Boy .22 shooting, no wonder Pope found it frustrating. I have had good luck with a vintage of Aguila Standard Plus, and put a few away when times were good. I had/have "some" Eley Sport, reasonably good stuff loaded by Aguila using the Eley Prime system and components in Mexico. It eventually disappeared. I gave "some" to a friend when it proved to be the only ammo that shot tiny groups in his Uberti Low Wall target rifle. I gave him a year to replace it, I never got any ammo back, I did get something in return, but not ammo.
I thought I'd try Standard Plus and indeed it seemed to shoot at least as well as Eley Sport. So I acquired "some." It is the iteration that has the yellow and blue graphics.
.22 ammo is an entire hobby in and of itself. I have "some" Wolf Match Target made by SK in Germany. Good stuff, holds up predictably at 200 yards, good enough for BPCR rules .22 silhouette. Guys attending my annual shoot got excited and searched for and got Wolf Match Target. It did not shoot as well at longer range. It shot good at 50 and 100, disappointing at 200. Well looky there, it is made at Eley in England now, no longer at SK in Germany and the bullet shape is subtly different. Another friend was lamenting the loss of the German made product, I told him I still had "some." Yet my Eley Target in the yellow boxes is every bit as good as the German Wolf and maybe a skosh better at 200, I've run it out to 350 with success, but I am not a good enough shooter at 400 to tell if it is me or the ammo.
And it gets worse. Variation from lot to lot, and .22 shooters become lot chasers, often paying princely sums for whatever the flavor of the day appears to be winning. But those are either the BR50 guys or long range shooters where consistency and quality is everything. I have never found a system of .22 ammo, and rifle, and shooter that will give me true 1 moa at 100 measured yards for a 20 shot group. Oh boy, 3 shots in one hole, by the time I get 5 it's a dime, 10, gosh 1 moa maybe this time, by 20, nope inch and a quarter again. Or it may be the first two shots are the extreme spread and then you create a nice group. Frankly about the same that happens with my best cast bullet efforts with my best rifles.
The vast majority of my .22 shooting pleasure is derived from shooting offhand at various knock down steel targets at 80 yards. I wish it were 100 but 80 is where a berm, a rail, and my covered shooting position all converged. If it gets too easy, I go to smaller targets or to a more difficult to shoot rifle, or move to 160 or 200.
But for day in and day out off hand knocking down of the prairie dogs, Federal Auto Match will suffice. If I miss a dog it's on me, and the Aguila is better than Auto Match, on paper shooting for groups, in most of my .22s.
When it is match day against my buddies it's German Wolf or Eley Target. I never would pony up the coin for really good Lapua, Eley, or Fiocchi target grade stuff. I'd tap out at about $325/case when prices were more normal.
Oh and TAC and it's predecessor GECO is good though greasy stuff.
