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Hi All

I've been shooting for years, mainly .22rf through various semi-autos using Blazer (love it!), Ely Action, Remington Golden Bullet etc. - you get the idea. Normally pay £56 per 1000 for Blazer and I've got no complaints.
Now I've finally got a .22rf bolt action (Ruger Precision Rimfire) with a reasonably (6x24) decent scope on it and I want to try this 'aiming' I've been avoiding for all my semi-auto years

So the question is....what ammunition is the next step up from my favourite Blazer; I don't want to spend too much because I'm tight but am looking at shooting 4 inch gongs at 100 to 200 meters; my eyes aren't up to trying for .5inch groups at any distance so I'm not looking for match ammunition or anything too expensive.

Any recommendations?

Cheers

any of the eley target stuff should do you well. club was always pretty good from what I remember.
SK high velocity I find groups very well out of my 15/22 so I'd imagine popping it through a boltie would be better

but it will boil down to everyone has their fave, but you need to ask yourself what can you get locally, and what is cheap to you.

The bad news is if you want to shoot the rifle properly and get tight groups rather just plinking you will need to spend money on quality ammunition. A good starting point would be Eley Club. I use Club in my CZ452 and SK Match in my heavy barrel target rifle.
You could buy a box each of the better quality ammo and see which the rifle prefers.

.22 ammo is a mine field, every different barrel will like different ammo and then that might change from batch to batch, try a few boxes of various ammo from different manufacturers and see what works, Lapua CentreX is a good middle ground bet.

Virtually all the "target" solids are subsonic and almost any of them should perform well enough for what you want. 2"/100yd (2moa) is quite consistently doable with a decent bolt rifle with fairly average match ammunition although you will need to pay considerably more than the Blazer. NSRA current price for match ammunition (You can probably find it cheaper) ranges from £245/1000 for Lapua Midas+ down to £100-110 for Eley Club, SK match, SK flat nose.

I find it very disappointing to have a miss and then not know if it was me or the ammunition - true, having a blast at tin cans with the semi-auto is great fun, and in general if the ammo feeds and works the action all is well. Settling down with a decent rifle at challenging targets is a different game altogether.

Hi All

Thanks for the advice.

Got 500rds of Eley Sport to try this weekend (at 50m) and then next weekend (out to 200m).

Also got 1000rds of Blazer to blat my my through over the next coupe of weeks

Reason for the choice? Local gun shop had them in stock plus I always associate the name 'Eley' with 'decent ammunition' and the cost wasn't too bad at £41 for the 500.

- David

That sounds good - Have you shot targets out to 200yds yet?

I always associate the name 'Eley' with 'decent ammunition'

oh dear...
their target stuff is still good, but their attempts at the semi auto market are a bit lacklustre from what I've found.

SK Std and Match both worked well for us to 100yds........(in old Match 54's)

Pete

I have had good results using SK Magazine ( the stuff that comes in a ring pull can) a bit greasy but I find it very accurate for cheapish bulk back stuff