This matches what my friend and i got today. I had brought my new chronograph to the range to test it out for the first time. We tested federal champion blue box, federal automatch, federal punch, winchester wildcats "high velocity", cci mini mags varmints , cci quiets, and aguila 60 gr snipers out of a ruger wrangler, mossberg plinkster, and marlin model 60. Everything was oretty good except the federal blue box. We did 6 shot groups because we had the wrangler and wanted to keep it conistent. Ill put the average of each firearm below for the federal blue box Wrangler: average 719 fps, ES 246fps, SD 83 fps Mossberg 702 plinkster: average 1121fps, ES 253 fps, SD 93 fps Marlin model 60: average 1007 fps, ES 352fps, SD 114 fps We also had quite a few rounds that did not go off. Everything else shot pretty good and was consistent with i believe the federal punches being the most consistent
Looks like our chrono data matches pretty well! Glad I’m not the only one having these issues, hopefully Federal takes note and does something to improve the quality. Thanks for sharing your data, and thanks for watching!
@@thereloadingcraft seems like there is something really wrong with this ammo and I'll be sticking with automatch. Plus automatch is cheaper at my Walmart. Hopefully federal will fix the champion 22lr.
@@thereloadingcraft I bought some CCI Mini Mags from Sports Man's Guide about 15 yrs ago. It did the same thing as what you just illustrated. Me suspects it was FACTORY SECONDS from them. I decided to never buy any 22 rimfire from S.G. again.
This video saved me because I was about to switch to the blue box thinking it was better because it costs $4 more. Thank you so much for the information.
Not all federal blue boxes are the same. The ones marked Range Pack usually are 40 grain lead round nose, look the same as Automatch. Verify that they aren't "Champion".
@@datapro007the range pack is the most unreliable 22 on the market. I don't know how the same company can have the best and worst 22lr I've used but it does. I use automatch whenever possible.
When there was little 22 ammo to buy I purchased an 800 round blue box of Federal. Took a long time to shoot it due to failures in a semi auto rifle. Then as 22 ammo was coming back, I purchased 2k rounds of the automatch at Walmart for $21 per box. I prefer CCI Mini Mag and am really liking Aguila Super Extra.
My theory about hollow points for target ammo is that if you drop from 40 gr to 36 grains, you save 4 grains of lead for every bullet cast, so you get a free bullet for every 10 cast. When you make millions upon millions of these bullets, that's a huge savings for the manufacturer. It's 100,000 free bullets for every 1 million cast. It's like when the auto industry negotiates the price of a screw down to the 10 thousands of a penny. When you buy millions of them, the savings are huge.
Thanks for your video. The best 22LR bulk ammo for the price, accuracy, and velocity is the Aquilla .22 lr High Velocity both in the 40 gr. and 38 gr. hollowpoint version. Usually you can buy a brick of 500 rounds bulk pack for under $35.00 if you shop around and there appears to be no shortage at this time. If you have not tried them you should you will probably not be disappointed. You would think Federal would use at least a little quality control on that value pack of ammo.
Yup, 100% agreed! I love the Aguila for reliability and it shoots pretty accurately, the only downside is how waxy they are and have a tendency to gum up a little faster. Definitely better QC than the Federal’s for sure.
Thanks Al for the info. I bought a bunch of the Aquila 40 grain for $ 3. 03, 50 ct and the 38 grain hollow points for $15.19, 250 count though Sportsman Guide but, haven't shot them yet. Looking forward to pulling the trigger.
Aguila makes QUALITY ammo for every load I’ve ever fired they have some amazing 165 and 185 grain .45 ACP and I’ve used mini shells by them. JHP in 165 grain 45 auto are absolutely amazing for self defense and range shooting.
@@rustyshackleford1877 my 10/22 eats everything it’s a great platform but I agree with the lighter hollow point loads so I always go for the heavier rounds because they cycle better and take less powder to fire and cycle accordingly
I miss CCI Green Tag!!! It shot very well from every rifle I tried it in. If you have the time, equipment, and patience, weigh each of your cartridges in whatever flavor you prefer. The ones that weight close to the same will usually group togather, and you'll cut down on some of those flyers that sometimes ruin an otherwise great group!
I've used the Automatch on rabbits, squirrels, groundhogs, and even a 137 lb sow I slaughtered for a bbq. It's a fantastic load, very effective, and worth what you pay. You do not need a hp bullet for small game, especially if you're making headshots, and the soft lead bullet will flatten out pretty good even into flesh and do a great job.
1000’s of rounds through multiple rifles and pistols one Ruger 10/22 that I still struggle to wonder how it still worked with its internal rust in the ATI AR556 chassis I used.. .
@darrellhampton5057 Exactly. Folks overlook solid lead for hunting yet use soft points for hunting? Haha. Only problem with lead is the bore fouling especially at higher velocities. Just keep the bore clean.
Agreed. My small game load is CCI subsonic solids. They are accurate enough to make head shots on squirrels that are up high in trees. When I hunt rabbits its usually via spotlight at night. They fall right over when shot in the head. Automatch is my plinking round of choice.
Wow, I never would've expected those results. The Automatch is my go-to ammo, it's cheap & reliable, but I also shoot CCI which has even better performance. I've never tried the Champion, and thanks to this well-done video, I won't!
Agreed, I tend towards AutoMatch for plinking, CCI Standard Velocity for accuracy, and CCI Mini-Mags or Aguila Super Extra for cycling reliability even when used in a carbon-gummed 22.
Good video. For some reason a month or so ago I decided to try bulk box ammo have been on a steady Mini Mag diet for the last 15-20 years. Found both of the Federal bulk boxes at local Walmart. My experience was just the opposite of yours had lots of failure to go bang with the beige box round nose the hp ammo was much more consistent sounding (no chronograph so just have sound) bottom line for me was stick to the Mini Mags. Not that much more expensive and much more reliable.
I have several boxes of the red Federal 550 round packs, 36 gr hollow point that shoot well through all my rifles. I’ve not chronographed them but they seem consistent and very accurate.
I'm old enough to remember when bulk pack was 10 bucks at Wal-Mart. I didn't know what good .22 ammo was then, but I scared a lot of squirrels and pop cans, and kept my 10/22 fed with lawnmowing money. 😅 I wish I was 15, and that dumb again.
I got ya beat by a few ,.... Remington bulk-pack 7.95 at Dick;s sporting goods. Came in a Milk-dud container. Junk ammo, lotsa misfires but I scared a lot of squirrels too! Fun times.
@@jayl8034 Got you all beat, age wise. How about a 500-round brick for $5, gas was $0.50/gal. Who says the 70s were crap (if you had a job)? At least rifles are better these days.
I discovered AutoMatch during the 2020 ammo shortage at a local pawn shop. I purchased two boxes of it and compared it to the 525 round red box federal 36gr HP at my local 50' indoor range. From my three rifles (Marlin 60, Marlin 81, Savage MKII), drastically better groupings from the AutoMatch and cycling too. Only my Taurus Bobcat clone preferred the 36gr HPs. The AutoMatch is my go-to for bulk 22 ammo now and have been very happy with it the whole time.
I have been buying and using the Automatch ammo for probably more than a decade and buy it every time I see it at Walmart and mostly order it online from various vendors. Lately though Walmart has had it for a little less than 20$ bucks. We have an assortment of 22lr weapons. My son and I shoot on our private range "😊" on the property at least once a week going through a box of that Automatch each time. There are some Aquila 22lr 40gr HV that I have bought in bulk a few times that weren't bad at all and ran all my guns fine and were pretty accurate also. I always know the Fed Automatch is good stuff though and will choose that given the choice. Best Regards
Been using the AutoMatch in my Ruger 10/22 I got about 6 months ago. The 10 rd rotary mags feed it just fine. The 25 rd mags hiccup on rare occasion but overall it works pretty well for the price. I do have some "Blue Box" Federal as well but it's 40 gr LRN and I usually shoot that with my old Remington Model 582 bolt action. That old tube fed bolt gun will eat pretty much anything. With my Ruger MkIV 22/45 that I got 3 or 4 months ago, I've been using CCI Mini Mag 40 gr CPRN and thus far, aside from 4 or 5 dud rounds (still failed to fire after reloading and hitting the rim in a different spot), it has worked flawlessly after 2500 rds thus far.
Wow. Thanks for this eye opener. I routinely use the AM from WMT for plinking. A while back I got a range pack (800 rnds @ 40grain) and they have been very accurate. They are not the same as these value pack rounds. I need to try some match ammo but it is scarce and pricey if bought online.
