TargetTalk

Hello,
I would like to ask You about your experience with ELEY ammo for .22 LR pistol. I am not a very experienced shooter but I tried Eley Standard Pistol and I quite liked it. The product line has changed now so I would like to ask you which cartriges would you recomend. I do not want to pay too much for match or tenex cartriges, so we are talking about Sport, Club or Team. What are the differences between Sport and Club? Is Team much better than Club? Are all of them suitable for pistol shooting?

Thank you very much for your exprerience and help.

johny_r wrote:Hello,
I would like to ask You about your experience with ELEY ammo for .22 LR pistol. I am not a very experienced shooter but I tried Eley Standard Pistol and I quite liked it. The product line has changed now so I would like to ask you which cartriges would you recomend. I do not want to pay too much for match or tenex cartriges, so we are talking about Sport, Club or Team. What are the differences between Sport and Club? Is Team much better than Club? Are all of them suitable for pistol shooting?

Thank you very much for your exprerience and help.

Unless you are doing free pistol at the Olympics, there really isn't any reason for you to buy tenex pistol. At 25m, they are all good.

For all the other pistol disciplines, all you need is ammo that rarely has misfires. And in my experience, pretty much all of Eley is okay.

I use to shoot the cheapest Eley Trainer for training, and the yellow Pistol Target for matches. Because there was a slightly lower chance of misfires with the yellow box.

I doubt there really is much difference between Sport and Club, whatever is more expensive may have slightly lower misfire rates.

In terms of accuracy, I think they all will out group most shooters.

My suggestion, buy the most affordable ammo that has some acceptably low misfire rate, and spend the rest of the time training rather than worrying about ammo.

I saw some Ely at a Massachusetts gun shop recently that was made in Mexico. That sounded suspiciously like Aguila, who were getting their priming technology from Ely. I forget the exact designation, and couldn't find mention of it with a quick Google search.

Does anyone know what this stuff is & how reliable it shoots? It was cheaper than CCI.

From what I read Eley Sport and Aquila are one and the same. I bought a brick of Eley Sport for my 208S and hated it. Others love it. I used to REALLY like Eley Trainer and Practice but I cannot find it any more.

johny_r wrote:Hello,
I would like to ask You about your experience with ELEY ammo for .22 LR pistol. I am not a very experienced shooter but I tried Eley Standard Pistol and I quite liked it. The product line has changed now so I would like to ask you which cartriges would you recomend. I do not want to pay too much for match or tenex cartriges, so we are talking about Sport, Club or Team. What are the differences between Sport and Club? Is Team much better than Club? Are all of them suitable for pistol shooting?

Thank you very much for your exprerience and help.

Eley Sport and Eley Standard are different grades of product coming off the same production line, with Sport being the higher graded version.

At 25 yards you really need reliability more than best accuracy, IMHO.

We did some testing with the new Eley line in my club. The result was that Eley are very good from Eley Team and up, but regarding the more cheap ammo like sport and club, they were not as good as RWS Target Pistol and they are even cheaper that Eley club.

Hello,
thank you. I've just bought old targets and Club Extra and I will try if I can find any difference. I will also try Team when I get them for a reasonable price.

Thanks

A couple of things to remember when buying ammunition-

1. Every barrel is unique, and so is every batch/lot of ammunition. Thta's why serious shooters batch test ammunition. The performance of one batch in your barrel is NOT an indicator of how another batch of the same or any other label will perform in your barrel.

2. That said, Eley has, basically, two production lines. Every label is, in fact, a grade of how a batch of ammunition performed in QA testing, and it is priced accordingly.

3. Sport is branded as Target in the USA. Eley Sport in the USA is made by Aguila.

I purchased a case of Eley Sport earlier this year and have burned through most of it. My comments on it are as follows:

1) fairly "hot" ammo, about on par with Lapua Super Club, so hotter than Eley Target, softer than RWS Target Pistol
2) it's very clean to shoot
3) case lubrication is very dry, sometimes too dry when used in cold temperatures, requiring some force to chamber in free pistols
4) it is extremely consistant, shot to shot
5) it is extremely reliable - so far not a single misfire in approx 4500 rounds. By contrast, Eley Target Pistol could be counted on to produce between one and three misfires per case
6) it cycles very reliably in my pair of MG-2's, but because the case lube is dry it fails to feed reliably in my S&W Model 41. A little drop of oil on the top case in the magazine fixes this problem (keep in mind this was testing done at range temperatures where you could see your breath)

All in all, Eley Sport represents fantastic value as training ammo, and I would highly recommend it from a general quality perspective.

Mark,
Which 'Sport' do you have, the one made in the UK or the one made in Mexico?
Mike

Mike,

I'll answer for Mark as I have a case of the Sport as well from the same batch. Its made in Mexico.

Brian

Thanks for jumping in, Brian. Seems you spend more time here than I do! ;-)

And yes, Mike, it's the Mexican stuff, made by Aguila. In general, it's pretty darned good stuff. You may need to travel down to Washington state to be able to obtain some as I don't know if anybody on this side of the border is bringing it in. The cases that Brian and I got were priced at about half that of the old Eley Practice (white box), so it represents good value.

Hope all's well with you in the wild wild west!

Yup, good stuff. That's all we use for training now, for what training we do.

R.M.

Well, since we're now discussing Mexican manufactured ammo, I'll mention that I was using PMC Scoremaster as my 'inexpensive' ammo. It appears to be no longer available, but a new product with almost identical characteristics is on the market - Fiocchi 22CRN. This, too, is made in Mexico. Its packaging is identical to the Scoremaster. It looks the same (except for the headstamp). It shoots to the same point-of-impact, and it has been reliable. It has been available for as little as $22 Cdn (before taxes) a brick, recently.
FWIW YMMV
Mike T.