Winchester 555 .22LR

[NcongruNt]

Has anyone had experience with the new .22LR bulk pack from Winchester? Apparently, this is a brand-new product, and was only announced in a press release on 06/30/2009. I was at Wal-Mart, and since the shelves were lacking my favored Federal Blue box bulk packs, I picked one up for $17.something. There's no real identifier to the round except that it's Winchester "555 Rounds" 22 Long Rifle 1280 FPS, 36 GR. Plated Hollow Point. The box is red. It is not yet in the product listing on the Winchester site, just the press release.

Here's a pic of the box and a link to the press release:



http://www.winchester.com/news/newsview ... toryid=267" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I will be heading to the range this weekend to try it out. Hopefully, it will be a decent enough round with enough attention paid to QC that it doesn't fail 10-20% of the time like Remington's bulk stuff.

If any of you have actually shot this stuff, I'd love to hear what your experience has been with it.

[boomerang]

I got two boxes of the 333 at Walmart a while back and it ran good but I never saw the 555 pack.

[BTin]

Mine has run terrible in my Remington 597. FTFs, FTEs, very frequently failure to go boom (around 25%)! The bullets are noticeably roughly cast compared to the remington bulk pack. I will never buy this brand again. But, then again, .22lr can run better in certain guns even of the same model. They are cheap, so give them a shot!

[NcongruNt]

Mine has run terrible in my Remington 597. FTFs, FTEs, very frequently failure to go boom (around 25%)! The bullets are noticeably roughly cast compared to the remington bulk pack. I will never buy this brand again. But, then again, .22lr can run better in certain guns even of the same model. They are cheap, so give them a shot!

Oof. worse than RGB? That's pretty bad. Well, it's bought now, so I guess I'll test it out and see. I'm hitting the range tomorrow. Hopefully I can find 9mm at Academy or Cabela's, because I'm almost completely out. It really seems like ammo manufacturers have taken advantage of the ammo shortage to crank out cheaply-made .22LR rounds with poor QC, and sell them at the same prices that better ammo used to run at when it was available.

[NcongruNt]

Well, I took this stuff to the range yesterday, and am going to have to give it a .

I put around 150 rounds through my Marlin 60 and my Walther P22 and only had 3 failures to fire, which seems to be about the best you're going to get in .22LR without going to CCI mini-mags or the like. UNLIKE the Remington Golden Bullet garbage, those failed rounds all fired when struck a second time. All of the failures were in my Marlin 60, which has a wider pin face than the P22, so doesn't bite as sharply/deeply as the P22. I fired some Federal blue box stuff and compared spent cases from both the P22 and the 60, and noticed that the new Winchester cases don't take as much of a bite from the firing pin. I speculate that this is because the Winchester cases are harder or have thicker brass at the rim.

Accuracy seemed good enough, and I noticed that when compared to Federal ammo, it was more bluntly-shaped with a larger hollow point. It also seems to be loaded just a tad hotter than the Federal blue box.

From my experience, I would recommend trying out a box and see how it works for you - especially as it's the only easy-to-find .22LR bulk pack right now.

[shootthesheet]

$17=

I have stopped shooting except to kill hogs and shoot 50 rounds or so once every few months with my carry. I will dove hunt unless the shells go up like everything else.

Low supply + high demand means high prices. High supply + low demand means lower prices.

I think the high prices are nothing more than a matter of our willingness to pay outrageous prices for the ammo. The ammo companies have had enough time to fill their accounts to head off lawsuits and legislation. So, it is time we exercise some self-restraint and force prices down. Do what you want but I am not buying any more ammo that is 100-150+ % more than it should cost. That box of 555 should be less than $10 a box before people discover it is garbage. Then $5 after. If we want to see things change it will take self-restraint and sacrifice from us all. Stockpile when the ammo is back to its proper prices. Just my opinion.

[tarkus]

Do what you want but I am not buying any more ammo

More for me!

[NcongruNt]

$17=

I have stopped shooting except to kill hogs and shoot 50 rounds or so once every few months with my carry. I will dove hunt unless the shells go up like everything else.

Low supply + high demand means high prices. High supply + low demand means lower prices.

I think the high prices are nothing more than a matter of our willingness to pay outrageous prices for the ammo. The ammo companies have had enough time to fill their accounts to head off lawsuits and legislation. So, it is time we exercise some self-restraint and force prices down. Do what you want but I am not buying any more ammo that is 100-150+ % more than it should cost. That box of 555 should be less than $10 a box before people discover it is garbage. Then $5 after. If we want to see things change it will take self-restraint and sacrifice from us all. Stockpile when the ammo is back to its proper prices. Just my opinion.

Pardon my mistake. I checked the price again last I was at Wal-Mart, and it's actually $13.97.