I bought the Federal 800 round boxes as well and for the occasional flier I have had consistent results with my 22LR rimfire rounds. They are however not hollow point. I am also firing them out of my Ruger.
Federal Automatch, 40 gr. round-nose is my go to for my rifle. It’s accurate, clean, and consistent. Even more so than CCI in my rifle. Águila is also very accurate but there’s so much wax on the rounds that it cakes up my rifle and jams constantly. The federal automatch is also plenty powerful. And, I need 40 grain round-nose for hunting because 32-36 grain hp bullets don’t do well with squirrel flesh…I like to eat my game and the 40 grains don’t damage the meat nearly as bad.
Try some Brunswick Stew with squirrels like the old-timers used to do. Mm-mm good. Try to duplicate Mrs. Fearnow's recipe, but with your own meat stock.
I had a lot of problems with auto loading 22lr firearms and the cheap ammo. So, I picked up a CZ452 Military bolt action. It shoots very accurately with the cheap stuff and never jams. I had a lot of different ammo that was useless that now I can use. Good video. I recently picked up a 22lr kit for my 1 in 12 AR-15. I hope it works as good as your rifle. Thanks for making this video.
I have had to shoot all my different brands, loads, bullet types through my different types of weapons. I have found that what is crap through my semi's, may shoot great or at least better through revolvers, or bolt action. I too have noticed that those federal rounds are NOT consistent
We do the same, different .22 firearms get fed different brands and varieties...it is a minor nuisance, but fewer stoppages during a couple hours at the range the payoff...and many range days see Zero problems with hundreds of .22 shot, just from knowing what the different guns like...
Thank you very much for the video. I was just looking at the same 2 in the same you know where. I didn't purchase either and decided to come back to the house and review. You have helped me save money, and I appreciate that. Thanks again.
Just bought Federal Automatch 40 gr for 18.40 per 325 on 3250 rd case. 7/10/24. Stocked up, since looks good to go for everything from meat harvesting to personal defence. I know everyone wants CCI, but I'm not getting caught without ammo, so I buy like 9k rounds. Thanks for this great presentation!!!
Quoting the Standard Deviation along with the mean of the numbers is important to judge the consistency. Thanks for doing so. Two strings of shots might have the same mean figure, but very different SDs. A modestly lower mean with a very small SD would be better than a higher mean with a large SD, (i.e. an erratic distribution, which is going to matter, especially at a distance).
Thanks , i need to know which is good 22 ammo , appreciate your time and money to put a show on. I shot a couple days ago , 40 gr. Aguila and CCI shot good. A box of Remington was terrible . Pistol was a Tauras 22.
Last summer i shot probably 5-6k rounds of automatch. I found it very reliable for practice ammo and only had 3 or 4 rounds that didn’t fire. Shooting small targets with it out to 100 yards it would do great with minimal flyers. At 50 useing it i could hit a 3/8 piece of rebar 8 out of 10 times consistently and at 75 it would be 4 out of 10 using my cz457. Like i said good for practice but not for a match.
Thanks for this video. The inconsistency of velocity with the blue box stuff is astounding. My semi-autos normally don't always like the non-plated stuff, but I would rather take my chances with the auto-match.
I have experienced the same when it comes to accuracy. I never imagined that the be speed would be that far off, as I never used a chronograph.The Fed. auto match that I used was the 3rd most accurate out of several Match, target 3eand club grade ammo including Eley match, Lapua center x
I used to shoot .22lr target and silhouettes to go along with my regular pistol Silhouette shooting. I bought in 1983 a Ruger MkII Model 678 Target. I also bought some Ramline 12 shot magazines that were a heck of a lot better than the 10 rd (8 really) steel lip factory mags. Not one single failure ever with those plastic mags, easy to load all the way down to the last round. I still have them and the pistol. I bought a brick of Remington green and white box 40 gr. round nose lead bullets and took them to the 25 yard police range and used sand bags to sight the pistol in and I shot quarter inch groups at 25 yards. 1/4 inch with that ammo!! Then we later chronographed it at 975 to 1025 fps out of the 6 7/8th" barrel. Anyway after shooting those tight groups I went back to the store I bought the 1st brick at and bought 4 more 500 rd bricks of the same batch. I loaded it into my 10-22 rifle with a 30mm 3x-7x scope and it held less than one inch at 50 yards at over 1200-1250 fps. Any .22lr ammo that only deviates plus or minus 25 fps is match quality and I had 2000 rounds of it at a penny a round. I would have bought more, but that was all they had of that batch. I never found any 22lr ammo that matched it.
Well now this was a interesting video and I have shot thousands of rounds of the federal auto match. I started buying it at Walmart because it was the cheapest bulk pack and it performed well for me so I just continued using it.
i usually only buy cci ammo of any type(standard,mini mag, vel.), but about a year ago i ran across the 800 rnd blue box at walmart for a price i could not ignor and bought 3 just for my bolt gun, i havent used it yet but now am dreading the time when i need it.
I'm glad to see your review of the champion bulk pack. I have been eyeballing them. I have a boatload of automatch and love it. As far as hunting goes. I have never understood the 22lr hp. If you are shooting at small game, why make a mess? If you are shooting at something larger, penetration is the name of the game. Just my 2 cents. I was eyeballing the champion as potential p17 fodder.
Wow! I have numerous 50-round boxes of Federal Champion purchased as late as 2019 that are extremely accurate. With my blued Smith & Wesson Model 17 revolver of 1994 manufacture, Federal Champion ammo will consistently hit soda cans at 100 yards.iron sights. Bench rested. It is the most accurate ammo in my Taurus copy of the Winchester 63 semi-auto rifle, hands down. Your experience tells me that something drastic has changed at the manufacturing plant: change in primer, powder, charge, bullet diameter or alloy, case length, brass alloy, etc. Thanks for the thorough report!
I would tend to agree, and there’s a lot of people in the comments here saying that they use to have good results with it but that they’ve decreased in quality by a lot.
! have some Federal Champion 40 gr round nose bullets in 50 round boxes I bought from Walmart in Jan 2022 that shoot 1 MOA or less at 50 and 100 yards in my Tikka T1X. They shoot as good at SK Semi-Auto Rifle, Eley Target, and Eley Force that cost 2x more. I did not buy the bulk pack Federal Champion. I doubt the next box of 50 rounds of Champion will be any good. I wish I have more of the old ammo. I went to 4 or more Walmart locations back then just to find any 22LR. All I found of Champion was 2 boxes. Federal Auto Match from that time period does not come close to the Champion but is about as good as CCI Standard Velocity.
I've had experience with that stuff being junk too. But even worse, by far the worst period, is the Winchester White Box bulk pack stuff. Often it won't even feed, and it's out of spec enough to not fit in the chamber.
My one and only squib that ever occurred was a Federal Blue box round luckily I recognized it right away and did not chamber another and fire the bullet was halfway through the barrel in my Browning buckmark.
Good video. I've shot worst .22 than the Federals. Winchester Wildcats in bulk and 50rd boxes. I literally had so many fail to fire out of several rifles/pistols that I contacted Winchester. They had me mail the cases of the bullets that would not fire. They sent me a $30 gift certificate for Winchester ammo. I used it for 9mm instead of more crappy .22 from them. I'm strictly a CCI guy for .22 now. Very rare to get a bad round.
that's sort of surprising. My anecdotal experience is that this stuff 'seems' pretty accurate in my 10" contender out to 50yds, but that might just be the gun making up for the ammo's shortcomings.
My wife finally listened to me and actually bought me 22 ammo as a gift. Unfortunately, she bought the federal blue box like you have compared in your video. The stuff is total garbage. In one of my pistols, it stove pipes at least 25 percent of the time. The others are so inconsistent in accuracy and velocity that I simply don't use it anymore. On the other hand, the Federal automatch ammo is extremely accurate for plinking and informal target shooting. You really can't beat it for throwing lead around at the range. Thanks for sharing.
I use both in my Rossi .22 rifle and PA hp22 regularly, purchased from my local wally world in Ohio. I use red dot on the rifle, iron sights for the pistol. I've not had any issues with either one, both shoot accurately and consistently at 40yd backyard range. Perhaps you got a bad lot in your area?
I somewhat doubt it, think you most likely got an unusually consistent lot. Also got mine from Wally World, on multiple different days and it’s performed about the same from lot to lot honestly.
I got my grandson his first rifle for Christmas. he had just turned 14. We went down to the bottom land and shot a box each. His rifle is an old savage .22 single shot bolt. I used my trusty old savage 89a semi with gilled breach.The old bolt action fired everything well. They were supposed to be 40gr federal rounds. Not the economy pack. You could definitely hear and feel the inconsistent loads. Mine at the end of the box had a stove pipe which in turn bent the guide spring. I rearranged the ammo box to put all the federal rounds to the bottom. Just for when shtf. I wont be buying and more federal for the small calibers.
