I downloaded that magazine and will read it later on today.  thanks for posting the link


"It was my experience and that of several shooters I know, that Wolf Match Target was the better performer, at least in my Martini."

one of the major problems with this whole rimfire thing is that each individual gun seems to be different and with such small cases/powder charges/ bullets etc etc  even the tiniest variables become critical. 
As a result one gun may respond well or better to one specific mfg/brand/lot, and another gun that to all our ability to measure is identical will do better with something else.
We can say that one brand lot will outperform another but that is only relative to performance either in one specific gun or as a statistical average of several test guns------which may or may not relate to your specific guns.

We assume that 22rf ammo built to more consistent specs--tighter QC tolerances- (more $$$)--should perform better than ammo built to lesser QC specs.  However its how it performs in YOUR gun that counts.  and i can almost gurantee that once you find a batch that your gun likes---they'll discontinue it

How does a company manufacture the different grades of .22 ammo?  Is the "best" made on better or newer machines??  Is it different powders??  Different lead??  Bullet shape??  Are the bullets graded??  Lube??  Do they pull batches along the assembly line and test them and find where some do better in a long run and grade them that way??  I was just wondering why a $15 box of ammo supposedly does better than a $3 box.  A curious mind was just wondering??

Guys

I don't subscribe to the "gun likes" theory.  Top teams furnish the same ammo to all members.  Imagine packing the US Olympic team and trying to sort out what each team member thinks his gun likes.

It's a gun writers often repeated myth supported by inadequate testing.  Good is good and if it won't shoot look for a gun or operator problem.  We get Silhouette competitors all the time that claim some cheap stuff is what there rifle "likes" never see one win a match with it.

Boats

Bert Brookes, who looked after the Eley test range died last year. Bert's working day largely consisted of meeting top shooters from all over the world--with their rifles---and testing batches of Tenex. When a production batch was found that ideally suited a particular rifle, the shooter would reserve that batch. If the individual could not take the whole batch with him, then Eley would store it, allowing the shooter to purchase the best ammo for his rifle until the batch came to an end and the visit to Birminham had to be repeated.
Bert is gone, but this process still happens. Ammo is selected for the individual--not normally for teams.
Fred

boats;
           I think you have exposed another gun "myth"--I have several 22Rf rifles and they all like the high dollar ammo--I don't think I would keep a rifle that wouldn't shoot Eley 10X. There are good and bad "lots" of all RF ammo, but the good stuff always wins. I've never seen a match of any importance won with Rem "thunderbolts" or Win "wildcats"--I also think this same "myth" is used when talking about our CF rifles.    ledball

Looking at Ely, as an example, in my Midway catalog, Ten X is $19.99, Match is $12.79, Team is $10.99, Club $7.39, and Sport $3.19.  That is a difference of $16 from top to bottom.  Is it then due to the cost of possibly being produced on machines with tighter tolerances and then hand measuring and sorting?  I would think that most of it would have to be labor induced somehow.  Bob

At the range yesterday, a shooter had a Rem 540 target rifle that had not been shot for some years.  He was trying to target it at 100 yards with Winchester Wildcat and some Aguila stuff, & complaining mightily that the rifle would not shoot (or maybe him).  I gave him a box of Wolf Match Extra. After a few shots to get the fouling smooth, the rifle started shooting cloverleaf groups.  The shooter was ecstatic.  I neglected to give him a box of Eley Club Extra.

Matching ammo lots to rifles and evaluating barrels from a machine rest is not new.  If you read Crossman's "Smallbore Rifle Shooting" (1927) or Landis' "22 Caliber Rifle Shooting" (1932), both refer to trips to the ammunition company indoor test ranges to check on which lots to buy.  Those old-timers went to Winchester or Remington.  Apparently both had setups similar to that described for Eley, as did the old United States Cartridge Company.  Do our present US companies offer such services?

Boelter's book discusses the manufacture & quality control processes.  The high $ stuff is made on machinery with tighter tolerances, from strips of brass meeting more rigid standards, sometimes with a different powder (cites Tenex), and is subject to many more types of inspections.  As you move incrementally from the $20 per box stuff down to the $4 or $3 box stuff, you are either getting the ammo that did not quite pass the super high standards ($10 per box) or the stuff that is poured out with close to zero effort at QC.

Most of the vendors of high-end target ammo will work with shooters to supply specific lots of ammo for trial or large quantity sales.