Favorite 22cal plinking bullet?

[leomort]

Curious to hear if anyone has a favorite 22cal plinking bullet that they like to use in their AR15? Has any used the hornady 55gr soft point w/ cannelure bullet? They seem pretty reasonably price and perhaps fit the role as general role plinking use. How's their accuracy?

Like to hear what bullets you are reloading in your AR15. Or do you think its better off just buying the m193, etc. when it goes on sale as your cheap plinking needs? How are you feeding yours?

 

[Muleskinner]

I buy the ARMSCOR bulk 55 grn FMJs. I got 10s of thousands of them because I bought a bulk shipment and then was given a huge bag of them. They fly straight out to about a 100 yds. Their BC sucks but they are for poking holes in paper not precision shooting.

 

[4g64loser]

I like the speer soft points or TNTs. They will punch paper or ring steel out to 500 unless the wind is ripping. Work great on groundhogs out to 300 or so.

I hate Hornady bullets so take my opinion with that in mind.

 

[Cool_Moo5e]

Curious to hear if anyone has a favorite 22cal plinking bullet that they like to use in their AR15? Has any used the hornady 55gr soft point w/ cannelure bullet? They seem pretty reasonably price and perhaps fit the role as general role plinking use. How's their accuracy?

Like to hear what bullets you are reloading in your AR15. Or do you think its better off just buying the m193, etc. when it goes on sale as your cheap plinking needs? How are you feeding yours?

for fun plinking on a private range, I buy AAC 5.56/223 55g FMJs usually just because it's the cheapest per round I can get.

 

[leomort]

I like the speer soft points or TNTs. They will punch paper or ring steel out to 500 unless the wind is ripping. Work great on groundhogs out to 300 or so.

I hate Hornady bullets so take my opinion with that in mind.

You're comment regarding hornady bullets got me curious. Why do you hate hornady bullets?

 

[Park ranger]

You're comment regarding hornady bullets got me curious. Why do you hate hornady bullets?

Speaking for myself, I’ve had too many blow up mid flight. A lucky box gives you flyers. Some of their bullets are ok, like the 35 grain 22 hornet.

 

[erwos]

RMR, Xtreme, LOS, whatever's cheap and 55gr. At my usual 50-200yd steel distances, I don't really notice much of a difference.

That said, I'm curious what your non-plinking bullet is, and how far you shoot it? I'm planning on just switching over to either 69gr or 75gr RMRs and being done with it, because I'd rather have one reasonably priced load that does everything I need.

 

[4g64loser]

You're comment regarding hornady bullets got me curious. Why do you hate hornady bullets?

I hate hornady. I could go on and on but it is a combination of their crappy product and their even-worse "tech" people. They literally know less than a PRS or F Class newbie and I've caught them lying.

One thing that really frosted me was that their so-called "improved" eld line bullets copper fouled a very new Krieger 5C match barrel......but the old amax line and nosler ABLRs did not. They are rumored to have switched to reclaimed copper for their jackets. When asked, their "tech" denied it and said that it was my barrel (unlikely as their old bullets and noslers bullets didn't have the issue). I'm talking about green copper in the brake, visible on the lands with a loupe and a light, never mind putting my scope in the bore.

Their 53vmax was released and had a great BC. I put a 9 twist criterion chambered in 22-250ai on my custom varmint rifle, throated to put the 53 at the lands while keeping most of the bearing surface in the neck. 53s shot ok. Coppered up bad. But on the first two groundhogs, they went right through with little damage. Have a witness. Clean shots to upper torso. Went back to nosler 55BTips. Groups the same but way less copper in the barrel and the terminal performance was exactly what I expected from nosler. Groundhogs DRT.

the above mentioned 9 twist barrel, i got a bunch of 75 hpbt hornady bullets in a trade. Even the boxes said 9 twist. I did the miller calcs on berger site and it was plenty stable, just to be sure. I exploded 81 of 100 fired. With three witnesses. Most didn't make it 50yds. Hornady tried every excuse when I called em. "Barrel is wrong twist". Umm, no, I just finished telling you the specs, including the twist rate, on the barrel. "Barrel is shot out". Umm, no, of the less than 500 rounds on the tube, 100 were those 75s. Keep swinging, idiot.

As a side note, i milled a few of the 75s half off, melted.the lead out, and used a thimble mic on the walls. Not consistent at all, which was likely the issue.

Not my gun, but a student last year had a T3 tac a1 in 308 and hornady eldm duty ammo (from an LE distributor, hes an LE sniper). Best groups were at or above 2moa (two people shot the rifle) and extreme spreads were over 100fps. This is ammo sold to a sheriff's department for use by police marksmen. Thats absolutely garbage. He shot some of my 155 (sierra 2156) loads and he managed just over .5moa.

i can keep going. But im tired.

Speaking for myself, I’ve had too many blow up mid flight. A lucky box gives you flyers. Some of their bullets are ok, like the 35 grain 22 hornet.

I've seen that happen myself, as described above, and to a lot of guys at matches or in class. Their elds are garbage. Nosler and Sierra are way better. I'm running 140rdf in my .260 hunting rifle (brux barrel) and haven't had any copper fouling issues let alone blown one up midflight.

If you want a good "hornet" velocity bullet (and you have a modern .224 groove diameter barrel) check out the speer 45gr soft points and their 46gr flat nose soft point. Done some up in 223 but using pistol powder for close in shooting at lower velocity. A friend in WV turkey hunts with that load and has good results.

 

[Melnic]

I buy the ARMSCOR bulk 55 grn FMJs. I got 10s of thousands of them because I bought a bulk shipment and then was given a huge bag of them. They fly straight out to about a 100 yds. Their BC sucks but they are for poking holes in paper not precision shooting.