Thank you for the info. For some reason I had the foresight in 2019 to buy four cases of federal automatch. For $114 a case. Watching your video made me feel good about my choice. Those champion rounds look like they were intended for a 37mm Beehive adapter for your grenade launcher.
Last summer i shot about 10k rounds of automatch. It makes great practice ammo but 1 round out of 20 will be a very bad, 4-6 in, flyer so i would never use it for a match. But my CZ, RPRR, 10/22, and B14R all love the stuff. I would take it out do my match practice and the rezero the rifle for eley to shoot the next days match. At 21 doll hairs it was not only cheep but accurate enough to have a lot of fun with.
well done video and mirrors my experience with champion. the AM is a bit dirty however easy enough to clean after, a blast of WD down the bore, let soak then pull a couple patches through. I subscribed to your vids.
This is so true. Bought a new M&P 15-22 and bought two boxes of Federal 36gr champion and it has been horrendous. It was so frustrating trying to zero in with that ammo. It was so inconsistent that I didn’t know if it was me, the gun or the ammo. Switched to aguila super extra and found it was the ammo that was my problem.
The "Champion" naming scheme is just so horribly misleading. I also learned the hard way as you did with both of these ammo types. Now I reach for Aguila 40gr CPRN!
I've been running a mix of Aguilar and armscor (I stockpile the cci's for rainy days), and after I did the volquartzen extractor swap the rifle seems to love the 40 grain Aguilar. It runs everything now though, no stovepipes etc, plus I can pretty much run any ammo over 1000:)
I've only got a 25-yard indoor range, but I've found (through a number of guns) that Aquila tends to group a bit tighter than Mini-Mags. Armscor, for me, just doesn't doesn't do quite as well.
I’ve heard differing opinions on the automatch and for me it would have a couple hang ups in my Neos and ARX-180. A buddy had a boatload of FTE’s and FTF’s on his HK 416. Not nearly as bad as the Winchester Super X (yellow anniversary box) lol
Yeah, the Super X had about 1 misfire out of every 8 or 10 rounds for me. Couldn't believe it, but tried it in several rifles & pistols, all had problems. Never buying that stuff again!
I bought a couple of the blue box 36 gr hp a few months ago. About 6 out of 10 would stovepipe or not even leave the chamber in my mkIV.Some felt like a squib. I talked to Federal and they sent me 2 boxes of automatch for free and didn’t have to send the bad boxes back. I’m guessing they just had a couple bad lots. I’ve seen several others have issues with the 36gr blue boxes recently
I ran out of my Federal 550 round 36grain boxes. I could hit a dime at 50yrds with my Marlin. Bought a bunch of the Automatch and its reliable but not quite as accurate. I assume the 550 boxes arent made anymore
My local walmart stocks Remington golden bullets and Winchester 555. The Remington golden bullets work in all my .22s and have decent accuracy, plus they are dirt cheap, so that's what I use.
Interesting... I have one box of the Federal Champion that I haven't opened. I will get out a couple of lots of the Federal AutoMatch and Winchester M-22 and run them over the chronograph to see if I get the same results. I used to shoot some blue box Federal a few years ago that was fine... must be a different line than this. I will look back through chrono data and see which one it was. Thank you for sharing your experience with these ammos.
You’re most welcome, and if you think about it let me know what you find! I know the old blue box LRN federal was decent 2-4 years ago, but haven’t had it since.
Tried automatch in my CZ457, I lent a Garmin chronograph to check speed, would get 4 or so at identical fps then just get one 50fps faster. This showed up on my targets, would get them almost in the same hole but then get a flyer. The CCI standard is my main go to
Thanks for the comparison video, good knowledge and I was surprised to see the massive inconsistency with any federal ammo… 😲WOW! that’s as bad as Rem TB!!! I have several .22LR rifles… they all shoot differently with different ammo, but by far my 10-22 match rifle is the most accurate… this will seem unrealistic, but with CCI blazer😲! My Savage mod 19 NRA Match with Winchester wild cat 40grn copper Dynapoint (whatever a dynapoint is🤔) - my Marlin 60 likes CCI mini mags😁… My Winchester 190 likes Federal 40grn copper HP’sand the other 10-22’s get to eat whatever I feed them… going to say that BY FAR the worst ammo I have ever put through any of my rifles is… 🤢Remington Thunder Bolt🤮
Good video. Some pretty bad ammo. Probably have to get a squirrel with a death wish to actually jump in front of the bullet with those Champion. Thanks for sharing, that was a lot of good data. Take care.
Thanks! I 100% agree, definitely not up to snuff for any kind of hunting or accuracy use. If you have any suggestions or things you’d like tested feel free to let me know!
I’ve bought both and got two squibs outta the blue box. Both times the gun went *bang, bang, bang,* thhhhhhhhp. Mind you, I was shooting a 6” heritage rough rider. That should never happen in a 6” barrel.
Some of the bullets from an Aguila bulk pack that I had for a while actually came apart in my 22. The lead separated from the jacket. It was as if the well-known waxiness of the bullet was holding the bullet together. The wax got soft and then as I said separated in my firearm.
Nteresting. I was fully expecting the bad one to be Automatch, and I was going to comment to say I have had nothing but good luck with it. I was quite surprised to see that the more expensive one was actually not as good as the cheaper stuff.
@@thereloadingcraft Maybe the stuff in the blue box is for pest control? I know there's a picture of a stylized target on the box, but the same target is shown on the other box too, so it's probably just a general logo. That might explain the hollow point bullets, and perhaps the hollow points are part of the reason for the drop in accuracy? I feel like hollow points are never quite as accurate as round nose, especially in .22
I think AutoMatch is the best bulk ammo out there, except for maybe the Aguila Super Extra which can be had in bulk packs as well. Next step up on the accuracy ladder would be CCI Standard Velocity. My BEST group results have been with Wolf Match Extra (NOT Match Target, which I haven't tried), actually PRODUCED by Eley now, which has beat everything including all of the Eley, Lapua, and SK that I have tried INCLUDING two varieties of Tenex, though I HAVEN'T tried Lapua X-Act. Tell you what I'm NOT buying any time soon: Winchester Super-X. All of the recent-production I've had (say 2013 - present) has been GARBAGE... report all over the map, groups sizes DOUBLE or even TRIPLE of the next-worst. What's crazy is, I have some 30 year-old Super-X and it is STILL excellent ammo. In fact, the Aguila Super Extra is a CARBON-COPY of the OLD, GOOD Winchester Super-X, right down to the group-sizes. I thought about contacting Winchester and asking "WTF?!?", but I was pretty sure it would be a waste of time.
I have about 2 bricks of Wildcat 40grRNL that are about 10+ years old. Every now and then I take out a 50 round box to the range...no misfires, no squib loads and as accurate as Blazer 40gr RNL(my favorite). Bought a box of Wildcat last year at local Farm and Fleet for $2.47, just to try it out...6 misfires, at least as many low power shots and shot a shotgun pattern instead of groups. Quantity over quality I guess. I'll stick to my best performers, Aguila 40grRNL SV, CCI SV and Blazers.
I have over 32,000 rounds of Federal White Box…the only problem I’ve encountered with this ammunition is it seems to not cycle well in my wife’s S&W compact 22 lr. I’ve run this through 2 of my Walter P22’s, S&W 15-22, multiple Ruger 10-22’s and my new Rock Island TM22…no problem at all…all stored in 50 round mini zip top bags in ammo cans with moisture packs…some of these rounds I’ve had for 7 years…I just cycle them all.
I have some bulk boxes of Auto Match that are at least 2-3 years old. When I had my .22 rifles, they all performed very well at 25 yards, very small groups. Have not purchased any recently...seems their quality control has become very poor. Just for history, I paid about $14.47 a box at wally world back then. My best ammo is CCI SV, Aguila SV and Blazer 40gr RNL, in that order. Thanks for sharing this video.
Unsure of your AR22 build. But if using a CMMG conversion for a standard 223 chamber. Do know that the bore for a centerfire is larger than what a 22lr needs for proper sealing. Would recommend a dedicated AR 22lr upper and barrel. Federal auto match will produce MOA accuracy at 50 yards and about 1-2MOA at 100. Emphasis is to get a quality fitted 22lr ar barrel such as one from taccom 3g. You'll see a difference over the "budget" barrels
Yep, this is a CMMG dedicated 22LR barrel with proper 1:16 twist and proper lands and grooves diameter. Not terribly familiar with the taccoms, do they use the standard CMMG/ceiner-pattern bolts and locking ring?
