Your first 2 paragraphs are a great explaination as to why loading your own ammo will be better. Just like centerfire, your able to tune everything to your specific barrel.davidjoe makes some very good observations. Some lots are better than others over a greater number of barrels. But no lot shoots well in all competive rifles. It's not simply because of different amounts of powder between rounds as there are other very significant factors in ammo production that go into making consistent and accurate ammo. In short, it's not only the amount of powder that makes differences.
There are two basic reasons why there is no such thing as a universal and perfect ammo. One is that each lot is unique. Each one has it's own peculiarities derived from variables in components and/or production.
The other is that all barrels are relatively unique. Even barrels on the same model of factory rifle are not identical. The same goes for custom barrels, although differences may not be as distinct or easy to identify. In addition to the obvious differences of length and diameter, among the characteristics of barrels that influence the way they can shoot are metalurgical differences between and within them. In other words they may not be metallurgically 100% homgenous from breech to muzzle. Bore diamter and concentricity can also vary between barrels and within them. For example, one barrel may be tighter in places where another one is not. Differences also can occur in the interior surface of the bore, ranging from how smooth or rough the bore is to the characteristics and condition of the rifling. When differences in chambers are included, it can be seen that rifle barrels can be like faces in that many may be similar but none are identical just as in twins.
To return to the question of perfect lots, it may be helpful to consider different lots of Eley Tenex, a top tier match ammo. Eley used to show the testing results with each lot of ammo with the Eley Lot Analyzer, now no longer available online. The results were produced by testing each lot through four different test barrels. The test tunnel ten-shot group results were scored electronically and the barreled actions were clamped in fixtures.
Below are the results of various lots of Eley Tenex.
The first one below is a relatively consistent lot in all four barrels, with at least some good ten-shot groups from each barrel.
Below is another lot, which is not unique for Tenex in that it has consistent results in only two of the test barrels. The barrels with obviously larger groups still had a few good ones. The unfortanate thing is that similar results are not unusual with Tenex ammo.
It underscores the need to lot test ammo -- even the top level match ammos -- to find what lot or lots shoot well in a particular rifle.
Below are other examples of different lots of Tenex. In none of them is the ammo consistent across four barrels. In some lots, a barrel or two might shoot some very good ten-shot groups but not all groups are good.
Of course, the Eley Lot Analyzer couldn't be used to find the best lot for a shooter's rifle. He would have to lot test to find the ammo on his own.
Cutting Edge 22LR Ammo Is Here
- Thread starter wedgy
- Start date
1Merlin
Silver $$ Contributor
I saw a Tube vid of a couple of guys shooting 1000 with a rimfire. I would love to see a batch of handloads tested at 1000. I would think the bullets shape would make a huge difference with the results being vastly superior. Curious as to at what distance the bullets higher BC would start to really make a clear difference ...
Has to BC been mentioned?
Has to BC been mentioned?
The history of reloading .22LR ammo is spotty at best. The tools for the purpose have been relatively simple. This leads to a couple of questions about reloading today. They are at the end of this post.
Until recently, reloading .22LR ammo was something that was geared to appeal to those looking at the possibility of having to reload for times when factory rimfire ammo was unavailable. These were people who wanted to be prepared. A few kits were available such as the Sharpshooter Reloader and the AMG 22LR Reloader.
These kits came with bullet molds and crimping tools. An example is shown below.
The crimping tool, which doubles as a mold, seems it would be somewhat less precise than what might be expected for match ammo. But it's not made for a match grade product.
Since primed cases were not available until very recently, no one expected match quality reloaded .22LR ammo. The big problem was that primed casings were not available and reloaders had to reuse and prime old casings themselves. It did not make for great quality ammo. As one of the few reliable reviews of the kit ammo notes
Handloading for competition is synonymous with precision. So far in testing I have not found reloading .22 LR to provide what we would call “target precision,” most likely due to the difficulty in working with such tiny quantities of priming compound and powder: a small deviation in a 1-grain .22 LR powder charge has far more significance in performance than the same error in a 48-grain .30-06 powder charge.
See Shooting Sports USA | Reloading .22 Long Rifle—a new option for competitors (ssusa.org)
But now there's a big difference. FedArms has made available primed .22LR cases for the reloader.
The only primed brass available is the FedArms brass. Below are examples of the two varieties of FedArms casings. They may be identical other than the headstamping, but the supplier doesn't give further information about how they're made.
Reloaders limited to these casings have at least their availablility to celebrate, whereas only a short time ago there wasn't any .22LR primed casings available at all. According to FedArm's website, these are something that match ammo casings are not -- and that is multi-purpose casings suitable for a very wide range of purposes, including making blanks.
Brand new .22lr (22 long rifle) primed casings ready for loading. These are bi-metal brass plated casings made in 2018 used for producing .22LR ammunition. Will come with either the FedArm star logo headstamp, SO headstamp, or no headstamp. These are packaged in 100 round certified shipper plastic pucks, which you can re-use for your ammo.
These casings can be used with our CB 18 Gr subsonic bullets or your own cast or swaged bullets to load match grade ammunition to your specs. Or can be used to make blanks or crimped blanks.
Is there any evidence that these casings equal or exceed the dimensions and consistency of match ammo brass? Is there any evidence regarding priming compound application and consistency?
What kind of crimping tool is used for reloaded .22LR ammo?
Until recently, reloading .22LR ammo was something that was geared to appeal to those looking at the possibility of having to reload for times when factory rimfire ammo was unavailable. These were people who wanted to be prepared. A few kits were available such as the Sharpshooter Reloader and the AMG 22LR Reloader.
These kits came with bullet molds and crimping tools. An example is shown below.
The crimping tool, which doubles as a mold, seems it would be somewhat less precise than what might be expected for match ammo. But it's not made for a match grade product.
