Thread: CCI Standard Velocity problems

One of the lads here recently asked to swap some of his CCI subsonic ammo because it was going supersonic in his rifle. I commented that I was having the same problem with CCI ammo I bought from Broncos earlier this year. There’s been a couple of others on this forum commenting about the same thing, and a few similar comments on other forums, in particular in the US.

I mentioned that I had been in touch with CCI and got some additional information, not that it helped me at all.

The combination of CCI Standard Velocity and my 16” CZ455 with Gunworks suppressor has been a very productive one over the last 3 years or so. I bought 2000 rounds of this ammo in early 2019 and ran out in March this year. I then bought 1,000 from Broncos in two 500 boxes, and it has been hopeless. Initially we thought it might be the barrel so I cleaned that (properly), accuracy was perfect afterwards but the flyer issue never went away. Every few shots I would get one with a bang and supersonic crack that sounds just like Mini Mag. I tested the theory on paper & chrono, and the shots that went supersonic were hitting well high on the target at my zero range of 57m. In addition I was getting the occasional very slow round that was striking really low.

Yesterday arvo I was shooting magpies over bait at a range of ~60-85m. The paddock had just been grazed out and was quite muddy which is when the magpies really love it for worms and critters. I’ve been doing very well on the magpies in the last week or so and I thought the problem had gone away. I took two shots. The first one was very loud and struck dead in line but ~2 inches high with a clear splash, range 74m, a clean high miss. The second one 20 minutes later at the same range was dead quiet, slow, splashed well low, a clean miss, and I could clearly hear the delayed sound of the impact. The infuriating thing is that I will go 30 or 40 shots without getting any problems, the ammo shoots accurately and the birds drop. Then suddenly it goes haywire for a few shots… then seems to come right again. For a while it was quite a regular occurrence once every four or five shots but as I’ve moved through the batch the occurrence has varied heaps and now seems to affect six or seven rounds in a row followed by 30 or 40 that are fine.

According to CCI, this batch was tested as an average of 1,077fps in a 24” barrel, with an ES within normal limits. My testing is giving me an average of 1,066fps, incredibly close to what is marked on the box, but I am getting a massive ES with the Chrono showing some shots close to 1,200fps, and one or two around 950fps. I sent the Chrono data over to the techie in America but according to them they didn’t see a problem so nothing they can do.

The interesting thing is that this batch was manufactured in July 2020. So it’s a Covid batch. He wouldn’t tell me what was going on in the plant at the time but I wouldn’t be surprised if stop start manufacturing and poor quality control was a problem for them. The Americans were in the middle of their Covid nightmare in July last year.

I’ve never experienced anything like this unreliability with CCI and I’m really annoyed as I didn’t want to have to start again with a different brand but looks like that’s what I’ll have to do with spring just round the corner.

Anyway after this long waffle, the batch number is G28B107, it is printed on the inside flap of the 50 round boxes. If I were you, before I bought a brick of 500 I would ask to try a 50 box if the batch number is something close to this. Unfortunately I suspect that hand-in-hand with the ammo shortage, we might get a period of poor quality ammo just to really get up our noses.

remington uses dupont powder, its filthy stuff.
never had an issue with any cci ammo ever

Only just walked in the door from grouping and sighting my rifle for next weekends comp. Tried Geco, CCI standard velocity, and Winchester T22. Both the Geco and the CCI went kinda ok, nice tidy 50mm group @100, then the flyer, either low or high, opening it up to about 90mm. In the end I was able to get some reasonable results with the CCI, slightly better than the Geco, so am sticking with that. But it is frustrating. Put it across the crony yesterday and it went between 923fps to 1099fps. You can hear the difference with each shot.

What batch number is that @Husky1600, and how long is your barrel?

When we had it across the chrony, it was a short barrel 10/22. Today I was using a Bradley with a 20" barrel, but didn't bother to pull out the chrony. Cant find any numbers printed or stamped in any of the boxes of ammo I have here. Nor inside the 500 outer box.

Nothing that looks like this @Husky1600?

Cheers for the batch number. I have 10,000 plus of that.... hope it is ok.

I had that happen to me in my JW15 last night clean miss on a rabbit at 30m with a loud crack. I don't have the box as it was my last handful so just chucked what I had in the magazine.

I've had CCI Subsonic running around 1140fps for years in my 20 inch XT22. Shoots pretty well from the rifle. ES of about 40fps. Been this way for about 10 years.

Sent from my SM-G991B using Tapatalk

Noticed these sort of accuracy probs as soon as I ran out of the Aussy made stuff. Still got a couple of expensive 22s but tend to carry a light 223 and roll my own these days.

I did a bit of sighting in for comp next weekend with standards. Didn’t chrony any but was getting pretty good groups with a slight cross wind out at 100 and 300 metres. Was shooting with out can on 16” T1X and didn’t have any breaking sound barrier

Originally Posted by Flyblown

Nothing that looks like this @Husky1600?

Nothing like that stamped anywhere, and I looked at a number of boxes from 3 different bricks.

A follow up to the problems I've been having with Standard Velocity.


These two targets are typical of what I've been experiencing. Each round is shot in the order it comes out of the packet. There's been a return to the original distinct pattern - I'll get 3 or 4 shots that are bang on, then 2 or 3 that have an audible supersonic crack and are well off.


Previous CCI Standard Velocity in this rifle was one ragged hole for 5 shots, guaranteed, highly reliable. This batch is awful.


Target 1:


I took the scope off the rail, but did not remove the rings from the scope. I checked the rail to action mount (fine) and re-mounted the scope. Shots 1-3 are low, then a scope adjustment for shot 4 (almost perfect), then shots 5-7 all "cracked" loudly and were well off. At 70-80m on a rabbit, that's a clean miss.





Target 2:


Shots 1-3 were good but not great, that's my shooting probably. But shots 4 and 5 were very loud cracks, loud enough for my wife to comment from inside the house 40m away how much louder they sounded. (And it's a very well insulated house.)


Again, at the typical ranges I'm shooting small pests (usually 70-90m), shots 4 and 5 are clean high misses.



This is really frustrating, I'm at the stage where I'm just gonna throw this ammo in the trash.

@Flyblown, maybe consider a small cool bag for your ammo. Having the powder and primer at O deg centigrade is easily achievable with some ice bags and should cause slower velocities. But 0 deg C is also simple to consistently achieve due to the latent heat of melting ice. A lot of 19th and 20th century science was carried out at freezing point of water for that reason, until consistent adjustable central heating allowed scientist to start using room temp 20 deg C as the standard.

Because of the consistent temperature of water ice, keeping stuff at freezing point is much easier to attain than to consistently keep ammo at, say, 20 degrees C. It might solve your crack problem. Note, ice would also keep your ammo up at 0 deg C if you were out in -20C.

https://automaticweapondeals.com/202...130-degrees-f/

Some useless info. Someone may find it of interest.
The batch of Pistol Match was a lemon. Disappointing as I purchased a reasonable quantity.
Testing is quite old now and predates any Covid quality issues.
Tested a lot of other ammo but haven't extracted data from chronograph.
Results may be corrupted slightly by me not cleaning between brands. Or firing any conditioning shots.