Thanks for the detailed study. That deviation in velocity means at a distance the bullet drop will be greater for the slower rounds. If hunting for small game like rabbit or squirrel can result in a miss and an empty stew pot. Close up with a pistol not a significant difference. I must note that one man used a scope mounted S&W Victory .22lr semi-auto pistol. At 50 yards he got tight groups, tight enough that a squirrel is a viable target. He did not have the federal round that deviated so much in velocity so no comparison for that. ua-cam.com/video/8hyMxbgeYV0/v-deo.html
Thanks for the good information in your video. I wondered about it since I've also shot both the blue box and the brown box. I've gone to the brown box because my firearms just operate better.
I've shot about 5 boxes of the automatch, it's not bad, but be careful with it. I've had 5rds that were primer only or something, they literally fell out of my barrel on my cp33.
Auto Match has been my personal favorite for years. The last two boxes of Champions we shot up were actually great but not worth the extra cost IMO. Most of that shooting was from TX22s at 20 yards and down though.
Wow, automatch is the minimum of what I consider acceptable. I have had a few under charged rounds but nothing like that blue box. Thank you for this review I was tempted to pick up a box of the Champion
Absolutely happy to, I made the mistake last time I was getting 22 to try the “more sophisticated and better made and more expensive” champion….lesson learned 😅
@@thereloadingcraft Blazer was my go to for years. CCI has lost their minds on it in bulk it is more than the boxed and has a lighter bullet. I’ve also experienced fail to fire in CCI Standard Velocity which was un heard of a few years ago and they are less consistent than they were.
I bought a bulk box of Federal last October in TN on vacation, as the range only had that 22LR available. Had a frustrating week shooting as they were very inconsistent and caused many blockages/jams on both pistols and rifles. Never again. Now I'm back in UK only use Eley.
Yep. I've had virtually identical experience with those two Federal ammo's. Through my Ruger precision bolt action, the automatch is nearly as accurate as some of the higher end match ammo.
Never had any interest in Federal 22 LR ammo until today. The AUT-O-MATCH looks like a winner, especially at the price you showed. BTW, what is the rifle system that you are using?
As a plinking ammo, it’s definitely hard to beat! For accuracy, there are better options out there but it’s not made to be a bullseye comp round. Rifle system is a dedicated AR-22, with a CMMG 16” 1:16 twist 22LR barrel.
Aguila, CCI, Federal and Winchester all make reliable powerful and overall great ammunition for any caliber. This video (many shooters come to realize) emphasizes the point of responsibility each shooter has in knowing and selecting the right ammo per each task
@@craigromack6156 true haha 😂 I may be making a tour out to Ohio and possibly MI sometime early this summer, if I can get dates figured out I’d love to meet some of y’all for a range day!
Interesting results. Out of last 2 blue boxes of 800 champions I had 1(one) bad cartridge. Gun is Taurus TX-22. Real bad ammo all comes from Winchester: more than 50% of all faulted cartridges in my collection have 'W' on it's bottom.
Have you tried the golden bullet in the bucket? I always thought of the rem goldens as a “better” 22. I know the thunderbolts bucket or not are pretty much crap.
This is exactly what I'm experiencing through my Ruger Mark IV and my Heritage Rough Rider. There have been rounds with the blue box where I have quite literally heard the round slide out of the barrel and land on the ground 3 feet in front of me. The Automatch has been pretty consistent! Another budget winner in my experience: the CCI Blazer ammo.
This is an excellent video thank you. Such a difference from the same brand too, GF picked up a .22 rifle and 3 boxes of the automatch glad I recommend this ammo.
I've tried the blue box Fed Champion lead round nose from the same store at about the same price, as well as the auto match. Both seemed good and very similar from the appearance to the performance.
I was using only the federal automatch and now I use more the aguila high velocity 40gr or 38gr, both boxes cost about the same but the aguila is only 250 rounds...
I have over the last few months shot through a box of both of these kinds of ammo. I forgot the exact number of rounds each one had it the boxes but they were exactly what you have here. only had 2 misfires from each box and I was beyond happy. I was shooting a Ruger Mark III that was dirty as hell and the cheap little Ruger Rangler. Both had 2 of the misfires each. I guess I just got lucky. I've got 500 rounds of various CCI 22 ammo but I just can't bring myself to shoot it because it feels like waste when I get good results from these bulk boxes.
I have shot automatch through my Savage Mark2. I have found other ammo to be more accurate like CCI Standard velocity and Norma TAC-22. But the automatch cycles the most reliably in my Ruger Mark4 pistol.
I have a Ruger 10/22 from 1973 that absolutely will not load the auto match. I bought the blue box and they load every time. I haven't had it to the range to test the blue box stuff yet, but it loads it without issues. I have thousands and thousands of rounds of auto match because all of my other .22lr rifles and pistols run it perfectly. I only bought one of the blue box just to see if the smaller nose and copper jacket would help the rifle load. It did, but now I'm a bit concerned about it's accuracy.
This matches what my friend and i got today. I had brought my new chronograph to the range to test it out for the first time. We tested federal champion blue box, federal automatch, federal punch, winchester wildcats "high velocity", cci mini mags varmints , cci quiets, and aguila 60 gr snipers out of a ruger wrangler, mossberg plinkster, and marlin model 60. Everything was oretty good except the federal blue box. We did 6 shot groups because we had the wrangler and wanted to keep it conistent. Ill put the average of each firearm below for the federal blue box
Wrangler: average 719 fps, ES 246fps, SD 83 fps
Mossberg 702 plinkster: average 1121fps, ES 253 fps, SD 93 fps
Marlin model 60: average 1007 fps, ES 352fps, SD 114 fps
We also had quite a few rounds that did not go off.
Everything else shot pretty good and was consistent with i believe the federal punches being the most consistent
Looks like our chrono data matches pretty well! Glad I’m not the only one having these issues, hopefully Federal takes note and does something to improve the quality. Thanks for sharing your data, and thanks for watching!
@@thereloadingcraft seems like there is something really wrong with this ammo and I'll be sticking with automatch. Plus automatch is cheaper at my Walmart. Hopefully federal will fix the champion 22lr.
@@thereloadingcraft I bought some CCI Mini Mags from Sports Man's Guide about 15 yrs ago.
It did the same thing as what you just illustrated.
Me suspects it was FACTORY SECONDS from them. I decided to never buy any 22 rimfire from S.G. again.
the tan box federal champion is the worst crap i've ever used
@@M7A1bayonet agreed
I buy a box of automatch every payday for the stack. Not going to get caught again without a stack of .22 if the price goes up.
Not a bad idea!
Or if there's another ammo shortage. I'm stocking up on all rounds. 👍
I do the same thing every week every week from Walmart with the exact same ammo
Lmao "IF"... HOW About WHEN they become unavailable
@@jackdundon2261 crap ton erie pa 18.90 for 325
This video saved me because I was about to switch to the blue box thinking it was better because it costs $4 more. Thank you so much for the information.
I thought the same thing and was very disappointed 😅
Happy to help out!
Not all federal blue boxes are the same. The ones marked Range Pack usually are 40 grain lead round nose, look the same as Automatch. Verify that they aren't "Champion".
@@datapro007 thank you
@@datapro007the range pack is the most unreliable 22 on the market. I don't know how the same company can have the best and worst 22lr I've used but it does. I use automatch whenever possible.
@@chrisma1976 I agree that the Automatch is better. If you think Federal Range Pack is bad, try "Herters" from Cabelas - absolute garbage
CCI Mini mags have been my goto for decades. Feeds well in every one of my 22's and is easily within 1 minute of squirrel.
When there was little 22 ammo to buy I purchased an 800 round blue box of Federal. Took a long time to shoot it due to failures in a semi auto rifle. Then as 22 ammo was coming back, I purchased 2k rounds of the automatch at Walmart for $21 per box. I prefer CCI Mini Mag and am really liking Aguila Super Extra.
Mini-mags and super extra are excellent choices for reliability. I’ve taken a liking to CCI SV as well as my rifle shoots it the best
@@thereloadingcraft the CCI velocitors are something else theyre quick and expand nicely for a .22
Do you notice the aguila se gasses smell different?
