Savage .22 Caliber Recommendations

[Golfbuddy45]

There have been several threads on this forum about Rimfire Ammo and many responses on what "your" rifle likes the best. I have searched all over the Savage Arms website and the documentation of many Savage models and nowhere do I see a FACTORY RECOMMENDATION for ammo such as copper or lead bullets, powder, primer, or bullet lubrication.

Has anyone ever found or received such information from Savage before? I would think this sort of testing is done in the quality control aspects of manufacturing the various models of rifles.

[tenwalker]

I would guess for the same reason Ford, GM and Chrysler do not endorse gasoline. ::)

I would say you answered your question. It is what ever works best in "Your Gun".

Of course these are only speculation's on my part.

[82boy]

When Savage test fires them they use Federal gold match part number UM22 it is a 40gr solid lead bullet.
Savage will not recommend ammo for a gun, it is up to the owners decision on what ammo they prefer. Some peoples level of accuracy is different. To some people hitting a paper plate at 25 yards is good enough, and cheap ammo like winchester wildcat 22 is good enough. To some people shooting every round in the same hole at 50 yards is the must, and they prefer premium ammo, like Lapua, or eley where a box of 50 rounds can run up to $20 bucks a box. Should the person who is happy shooting winchester wildcats be told to shoot $20 dollar a box Eley Tenex? Lets add this what if Eley told Savage if you recommend our Tenex ammo, we will give you $1.00 of ever box sold, and Savage advises to use it. Does Eley Tenex shoot any better in a Savage than say Wolf match extra? my finding is no it don't. So instead of people shooting $6.00 dollar a box Wolf, they are shooting $20 dollar a box Eley, just because Savage says so, when you don't know they may be making money off of there recommendations. It is for many reasons why Savage doesn't recommend ammo.

[tammons]

Try some wolf target ammo.
Shoots very tight in my rifle.

[mtnhighlander]

The one thing I noticed in my ammo test is the Copper Plated keeps things cleaner, the worst for gumming up the rifle was the Eley EPS, nasty stuff to shoot and keep the bolt face and breach face of barrel clean of lube and lead.

[Golfbuddy45]

I can understand everyone's comments - but I was an ISO9001 Quality Manager and Auditor for many years, and in the manufacturing of any product that is done in a quality manner there needs to be a standard, that is what ISO and Quality are all about. There should be something that will always work in EVERY one of that particular product that was made. That is what they will use to check every product run to ensure they are within their quality standards. Apparently the Federal Gold Match UM22 is what Savage uses. So we should be able to assume that every Savage .22 would function properly using the STANDARD ammo.

However, I hear people say that even the same bullet type will not always work properly in every gun of the same make and model. That says to me that either the guns are not made to the same quality standard or the ammo is not made to the same standards. My guess from all of the discussions I have been reading here and in other forums is that the AMMO standards are not as tight as the gun standards are. I am a fairly accurate shooter with my Ruger Comp Stainless Match pistol and I personally have not found a single ammo that will shoot better or worse in that pistol - from the cheapest to the most expensive. Maybe it is just a very forgiving piece.

I am a retired graduate Industrial, Manufacturing, and Environmental Engineer who spent the last 45 years on Quality and minute details. I will have to accept that "it is what it is" as some say and just have fun shooting. I will learn more about these various .22LR bullets when I receive my new MKII BSEV tomorrow. I will do my own testing and we will find out what that rifle "Likes". It will be fun no matter what . . . . . .

After I received my Savage MKII BSEV I found that in the INSTRUCTION MANUAL in SECTION 7 Savage does state recommended ammo and under .22 Long Rifle is "FEDERAL 40 Grain Copper Plated Solid"

[King Ghidora]

There are FAR too many variables to ever get it down to the level of specificity that you are talking about Golfbuddy. The torque on every screw, the exact harmonics on every barrel, the grain in the wood of the stock and the 10,000th grain of powder and bullet would all come into play as well as the cut of the rifling, the cut of the crown, the way the trigger springs work, and so many more variables that would all have to be perfect that I could spend a week just mentioning them. And then of course you would have to consider the weather. Heat, humidity, dew point, barometric pressure, wind and maybe even gravity could all be off just slightly and the bullets would not all fly true.

You're talking an impossible level of control for the real world. I don't know what field exactly you're in but my son does research on lasers so I know how detailed his work can become. From mapping the exact particle dispersal from a particular explosion to the exact amount of electricial power in who knows how many ways of measurement go into his work.

I hate to cite hackneyed theories of physics but chaos theory would certainly apply to the gun industry. They aren't lasers. Not only that but people don't want to spend $100,000 for a gun that shoots exactly the same every time with ammo that might change from one production run to another not to mention from one year to another. It might even have production halted.

The limit people are willing to spend on rimfire rifles seems to be around $5000 or so. To create a gun with anywhere near the level of control you mention would take 10 times that amount at least. It might take 100 times as much and the ammo would have to be manufactured by the same company just to eliminate variables in that department.

In short you're talking pie in the sky engineering. I'm not so sure that a lot of the high level engineering we see places like NASA do is so absolutely perfect either. We all know why I think that. Most of us don't have the budget of NASA. If you can develop a rifle with the level of accuracy you claim is possible and do it for a price that is actually in the real world I want to sign up right now as your first customer.

BTW I've shot Federal 40 gr. ammo in my Savage. My manual suggests it too. It shoots terrible in my MkIIBTV.

[Golfbuddy45]

King Ghidora - you make good points about the gun industry and the variations in individual guns and ammo. My field was high end electronics and manufacturing controls there are quite different than "plain old steel" as we might call our guns. I am retired now so I just have to enjoy the shooting and leave the old high tech thinking behind. BUT, it is hard to unlearn the ways I had to live by day in and out over the last 40 years.

GB45