Worst ammo I ever experienced

[Ruger]

So a number of years ago, when it was so hard to find ANY 22 LR ammo, when coming across some, I would buy it, even sight unseen.  You know, just had to make that score.  Well I broke out an unmarked box of 500 rounds of 22 LR that I picked up at a crummy little LGS that I rarely frequent; lead round nose, and began an afternoon of absolute disgust.  It was just a plain cream/light brown box, had a sticker on it of the quantity and a few details, but no manufacturer listed.  I was aware that this particular LGS sold a lot of local reloads, but 22 LR just aren't reloaded, so the box didn't bother me.  I guess I figured it was just a guy that had purchased 5000 rounds and boxed them up for resale; same guy that reloaded a lot of the ammo on display.  I didn't notice any real issues when loading the Ruger 10-22 magazines.  But after the first round headed down range, it was one FTF after another.  I never saw such a mess; the bullets were easily cocked in the brass casings each time, the lead seemed softer than normal and all had large gouges in the nose when finally dislodged from the chamber.  Man, it was frustrating.  And I had never had any problems with my Ruger 10-22 before.  So I tried the ammo in a Ruger Mk I, same thing.  Fired a few cylinders worth in one of my Sidewinders, and that is when I noticed the EXTREME residue build-up around the forcing cone.  I looked at the 10-22 mags, and sure enough, there was enough build up on the face to plant tomatoes.  Next I took a hold of one of the cartridges, and with a good grip, I could pull the lead bullet out of the casing.  All things came to a screeching halt at that point.  I called it quits for the day, retired to the cleaning bench, and took the rest of the afternoon to clean up the mess made in those three firearms.  I was amazed at the lead and power build up on the face of the Sidewinder Cylinder.  I always remove all of the lead rings and residue from the cylinder faces of my stainless steel revolvers with every cleaning.  These seemed even more difficult to clean off.  I told my son that I was just going to dump the rest (~450 rounds), but he insisted on taking them.  "In the final battle, you wont need to clean up afterwards" he said.  Maybe so.

It is amazing to me how that ammo drought a few years ago lowered my standards of acceptability in ammo.  I learned my lesson; never let your ammo stock get so below the magic number that you are hungry for whatever comes along.  At this age, you would have thought I already knew better.

[bearcatter]

No headstamp on the cases? "F", "R", whatever?  I'd think it would be in some way illegal to retail sell unidentified ammo.

Most of the shooting forums agree that Remington Thunderbolt is the worst commercial .22LR. Great for leading up barrels.

[OLD and GRUMPY]

Back in the bad days there was talk of some Russian or East Block .22 that sounds like this.  Filthy with lots of FTF.  Think some had steel cases.

It got to the point that I was digging in the dirt under the bench and cleaning up the rounds that had been dropped years ago.  They all fired.

[linux_author]

worst .22LR for me was a bulk buy of Federal from Cabelas... 20% FTF, under-charges, over-charges, and many squib loads - when i called Vista to notify it of the lot number and to attempt warranty service, i was blown off twice over the phone... attempt to file a product safety complaint with Club Fed and was blown off by the CPSC who said it wasn't a product it covers... then was blown off and censored by Cabelas on a bad review and warning about the product...

i subsequently found out that Vista's (Federal) behavior wasn't an aberration: ran into a guy at the range last week who said he was banned from calling Federal because he called so much to complain about his bad bulk .22LR purchase

i'm sticking with Fiocchi and CCI (although i do have some Aguila [dirty] and Armscor [bargain .22LR!])

willie
on the Gulf of Mexico

[Warthog]

Well, I had a LOT of 22's when they disappeared.  Had enough to donate a brick to the 4H and Boy Scouts, was able to shoot until it came back.  After it came back, I still had a bit so I waited until things got to a better point....I still think things will never get back to where they were, price or quality wise.  America is on the downslope and will be until things come to a close....

[miker]

I had a new box of Magtech 25acp with 3 duds in it.  That's probably my worst.

miker

[Boisesteve]

Along with my minis I also have a .357  6 1/2" barrel Ruger Blackhawk I named "Big Medicine". Worst ammo I've run through it was
158 gr..357 TulAmmo from Russia.  Very inexpensive, VERY! powerful, but very dirty and the steel cases stuck in the cylinders with extremely annoying frequency, sometimes requiring me to use a wooden tool to push the ejector rod so I didn't hurt my fingers.
But being basically cheap, I also tried the TulAmmo 130 gr. .38 special ammo and I was nicely surprised.  It's very inexpensive (the cost of commercial .38 reloads or even less), shoots accurately and 100% reliably, and (I assume) because of the lower pressure involved, the steel cases don't stick at all!  Fun reliable practice ammo for the .357, I recommend the .38Spl TulAmmo.
Boise Steve

[billt460]

With the exception of the high end European brands like Eley and Lapua, I think most any .22 rimfire ammo made during the shortage is not going to be up to the quality standards of the stuff being made now, or before the shortage began. Ammunition manufacturers were pushing as much product as possible out the door, as fast as they could in order to meet the consumer demands of both the shooters, as well as the hoarders. Of which there were literally millions.