Almost sweet? Hard to describe
@@allthingsconsidered3211 oh yes! My friend and I think Aguila burnt gasses smell like super glue 😅
super extra is good stuff
My theory about hollow points for target ammo is that if you drop from 40 gr to 36 grains, you save 4 grains of lead for every bullet cast, so you get a free bullet for every 10 cast. When you make millions upon millions of these bullets, that's a huge savings for the manufacturer. It's 100,000 free bullets for every 1 million cast. It's like when the auto industry negotiates the price of a screw down to the 10 thousands of a penny. When you buy millions of them, the savings are huge.
Thanks for your video. The best 22LR bulk ammo for the price, accuracy, and velocity is the Aquilla .22 lr High Velocity both in the 40 gr. and 38 gr. hollowpoint version. Usually you can buy a brick of 500 rounds bulk pack for under $35.00 if you shop around and there appears to be no shortage at this time. If you have not tried them you should you will probably not be disappointed. You would think Federal would use at least a little quality control on that value pack of ammo.
Yup, 100% agreed! I love the Aguila for reliability and it shoots pretty accurately, the only downside is how waxy they are and have a tendency to gum up a little faster. Definitely better QC than the Federal’s for sure.
Thanks Al for the info. I bought a bunch of the Aquila 40 grain for $ 3. 03, 50 ct and the 38 grain hollow points for $15.19, 250 count though Sportsman Guide but, haven't shot them yet. Looking forward to pulling the trigger.
My .22 Walther pistol runs aguila fine. But my 10/22 prefers CCI or federal match grade. It depends on the firearm.
Aguila makes QUALITY ammo for every load I’ve ever fired they have some amazing 165 and 185 grain .45 ACP and I’ve used mini shells by them. JHP in 165 grain 45 auto are absolutely amazing for self defense and range shooting.
@@rustyshackleford1877 my 10/22 eats everything it’s a great platform but I agree with the lighter hollow point loads so I always go for the heavier rounds because they cycle better and take less powder to fire and cycle accordingly
I miss CCI Green Tag!!! It shot very well from every rifle I tried it in.
If you have the time, equipment, and patience, weigh each of your cartridges in whatever flavor you prefer. The ones that weight close to the same will usually group togather, and you'll cut down on some of those flyers that sometimes ruin an otherwise great group!
I've used the Automatch on rabbits, squirrels, groundhogs, and even a 137 lb sow I slaughtered for a bbq. It's a fantastic load, very effective, and worth what you pay. You do not need a hp bullet for small game, especially if you're making headshots, and the soft lead bullet will flatten out pretty good even into flesh and do a great job.
1000’s of rounds through multiple rifles and pistols one Ruger 10/22 that I still struggle to wonder how it still worked with its internal rust in the ATI AR556 chassis I used.. .
@darrellhampton5057 Exactly. Folks overlook solid lead for hunting yet use soft points for hunting? Haha. Only problem with lead is the bore fouling especially at higher velocities. Just keep the bore clean.
Agreed. My small game load is CCI subsonic solids. They are accurate enough to make head shots on squirrels that are up high in trees. When I hunt rabbits its usually via spotlight at night. They fall right over when shot in the head. Automatch is my plinking round of choice.
Wow, I never would've expected those results. The Automatch is my go-to ammo, it's cheap & reliable, but I also shoot CCI which has even better performance. I've never tried the Champion, and thanks to this well-done video, I won't!
Agreed, I tend towards AutoMatch for plinking, CCI Standard Velocity for accuracy, and CCI Mini-Mags or Aguila Super Extra for cycling reliability even when used in a carbon-gummed 22.
The only problem with CCI is that it has gotten so expensive now a days..
Good video. For some reason a month or so ago I decided to try bulk box ammo have been on a steady Mini Mag diet for the last 15-20 years. Found both of the Federal bulk boxes at local Walmart. My experience was just the opposite of yours had lots of failure to go bang with the beige box round nose the hp ammo was much more consistent sounding (no chronograph so just have sound) bottom line for me was stick to the Mini Mags. Not that much more expensive and much more reliable.
I have several boxes of the red Federal 550 round packs, 36 gr hollow point that shoot well through all my rifles. I’ve not chronographed them but they seem consistent and very accurate.
I'm old enough to remember when bulk pack was 10 bucks at Wal-Mart. I didn't know what good .22 ammo was then, but I scared a lot of squirrels and pop cans, and kept my 10/22 fed with lawnmowing money. 😅 I wish I was 15, and that dumb again.
I know the feeling. Oh to go back to childhood days when things were simpler
Lol.. or go back to 15 and know what you know now.. lots of purchases you wouldn't make and investments you would..
I got ya beat by a few ,.... Remington bulk-pack 7.95 at Dick;s sporting goods. Came in a Milk-dud container. Junk ammo, lotsa misfires but I scared a lot of squirrels too! Fun times.
@@jayl8034 Got you all beat, age wise. How about a 500-round brick for $5, gas was $0.50/gal. Who says the 70s were crap (if you had a job)? At least rifles are better these days.
@@Old_Sailor85some are some aint
I discovered AutoMatch during the 2020 ammo shortage at a local pawn shop. I purchased two boxes of it and compared it to the 525 round red box federal 36gr HP at my local 50' indoor range. From my three rifles (Marlin 60, Marlin 81, Savage MKII), drastically better groupings from the AutoMatch and cycling too. Only my Taurus Bobcat clone preferred the 36gr HPs. The AutoMatch is my go-to for bulk 22 ammo now and have been very happy with it the whole time.
I have been buying and using the Automatch ammo for probably more than a decade and buy it every time I see it at Walmart and mostly order it online from various vendors. Lately though Walmart has had it for a little less than 20$ bucks. We have an assortment of 22lr weapons. My son and I shoot on our private range "😊" on the property at least once a week going through a box of that Automatch each time. There are some Aquila 22lr 40gr HV that I have bought in bulk a few times that weren't bad at all and ran all my guns fine and were pretty accurate also. I always know the Fed Automatch is good stuff though and will choose that given the choice. Best Regards
Thanks for watching, and I do the same! Usually a box everytime I hit the range with my AR-22 and P22 as well 😊
Been using the AutoMatch in my Ruger 10/22 I got about 6 months ago. The 10 rd rotary mags feed it just fine. The 25 rd mags hiccup on rare occasion but overall it works pretty well for the price. I do have some "Blue Box" Federal as well but it's 40 gr LRN and I usually shoot that with my old Remington Model 582 bolt action. That old tube fed bolt gun will eat pretty much anything. With my Ruger MkIV 22/45 that I got 3 or 4 months ago, I've been using CCI Mini Mag 40 gr CPRN and thus far, aside from 4 or 5 dud rounds (still failed to fire after reloading and hitting the rim in a different spot), it has worked flawlessly after 2500 rds thus far.
Wow. Thanks for this eye opener. I routinely use the AM from WMT for plinking. A while back I got a range pack (800 rnds @ 40grain) and they have been very accurate. They are not the same as these value pack rounds. I need to try some match ammo but it is scarce and pricey if bought online.
You’re most welcome!
I don't have a chrono, but some regular ammo is more consistent velocity and accuracy wise than some match ammo.
I bought the Federal 800 round boxes as well and for the occasional flier I have had consistent results with my 22LR rimfire rounds. They are however not hollow point. I am also firing them out of my Ruger.
For over 15yrs my "go to" ammo for 22 pistols has been the automatch. It's consistency in cycling the pistols is amazing for the price.
For the price it’s hard to beat for sure!
I absolutely agree 👍
Federal Automatch, 40 gr. round-nose is my go to for my rifle. It’s accurate, clean, and consistent. Even more so than CCI in my rifle. Águila is also very accurate but there’s so much wax on the rounds that it cakes up my rifle and jams constantly.
The federal automatch is also plenty powerful. And, I need 40 grain round-nose for hunting because 32-36 grain hp bullets don’t do well with squirrel flesh…I like to eat my game and the 40 grains don’t damage the meat nearly as bad.
Absolutely agreed!
Try some Brunswick Stew with squirrels like the old-timers used to do. Mm-mm good. Try to duplicate Mrs. Fearnow's recipe, but with your own meat stock.
You established a very thorough and comprehensive testing protocol. Kudos and thank you very much!
Glad it was helpful!
I'm surprised, federal is one of my favorite centerfire ammunition producers. I don't really shoot a lot of rimfire until lately, this is helpful.
I had a lot of problems with auto loading 22lr firearms and the cheap ammo. So, I picked up a CZ452 Military bolt action. It shoots very accurately with the cheap stuff and never jams. I had a lot of different ammo that was useless that now I can use.
Good video. I recently picked up a 22lr kit for my 1 in 12 AR-15. I hope it works as good as your rifle. Thanks for making this video.
I have had to shoot all my different brands, loads, bullet types through my different types of weapons.
