What makes CCI better?

[Questor]

I know it's the reloading forum, but this is a question for seriously knowledgeable cartridge people:

Why are CCI rimfire 22LR's consistently the best American rimfire ammo? I've had problems with every other brand, but never a problem with CCI.

Most recently I had a brick of Winchester Power Points (which I don't think I'll be using anymore) that had very inconsistent ignition. It was so bad that I checked the barrel on my last shot because the report was so light I thought a bullet might be stuck in the bore. Then the next day I was at a match and another guy was having bad cycling problems with some Remington ammo that he had been using without problems for quite a while. It turns out that the Remington ammo was so good in his gun that he bought a case of 5,000. The ammo in the case is bad, and now he's stuck with it. I had some Federal 711 ammo that worked well for me, then I bought another brick and it wouldn't even enter the chamber of my gun. Same thing happened with Winchester T-22's. This sort of thing just doesn't happen with CCI.

[Greysky]

Although Winchester Super X is my preferred brand of rimfire ammo, I agree the folks who manufacture CCI/Speer products are moving ahead in terms of quality control.

You keep praising CCI ammo, and you might end-up working for them, which I think would be interesting. 

[Questor]

I don't think they'll move their operations just to suit me. But they do seem like a good outfit.

[victorcharlie]

Maybe they learned a few things from manufacturing .17HMR ammo?

[jerkface11]

 I'd say nothing makes CCI better. I've NEVER had a rimfire that would shoot them. Most of mine won't even feed them. And the ones that do won't group with it. I've tried several of their .22lr loadings a couple of .22 mag loadings. and a .17hmr load. Not one of them worked.

[Lloyd Smale]

my go to .22 ammo has become pmc zapper hps. They shoot well in everything ive tried them in.

[Graybeard]

CCI is the ONLY domestic source of ammo for the .17 HMR and the .17H2 both. I believe there is one foreign source for the HMR as well but all the various brands made in the US are made by CCI and marked and packaged as requested.

I would agree that on average CCI is most accurate of the .22LR ammo in my guns over the years with few exceptions. Back when I was shooting metallic silhouette competition most folks seemed to use the CCI HPs over match ammo even.

[jro45]

Federal 22 ammo works for me. The cci ammo never seemed to have the power. I'm not talking about reasent ammo. This is awhile ago. guess I'll have try some of the newer cci 22 ammo.

[MnMike]

When I shot 22 pistol competition, I used Federal match. It was good but pricey. Now I shoot for fun and I use mostly the 550 round packs of cheap Federal.The cheap Winchester stuff doesn't work in my Buckmark. I also shoot the CCI Velocitor for small game and varmits.

JMHO

mike

[Darrell Davis]

I fear that with CCI and Federal under the same owners, we will see a decrease in quality.

Too many bean counters in the production line.

I sure hope I am proven wrong!!

Keep em coming!

[jcunclejoe]

I recently tested all of my 22 rimfire handgun silhouette barrels and guns with a 6-18X leupold rifle scope set on 18x from a solid bench and sandbags. CCI was out in the first round of cuts in every instance. The only ones that made the final choice were various types of Eley and Lapua. Aguila showed strong and so did the Wolf Match. Of course, none of them are cheap.
Remington and Winchester would shoot one good (not great) group every once in a while and I won't even test Federal. I measured Federal case wall thickness against the others and they vary by twice what anyone else does. Can't possibly contribute to accuracy or consistency.

When I am swaging 22 bullets from rimfire cases, Federals are for recycling only.

Just what I have found through my measurements and testing.
Joe

[PaulS]

To answer the question posed at the top of this thread;
It is your gun and the way you hold it that make one ammo better than another. If I was to shoot your gun I would probably find it most accurate with a different brand of ammo. Just as guns are different and tend to "loike" certain ammo so are shooters and the way they hold the gun is different than the way you hold it. That puts pressure in different areas of the gun and changes the harmonics. Those subtle differences will change the characteristics enough to may it prefer a diferent ammo.

[ron haralson]

I'm with jcunclejoe. My match rifle(Finnish Lion) did far better with RWS Match or R50, Eley 10X, Match, or even good lots of Club, or Lapua than it did with CCI. Further, I don't believe for a moment that any reasonably skilled shooter would get different results.

CCI have a different bullet shape than the others and some of my rifles have a marked dislike for it.

As a matter of interest, why not have a look at what's being used by your aspiring national rifle team members. 

[Questor]

They'll be using European ammo most likely, except for the few that use Federal in rifles (but not in pistols because it doesn't work in most target pistols). I was originally commenting on American rimfire ammo.

[Bullseye]

I generally have the best luck with CCI in most of my 22's.

I do not know why they seem better, but by my way of thinking they should be better than most.  I say this based on the fact that they are what I would call mid-priced, more than the cheapies but less than the high dollar stuff.  In some of my guns Mini-Mags will outshoot Eley but not in everthing, but they always outshoot the cheapies in my guns.