Give Wolf Match Target a try. A bit hard to find except online and sometimes at gun shows but all 3 of my Marlins (81TS, 880SQ, and 881) love it and all 3 rifles will shoot 5 round groups that can be easily covered with a dime at 25 yds.
Bought a case at a time online it will end up costing, including shipping, somewhere around $30 a brick plus or minus a couple of bucks depending on who ya get it from. Gun shows are sometimes $26 - $28 a brick.
I did an informal and non scientific "ammo test" using all 3 Marlins and Wolf Match Target shooting 5 round groups. The difference in groups for all 3 guns was .07 of an inch! All 3 shot that close to the same. (Bipod, bench rest, rear bag, same scope used on all 3... tip off weaver mounts and resighted in each time, very calm day, shooter happened to be "on" that day also.) I can only assume... like I said, informal and non scientific test, .... that because all 3 guns share the same receiver and micro-groove rifling they apparently? shoot darn near the same.
During that "test" I also tried Dynapoints, Fed Lightning, CCI GreenTag, Fed Gold Medal, and Rem Golden Bullet ammo.... only the Fed Gold Medal and GreenTag came close to matching the results of the Wolf. The "cheap" ammo would work for shooting small game but those groups were quarter sized. I didn't bother trying any of the very "expensive" ammo since I wouldn't be able to afford spend a day shooting expensive ammo.
Now that was an informal test so your results may vary but I'm convinced that Marlin makes very good rifles and Wolf makes very good .22 Match Target ammo.