I have found that what is crap through my semi's, may shoot great or at least better through revolvers, or bolt action.
I too have noticed that those federal rounds are NOT consistent
Good to know!
We do the same, different .22 firearms get fed different brands and varieties...it is a minor nuisance, but fewer stoppages during a couple hours at the range the payoff...and many range days see Zero problems with hundreds of .22 shot, just from knowing what the different guns like...
Thank you very much for the video. I was just looking at the same 2 in the same you know where. I didn't purchase either and decided to come back to the house and review. You have helped me save money, and I appreciate that. Thanks again.
Just bought Federal Automatch 40 gr for 18.40 per 325 on 3250 rd case. 7/10/24. Stocked up, since looks good to go for everything from meat harvesting to personal defence. I know everyone wants CCI, but I'm not getting caught without ammo, so I buy like 9k rounds. Thanks for this great presentation!!!
Awesome video man! I have over ten thousand rounds of automatch! My ruger 10/22 and my Marlin 60 eats that stuff up. Quarter size groups at 50 yd.
Solid! 😎
Should be better than a quarter size!
Quoting the Standard Deviation along with the mean of the numbers is important to judge the consistency. Thanks for doing so. Two strings of shots might have the same mean figure, but very different SDs. A modestly lower mean with a very small SD would be better than a higher mean with a large SD, (i.e. an erratic distribution, which is going to matter, especially at a distance).
100% agree, and as a reloader (for centerfire, of course) SD means a lot to us for load development! ☺️
Great review man! I have great luck with the AM and it will literally shoot one hole groups out of certain rifles I have.
Thanks, and solid! 👌🏻
Thanks , i need to know which is good 22 ammo , appreciate your time and money to put a show on. I shot a couple days ago , 40 gr. Aguila and CCI shot good. A box of Remington was terrible . Pistol was a Tauras 22.
Last summer i shot probably 5-6k rounds of automatch. I found it very reliable for practice ammo and only had 3 or 4 rounds that didn’t fire. Shooting small targets with it out to 100 yards it would do great with minimal flyers. At 50 useing it i could hit a 3/8 piece of rebar 8 out of 10 times consistently and at 75 it would be 4 out of 10 using my cz457. Like i said good for practice but not for a match.
100% agree.
I love the CZ 457 it is a phenomenal rifle for the price.
@@johnnydoe7846 the only one i have thats more accurate is my b14r
@@jefflayton5889 very nice! That is starting to get into another price bracket at that point though.
Thanks for this video. The inconsistency of velocity with the blue box stuff is astounding. My semi-autos normally don't always like the non-plated stuff, but I would rather take my chances with the auto-match.
Thanks for watching!
I have experienced the same when it comes to accuracy. I never imagined that the be speed would be that far off, as I never used a chronograph.The Fed. auto match that I used was the 3rd most accurate out of several Match, target 3eand club grade ammo including Eley match, Lapua center x
I used to shoot .22lr target and silhouettes to go along with my regular pistol Silhouette shooting. I bought in 1983 a Ruger MkII Model 678 Target. I also bought some Ramline 12 shot magazines that were a heck of a lot better than the 10 rd (8 really) steel lip factory mags. Not one single failure ever with those plastic mags, easy to load all the way down to the last round. I still have them and the pistol.
I bought a brick of Remington green and white box 40 gr. round nose lead bullets and took them to the 25 yard police range and used sand bags to sight the pistol in and I shot quarter inch groups at 25 yards. 1/4 inch with that ammo!! Then we later chronographed it at 975 to 1025 fps out of the 6 7/8th" barrel. Anyway after shooting those tight groups I went back to the store I bought the 1st brick at and bought 4 more 500 rd bricks of the same batch. I loaded it into my 10-22 rifle with a 30mm 3x-7x scope and it held less than one inch at 50 yards at over 1200-1250 fps. Any .22lr ammo that only deviates plus or minus 25 fps is match quality and I had 2000 rounds of it at a penny a round. I would have bought more, but that was all they had of that batch. I never found any 22lr ammo that matched it.
Well now this was a interesting video and I have shot thousands of rounds of the federal auto match. I started buying it at Walmart because it was the cheapest bulk pack and it performed well for me so I just continued using it.
Thanks for watching! Yes for me AutoMatch is definitely the better of the two for sure
i usually only buy cci ammo of any type(standard,mini mag, vel.), but about a year ago i ran across the 800 rnd blue box at walmart for a price i could not ignor and bought 3 just for my bolt gun, i havent used it yet but now am dreading the time when i need it.
It’s worth testing first, maybe you got a good lot? I wouldn’t expect tiny groups regardless tho
I'm glad to see your review of the champion bulk pack. I have been eyeballing them. I have a boatload of automatch and love it. As far as hunting goes. I have never understood the 22lr hp. If you are shooting at small game, why make a mess? If you are shooting at something larger, penetration is the name of the game. Just my 2 cents. I was eyeballing the champion as potential p17 fodder.
Happy to help! Yeah at least for me, I’ll be sticking to AutoMatch for the time being as it gives me better results as you’ve seen.
Wow! I have numerous 50-round boxes of Federal Champion purchased as late as 2019 that are extremely accurate.
With my blued Smith & Wesson Model 17 revolver of 1994 manufacture, Federal Champion ammo will consistently hit soda cans at 100 yards.iron sights. Bench rested.
It is the most accurate ammo in my Taurus copy of the Winchester 63 semi-auto rifle, hands down.
Your experience tells me that something drastic has changed at the manufacturing plant: change in primer, powder, charge, bullet diameter or alloy, case length, brass alloy, etc.
Thanks for the thorough report!
I would tend to agree, and there’s a lot of people in the comments here saying that they use to have good results with it but that they’ve decreased in quality by a lot.
! have some Federal Champion 40 gr round nose bullets in 50 round boxes I bought from Walmart in Jan 2022 that shoot 1 MOA or less at 50 and 100 yards in my Tikka T1X. They shoot as good at SK Semi-Auto Rifle, Eley Target, and Eley Force that cost 2x more. I did not buy the bulk pack Federal Champion. I doubt the next box of 50 rounds of Champion will be any good. I wish I have more of the old ammo. I went to 4 or more Walmart locations back then just to find any 22LR. All I found of Champion was 2 boxes. Federal Auto Match from that time period does not come close to the Champion but is about as good as CCI Standard Velocity.
I've had experience with that stuff being junk too. But even worse, by far the worst period, is the Winchester White Box bulk pack stuff. Often it won't even feed, and it's out of spec enough to not fit in the chamber.
Winchester is straight trash now. I won't even consider their ammo anymore.
My one and only squib that ever occurred was a Federal Blue box round luckily I recognized it right away and did not chamber another and fire the bullet was halfway through the barrel in my Browning buckmark.
Oof, good on you for catching it first though!
Good video. I've shot worst .22 than the Federals. Winchester Wildcats in bulk and 50rd boxes. I literally had so many fail to fire out of several rifles/pistols that I contacted Winchester. They had me mail the cases of the bullets that would not fire. They sent me a $30 gift certificate for Winchester ammo. I used it for 9mm instead of more crappy .22 from them. I'm strictly a CCI guy for .22 now. Very rare to get a bad round.
Same experience bought 1500rds of m22 and have a dud about every 10 rounds
My Marlin 22LR rifle is particular when it comes to ammo. It likes (shoots the best groups) Winchester White Box 22LR 40 grain bullets.
Hey at least it likes affordable ammo! 😂
that's sort of surprising. My anecdotal experience is that this stuff 'seems' pretty accurate in my 10" contender out to 50yds, but that might just be the gun making up for the ammo's shortcomings.
My wife finally listened to me and actually bought me 22 ammo as a gift. Unfortunately, she bought the federal blue box like you have compared in your video. The stuff is total garbage. In one of my pistols, it stove pipes at least 25 percent of the time. The others are so inconsistent in accuracy and velocity that I simply don't use it anymore. On the other hand, the Federal automatch ammo is extremely accurate for plinking and informal target shooting. You really can't beat it for throwing lead around at the range. Thanks for sharing.
I use both in my Rossi .22 rifle and PA hp22 regularly, purchased from my local wally world in Ohio. I use red dot on the rifle, iron sights for the pistol. I've not had any issues with either one, both shoot accurately and consistently at 40yd backyard range. Perhaps you got a bad lot in your area?
I somewhat doubt it, think you most likely got an unusually consistent lot. Also got mine from Wally World, on multiple different days and it’s performed about the same from lot to lot honestly.
