# Buckmark best ammo



## Briguy350

I new to shooting and my wife's dad gave us a Buckmark .22. We've been up north a few times just practice shooting with a box of federal bullets. I've heard these are " dirty" bullets? It seems to jam up a lot and we've probably put about 200 rounds through it. So is there a better bullet I should use. I'm looking for something I can target shoot with and a good bullet to have at home for protection. I am a newbie so I might not understand some of lingo I've seen on here. Thanks for any input.


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## TedDeBearFrmHell

define "jam"


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## usmcj

Welcome to the forum....

First, I'd suggest you clean the gun, and the magazine. My four Buckmarks tend to run better if there is visible oil on the slide rails. Lots of bulk-pack .22 Caliber ammunition is notorious for having less-than-great quality control. You'll find that most .22 caliber firearms can be quite picky regarding what ammunition shoots best in 'em. Buy several varieties, and see which one performs best for you and your gun. As you get more serious about target shooting, you'll find that there is some expensive ammunition out there for the match/target shooter... Ammunition .22 LR :: Champion Shooters Supply LLC

Have fun shopping.... :mrgreen: :smt1099


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## Briguy350

Jam= the bullet doesn't eject and gets stuck sideways in the chamber. I think you guys call that a stove pipe. I just looked and it doesn't "look" oilley so I guess I should have it taking apart and cleaned. I just picked up an extra clip cause I got sick of constantly reloading and grabbed a pack of CCI bullets for this weekend and see if that makes a difference.


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## TedDeBearFrmHell

sounds like it just needs a good cleaning and lube


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## Todd

My Buckmark is a jam-o-matic with anything but factory magazines. Performance improves greatly if the mags are clean and lubed, but I will not jam if running the factory mag but with the after-market ones, it's a coin toss.


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## Briguy350

What kind of bullets do you find work best for the Buckmark? I'm gonna find a local gunsmith and have it cleaned. I don't know enough about this gun yet to do it myself. So far I think this is a great gun to learn with but I see a 9mm in the future!


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## hideit

i don't have a buckmark but I believe that the cci mini mags are the best on the market


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## Todd

I use the cheap bricks of 550 rounds from Wally World. I think I've gotten both Winchester and Remington. I know my issues are magazine related and won't spend the money on good .22 ammo; my defensive guns get that luxury.


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## sgms

When I still had a buckmark (replaced it with a Ruger Mk 2) it liked CCI Standard Velocity best.


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## berettatoter

The Buckmark I had did great with the CCI ammo and, oddly enough, Remington Thunderbolts. Strange with the Thunderbolts.


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## Briguy350

Went to the range yesterday and CCI def worked better. Didn't jam once using them. But I bought a new magazine to and that actually shoot the federals pretty good to. It only Jamed a couple of times and I went through at least 100 or so rounds. So I think I'm gonna get it cleaned and use the CCI. There really not that much more expensive.


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## VietVet68

I use CCI "Target & Range" ammo & don't have any problems at all with my Buck Mark.
Good Luck


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## Blastmeister

Just ran about 150 rounds of CCI Blazer Walmart bulk in a new Buckmark Camper without a problem and excellent accuracy. Go figure!


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## steelman

I use Federal 525 blue pack. The last pack not one problem. I keep it clean with a bore snake and well oiled. Love the Browning.


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## Shipwreck

CCI Mini Mags are generally considered to be one of the top tier of 22 bullets.

My buckmark had spotty reliability until I sent it in to Browning. Came back 100%. I had sent in both mags with it too.

They did forget to send one back, though. Luckily, I stated in my letter (explaining what was wrong with the gun) that I was including the 2 mags I had. They went back and saw that, so they sent me an extra mag back.

Mine is 100%. But, that's still the only ammo I use, because when the gun wasn't working right, it was still more reliable than any other brand


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## 97harley

I used my fairly new buckmark on Thurs night and had repeated jams using Federal in the blue box in bulk from walmart, I've never had a problem until then, go figure and it was my first ever competition. With the exception of one match it would have a ftf with maybe the second or 3rd round and it happened with any one of 3 mags. I always field strip and clean between trips to the range. My first box of ammo was Remington bulk, then winchester, over 1000 perfect rounds, maybe 3-4 ftf. I just picked up a box of CCI mini mags at Dicks, gonna try 100 through it and see if it solves the problem. BTW, I still won 4 of 8 rounds even with the problems so I think I did pretty well considering I've only been shooting since May and it was my first competition.


