wmg1299
Professional
I've been limiting my round count for traditional defensive calibers due to ammo scarcity and pricing, so I've started bringing either my Taurus TX22 or Heritage Rough Rider to the range with me for some affordable plinking. I had been using older boxes of Federal Auto Match bulk ammo for awhile, with the TX22 being about 99% reliable, and the Rough Rider being 100% reliable. Almost all of the boxes were 5-10 years old and had been stored in my closet for years.
I was too lazy to dig through my stash in the closet, so I've used a 325 round box of Federal bulk that I ordered from Bass Pro a few weeks ago for my last few range sessions. I did most of my shooting with the TX22, and found that I was having one failure to fire per every two 16-round magazines. While this wasn't too bad for bulk ammo, it was about 3 times as many failures as I normally get from that gun. With the Rough Rider, which has been 100% reliable with whatever I've put through it in the past, I had 5 or 6 failures to fire out of about 120 rounds. All of the dud rounds showed solid strikes on the rim, so I doubt that the guns caused the failures.
I'm wondering if the quality of bulk ammo has suffered due to manufacturers scrambling to meet demand during the pandemic. Have any of you that have been able to find bulk .22 LR ammo recently had similar experiences, or was this just a bad box?
I was too lazy to dig through my stash in the closet, so I've used a 325 round box of Federal bulk that I ordered from Bass Pro a few weeks ago for my last few range sessions. I did most of my shooting with the TX22, and found that I was having one failure to fire per every two 16-round magazines. While this wasn't too bad for bulk ammo, it was about 3 times as many failures as I normally get from that gun. With the Rough Rider, which has been 100% reliable with whatever I've put through it in the past, I had 5 or 6 failures to fire out of about 120 rounds. All of the dud rounds showed solid strikes on the rim, so I doubt that the guns caused the failures.
I'm wondering if the quality of bulk ammo has suffered due to manufacturers scrambling to meet demand during the pandemic. Have any of you that have been able to find bulk .22 LR ammo recently had similar experiences, or was this just a bad box?