To whom it may concern:
re: This stuff
Contrary to what it says on the box, this “target grade performance” .22 ammo, supposedly “ideal for semi-auto” actually isn’t any of those things, as I discovered at my favorite (indoor) range yesterday.
Out of the 325 rounds contained in said box, I experienced no fewer than 28 failures to fire (FTF) — all, it should be said, did fire the second time around — and to be frank, the “target grade” accuracy wasn’t anything to write home about, either (more on that in a bit).
Now I know what comes next: “Your rifle isn’t working properly! Check the firing pin!”
Ahem. I fired 100 rounds through each of the following (same range session, btw):
By rifle (top to bottom):
Taurus Mod 63 (Winchester ’63 clone): 7 FTF
Marlin Mod 60: 8 FTF
Ruger 10/22: 9 FTF
All three were meticulously maintained and cleaned, all are either fresh out of the box or nearly so, and none has had more than 100-odd rounds fired through them. Sorry, but a 7-9% failure rate in ammo which is supposedly “target grade” sucks dick worse than Madonna on her last Saturday night drunken pub crawl. Honestly, I get better results from the awful Remington Gold 500-round bulk ammo.
And by the way, all the rounds fed flawlessly, whether through a tube mag or the 10/22 magazine — the rifles, in other words, were without fault.
Now for that accuracy thing.
I will frankly admit that my old eyes do not engender the best accuracy in the world with iron sights, but I’ll also suggest that a 2.5″ (best) grouping at 20 yards is not really acceptable off the bench — at least, not to me it isn’t.
So I fired off the last 25 rounds (4 FTF, FFS) through something a little more accurate — a rifle which usually gets sub-1″ groups at the same distance. Here’s a full picture of the rifles I took to the range:
I would humbly suggest that in my shaking old hands, that Marlin 880SQ (top) is as good as any “target” rifle for the price, and better than just about any other of that type that I’ve fired before.
The result: 1.75″ (best 5-round grouping of the five strings, the others were over 2″). So I popped off five rounds of its usual feed (CCI MiniMag 40gr), and got a 0.72″ group with a called marginal “flier” — excluding that, it was a 0.5″ single hole. Now that’s what I call “target grade” performance.
You guys need to step up your game. And fix your frigging priming compound.
