i thought i had a massive crack in my phone from that wire hanging down

I had some Remington yellow jacket high velocity hollow point ammunition left over from a brick I bought when I got my 10/22 in the mid to late 80's. Recently got back into shooting. Gave the old Ruger a cleaning, headed to the range and the ammo worked fine, just like it did when Motley Crue and Cinderella were new on the scene. Rock on people.

I don't know where 22 plinkster gets his rim fire primer information, but from what I've seen from manufacturers' videos the priming compound is inserted wet and the cartridge case is spun to cause this compound to lodge in the rim. This is done for safety reasons since priming compound cannot be ignited when wet. The gunpowder is also loaded into the case before the compound dries. If you strike the center of a live rim fire round it will probably not detonate because the compound is lodged in the rim. I stand to be corrected.
Incidentally, some early lever action firearms did have dual firing pins for the larger rim fire ammo of the day.

We as consumers shouldn't have to worry about "being that guy". If the product is garbage then it needs to be known. Companies will continue to take advantage if they aren't called out. You can't trust everyones word, but I'd trust yours if you said a certain ammo didn't perform as advertised or as expected. Thanks for the great vids man.

When I was a kid living in Texas in the 70's I ran around the Big Thicket area with a .22 all the time. My dad usually bought me the bargain basement ammo too since we didn't have much for income back then. I was bringing in the dinner most of the time. Rabbits, squirrels, an occasional wild turkey and doves and such. I rarely had any misfires on my Marlin and I totally abused the cheap ammo. Carrying loose rounds around in my pockets sweating on them and getting rained on in hot humid weather, leaving them scattered and rattling around my foot locker for months. I went through an almost 30 year hiatus of not shooting my .22s while living in California mainly because I rarely bothered to hunt there due to their regulations and the short time I did was with my AR 7 before it ended up on their ban list shooting 20 year old surplus cheap ammo I had left over from Texas with no malfunctions. Now living out in the Arizona desert trying to retire with my new Ruger Mark IV and with my old AR 7 and Marlin I have to baby the ammo including the expensive stuff or I get misfires. Winchester Super X forget it 50% misfires or more. I found a handful of those 30 plus year old rounds in a tin in my old foot locker about 30 of them and cycled them through my Ruger with no problems. The .22 ammo made today is just garbage.

I have found that keeping a box of RF ammo in your car for a long period will cause several misfires due to bouncing and vibration. Storing ammo with bullet points UP seemed to almost eliminate that. This was tested over several years with ammo in the box or in revolvers. Primers down usually always fire. Bullets down had several failures.

Just shot some Remington and Winchester X that my Dad got in the 50's and 60's.  No special storage--just in the old card board boxes-but kept inside the house.  100 % fire rate. Some of this stuff even had mold growing on it!
I have to think manufacturers have cheapened up their manufacturing process.

Also, Keeping yout rimfire gun clean is very important too. A dirty gun can cause misfires.....

Another reason for miss fires is when the manufacturer puts in the priming compound it some times does not make it around the whole rim of the cartridge

I have a bunch of old boxes of blue federal lightning 22LR that are decades old. Still shoots great!

I store all my ammo in a closet, in sealed ammo cans with a clay dessicant packet.  The dessicant may be overkill but satisfies my OCD.

The primer is not really a disc as it is more of a ring. It is dripped into the case then spun into the rim forming a ring.

About 50 years ago my grandpa worked at CCI when they were still Speer. He made bullets and later made some primers. I found a video on youtube that toured the facility and showed it to him. A lot of the machinery in the video was there when he worked there all those years ago.

The worst .22 ammo I found for misfires, duds, split cases and heavy fouling was Winchester Super X

Great explanation about the 22 primer misfire. never heard that before. Thanks Mike

I didn't understand why I felt so uncomfortable watching this until I realized you weren't wearing sunglasses.

Just want to share my experience with old 22 ammo. I had 3 shells blow up in my S&W 22 kit gun this summer. Two spit cases (which sounded funny when they fired) and then the rim blew out the back end of one and locked up the cylinder. The projectile fell out the barrel and landed on the bench. This ammunition was purchased back in the late 70s but  it looks just fine and was stored well. I have older ammo that I've shot without a problem. I took the gun to a gunsmith to have the case removed from the one that blew out the back and they told me the ammo went bad. They tested the gun and there was no problem with the gun. I have never had 22 ammo split open before. The response from the manufacturer: "We have a one year warranty on our product from the date of manufacture but we generously extend that to 10 years if the ammo was stored properly."

I have disposed of all my 22 ammo that is over 15 years old and the older ammo I only shoot out of a bolt action rifle.

Thank you so much 22 for your kind video. Although I do not own a .22 firearm, I recently fired one at a local firing range while attending a handgun safety class. Your views about this caliber did reflect on what I had gone through while using my instructor's .22 revolver. Although my aiming etc did pass with five stars, the reason for the failures was in fact week .22 ammo and some of it did not fire at all. I am a fan of the 9mm caliber and used my firearm to train on this morning. No missfires and each round out of 50 discharged successfully and hit the center of the target. Yet, I have to get me a .22 for target practice. Thanks again 22 and I will keep watching your videos.

cough remington cough

The only time I have ever had a .22 misfire was when I used some 30 year old ammo that I had misplaced.  When I found it and tried it, it just didn't work.  I remember reading about a man who was in his 80's, tired of living and tried to commit suicide with a .22 he bought in the 1920s. . the bullet stuck in his ear.