I got my grandson his first rifle for Christmas. he had just turned 14. We went down to the bottom land and shot a box each. His rifle is an old savage
.22 single shot bolt. I used my trusty old savage 89a semi with gilled breach.The old bolt action fired everything well. They were supposed to be 40gr federal rounds. Not the economy pack. You could definitely hear and feel the inconsistent loads. Mine at the end of the box had a stove pipe which in turn bent the guide spring. I rearranged the ammo box to put all the federal rounds to the bottom. Just for when shtf. I wont be buying and more federal for the small calibers.
Thank you for the info. For some reason I had the foresight in 2019 to buy four cases of federal automatch. For $114 a case. Watching your video made me feel good about my choice.
Those champion rounds look like they were intended for a 37mm Beehive adapter for your grenade launcher.
Basically 😂
I'm glad I came across this video. These results tell me what I need to know about these shells.
Thanks for watching!
Last summer i shot about 10k rounds of automatch. It makes great practice ammo but 1 round out of 20 will be a very bad, 4-6 in, flyer so i would never use it for a match. But my CZ, RPRR, 10/22, and B14R all love the stuff. I would take it out do my match practice and the rezero the rifle for eley to shoot the next days match. At 21 doll hairs it was not only cheep but accurate enough to have a lot of fun with.
well done video and mirrors my experience with champion. the AM is a bit dirty however easy enough to clean after, a blast of WD down the bore, let soak then pull a couple patches through. I subscribed to your vids.
Auto match is my go to for plinking. Nice video, thanks.
Thank you!
This is so true. Bought a new M&P 15-22 and bought two boxes of Federal 36gr champion and it has been horrendous. It was so frustrating trying to zero in with that ammo. It was so inconsistent that I didn’t know if it was me, the gun or the ammo. Switched to aguila super extra and found it was the ammo that was my problem.
The "Champion" naming scheme is just so horribly misleading. I also learned the hard way as you did with both of these ammo types. Now I reach for Aguila 40gr CPRN!
It really is, at least in the 22’s. Aguila is good stuff if you don’t mind the extra wax!
I've been running a mix of Aguilar and armscor (I stockpile the cci's for rainy days), and after I did the volquartzen extractor swap the rifle seems to love the 40 grain Aguilar. It runs everything now though, no stovepipes etc, plus I can pretty much run any ammo over 1000:)
Aguila continues to impress! Excellent reliability and good price point.
I've only got a 25-yard indoor range, but I've found (through a number of guns) that Aquila tends to group a bit tighter than Mini-Mags. Armscor, for me, just doesn't doesn't do quite as well.
I’ve heard differing opinions on the automatch and for me it would have a couple hang ups in my Neos and ARX-180. A buddy had a boatload of FTE’s and FTF’s on his HK 416.
Not nearly as bad as the Winchester Super X (yellow anniversary box) lol
Yeah, the Super X had about 1 misfire out of every 8 or 10 rounds for me. Couldn't believe it, but tried it in several rifles & pistols, all had problems. Never buying that stuff again!
I bought a couple of the blue box 36 gr hp a few months ago. About 6 out of 10 would stovepipe or not even leave the chamber in my mkIV.Some felt like a squib. I talked to Federal and they sent me 2 boxes of automatch for free and didn’t have to send the bad boxes back. I’m guessing they just had a couple bad lots. I’ve seen several others have issues with the 36gr blue boxes recently
I ran out of my Federal 550 round 36grain boxes. I could hit a dime at 50yrds with my Marlin. Bought a bunch of the Automatch and its reliable but not quite as accurate. I assume the 550 boxes arent made anymore
I haven’t seen them in years if they are. Could also be differences lot to lot of course as well.
I just bought 2 525 boxes of them today price wasnt to bad but cant wait to try them anyway (Academy)
My local walmart stocks Remington golden bullets and Winchester 555. The Remington golden bullets work in all my .22s and have decent accuracy, plus they are dirt cheap, so that's what I use.
It's all good... better than no ammo
Interesting... I have one box of the Federal Champion that I haven't opened. I will get out a couple of lots of the Federal AutoMatch and Winchester M-22 and run them over the chronograph to see if I get the same results.
I used to shoot some blue box Federal a few years ago that was fine... must be a different line than this. I will look back through chrono data and see which one it was.
Thank you for sharing your experience with these ammos.
You’re most welcome, and if you think about it let me know what you find! I know the old blue box LRN federal was decent 2-4 years ago, but haven’t had it since.
Good test. With my experience with both of these is what they where made for. Cheap plinking rounds.
Thanks!☺️
Tried automatch in my CZ457, I lent a Garmin chronograph to check speed, would get 4 or so at identical fps then just get one 50fps faster.
This showed up on my targets, would get them almost in the same hole but then get a flyer.
The CCI standard is my main go to
Thanks for straight forward, heavy metal free, demo/eval!
You’re welcome!
Good production quality on the video too, I like how you posted the shot velocity as you went along.
Thanks! ☺️
It took some time in editing but I think was worth it for sure!
The Automatch is the most accurate from my 10/22 I have tried out of around 10 types of ammo. Hands down the smallest groups.
Same. I’ve tried around 10 types and Automatch has been the best for my 10/22.
Stick with the cci , nothing compares to it, expensive but reliable
Agreed. My CZ bolt rifles love it.👍🏻👍🏻🇨🇦🇨🇦
for me, in my auto loader i get best results with Aquila HV orange box followed by CCI mini mag 40gr and then fed automatch. great vid, thx!
I would agree with all of those, they’ve also shot excellent for me. Automatch’s advantage (at least around here) is how much cheaper it is
it’s the least expensive here to. by a fair bit…
I've had good and bad luck with both these products. Sometimes you just get a shitty run.
Thanks for the comparison video, good knowledge and I was surprised to see the massive inconsistency with any federal ammo… 😲WOW! that’s as bad as Rem TB!!!
I have several .22LR rifles… they all shoot differently with different ammo, but by far my 10-22 match rifle is the most accurate… this will seem unrealistic, but with CCI blazer😲! My Savage mod 19 NRA Match with Winchester wild cat 40grn copper Dynapoint (whatever a dynapoint is🤔) - my Marlin 60 likes CCI mini mags😁…
My Winchester 190 likes Federal 40grn copper HP’sand the other 10-22’s get to eat whatever I feed them… going to say that BY FAR the worst ammo I have ever put through any of my rifles is…
🤢Remington Thunder Bolt🤮
Good video. Some pretty bad ammo. Probably have to get a squirrel with a death wish to actually jump in front of the bullet with those Champion. Thanks for sharing, that was a lot of good data. Take care.
Thanks! I 100% agree, definitely not up to snuff for any kind of hunting or accuracy use. If you have any suggestions or things you’d like tested feel free to let me know!
@@thereloadingcraft Thanks. Will do.
@@thereloadingcraft 0
Bobcat has some great ammo comparisons on his channel too.
I’ve bought both and got two squibs outta the blue box.
Both times the gun went *bang, bang, bang,* thhhhhhhhp.
Mind you, I was shooting a 6” heritage rough rider. That should never happen in a 6” barrel.
Thankyou for the info I was wondering whether they were worth anything.
One is, one is not 😂 at least in my opinion
Some of the bullets from an Aguila bulk pack that I had for a while actually came apart in my 22. The lead separated from the jacket. It was as if the well-known waxiness of the bullet was holding the bullet together. The wax got soft and then as I said separated in my firearm.
I have switched to auto match. The price and consistency has sold me on it.
Nteresting. I was fully expecting the bad one to be Automatch, and I was going to comment to say I have had nothing but good luck with it. I was quite surprised to see that the more expensive one was actually not as good as the cheaper stuff.
You were as surprised as I was! Better ammo AND cheaper? Say no more 😅
@@thereloadingcraft Maybe the stuff in the blue box is for pest control? I know there's a picture of a stylized target on the box, but the same target is shown on the other box too, so it's probably just a general logo.
That might explain the hollow point bullets, and perhaps the hollow points are part of the reason for the drop in accuracy? I feel like hollow points are never quite as accurate as round nose, especially in .22
I think AutoMatch is the best bulk ammo out there, except for maybe the Aguila Super Extra which can be had in bulk packs as well. Next step up on the accuracy ladder would be CCI Standard Velocity. My BEST group results have been with Wolf Match Extra (NOT Match Target, which I haven't tried), actually PRODUCED by Eley now, which has beat everything including all of the Eley, Lapua, and SK that I have tried INCLUDING two varieties of Tenex, though I HAVEN'T tried Lapua X-Act.
