Aguila ammunition, have you shot it?

T

tazzman

New member
I picked up three boxes of this Aguila SuperExtra .22LR ammunition; 1 High velocity copper plated 40 grain, 1 of standard velocity 40 grain and 1 of subsonic solid point 40 grain.
All three boxes have a statement saying "Eley Prime". Does this mean an association between Aguila and Eley?
There is no mention that states the velocity of each type.
Have any of you tried this stuff?
The weather here isn't conducive to testing lately. So I'm asking for your opinion. If you have testing results, the more the merrier!

Chime in! and thanks for reading this!

Phil Fortin aka tazzman
 
I have no idea if it's true or not, but I read about this "Eley/Aguila" label on another forum and it said this:

Eley keeps real close tabs on the condition of their machines and continuously tweaks them to keep the quality of their ammo as high as possible. The machines get major overhauls when necessary. Some time ago they had some old machines which could no longer be maintained up to their standards, or perhaps maintaining them no longer made financial sense. In any case, they sold the well used machines to Aguila who is currently making ammo on the old Eley machines.

Again, I don't know if this story is true or not.

I did try several kinds of Aguila ammo and it didn't shoot very well in my Savage MK II. Certainly it wasn't as good as the cheapest version of Eley ammo.

Of course, like most 22LRs, the more you pay for ammo, the better it (usually) shoots. But I found several kinds of ammo priced similar to the Aguila which did a better job............. for me at least. You may experience just the opposite results.

Here are a few of my data points showing the average group size from two 5-shot groups. at 50 yards from a bench. I don't know how to format tabs in this forum, so the data isn't arranged in an easy-to-read way, but I hope it makes sense.

Date Ammo Average Group
02/10/15 Aguila Super X 1.875
02/19/15 Eley Target 0.246
02/22/15 Center X 0.299
03/01/15 SK Rifle Match 0.461


As you can see, the Aguila didn't work very well in my gun. Both the Eley Target and Lapua Center X were pretty good and the SK Rifle Match was fair.
 
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A few years ago, before I got into serious 22 shooting, I bought a CZ452 and a brick of Aquila standard velocity with lead bullets. I went to the range not knowing what I was doing and set a target at 100 yards. After sighting in, I shot two ten shot groups that measured 7/8" center to center each. I did this with a 3-9 power scope and no wind flags. I had to ask a serious shooter, who was at the range at the time if that was any good. With a grin he said it was.

I went out and bought three bricks of the stuff when that was gone. The new batch was junk as you would expect. I found out that what I bought was not target ammo. I also found the stuff leaves a very dirty residue in my rifle.
 
"Eley keeps real close tabs on the condition of their machines and continuously tweaks them to keep the quality of their ammo as high as possible. The machines get major overhauls when necessary. Some time ago they had some old machines which could no longer be maintained up to their standards, or perhaps maintaining them no longer made financial sense. In any case, they sold the well used machines to Aguila who is currently making ammo on the old Eley machines.

Again, I don't know if this story is true or not"...


Not true...This is just one of those tales over the Internet invented by someone who had nothing better to do...I visited this plant in the mid 80's and it is no different than CCI in Idaho (I have visited this plant twice)

As a matter of fact, the .22 RF machinery in the Aguila plant located in Cuernavaca México is more modern than Eley's plant in England ...Aguila was founded in the early 1960's and the .22 RF line in question was added in the late 70's and early 80's but they have updated some of the equipment in recent years.

Aguila aquired the priming patent/technology from ELEY and entered in a partnership...The ammo is as good or better than other ammo in their price range...I had the very same experience Bill Wynne's had with his CZ 452...I shot subsonic ammo at 50 yards in a BRNO Mod 1 (The grandfather of the CZ 452) and I was getting consistent under .400 groups...I then tried this cartridge in an Anschutz 1710 D which is my favorite 22 RF and the ammo shot around .300" groups and better...I must admit that I got two - three flyers out of each box but I have gotten those with ELEY MATCH and TENEX using my BR rifle...

Aguila makes many different kinds of cartridges...The one I am talking about and I liked is the Match Ammo Blue - Gold box that says: .22 Rifle Match Standard Velocity ...Then there is a legend: Eley Prime...
Aguila SSS cartridge with a 60 gr. bullet is a real knocker for short distances and their Colibri 20 gr. with no powder is excellent for close range pest control (BB gun noise similar to .22 BB and CB caps)

No offence to anyone, my experience has been that guns shooting shotgun pattern groups with X or Y ammo will shoot the very same way with $20.00 Tenex...The problem is usually the gun and many times the finger pulling the trigger and not the ammo...A gun that shoots well will shoot good or at least very decent with many different kinds of cartridges...

In an effort to finding a good cartridge for practicing "FORM" with my then new 22 BR gun I tried about 10 -15 different brands...From Fox and other Russian to Aguila, CCI, RWS, Fiocci and a few other...I was surprised to find out that the gun will shoot anything you threw at it!...Pretty much all of them shot less than .350 -.400 ctc at 50 yards...Of course, this is no BR accuracy but I needed to practice my form and break in the new gun and was not concerned about ultimate accuracy at this point in time....This gun currently shoots lows .100 CTC with Eley Match or Tenex and has won many shoots.

