I have discovered from personal experience that .22 caliber ammunition comparison tests appearing in shooting periodicals, regardless of the testing controls or weapons utilized, are completely useless! There exists for every .22 caliber pistol, or barrel for that matter, a particular "diet" that is best for it. An ammo that performs incredibly well in one pistol may be incredibly bad in another. The thing then to do is to conduct your own test and determine what works best in your pistol. I did just this not long ago, and quickly decided what ammo I should be "feeding" my pistols. I would like to share my findings with you, but more important, based on my experiences, discuss the best procedures for doing such a test.

Selecting Ammunition to Test

Here's where the games begin. It is important to test every possible make and model of ammunition available within the price range you can afford. For my test, I created a list of all "medium-priced" cartridges available and went shopping for 50 rounds of each type. That meant avoiding all "cheapies" like Winchester T-22 and Remington SV and also the "pricies" like Federal Ultra Match, RWS R50, and the Eley Tenex varieties. After one week of assembling this arsenal, I was satisfied with the diversity and price-range of ammunition that I had collected. Note that some mail-order houses are willing to ship as few as 50 rounds of a particular ammo, although 100, or even 500, is often the minimum.

Here are the cartridges that I selected for testing, listed with their cost per round (case pricing):

The Test Environment and Establishing Controls

The most important thing that you must do is create a testing environment that protects the integrity of the data. That means that the exact identical conditions must exist for not only each ammunition, but for each shot fired as well. If there is a 5 mph wind blowing in varying directions, your test may not be conclusive. Also important is that you test the ammo performance at 50 yds., or the longest range you ever might fire.

The most ideal environment would include the use of a machine rest, a gadget that almost eliminates the human factor in the testing. If, and only if, mounted properly and operated correctly, shot-to-shot conditions are almost identical. If one is not available, as in my own testing, an alternative system is to install a 6X or higher power telescopic sight upon your pistol, and fire from a secure, adjustable pistol rest. It is foolish to think that you can get accurate results with a red dot sight, regardless of the size of its dot, or by using a sandbag rest! That would be just a waste of time and ammunition.

A pistol with telescope upon adjustable rest	The targets, each labeled with an ammo brand

Conducting the Tests

Once your ammunition is selected and your test environment has been established, it is time to begin the fun. Because the exact conditions must exist for each ammunition brand, I suggest the following procedure for the testing of each:

1. Select the particular ammunition to test and load magazines
2. Clean the barrel bore thoroughly
3. Fire 15 shots into the berm to foul the barrel
4. Fire 2 or 3 separate 10-shot targets
5. Take notes of any problems during firing
6. Repeat the process for the next ammunition

The removal of all residue from the previously fired ammo brand is important. Many cartridges do not react well to a "foreign" substance in the bore, i.e. residual wax and lead of the prior brand, and produce unstable groups with random flyers. In other cases, the residue of the prior brand might actually make a cartridge perform better, another problem for data integrity.

Analyzing the Results

Finally, it is time to interpret your data. Keep in mind any notes that you took during the course of the testing. There were some surprises and disappointments when I studied the test targets. As I conducted the experiments twice, once for each of my two pistols, I found that both are very accurate, but highly ammunition-sensitive. An ammo performing well in one pistol sometimes was downright pathetic in the other.

Here's what I found when I analyzed the targets fired with my Smith & Wesson 7" Model 41.

Although I consider it too expensive to use on a regular basis, Eley Tenex produced outstanding groups, averaging .825" with great consistency.
Within my price range, the clear winner was Federal Match. At 10.6¢ per round, it was the most expensive ammunition that I considered affordable for regular use.
The big surprise of the test! This ammunition is by far the best value, with groups almost as tight as the Federal Match, but at half the cost.
The big disappointment of the test! This ammunition, while almost as expensive as the Federal Match, performed terribly. But then again, even though my pistols don't digest it well, it might perform superbly in someone else's.

Based on my interpretation of the test results, I have decided to use the Eley Practice-100 as my regular ammunition. The accuracy of this cartridge vs. its price makes it most attractive. Had it not been for my tests, I would have never considered it. I also discovered that CCI Standard Velocity performed worse than any other brand, with consistently large groups, some as large as 5 inches! Another surprise considering how some folks swear by this cartridge's accuracy.

All in all, I feel that the amount of time and effort on the project was well worth it. And you probably will too.