The Rimfire Report: A Closer Look at Remington Standard V Ammo

Hello and welcome back to another edition of The Rimfire Report! Back in May, Sam S filled in for me one week to give everyone a first look at the new formula Remington Standard V 38-grain ammunition. Sam did an excellent job demonstrating that the ammo is not only pretty inexpensive at about 8¢ per round, but had excellent reliability, if not simply lacking in the accuracy department. Today, we’re going to take a deep dive into this specific bulk ammunition in the hopes of exploring why this ammo might not be the Remington equivalent of CCI Standard that most of us are probably looking for. Let's dig into a good chunk of this box to see what the ammo is made of.

More Rimfire Report @  TFB:

• The Rimfire Report: Remington Standard V .22LR - First Look
• The Rimfire Report: Beretta Olympia – The Dual-Action Italian Trainer
• The Rimfire Report: New Distributor Exclusive Ruger 10/22 Rifles

The Rimfire Report: A Closer Look at Remington Standard V Ammo

Remington Standard V, 22 LR, 38 Grain, Lead Round Nose, 1080 fps

Product Link: https://www.remington.com/rimfire/standard-v/29-R20988.html

This new rimfire product is the solution for high-volume shooters seeking an economical cartridge chambered in 22 LR caliber. Whether you are teaching a beginner how to shoot a firearm, plinking targets, or chasing varmints, Standard V has you covered.

• Available in lead round nose or hollow point options.
• Caliber: 22 LR
• Grain Weight: 38
• Bullet Style: Lead Round Nose
• Muzzle Velocity: 1080
• Ballistic Coefficient: .109
• Package Quantity: 550
• Usage: Rimfire Competition
• Price per box of 500: $41.99 ($0.083 per round)

Remington explicitly states in their marketing material that this ammo is intended for use as competition and or small game hunting ammunition. What I find neat about Remington ammunition’s ammo boxes is that they’re one of the few companies that actually advertises the test barrel length in which they achieved their advertised velocities. That’s a huge deal when it comes to trying to find ammo that will either be super or subsonic in a given rifle. Compared to my gold-standard budget target ammo - CCI Standard - being about the same price, if not just a tad bit more expensive than Remington Standard V, with its near identical advertised velocities.

Velocity Data

The B14R returns once again as our test platform, this time fitted with an improved Leupold Mark 5HD 5-25x56 riflescope, as well as the shortened version of the new Faxon Twenty Toucan suppressor. Our Garmin Xero Pro C1 that we’ve been using to gather data also gets an upgrade with a new M-LOK compatible mount courtesy of the guys from Kinetic Development Group. Since this is a bulk ammunition, I upgraded the sample size from my typical 50 to 100, which should give us a more refined set of data to work with. The additional 50 rounds at the beginning were used to both sight in the rifle, as well as “season” the freshly cleaned B14R barrel, which should theoretically give the ammunition its best chance of being accurate in this platform.

Our velocity data was surprisingly not the worst I’ve seen from budget-conscious ammunition. While the extreme spread was quite large at over 100 fps, the standard deviation was just a touch, about 20fps, which is typically my threshold for what I consider to be “good” ammo for competition in rimfire rifles. However, none of these numbers really mean much besides what we can expect from the ammo, and unfortunately, the ammo is both hotter than advertised out of my 18” Bergara barrel, and also right at the transsonic threshold for the altitude I was shooting at (1,159 fps) meaning there was an audible difference between rounds that were subsonic, transonic, or supersonic. You’ll see this in the accuracy data I pulled on that day as well.

Once again, I’d normally blame myself, but in this case, I think the numbers support my case that the ammo is just inconsistently loaded - but not all the time. If this ammo were a tiny bit more consistently loaded, I think it’d be a great stand-in for CCI Standard Velocity when that stuff either becomes scant on the shelves or goes up in price as it occasionally does. However, given the inherent unpredictability of the cartridge, I think it’s probably best suited as a budget plinking and or pest control round.

Final Thoughts

I’ve been having a great time going back through Remington’s revamped rimfire catalog to check out all of their new and updated offerings and formulas. This revamped Standard V still has some of the old problems that most budget rimfire does save for a very select few. Primarily, it’s rather inconsistent in its extreme spread, which is a huge detriment to getting consistent competition-worthy accuracy. However, for most of us average Joes out there who just want to plink away at some cans, empty shotgun hulls, or steel, it’s a great budget-friendly alternative that works in a broad variety of firearms and is accurate enough to have fun with.