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Practically Shooting

Eley?


Pablo

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Can someone school me on ELEY .22 ammo?

I've read Eley Tenex is top notch. Fine, but darn expensive.

I scored a brick of super hot Aguila "Supermaximum Hyper Velocity" 22LR and it says "Eley Prime" on the side of the brick.... Is there some relationship?

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The cost is relative. What does Federal Gold Medal Match .308 cost? I don't think the quality is as good and consistent as Eley. In .22 LR ammo, RWS R50, Lapua Midas and X-Act, and other true Match grade ammo (not "target ammo") is right in line with Eley's better grades.

When I moved back to IN from IL, I had to stop shooting Highpower competition for a while. As a substitute, I started shooting .22 handgun silhouette. I went around buying as many different types of .22 LR ammo I could, in order to test in my .22 Contender.

There was a supplier in Maryland who only carried Eley ammunition. Unlike most suppliers, he actually stocked every variety Eley made, which was something like 12+ levels at the time, not including hollow point and/or High Velocity. They have trimmed the line quite a bit after falling on hard times a few years ago. I ordered two boxes of every variety they made then, to test them out.

I was amused by how low the cost was.

You see, I had been handloading my ammunition for Highpower, and always used Sierra bullets. The projectiles alone cost more than the loaded Eley ammunition.

And I was buying my Sierras from the cheapest place in the country for Sierra MatchKings (by far). Yes, I'm comparing .22LR to .308, but I'm I'm also comparing component bullets that still need to be loaded against the finest loaded ammunition in the world that is capable of winning any Olympics held thus far.

I always keep plenty of Eley around just for testing if nothing else. I've noticed that the vaunted Tenex does not always test out to be the most accurate, but if it isn't first, it's second. As much as .22s can be picky about ammo, that's always been pretty interesting to me that one type will always be first or second.

FWIW, I found Eley Practice 100 to be the give about the most accuracy for it's place in the lineup. I don't think they make it anymore, but it was in the lower third of the lineup. It cost about twice what the Winchester T22 and Remington "Target" cost, but was a lot less than anyone's Match level ammo. It might have ran $3.50/50rds when T22 was $1.50, and worth it.

On a side note...

Although not a win at all costs guy, it was always curious to me how people wouldn't even notice the match fees being $10 at one club and $20 at another (for the exact same type of match), but would never pay an extra two bucks for ammo that would have made a difference. I guess it cut into the $100 or more they put into gun mods every month.

One neat thing about Eley was that no matter which line I used, the velocity and point of impact was the same. I could chrono all of it and expect 1085 fps. This way, a match shooter can practice with their cheapest level and switch to the good stuff for a match, and if they had to make a sight correction it wasn't due to the ammo change.

I don't know how true this is, but an ancient man who was always at a gun club I used to belong to was an old Smallbore shooter, and he explained the way Eley graded the various ammo in their lineup. He said that when they make new case forming dies, bullet swaging dies, and other tooling, they make it as well as they can then use it to make Tenex...but only for a certain number of rounds. Let's say 10,000 rounds, although I just picked that number out of the air. After that, the ammo made on that tooling was graded as Eley Club for maybe 50,000 rounds. Then the next ammo it produced would be sold as Eley Match Extra for 200,000 rounds. And so on and so on.

I don't know if knew what he was talking about or not, but it makes some sense, I guess. I can see that it might be a better system than making it all at once then gauging it all in various ways to grade it and sort it. I seriously doubt they have a top notch production line, a slightly sloppier line, an even more sloppier line, etc.

Anyway, if that's the case, it would explain why it's all good stuff but some is a little better than others.

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Pablo,

Use the Google search above recent topics and you'll find some info in these forums... I just searched "eley"

Wayne

Thanks. I saw nothing in the actual ammo sub-forum. The one thread in Rimfire pistols probably could be moved here.

I guess Eley licensed (so to speak) Aguila to allow them to use their priming process.

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Given that the priming compound in a .22 is such a large percentage of the total burn, it, it's consistency, and it's volume are hugely important to giving consistent and good accuracy.

When I was a kid, eley (sub solids and sub HPs) gave me the filthiest barrels of anything I tried, but seemed accurate enough.

Haven't played much with them, as even CCI blue box down here are $55-60 a brick.

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Let's say 10,000 rounds, although I just picked that number out of the air. After that, the ammo made on that tooling was graded as Eley Club for maybe 50,000 rounds. Then the next ammo it produced would be sold as Eley Match Extra for 200,000 rounds. And so on and so on.

I don't know if knew what he was talking about or not, but it makes some sense, I guess.

Textbook of Small Arms details a process of producing ammunition, testing it, and sending the most consistent wrt timing and velocity to aircraft machine gun use (think shooting through propeller, and wanting the bang to be the same every time)

I read ages ago in a (local) gun rag that CCI did that with green and blue box...same product, just one more consistent than the other and with the barrel time in a .22, consistency needs to be good.

But on the equipment, Olin make Winchester ammo in Oz...about a decade ago, Olin produced a cheaper product, apparently in competition with their Winchester offerings.

Looked identical, bar the headstamp.

Investigation showed that they were using the old gear for the off brand, after it had been through the various "premium"/non premium products.

My Krico loved their pistol match, which was produced with an extra thou or two of bullet diameter.

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Yes, the Oz-made Winchester Power Point was sought after here for a while. It was very accurate in many guns, plus the bullet was supposedly more effective than it had a right to be.

I had some Winchester Silhouette that shot well in a couple of guns. It was only sold for a brief time. Between the quality and short time on the market, I suspected it came from the same place.

I still have a small supply of each and will look when I can, just to satisfy my curiosity.

I've never used Paco Kelly's tool, but have heard of it. If I were to get back into rimfire silhouette again, I'd at least want one.

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I scored a brick of super hot Aguila "Supermaximum Hyper Velocity" 22LR and it says "Eley Prime" on the side of the brick.... Is there some relationship?

Anyone shot these little chili peppers? Wow, I was surprised. A 22 that as a kick. Fun to rapid fire in the 22/45 ala Hickok45.

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