US Rimfire Match Ammo

[NZ_Fclass]

Read any review of good rimfire rifles and we see the best results with Lapua, Eley, SK, Norma and RWS. With the building popularity of rimfire PRS, Benchrest and F-Class (starting to gain a few numbers in NZ too) why isn't a US company making decent match ammo? Just writing Match on the outside of the box does not constitute decent match ammo - or are the manufacturers content to leave it to the Europeans with current/future shipping issues?
I do realise the commercial sense of making the most popular and "cheap" ammo - but with a higher price point established by the imported premium brands, I would have imagined that a US company may have stepped up.

Before anyone suggests that we should make it in NZ - great idea! Except that New Zealand is devoid of metals. Other than iron sand and some gold, we do not have much. All of our other metals are imported. Even the aluminium smelter in the South island relies on imported ore and exists for cheap hydro-electric power ( and closing within a few years anyway).

 

[Racerman56]

Not only are none of the US companies making it, I see hardly any retailers stocking any match level 22 ammo. We are limited to online only for the most part.

 

[Desert Fox]

Cutting Edge is making rimfire match bullet and primed case.

 

[bennett ford]

Lones Wigger would regale anyone who'd listen to his experience as a technical advisor to Federal when they committed to making Olympic grade ammo for the American team. They could not believe the quality control necessary to produce ammo of that grade. Federal stuck to it for a couple of years but gave it up around 1995. WW had made some really good stuff during the late 60s and 70s. the market for nose bleed priced .22 ammo is much larger in Europe and GB then here. Look at how many grades of Ely and Lapua there are. that's QC in action

 

[grauhanen]

There hasn't been any good .22LR match ammo made in the USA since about 2002 when Federal discontinued its Gold Medal Ultra Match UM1B.

Making good quality .22LR match ammo is not easy and requires considerable investment. It's not a simple matter of recalibrating existing machinery. As George Frost observed in his chapter "The .22 Match Cartridge" in his book Ammunition Making,

Unless someone comes up with a magic formula that makes good match quality ammunition as easy to produce as regular cartridges, nobody is apt to make much money out of producing .22 Rimfire Match ammunition.

 

[tominboise]

Also probably 90% of the rimfire shooters in America don't care and/or can't measure the performance difference between plinking, target and match ammo. They are selling to their market demands.

The other 10% are on this forum and rimfirecentral.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Read any review of good rimfire rifles and we see the best results with Lapua, Eley, SK, Norma and RWS. With the building popularity of rimfire PRS, Benchrest and F-Class (starting to gain a few numbers in NZ too) why isn't a US company making decent match ammo? Just writing Match on the outside of the box does not constitute decent match ammo - or are the manufacturers content to leave it to the Europeans with current/future shipping issues?
I do realise the commercial sense of making the most popular and "cheap" ammo - but with a higher price point established by the imported premium brands, I would have imagined that a US company may have stepped up.

Before anyone suggests that we should make it in NZ - great idea! Except that New Zealand is devoid of metals. Other than iron sand and some gold, we do not have much. All of our other metals are imported. Even the aluminium smelter in the South island relies on imported ore and exists for cheap hydro-electric power ( and closing within a few years anyway).

We dont produce lead in the USA anymore so we are in the same boat

 

[flatlander]

I've brought up this same subject a couple of times on other sites, and have been told it's a pipe dream to expect any U.S. company to invest what it'd take to produce true match quality 22RF ammo. I counter that opinion with the fact that the market for precision 22RF rifles has grown exponentially over the past 6yrs. Looking at all the posts here, and on RFC & Snipers Hide from shooters who are waiting 6 months+ to receive a new Vudoo rifle speaks volumes on how popular these expensive precision rifles have become. Add in several other brands of high quality custom 22RF rifles such as Zermatt RimX and Ultimatum Deuce, plus the moderately priced Bergeras, and it becomes obvious that there are more and more shooters who're very interested in precision rifles and the quality ammunition that's needed to get the accuracy potential out of their custom barrels. No doubt that if SK/Lapua, Eley, and RWS were capable of producing enough match grade ammo to satisfy the demand here in the States, there wouldn't be much talk of an American ammo company producing ammo good enough to compare to the European brands. But the worldwide covid pandemic knocked match ammo production down a ton, and did so as the above mentioned precision rifles were creating more demand for such ammo than had existed at any time in the past few decades - sort of a perfect storm.

It remains to be seen whether European match ammo production will ever catch up with demand here in the U.S. - I'd think it'd be far more likely that SK/Lapua would expand their production facilities than for a U.S. company to invest in producing true match quality 22RF ammo - but would love to be proven wrong!

 

[mgdietrich]

Margin- Top line 22 ammo, doesn't make the same margin that plinker ammo does. That is why there is no US supplier of it, and wont be. Federal did it last, and was very successful but the accountants killed that program because margin compared to the lesser ammo lines.

Just be thankful that Eley, Lapua and RWS still make great stuff.

 

[tomswede]

Margin- Top line 22 ammo, doesn't make the same margin that plinker ammo does. That is why there is no US supplier of it, and wont be. Federal did it last, and was very successful but the accountants killed that program because margin compared to the lesser ammo lines.