Lines were kept running 24/7, instead of being shut down for routine cleaning, maintenance, and adjustments. And all of this worsened with the now popular loose packaging of the many forms of bulk .22 ammunition. That stuff didn't exist 40 years ago. All .22 ammo back then was packaged in 50 round boxes, and 500 round bricks. Bulk packaging results in much faster production. Which in turn leads to less quality control. Not to mention loose bulk packaging allows the ammo to knock and bang into itself during transport. By both the manufacturer as well as the consumer.

Today even companies like Eley are getting into the bulk packaged .22 L.R. ammunition market. None of this helps in maintaining quality of the finished product. A really good way to prove this to yourself is to look at the bullet of a .22 cartridge from a box of bulk ammo under a good magnifying glass. Then compare it to the bullet in a tightly packaged 50 round box. The bulk packaged bullet looks pretty sorry under magnification.

There are a lot of .22 shooters out there, including myself, that will attest to the fact there are more failures to fire with bulk packaged .22 ammo, than with the more expensive boxed and brick variety. Proper packaging of any product costs additional money. That's why the bagged cereal on the bottom shelf is cheaper than the brand name boxed stuff on the top shelf at the local grocery store. The bottom inch of product ends up being dust.

When you factor all of this in, the bulk packaged product is not necessarily as good of a buy, or as cheap as some people might think.

[billt460]

The lack of quality in bulk packaged ammunition is not only limited to .22 rimfire. I had a member of my local gun club show up one morning with his AR-15, and a fresh box of 1,000 loose packaged Federal XM-193 Ball 5.56 MM ammunition. A large number of the cases had dents in them. And at least a full one third of the cartridges had loosely seated bullets that could be turned in the cases by hand. He didn't fire them for fear the bullets would be set back in the cases from recoil.

He called the outfit he purchased them from to complain. They told him they would, "look into the matter". But because all ammunition sales were final, they could not, (or perhaps to better state it), would not give him a refund. Fortunately he was also a handloader. So I told him to purchase and run the finished rounds through a Lee Factory Crimp Die. He did and that solved the problem.

But this is just another example of how bulk packaging contributes to poor overall quality of the finished product. Needless to say, that was the last box of bulk 5.56 MM ammo he ever purchased. It's just not worth it to screw around with a lot of this crap. Not becoming aggravated is certainly worth something. Shooting is supposed to be an enjoyable sport.

[billmeek]

...I think most any .22 rimfire ammo made during the shortage is not going to be up to the quality standards of the stuff being made now, or before the shortage began.

I question the idea that new (post-shortage) 22LR ammo is any better than what was produced during the shortage.  Manufacturers make more money by cutting costs.  Any time saving measures used during the shortage could still be in place today to increase profits.  One example: I know that new CCI Mini mags aren't nearly as good as the old ones.  Look at the extreme spread and standard deviation for oldd and new Mini Mags in this post:

http://naaminis.com/smf/index.php?topic=15532.msg158926#msg158926

I've since performed more testing (through rifles) with the same ammo and found the old Mini Mags performed better ballistically than the new Mini Mags.  So I've put away all my old Mini Mags rather than shooting them up.

[autofull]

remington green box, plastic case of 100 rds per box was my choice of ammo fer 30yrs. then, something just went wrong with it. we used to buy a case of 10,000 rds in the 70,s and it just worked in everything from high standard target auto,s to my whitney wolverine, remington nylon 66 and every dang revolver that i owned. now i run from it. i like cci now. just my two cents.

[robbi]

...I think most any .22 rimfire ammo made during the shortage is not going to be up to the quality standards of the stuff being made now, or before the shortage began.

I question the idea that new (post-shortage) 22LR ammo is any better than what was produced during the shortage.  Manufacturers make more money by cutting costs.  Any time saving measures used during the shortage could still be in place today to increase profits.  One example: I know that new CCI Mini mags aren't nearly as good as the old ones.  Look at the extreme spread and standard deviation for oldd and new Mini Mags in this post:

http://naaminis.com/smf/index.php?topic=15532.msg158926#msg158926

I've since performed more testing (through rifles) with the same ammo and found the old Mini Mags performed better ballistically than the new Mini Mags.  So I've put away all my old Mini Mags rather than shooting them up.

.  interesting about old vs new

[autofull]

yeah, better ways to craft ammo and it can be junk. my revolvers will set off any 22 ammo that has primer and powder in it buy semi,s can be a problem so i only save and buy the bigger buck cci for everything. i have not been sad with that choice in years.