All the bullet manufacturers have done it for years. I now see some of the bigger (.338's and .358's) in boxes of 25!

It's just "Good Ole" American greed. 

Soon they will "out source" the manufactor to China, pay 1/2 as much to have them made, put them in boxes of 20 and charge twice as much as their box of 50.

Frank

? - were the boxes re-sized down from 50 count or are they 50 count boxes with 10 empty spaces? I checked the .22 ammo I have (none is U.S.A.-made) and the boxes are marked "59 cartridges".

I have an unopened brick of Lightning from the seventies.   

Wonder what it's worth now?   


           Joe.

.22Hepburn wrote on Nov 20^th, 2014 at 5:08pm:


Last year I was doing lots of weighing and measuring of ammo.  (Busman's holiday - SPC was a big part of my career at Zeiss.)   

I rate any ammo as "good" if I can get 45 out of 50 in a box to be +/- 0.1 grains weight on a Pact BBKII digital scale. (i.e., say, 53.0 grains to 53.2 grains.  I'm offering weight as a proxy for overall process control, since it's easy to measure.

My considered answer to the question is: Every American brand except Federal UM22 and 922a, and that may not actually be American.

The only US made "match" ammo I've had that was ever really good was the Federal UM1, now long out of print.   Federal 922a and UM22 tested about the same statistically (weight variance) as Wolf Match. (I've read a rumor that it actually is made on the same mfg. lines in Germany.)  Typically only one or two out of 50 would exceed 0.1 grains variance from average.   

Winchester T-22 "Target" I quit even measuring.  No better than their bulk ammo.  Ditto Federal 711 "Gold Medal".   

Three lots of CCI standard velocity looked OK, but I found two more lots that were less than.  But it's not marketed as "match" ammo, although I see some folks using it. 

Interestingly CCI MinMags had pretty fair numbers for bulk ammo, as did Auto Match. (Better than 45 pieces within +/-0.2 grains for a whole box.)  Not really "match grade" by any means, but a whole lot better than Remington Thunderduds. (+/- 1.5 grains, sometimes more!)

By comparison. the high grade Eley I can't get any weight variance at all - my scale only resolves to 0.1 grains.  100% of five boxes from two lots were all dead on.

Phil

OP, Those 40 round boxes of American Eagle are not new. They have been around for at least 20 or 30 years. They are tin can ammo grade. I'm sure the underlying reason then was as you presume now. Somebody buys them because they are the cheapest box to shoot in their 10/22 they bought on sale at WallyWorld. 
The 325 round bulk boxes of Federal Auto Match have also been around for a few years. They are 1200 fps but supposably made to a better spec. and fit better in the "Auto Match" type chambers that are popular in built up 10/22's. I like them in their place, they have improved accuracy in several .22's I have that are not target rifles. I do not know how well they compare to real match ammo in a real target rifle. My target rifle has it's favorite (Eley Target) and I've never thought about using cheaper stuff till now.
kootne

Hi kootne, Wow, 20 to 30 years? That's the first time I've ever saw them in boxes of 40. It was just a shock to me. Oh well. Dale.