Tell you what I'm NOT buying any time soon: Winchester Super-X. All of the recent-production I've had (say 2013 - present) has been GARBAGE... report all over the map, groups sizes DOUBLE or even TRIPLE of the next-worst. What's crazy is, I have some 30 year-old Super-X and it is STILL excellent ammo. In fact, the Aguila Super Extra is a CARBON-COPY of the OLD, GOOD Winchester Super-X, right down to the group-sizes. I thought about contacting Winchester and asking "WTF?!?", but I was pretty sure it would be a waste of time.
I have about 2 bricks of Wildcat 40grRNL that are about 10+ years old. Every now and then I take out a 50 round box to the range...no misfires, no squib loads and as accurate as Blazer 40gr RNL(my favorite). Bought a box of Wildcat last year at local Farm and Fleet for $2.47, just to try it out...6 misfires, at least as many low power shots and shot a shotgun pattern instead of groups. Quantity over quality I guess. I'll stick to my best performers, Aguila 40grRNL SV, CCI SV and Blazers.
@@tonyv8925 Yep... I've sworn off ANY new Winchester .22 for the time being... even makes me leery of their current-production centerfire ammo!
I have over 32,000 rounds of Federal White Box…the only problem I’ve encountered with this ammunition is it seems to not cycle well in my wife’s S&W compact 22 lr. I’ve run this through 2 of my Walter P22’s, S&W 15-22, multiple Ruger 10-22’s and my new Rock Island TM22…no problem at all…all stored in 50 round mini zip top bags in ammo cans with moisture packs…some of these rounds I’ve had for 7 years…I just cycle them all.
I have some bulk boxes of Auto Match that are at least 2-3 years old. When I had my .22 rifles, they all performed very well at 25 yards, very small groups. Have not purchased any recently...seems their quality control has become very poor. Just for history, I paid about $14.47 a box at wally world back then. My best ammo is CCI SV, Aguila SV and Blazer 40gr RNL, in that order. Thanks for sharing this video.
Absolutely! Thanks for watching!
Unsure of your AR22 build. But if using a CMMG conversion for a standard 223 chamber. Do know that the bore for a centerfire is larger than what a 22lr needs for proper sealing. Would recommend a dedicated AR 22lr upper and barrel. Federal auto match will produce MOA accuracy at 50 yards and about 1-2MOA at 100. Emphasis is to get a quality fitted 22lr ar barrel such as one from taccom 3g. You'll see a difference over the "budget" barrels
Yep, this is a CMMG dedicated 22LR barrel with proper 1:16 twist and proper lands and grooves diameter.
Not terribly familiar with the taccoms, do they use the standard CMMG/ceiner-pattern bolts and locking ring?
Thanks for the detailed study. That deviation in velocity means at a distance the bullet drop will be greater for the slower rounds. If hunting for small game like rabbit or squirrel can result in a miss and an empty stew pot.
Close up with a pistol not a significant difference.
I must note that one man used a scope mounted S&W Victory .22lr semi-auto pistol. At 50 yards he got tight groups, tight enough that a squirrel is a viable target. He did not have the federal round that deviated so much in velocity so no comparison for that.
ua-cam.com/video/8hyMxbgeYV0/v-deo.html
You’re most welcome, thanks for watching!
Thanks for the good information in your video. I wondered about it since I've also shot both the blue box and the brown box. I've gone to the brown box because my firearms just operate better.
I've shot about 5 boxes of the automatch, it's not bad, but be careful with it. I've had 5rds that were primer only or something, they literally fell out of my barrel on my cp33.
Good to know! Still much more reliable and consistent than the campion value pack in my opinion.
Auto Match has been my personal favorite for years. The last two boxes of Champions we shot up were actually great but not worth the extra cost IMO. Most of that shooting was from TX22s at 20 yards and down though.
Wow, automatch is the minimum of what I consider acceptable. I have had a few under charged rounds but nothing like that blue box.
Thank you for this review I was tempted to pick up a box of the Champion
Absolutely happy to, I made the mistake last time I was getting 22 to try the “more sophisticated and better made and more expensive” champion….lesson learned 😅
@@thereloadingcraft Blazer was my go to for years. CCI has lost their minds on it in bulk it is more than the boxed and has a lighter bullet. I’ve also experienced fail to fire in CCI Standard Velocity which was un heard of a few years ago and they are less consistent than they were.
I bought a bulk box of Federal last October in TN on vacation, as the range only had that 22LR available. Had a frustrating week shooting as they were very inconsistent and caused many blockages/jams on both pistols and rifles. Never again. Now I'm back in UK only use Eley.
Federal automatch is my go to. These days I only shoot automatch and minimags.
Basically 100% same here.
Yep. I've had virtually identical experience with those two Federal ammo's. Through my Ruger precision bolt action, the automatch is nearly as accurate as some of the higher end match ammo.
Never had any interest in Federal 22 LR ammo until today. The AUT-O-MATCH looks like a winner, especially at the price you showed. BTW, what is the rifle system that you are using?
As a plinking ammo, it’s definitely hard to beat! For accuracy, there are better options out there but it’s not made to be a bullseye comp round.
Rifle system is a dedicated AR-22, with a CMMG 16” 1:16 twist 22LR barrel.
Aguila, CCI, Federal and Winchester all make reliable powerful and overall great ammunition for any caliber. This video (many shooters come to realize) emphasizes the point of responsibility each shooter has in knowing and selecting the right ammo per each task
I'd help burn through it. I can go through 22lr super fast
If you ever get over here to PA I’d take ya up on that!
A Henry wouldn't have any reliability issues here.
@thereloadingcraft I could likely do so in march. PA is not exactly around the corner
@@jonathanlunger2775 haha, yes. I have one
@@craigromack6156 true haha 😂
I may be making a tour out to Ohio and possibly MI sometime early this summer, if I can get dates figured out I’d love to meet some of y’all for a range day!
Interesting results. Out of last 2 blue boxes of 800 champions I had 1(one) bad cartridge. Gun is Taurus TX-22.
Real bad ammo all comes from Winchester: more than 50% of all faulted cartridges in my collection have 'W' on it's bottom.
I can tell you work for Federal
Yea, Winchester .22's Suck, I agree!
I got a squib with the Federal champion bulk pack out of my Ruger mkiv that didn't even make it an inch past the chamber.
The loose pack always have loose bullets in the case. Hence, low velocity. Try some Bucket o bullets if you want to shoot some crap.
Have you tried the golden bullet in the bucket? I always thought of the rem goldens as a “better” 22. I know the thunderbolts bucket or not are pretty much crap.
No, just bad.@@AK-ky3ou
This is exactly what I'm experiencing through my Ruger Mark IV and my Heritage Rough Rider. There have been rounds with the blue box where I have quite literally heard the round slide out of the barrel and land on the ground 3 feet in front of me. The Automatch has been pretty consistent! Another budget winner in my experience: the CCI Blazer ammo.
Agreed, CCI Blazer is actually pretty good for the money as well
This is an excellent video thank you. Such a difference from the same brand too, GF picked up a .22 rifle and 3 boxes of the automatch glad I recommend this ammo.
I've tried the blue box Fed Champion lead round nose from the same store at about the same price, as well as the auto match. Both seemed good and very similar from the appearance to the performance.
I was using only the federal automatch and now I use more the aguila high velocity 40gr or 38gr, both boxes cost about the same but the aguila is only 250 rounds...
I have over the last few months shot through a box of both of these kinds of ammo. I forgot the exact number of rounds each one had it the boxes but they were exactly what you have here. only had 2 misfires from each box and I was beyond happy. I was shooting a Ruger Mark III that was dirty as hell and the cheap little Ruger Rangler. Both had 2 of the misfires each. I guess I just got lucky. I've got 500 rounds of various CCI 22 ammo but I just can't bring myself to shoot it because it feels like waste when I get good results from these bulk boxes.
I have shot automatch through my Savage Mark2. I have found other ammo to be more accurate like CCI Standard velocity and Norma TAC-22. But the automatch cycles the most reliably in my Ruger Mark4 pistol.
Yep, CCI SV is usually more consistent, but also pricier too. All depends on whatcha need
I`ve had very good luck with AutoMatch. For accuracy I go with CCI Standard Velocity without getting into the really high end stuff.
I have a Ruger 10/22 from 1973 that absolutely will not load the auto match. I bought the blue box and they load every time. I haven't had it to the range to test the blue box stuff yet, but it loads it without issues. I have thousands and thousands of rounds of auto match because all of my other .22lr rifles and pistols run it perfectly. I only bought one of the blue box just to see if the smaller nose and copper jacket would help the rifle load. It did, but now I'm a bit concerned about it's accuracy.