Went To The Range Today

[bjtraz]

So, as the title says, I went with one goal in mind, to find, hopefully, one flavor of 22LR ammo for all of my handguns. I have a S&W 22a, a Browning Buckmark UDX plus, and a Ruger Mark III. I took 7 different flavors of ammo, and loaded up 3 mags of each for all three guns. I didn't worry about accuracy, only what would reliably cycle through each. I learned a couple of things and reiterated a thing or two I already knew.

The ammo I took was: Federal bulk copper washed round nose, Winchester Wildcat lead round nose, Remington 22 Cyclone lead round nose, CCI Mini Mags copper washed hollow point, CCI Standard Velocity lead round nose, CCI Mini Mag copper washed round nose and Winchester Super X copper washed hollow point. I know 30 rounds of each flavor is not a true test, but instead an indication of what to expect.

First, the thing I already knew.........the S&W 22a devoured everything I fed it! With the exception of a couple of misfires, which are ammo related, not even one hiccup. No FTE's, no FTF's, flawless. Even the misfires fired upon subsequent firings with the exception of one that I couldn't get to go bang no matter what I did.

Another thing I already knew, the Buckmark does NOT like Federal bulk. In 30 rounds, I had 9 FTE's, meaning the empty case came about 3/4 way out of the chamber, hung there, and the slide picked up the next round and double fed. I also had 6 stove pipes. I'm not sure about this as I'm positive I didn't limp wrist. I'm thinking it is an ejection issue, just not sure what. I had similar results with the Winchester Wildcat. The rest of the ammo results were satisfactory, with a couple of stove pipes total.

The one unknown was the Ruger. I recently acquired it and had very few rounds down range with it. Only 1 FTE/double feed with Winchester Wildcats. But I also had 6 stove pipes spread throughout all of the ammo. Actually 1 each with all of the ammo, except CCI Standard Velocity, which had none. If I had to pick just one, this ammo performed best with all of the guns, just wanted to find a cheaper alternative.

The one question I have is the stove pipes. Is there another reason besides limp wrists that cause this? I mean, it's 22 LR! C'mon, how weak do you have to be to shoot these? I'm not a newb to shooting either. I shoot everything up to and including a 44 mag and have been to a couple shooting classes. I'm NO expert by anyone's definition, but not a rookie either.

Brian

[Hazcat]

Sometimes if the slide is too slick or the sprig too strong it will cause stove pipes as the slide returns too quickly.

[tombogan03884]

Also it could be a magazine issue. I had a BuckMark that I bought an after market mag for, the follower was not right and would move forward and back in the mag it fed the rounds at to steep an angle so every round was a stove piped failure to feed.
If your problem is on ejection then I would say Haz is right.
Your post surprises me. Except for that crap magazine the worst experience I had with my BuckMark was Eley ammo shot extremely dirty, I had to clean the pistol after every 50 rounds. Otherwise it fed and shot everything with no problem.
Standard velocity were more accurate, but that is physics, nothing to do with the gun.

[alfsauve]

My Buckmark need to be broken in.   There were failures out of the box but as I approached 500 rounds the failure rate dropped to almost zero.

[SCfromNY]

I have MANY rounds through a Ruger MKIII, which by the way is so much fun to shoot. So here is what I found.

Remington: Gold no go, older "target" Ok, Cheap & Dirty Thunderbolts work fine.
CCI: Everything worked fine
Federal: either bricks, 50ct, or match were fine
Winchester X: did not like
Oley: Big surprise that this sucked for me.
American Eagle: OK but I did not like the way they shot

I also have a Sig conversion that is fine with Federal and CCI Mini Mags.

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