Since primed cases were not available until very recently, no one expected match quality reloaded .22LR ammo. The big problem was that primed casings were not available and reloaders had to reuse and prime old casings themselves. It did not make for great quality ammo. As one of the few reliable reviews of the kit ammo notes
Handloading for competition is synonymous with precision. So far in testing I have not found reloading .22 LR to provide what we would call “target precision,” most likely due to the difficulty in working with such tiny quantities of priming compound and powder: a small deviation in a 1-grain .22 LR powder charge has far more significance in performance than the same error in a 48-grain .30-06 powder charge.
See Shooting Sports USA | Reloading .22 Long Rifle—a new option for competitors (ssusa.org)
But now there's a big difference. FedArms has made available primed .22LR cases for the reloader.
The only primed brass available is the FedArms brass. Below are examples of the two varieties of FedArms casings. They may be identical other than the headstamping, but the supplier doesn't give further information about how they're made.
Reloaders limited to these casings have at least their availablility to celebrate, whereas only a short time ago there wasn't any .22LR primed casings available at all. According to FedArm's website, these are something that match ammo casings are not -- and that is multi-purpose casings suitable for a very wide range of purposes, including making blanks.
Brand new .22lr (22 long rifle) primed casings ready for loading. These are bi-metal brass plated casings made in 2018 used for producing .22LR ammunition. Will come with either the FedArm star logo headstamp, SO headstamp, or no headstamp. These are packaged in 100 round certified shipper plastic pucks, which you can re-use for your ammo.
These casings can be used with our CB 18 Gr subsonic bullets or your own cast or swaged bullets to load match grade ammunition to your specs. Or can be used to make blanks or crimped blanks.
Is there any evidence that these casings equal or exceed the dimensions and consistency of match ammo brass? Is there any evidence regarding priming compound application and consistency?
What kind of crimping tool is used for reloaded .22LR ammo?
I have no plans to ever prime my own cases currently. I have the FedArms on hand and have tested them. They work for plinking ammo, no matter how I’ve sorted them, I couldn’t get them up the an acceptable level of consistency.
I don’t crimp. I make my own neck sizing die. I’ll eventually make a bushing die. Also made my own seating die. the bullet seats against the case mouth.
I don’t crimp. I make my own neck sizing die. I’ll eventually make a bushing die. Also made my own seating die. the bullet seats against the case mouth.
My bullet has a .250g1 the cutting edge bullet they have available for preorder have a .111g1
I run .138 for Lapua centerX for comparison
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My full jam is engaging the bullet completely into the rifling leaving about.015” from case mouth. This is a test barrel for me so I can easily change chamber dimensions to see what works. I am waiting for another Ezell PD tuner so I can cut barrel back to 21” from the current 26”. The RimX action captures the rim in the extractor so pulling out a chambered round is no issue. This would not work in my Anschutz 1907 using conventional claws. All of this may not work well but wanted to give it a try. With a copper bullet don’t think I could use this same approach but I could tailor the chamber for what works best. I like concept of the copper bullet for long range potential though.
Indeed. While priming .22LR casings to simply fire may be one thing, it's an entirely different proposition to prime casings to produce consistently accurate ammo. It remains a real challenge for match ammo makers. The match ammo makes such as Eley use a multi-step process that changes inert materials placed inside the casing to an explosive primer that is as good as it gets.
Primer material must be consistent in amount and application. As Dick Metcalf notes in an illuminating article about Eley ammo production, it has long been known that case-to-case variation in the amount of priming material is the most important factor regarding variations in .22 LR rimfire performance. This is due to the fact that in small rimfire cartridges the primer is a significant portion of the actual propelling charge (much more so than in larger centerfire cartridges) and because conventional priming compound is too sensitive to be aggressively metered and applied.
The Best of The Best Gets Better (shootingtimes.com)
As noted previously, the amount of propellant used in producing consistent match ammo is only one of several factors. Eley loads powder in only five rounds at a time when loading Tenex. Regarding other factors that go into making consistent .22LR match ammo, Eley identifies fifty "primary variable" such as propellant mass (weight), bullet mass, and internal case volume. They also track 200 secondary variables such as ambient humidity during assembly, casing metallurgy, and human competence. There are another 700 tertairy variables that Eley feels may influence production quality, including weather conditions in the country where the propellant was produced for a certain lot of Tenex.
And despite all these efforts, top tier ammo like Tenex is far from perfect.
For a look at some of the challenges involved in producing factory .22LR ammunition in general, see this 2017 article from American Rifleman American Rifleman | What You Should Know About .22 Rimfire
Regarding crimping, the relevant part about how crimping tension variation -- or how tightly the brass is sized to "grip" the bullet itself -- is a general observation that serves to remind shooters about the important of this part of the ammo-making process.
Crimping the .22 LR bullet into the case mouth properly remains a constant problem. Too heavy a crimp may push MAPs over the limit, adversely affect accuracy and cause leading. Too light a crimp may result in erratic breech pressures, high variations in muzzle velocity, excess unburned propellant and malfunctions in semi-automatic firearms. As if this were not enough, the driving knives on the crimping operation mangle the bullet.
If a neck sizing die can be made to produce the correct and equally consistent crimp for each reloaded round, that's a major hurdle that's been crossed.
this is an old thread i know,, how has testing gone... we used to have nbrsa rimfire group nationals I remember a guy from ohio shooting rimfire ammo he loaded in his rail gun.(i think his name was haney) & for a while Federal dominated the ir 50/50 game.. They even won gold in the olympics,, but it was too costly for them to maintain,, so they quit making the top notch winning ammo... maybe loading our own will work,, but i seem to remember too that the priming was the expensive/critical part.. i've not found much testing results on this (with cci primed cases).. anybody getting good groups?
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