Match Ammo

[Bob96]

How does the foriegn match ammo like Eley ESP - England and Lapua Midas - Germany compareto the best USA stuff like Federal Ultra Match?  All are very expensive.

[darkgael]

How do they compare?
It really depends on the gun. I have a number of target pistols and two fine .22 target rifles. I have tried just about all the match ammo that you mentioned.
The high priced ammo invariably shot well. But...some of the lower priced ammo did also. You need to test as many as you can to see which brands shoot well from a particular gun.
I ended up using basic Federal 711 SV .22s in my High Standard Victor because it shot as well as anything.
My Free Pistol, a Pardini, likes the higher priced Federal match ammo.
The two rifles, an Anschutz and a FWB, both shoot CCI SV well but they shoot the Federal match ammo even better. I use the CCI for practice - I cannot afford to shoot Ultra Match for practice.
Pete

[Darrell Davis]

As already said, the only way to find out is to shoot the ammo in your gun.

The current Federal match ammo is not the one which won the gold at the Olympics.

They quite making that ammo, in spite of what they may advertise, back a number of years ago.

My Ruger slabside Mark II, favors Wolf Match Extra of all the ammos tried, including the good old Federal match ammo, Eley LPS and the Lapua.

The old Federal product does very well in my Clark Custom 77/22, but then it also does very well with a number of ammos, both match and none match.

Keep em coming!

CDOC

[guzzijohn]

Once again whatever works in your gun. I would guess that the high end stuff would be more consistent anyway. The only .22s I have experimented much with is my Marlin 39A and a model 34 Remington. I tried several brands of both match and regular ammo. My Marlin ended up liking Eley and CCI Stingers the best. For the most part my model 34 didn't care what you fed it and was consistent regardless of type and brand. So...try as many as you can get and afford. You might find out that the bulk stuff works best!
GuzziJohn

[Darrell Davis]

As an interesting side light, a friend and I have had a Saturday morning "shoot off" some time during each of the last two summers.

He with his Savage Mark I single shot, which by the way is a fine shooter and me with my Clark Custom 77/22

The first year we shot mostly target/match ammo, including Eley, Lapua (two of the high end products, the out of production Federal Gold medal match which won the Olympic gold, a couple of Wolf match/target products along with a number of other .22 offerings.

We were shooting ammo from the same boxes, over the same bench/bags and Jack's Savage shot right along side my Clark, sometimes slightly better and sometimes not quite so well.

However, the over all result left me wondering about spending well over double for my rife/scope that Jack had invested in his Savage/Nikon set up.

Well, this past session, we shot with typical "off the shelf" .22s and it was a whole different story.

Jack's rifle turned in a few good groups, but by in large it lagged waaaaaay behind the Clark Custom with it's Walther barrel.

The Clark on the other hand, turned in group after nice group, with some equaling groups from the match/target products.

My question about the cost of the Clark/Leupold combination was quickly put to rest.  I did get what I paid for!

This isn't to say cheaper rifles won't shoot well, but you just may need to shoot a lot more selections before you find your rifle's "sweet spot."

By the way, Lapua has upper end match ammo labeled with an "L" or an "M" if I recall correctly, the difference being a slight difference in bullet dia.

And yes, that slight difference really does show up on the targets.

Keep em coming!

Crusty Deary Ol'Coot 

[gcrank1]

C.E. Harris has determined to my satisfaction that given a 'decent' barrel the accurracy for .22LR is all in the chamber.