Just be thankful that Eley, Lapua and RWS still make great stuff.

In Europe there is a very limited market for plinking ammo so it make sense that the ammo manufacturers would cater to the target shooting crowd. What I don’t understand why don’t anybody here in the US produce target grade ammo, can the volume of cheap ammo make up for the relatively low margins?
Of course there is CCI green tag, expensive without being good.

 

[Tommie]

During Federal’s tippy toe into the match ammo world, their cheap rimfire ammo seemed to get some of the love. Remember those ninety nine cent boxes of Lightning ammo at Wal Mart? Myself and some buddies were shooting rimfires at 100 yards every weekend. Whether the gun was Anschutz, Remington or Savage (and a few others) we never found ammunition that shot better than the Lightning. Kid you not. And we tried every kind of ammo we could get our hands on. We had a hard time wrapping our heads around this but it sure did make for a cheap range session.

 

[flatlander]

I bought some of the Federal/RWS Ultra Match several years ago when different retailers were selling off the left-overs of the last lots of it. I got a package of three different lots of it, and none of them shot anywhere near as good as lot-tested SK Std+, Rifle Match, or lot tested Lapua Center-X. It didn't shoot that much worse than the SK & Lapua stuff, so maybe if Federal was still importing it, I'd have been able to do lot testing and find some that would compare more favorably. AFAIK, that was the last true match grade ammo sold here in the States that was branded by a U.S. ammo manufacturer, even though it was made by RWS in Germany. Damn those Harvard MBA bean-counting accountants anyway!

 

[1911nut]

We dont produce lead in the USA anymore so we are in the same boat

That’s not true, you trying to start a run on rimfire ammo?

Most of our mined lead is a by-product or co-product in zinc and copper mines.
The last primary lead smelter did close in Missouri. Recycling provides twice what we mine per year.

 

[sw282]

I'm making the switch to rimfire. ln these days of 30cents apiece for primers l can shoot a quality rimfire bolt gun 2 or 3 times. l wouldn't be surprised if others may be switching too.

I shot a Silhouette Rimfire match this past Sat with steel targets out to 210yds. My rifle was a little CZ457 Royal in 22lr. Scoped with a 3.5-10 VX3 and shooting standard velocity CCI 40gr target.. l did reasonably well. This ammo gave 3'' groups of 10 shots @ 100yds on Friday. A box of Lapua Midas 22lr ammo showed up on my front porch yesterday.
lf everything goes as planned l will be going to the range tomorrow and compare the two @ 100yards. $6.00/50 CCIs vs $26.00/50 Lapua Midas. Anyone care to choose a winner??

 

[1911nut]

I'm making the switch to rimfire. ln these days of 30cents apiece for primers l can shoot a quality rimfire bolt gun 2 or 3 times. l wouldn't be surprised if others may be switching too.

I shot a Silhouette Rimfire match this past Sat with steel targets out to 210yds. My rifle was a little CZ457 Royal in 22lr. Scoped with a 3.5-10 VX3 and shooting standard velocity CCI 40gr target.. l did reasonably well. This ammo gave 3'' groups of 10 shots @ 100yds on Friday. A box of Lapua Midas 22lr ammo showed up on my front porch yesterday.
lf everything goes as planned i will be going to the range tomorrow and compare the two @ 100yards. $6.00/50 CCIs vs $26.00/50 Lapua Midas. Anyone care to choose a winner??

I hope it’s not the Midas

 

[VLNBYR]

The standard non-gouging price for Midas+ is somewhere around $17 a box. Please don't finance the ammo price gougers.

 

[flatlander]

I'd been hoping that the fading pandemic would allow European match ammo manufacturers to increase their production output, but the Russian invasion of the Ukraine will probably screw that up too.... I may not be totally correct, but I'd be willing to bet a few bricks of Lapua Center-X on my belief that if Trump had been re-elected, Putin wouldn't have invaded.

 

[justinp61]

Most .22 rimfire shooters are in the spray and pray crowd, then the squirrel hunters and finally the accuracy nuts. There may be some mixing of the groups, but that pretty much covers it.

The ammo companies see it (match quality) as a low volume, labor intense process to produce match grade ammo and as already mentioned. low margin.

 

[Coyotefurharvester]

It would help if an American rimfire ammo manufacturer would work with a rifle manufacturer. Producing a matching combo, could be marketed as a cost saver to the consumer, no testing required. The coming economic contraction and interest rate hikes will probably kill any chance of innovations.

 

[sw282]

Today at the range, My gun, CZ457 Royal 16.5'' barrel, 22LR. Scope 3.5-10 VX3 Leup
10 shot groups @100yds. Gun is totally stock from the box. Not even a trigger adj.
Groups were measured at extreme spread /widest part. no subtraction for bullet diameter.

1-CCI Standard Velocity Target. 40gr LRN, 1070 fps--- 1.91"

2-CCI Mini Mag Copper HP. 36gr. 1260fps--- 2.41''

3-CCI Stangers Copper HP. 32gr. 1640fps--- 6.45''- 1.38'' 7rds

4-Lapua Midas. 40gr LRN Standard Velocity, 1073fps--- 2.82''