.22 Match Ammunition

Testing Loads with Three Very Different Rifles.

- Terry Wieland

If you want to experience complete and total bewilderment, there is nothing quite like walking into a well-stocked gun shop and trying to decide what kind of .22 Long Rifle ammunition to buy. Even worse, try browsing online. Americans have never had such a wide variety of .22 ammunition to choose from, but that can be a mixed blessing. Confusion is not conducive to good shooting.

Simple as the .22 rimfire may seem, it’s the most sophisticated and highly developed of any ammunition for any firearm, as well as being the most widely used. There are more rounds of .22 fired in a year than any other cartridge, and this gives manufacturers ample incentive to improve their products constantly, as well as to introduce new variations.

Since the “Great .22 Long Rifle Shortage” of a few years ago, foreign manufacturers have made a concerted effort to crack the American market, and now there are too many imported brands to even list here, much less attempt to evaluate. They range from absolutely top-notch specialized target rounds to oddball loads of bullet weight and type and inexpensive bulk packs designed to be expended downrange in sustained bursts.

Two companies that are really making a push are Aguila of Mexico and Norma of Sweden. Norma needs no introduction to big-game hunters, centerfire target shooters or handloaders. Although Norma has made competition rimfire ammunition for years, it was known mostly in Europe. Now, Norma is importing two different types, both competition rounds: Match-22 and Tac-22.

Mexico’s Aguila is one of the world’s largest and most modern manufacturers of rimfire ammunition.