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## 97harley

Went to the range today and went through 120 flawless rounds, I know what I'll be using during competition from now on.


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## denner

CCI minimags, the hotter the better. Always FMJ or hollowpoint never lead nose.


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## Snowdog

My wife and I both have new Buckmark campers. We got hers first and had problems with it not ejecting the casing reliably and many fail to fires. I had given it a good cleaning before our first outing and couldn't figure out what was happening. I then gave it a complete tear down and cleaned all of the factory grease out of the slide cover and found that there was a fair amount of grease under the shear. I guess it wasn't that good of a first cleaning. After that I gave it a good light gun oil wipe and made sure I hit the parts that the slide hits. As far as the FTF, I found that the striker felt like there was sand in it. I cleaned, hit it with some compressed air from a can, cleaned again then gun oiled and since have only had a FTF when we had a bad shell. When i bought mine I gave it a complete tear down and cleaning and have had no issues at all. We have about 1000+ rounds through each. The only ammo we have used are CCI mini-mags. Wally World has a box of 1600 for around $100. We shoot in a .22 target league and my thought is that if you find something that works, stick with it till it doesn't work anymore.


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## lubers

I shoot nothing but CCI or Winchester Super X and never had a problem with jams, I clean it after every time shooting have maybe four thousand rounds through it.


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## buddyemily

My Buckmark hates Remington Gold Bullets.


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## grey-wolf

I guess im the odd man out my BMH will shoot anything i feed it. Maybe mine was made by someone who just got a raise. LOL. Clean er up load er up and shoot it.


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## caldrovp

As suggested clean and lube it well. I shoot nothing but Federal Champion with very few problems and they occure only after many trips to the range before a good cleaning.

Vince


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## KampfJaeger

I too am at a loss too. The Buckmark has been a premium auto .22 for almost 30 years, and mine have been flawless with any bulk, brick, or any other .22s. I'm not saying that I never had a FTF or SP, but they're so few and far between I can't remember one. I have a very early '63 Medalist that has never jammed...never. Its probably had tens of thousands of rounds through it, and still runs like a top.


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## cxm

*Differen Guns Like Different .22 ammo*

Different guns shoot best with different ammo... you really need to try various brands of .22 ammo to see which work best with your individual pistol.

In my .22 semis (Colt's and S&W,) Federal bulk works very well... but they don't like Remington at all, and don't like current Winchester either... old Winchester works just fine. They work very well with Ely as well and curiously the steel case Russian stuff too (though I do not shoot steel case in the, just tested it.)

Finding different .22 ammo even to test these days isn't easy, but when you can you will be happy you did... changing brands to the one that works best in your individual pistol can make a big difference in the performance of your gun.

FWIW

CHuck


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## Babbalou1956

+1 on the clean & lube. I had a 5 1/2" Buckmark 20 years ago. Good gun. I put thousands of rounds through it & the only problem I had was a subsonic load that was too weak to cycle the slide. I sat down with a sandbag rest & tested every kind of .22 ammo I could find in stores. Tightest groups in mine were from CCI Green Tag, Federal Classic (no longer on their website) & Eley Tenex which is very expensive. With no wind all 3 averaged a 10 shot 1" group at 25 yards using stock sites. Most everything else was also under 2.5" But what mine liked may not be what other Buckmarks like. The best functioning ammo I ever used in any .22 were CCI mini mags. I had an little Ivor Johnson .22 that only worked with CCI mini mags, nothing else.


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## Scorpion8

KampfJaeger said:


> The Buckmark has been a premium auto .22 for almost 30 years, and mine have been flawless with any bulk, brick, or any other .22s. ....


Ditto. My three Buckmarks digest just about anything, although they least prefer the standard velocity loads. But even plain ol' Remington Golden Bullet or Game Loads goes down the barrel every time.


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