My Conclusion is that a gun that is well bedded, with a good barrel and trigger and tuned right will have a very large sweet spot and will shoot fine with many different lots and brands of ammo...I may be wrong but this has been my experience.

After this post I will immediately be posting a communication I wrote for RA back in 2013...Maybe you will find useful/interesting info.

Regards for all members,

AZUARO
 
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Hello Members,

I am posting a link that partially shows the Ammo manufacturing operations at ELEY...It is a very long post but people who don’t know how ammo is produced, please consider reading it to the end...

Other more informed members please find the link at the bottom...

Background: Over the years I have read and heard many stories about EXTREMELY environmental controls (Temperature, humidity, etc.) inside specially designed and miracle rooms where miracle things happen with the machines producing the ammo...

Some other tales about ultra high tech very sophisticated equipment checking every single case and weighing it for giving the best consistency/ improving accuracy as well as some other kinds of equipment checking whatever you can imagine and many other fantastic stories...

I had the opportunity of visiting CCI's plant (Idaho) in the past and Eley's plant in England back in the early 80's during a tour with the ISSF management team.
The operations at ELEY and CCI are pretty much identical in regards to how the ammo is produced...The difference is that CCI is not into the Match Ammo market...
CCI has everything to produce the best ammo, but it is a profit center and its business is selling high volume of cheap and medium priced ammo... This is very understandable...

CCI produces 4 million rounds/day and ELEY 200 million rounds a year... CCI produces about 7.3 times more ammo than Eley...Eley is a much smaller plant and its operation is limited only by the capacity of their machinery...Technology wise both plants have the latest and the best equipment available and both plants use identical methods of production...

In the past around the mid 90’s, Federal (US) produced probably the best and most accurate ammo that I have ever seen... UM1 and UM2 (different velocities) .
The outstanding characteristic about this ammo is that they shot very well with almost any rifle, from cheap plinking guns to very high tech and sophisticated rifles.
Benchrest shooters used it widely with excellent results but I wasn’t into BR at the time (I was in ISSF) and I can not provide any BR personal experiences utilizing this ammo...Maybe some members reading this thread will remember and can give us an insight.

Federal’s UM ammo won many International championships and I believe they also got a Gold/ Silver at the Olympics but I couldn't validate this info at the time of this posting, so please don't take this as a fact and just understand that it was among the very best ammo produced in the world...

CCI and Federal have had the latest and best technology and equipment available but unfortunately Federal abandoned their Match ammo production for unprofitability.

Anyhow...Using this short video I wanted to show it people who don't know how .22 RF ammo is produced in order to straighten some tales and misconceptions...Mostly all ammo plants are THE SAME everywhere around the world...NO MAGIC, NO SPECIAL ROOMS, NO SECRETS heavily guarded by armed people outside of a bolt... You will see that ammo cases are all fed to machines in BULK using PLASTIC 5 gallon buckets and the Plexiglas around the machines is what people have confused in the past with magical rooms and enclosures...Nothing more than fixtures for protecting the employees feeding the machines.

Bullets are fed the very same way (in Bulk) and only the powder has a tighter control for loading the feeders for obvious reasons (Safety) ...But unfortunately this operation is not shown in this short video.

I want to point out that the weakest part in the .22 RF is the CRIMP...This is probably the factor that has more influence in consistency/accuracy...Then goes the PRIMMER compound, then the POWDER formulation and lastly the bullet design and lubrication...The bullet has very little room for improvement given the shortness of the cartridge but mainly because of the crimp limitations.
No room for boat tails...The little improvements available are in the ogive design and maybe in the alloys used for the bullet...Primmer compounds and powder mixtures are in continuos development.

The powder formulations come either from Vihtavuori or from DuPont but the former is the one mostly used by Eley, Lapua, Fiocchi and RWS...There are other smaller players but these two are the main suppliers...

I could not validate the primmer compound suppliers so I will not post this info...

About the primmer in .22 RF ammo...Keep in mind that the compound uses ABRASIVE materials to ignite the mixture because there in no anvil in this cartridge to detonate the compound as it happens in centerfire...

The abrasive compounds are SILICA based and other mixtures...
Keep this fact in mind for ALLWAYS cleaning your barrel with a WET patch first (with whatever solvent/bore cleaner you use)...
My recommendation is TO NEVER EVER use a dry patch after the gun has been fired...You don’t want to rub “Grounded Glass” layered with bullet lubricant in your barrel..

This is the link:
http://www.itv.com/news/central/2012-07-04/factory-workers-given-olympics-treat-by-their-boss/

Best regards to all members,

AZUARO
Last edited by azuaro; 06-11-2013 at 07:58 AM.
 
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Many years ago I bought a brick of Eley primed SE (Super Extra). It is sub sonic. It shoots as well as my 2 lots of Eley Tenex in my custom 10-22. I wouldn't use it in a rimfire BR probably, but it shoots very well in my 10-22. It was also $13. a brick.
 
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