Why does USA not have a target 22LR ammo that will compete ?

[TRSR8]

The original GMM with the dimpled head was made by Federal. It was discontinued by the bean counters to be able to make blaster ammo. It is a shame that no one makes Olympic quality ammo in this country.

it was discontinued for the simple reason that not nearly enough buyers showed up to continue production, all the tooling was sold off.

 

[centershot]

Federal made a low cost dimpled cartridge called a 711b. It was accurate and very slow. I believe it was under 1,000 fps. Still have some. Problem with it was that there were a lot of miss fires in it.
Another FYI is that I found if you weighed each cartridge and shot it as a group of weight, it made almost any ammo more accurate. Even better than using a rim thickness gauge.

 

[SteveUrban]

Federal made a low cost dimpled cartridge called a 711b. It was accurate and very slow. I believe it was under 1,000 fps. Still have some. Problem with it was that there were a lot of miss fires in it.
Another FYI is that I found if you weighed each cartridge and shot it as a group of weight, it made almost any ammo more accurate. Even better than using a rim thickness gauge.

I remember that 711. It was slow compared to the UM1or the 900 I have. I have sorted some of the Federal Auto Match by weight and got some great groups with the lightest weight. I found that the heavier the weight was the larger the group was at 50 yards. I just did the test to see if I could find some cheaper ammo to shoot at 50&100 and save the 900 for 150&200 yards.

 

[bgibbon]

I don't mean to burst your bubble, but yes, the Rimfire matches have been taking place for a long time. My .22RF Benchrest rifle was built over 25 years ago. I don't see it going away. People are going to compete with everything.

I was on my High School Rifle team 60 years ago. The rifle then could have been as expensive, comparatively speaking, as rifles today. Some cost much more than I could afford at the time.

The cost of a Benchrest .22 LR is very little different than for a centerfire. My stock is identical to my 30BR. the custom action, match barrel and quality scope are pretty much identical in cost.

Hello everyone, new here and first comment!

To the point, though, I also thought this was a strange thing to read (rimfire competitions being a "new" thing, which they certainly aren't. My club has a rather spectacular trophy awarded annually for our summer "Long Range Competition" (by which we mean 50m/100yrds, a Dewar basically) and the names/date go back over 70 years.

Not to mention the fact that the Olympics have included small bore rifle shooting events since the London 1908 games, which had several!

 

[Westex]

thx for all replies ! but with the technology that goes into 22 ammo i know there is way more than what i know . but come on ! bullet design and hardness and alloy , primer materials , powder I know thats not a problem , brass alloy and hardness, bullet crimp , and bullet coating . I know some manufacture could do this in US and make money with a good quality ammo with todays market .

 

[dgeesaman]

Hello everyone, new here and first comment!

To the point, though, I also thought this was a strange thing to read (rimfire competitions being a "new" thing, which

I think that was my post, which was intended to immediately follow the post that listed NRS, PRL, and the other 'tactical' rimfire competitions, and I was only talking about those. Those are the new rimfire disciplines and account for the majority of recent growth in rimfire competition and match ammo consumption.

David

 

[bgibbon]

I think that was my post, which was intended to immediately follow the post that listed NRS, PRL, and the other 'tactical' rimfire competitions, and I was only talking about those. Those are the new rimfire disciplines and account for the majority of recent growth in rimfire competition and match ammo consumption.

David

Oh I see! Apologies, that makes total sense.

 

[Daryl]

Federal did match the russian not 40 yrs ago but getting close! In the 1990’s Federal 1000b was used by many in Benchrest shooting especially IR50 Sporters. It had the center indented case forcing the primer material to the outside the case mimicking the Russian Olymp ammo. The Russian was good stuff and Federal was wise to copy it. The 1000b was a tad slower speed than the 1000a.
At our local IR matches there was lots of both a and b used and was favored over the Eley product of the time.
Jerry Halcomb

The story I was told, back in the day, we are talking early 90's, the Ruskies Olympic teams had the best 22rf ammo. It was so good and controlled, that whatever amount of ammo the shooter got, he/she had to turn in that amount of fired cases or the ammo they didn't shoot. But eventually some of that ammo got to the west and that was what Federal patterned their dimpled ammo after. I have a full box of the original Russian Olympic ammo from back then. This new Federal ammo ( I don't know if it was 1000a or b) was the ammo that Launi Melli used to win the Gold at the 92 Olympics.

 

[nockhunter]

Last year or the year before, Federal was advertising a new 22lr Match. I emailed them multiple times with no response. This is one of the pics.



Mike

 

[nockhunter]

This one also

 

[nilebartram]

I remember in the 60's thru 80's, USA made some good target 22lr ammo. Green box Peters target, Remington target, CCI green label and standard velocity. PMC offered a match rifle, Russian biathlon, green box was really good and all of these 22lr had great prices. Never tried Federal, cause I never saw any in stock. All sold out.

 

[ebb]

I was curious about everyone saying that it wasn't profitable to make 22 LR ammo domestically. I am not sure what all this means but, I am pretty sure that this is not right. Eley 10X I found at 12.85 per box of 50. CCI standard velocity (not junk) is 2.60 a box. So Eley is 48 cents per round and CCI std is 5.2 cents per round. If i was making them I would want .48 cents per round rather than 5.2. I would guess that its more of an issue with a work force that is so used to high speed mediocrity, that getting them to produce super accurate match ammo is not going to happen. Plus shooters are fickle they want to win, if Eley or Lapua is more accurate they are not going to wait around for a few years for the local boys to get it right.

 

[RGRobinett]

Last year or the year before, Federal was advertising a new 22lr Match. I emailed them multiple times with no response. This is one of the pics.

View attachment 1582530

Mike

Earlier today, Graff & Sons had this item IN STOCK. RG

 

[1911nut]

Earlier today, Graff & Sons had this item was IN STOCK. RG

Yep, in stock , $6.49 / 50

its labeled 711b

 

[c3d4b2]

Looking st the startup path, it seems to be a steep hill to climb.....

1) What is the product development cost?
2) What is the production startup, equipment and debug costs?
3) What is the ongoing production cost to maintain a top tier product (SPC, Testing, QC.....)?
4) What is the cost to entice customers away from their historical favorites?

And on the executive side.... What happens to your golden job if the endeavor fails?

 

[nockhunter]

I didn't see that. So has anyone tried this stuff?

Mike

 

[jpjulian]

The old Federal dimpled ammo was beyond my means when it was produced but I did try some in my 52D and it shot well enough but Center-X and Midas always shot better. I recall the old 711b was pretty good ammo but others have said, I did get misfires in every box so quit buying it.

 

[Dgd6mm]

True match ammo……there are no 2-3 fliers per box.

True Match Ammo, which ones are they.
Any specific order?

 

[dgeesaman]

My list of match ammo:
Lapua CenterX, Midas+, X-Act, Polar Biathlon, Long Range, Super Long Tange
Eley Match, Tenex, Tenex Biathlon
RWS R50, R100, Special Match

And any pistol versions of the above.

There are long range variants and lower end match ammo options that I’m not current on and may not be available here in the states.

I’ve shot the Long Range ammo some and had good experience with it. But if it goes supersonic it won’t shoot well.

SK, Norma, and Wolf can be match ammo if you get a good lot.

Match ammo always has clear lot number markings. No lot numbers, not enough quality control.

Aguila and Federal ‘match’ ammo needs more to it than just match in the name.

 

[lawman29]

Last year or the year before, Federal was advertising a new 22lr Match. I emailed them multiple times with no response. This is one of the pics.

View attachment 1582530

Mike

This is not a new ammo, just a new box.


This was the good stuff...