Loose bullets

[gerridm]

Hey folks
Long time lurker, first time topic starter.

I recently purchased a 100 round box of a well known 22lr ammo that I put through my 10/22 with interesting results.  Upon loading the ammo into my magazines I  made the observation that the bullet seamed looser than normal in the case.  The results were a couple of FTF, and a magazine that jammed and would not rotate to the next round.  I  attributed this to the loose bullets.

I also experienced poor groupings, an inconsistent sound or report from the rifle on about 30%-40% of the rounds accompanied by a large amount of smoke, and a notable difference in the recoil.  (I could account for the bullet clearing the barrel by the additional hole in my target after every shot to cover that safty issue.)

Could this also be caused by the loose bullets?

Is the ranping up in manufacturing leading to quality control issues?

Just trying to stimulate conversation

Thanks

[malabar]

I started competing with a smallbore rifle 40 years ago. At the time, T-22 by Winchester was what we used for practice, and it was about the cheapest ammo going. But it was nothing like the junk that he get today. There are duds in every box that I see come to the line, whether for Appleseed or one of my pistol classes.  And you see similar poor performance with the cheaper lines of centerfire ammo. The only upside is that you can give your students real life experience in dealing with Type II malfunctions.

We were training some boyscouts a few months back at a big camp up in North Florida, and we had some ammo that had an iron cross for a headstamp. No idea what brand it was, but 30% of it was FTF.  Part of it was probably the worn boyscout rifles, but when we dug up some better ammo, the misfire rate plummeted.

[AFTERMATH]

That's all normal if you shoot Remington Golden bullets.

[Wally]

That's all normal if you shoot Remington Golden bullets.

[oladcock]

Loose bullets in and of themselves isn't a problem, that's been common in .22's forever...O.L.

[Prescott]

I was at an AS event this last weekend, and one of the students was using Winchester SuperX ammo.   The bullets were so loose in the case, that a couple dozen rounds actually bent as the rounds were feeding into the chamber and prevented the round from entering the chamber.   This would cause a failure to feed issue and was very frustrating to the student.