more of a difference than any variation in ammunition.

Oh don't apologise....absolutely new to this (hence the several questions displaying ignorance) so all advice is welcome. As it happens, I've got some Eley Club and Eley Sport amongst the small variety of ammunition I'm starting off with but I'll keep the RWS R50 in mind for when the bank balance has recovered a little.


Thanks all, it's a real help having this fund of thoughtful advice available. Much appreciated!

[dromia]

Expensive ammunition may not buy you greater accuracy but it will buy you greater consistency.

Long ago when I started small bore target shooting the advice was buy the most expensive rifle you can afford and the most expensive ammunition there is.

The reason was the consistency of expensive ammunition, for instance the old Eley Rifle ammunition with the yellow label shot extremely well in all my target rifles, however every 50 to 100 rounds there would be one round that would drop out of the group and occasionally go under the target all together. That was fine for plinking but when I was shooting cards and the points counted then it was Tenex, I currently use Eley Match for all my paper punching.

So really in finding suitable ammunition you need to understand what you expect from it, finding a cheap ammunition that groups well for your gun is fine if you don't mind the odd flyer, however if consistent accuracy for points or prey is what you require then unfortunately you will need to stay with the pricey stuff.

Experimenting can be fun in itself however if you are looking for a specific round to suit your gun matching it to what you want and expect from it can save you time and money.

As with most shooting related things the biggest hurdle is learning to shoot and poor group sizes are usualy a function of poor shooting rather than gun or ammunition.

No matter how good the ammunition its limiting factor will always be the shooters ability so you need to feed that into choosing as well.

[Les]

All my .22's - including 2xCZ's - seem to like SK Standard Plus. I used to use CCI Standard, but the accuracy left a bit to be desired. The Lapua/SK gives similar results to Eley Match, at a much lower price.

[Topic22]

As with most shooting related things the biggest hurdle is learning to shoot and poor group sizes are usualy a function of poor shooting rather than gun or ammunition.

No matter how good the ammunition its limiting factor will always be the shooters ability so you need to feed that into choosing as well.

Six months ago I didn't even know what a group was in shooting terms so the initial training came as an enjoyable but nonetheless steep learning curve!

What I'm now trying to do is build on that training through practice so thanks for the advice and yes, I've no illusions about ammunition choice being a shortcut to proficiency, just trying not to make any avoidable mistakes.

All my .22's - including 2xCZ's - seem to like SK Standard Plus. I used to use CCI Standard, but the accuracy left a bit to be desired. The Lapua/SK gives similar results to Eley Match, at a much lower price.

Thanks, I'll add that to the list of things to try after I get through the first batch.