Ughh, I got a bag of them during covid and the weights were very off from each other. Noticed the lenghts were off too. Mine did NOT fly straight. I ended up sorting them manually and tossing out 10% of them. My son and I do still shoot them at steel @ 100 yards but we have to be taking good aim cause they shoot like 4MOA
I went back to the bulk fmj from xtreme.
I used to be able to get Nosler Varminter for bulk accuracy but have not seen them for the cheap price I used to get them for.

 

[4g64loser]

Ughh, I got a bag of them during covid and the weights were very off from each other. Noticed the lenghts were off too. Mine did NOT fly straight. I ended up sorting them manually and tossing out 10% of them. My son and I do still shoot them at steel @ 100 yards but we have to be taking good aim cause they shoot like 4MOA
I went back to the bulk fmj from xtreme.
I used to be able to get Nosler Varminter for bulk accuracy but have not seen them for the cheap price I used to get them for.

If you can get nosler Varmageddons for a good price, buy em! Great bullets. I ran the 40s in a 12 twist 223 bolt gun. Way hotter than a gasgun would tolerate but they shot lights out running an overmax charge of benchmark.

 

[leomort]

4g64loser,

Thank you for your candid feedback regarding Hornady bullets. I’ve heard very good feedback regarding the 22cal 75gr eld-m over at 24hourcampfire site.

Also heard good things about sierra’s 77gr tmk in 22cal as well.

In regards to Hornady 55gr soft point w cannelure most of fees back was that it was decent general purpose bullet. Not great accuracy about 1.5” is typical. Actually I was thinking of loading this down to 22lr type level when we had the 22lr rimfire shortage and I was getting desperate, lol!

 

[4g64loser]

4g64loser,

Thank you for your candid feedback regarding Hornady bullets. I’ve heard very good feedback regarding the 22cal 75gr eld-m over at 24hourcampfire site.

Also heard good things about sierra’s 77gr tmk in 22cal as well.

In regards to Hornady 55gr soft point w cannelure most of fees back was that it was decent general purpose bullet. Not great accuracy about 1.5” is typical. Actually I was thinking of loading this down to 22lr type level when we had the 22lr rimfire shortage and I was getting desperate, lol!

Sierra or nosler 77bthp will both work well. The Sierra 77TMK is good too but usually costs a bit more than the normal bthp.

 

[Uncle Duke]

I shoot the Hornady 2266 55 grain SP with cannelure. I believe to be a far superior accuracy and performance alternative to blasting 55gr FMJ. I buy 2266 in bulk, 6000 at a time. Even with plinking, I find shooting is challenging enough without shooting ammunition that doesn't have the precision and capability I'm looking for. Also the reason I load my own, because it isn't really much of a cost savings with volume and lower end 5.56/.223 ammo. The 2266 is my tradeoff between precision capability and cost vs.typical blasting ammo. I've found that I can have a fighting chance of putting that bullet where I want it.

 

[Bountied]

Federal XM193 55gr FMJ. Any 55gr FMJ brass ammo will work for plinking.

 

[leomort]

UncleDuke,

What kind of accuracy are you get from those hornady bullets?

 

[Uncle Duke]

UncleDuke,

What kind of accuracy are you get from those hornady bullets?

I can pretty consistently keep them within an inch and a half at 100 yards. To me, that's plenty acceptable out of an AR. I can't do that with the typical Wolf Gold/PMC Bronze/Federal/Pick One case lot and comparatively inexpensive blasting fodder. Everybody defines "good" and "good enough" differently. That's fine and fair.

If you're interested in banging 8 inch steel, and that's most certainly plenty fun to do, any of the above factory FMJ will be just fine. I'd suggest that that has been the "good enough" verdict alluded to by others here in reference to "plinking." I agree with that. There's indeed good, and good enough. It's all about application. I just prefer to load rounds for AR that aren't terribly expensive, and that I can shoot demonstrably tighter in the AR platform. And I want a soft point bullet. I appreciate the AR's many blended capabilities, but I'm probably more precision oriented than most at heart. And I want an element of precision also without premium components and the associated cost. I haven't found it in a box. Not at a price I want to pay. It's worth it to me to be able to produce better AR ammo than what I can buy at a similarly inexpensive cost to lower end factory. I don't count my time at a loading bench.

 

[rossiski]

I really like frontier 75 gr. BT’s (not bullet but actual round) They work great out of 7 twist barrel.

 

[Jerry M]

I have used the Hornady 55 grain soft point with cannelure for two prairie dog trips out west. They are much more accurate than FMJ.

 

[Doco Overboard]

Curious to hear if anyone has a favorite 22cal plinking bullet that they like to use in their AR15? Has any used the hornady 55gr soft point w/ cannelure bullet? They seem pretty reasonably price and perhaps fit the role as general role plinking use. How's their accuracy?

Like to hear what bullets you are reloading in your AR15. Or do you think its better off just buying the m193, etc. when it goes on sale as your cheap plinking needs? How are you feeding yours?

I use them, (Fmj's) for plinking in my Ar 15 when I hand load sometimes. Which is rare that I do that anymore for any 223 cartridge that I use.
I cant tell the difference in jacket concentricity or a bad bullet because there's significantly more error in iron sights and my hold even from prone these days. Especially when I switch targets due to the way our range is set up.
The 55 fmj's are open base boat tails, maybe the soft points work better becuase the way the envelopes are formed or something idk.
Flat base bullets work well in some rifles than other based on my shooting experience. Depends on wear and things like that in rifles that have been shot alot.
They're cheap thats for sure.

 

[Rockzilla]

RMR, LOS, 2nds when they become available.
55gr weights mainly, avoid Hornady for most of the same reasons given, dont use their brass either.

-Rock