PMC Zappers

[Gavin NZ]

I was just reading about these in another thread and was interested to see that some people are rating these as their rifles preffered ammo.

Now I'm not knocking that but I thought it would be of interest to post here about my own experiance with these.

These have long been sold here in NZ and having discussed this brand with many people it would seem that the name "zapper" has given many people the perception that these are a higher than "standard" velocity .22 round. (a perception that sellers of PMC seem happy to let exist)

Untill recently I had never tried any of these because there was also a rumor around a few years back that the propellant in these was corrosive , and while I wasn't sure if this was true, with so many other options I always thought its better to be safe than sorry.

Anyway my .22 is a german Mauser, and it shoots particularly well with the remington yellow jackets, this is a faster than standard type rounds and really allows me to really get the most ot of my .22. Not just because of its speed but also because of its consistancy.

but my supply of these recently dried up and so after being reasured by a local sports shop that the PMC Zapper was a really good round (this chain of shop just happens to be the appointed NZ importer of PMC ammo) I decided to give them a go and purchased 10 boxes.

less than a week ago I had to zero a new leupold scope on my .22 and Well....what a surprise I got when I first tried the "Zappers".

it only took me four shots to get my scope sorted and the distance was only about thirty yards, but I noticed that among the four shots one was distictly softer in report then the others.

This made me very curious, and seeing as I own a chrony I decided to shoot a few more over that and see just what speed these "zappers" run at, the results were interesting to say the least.

I fired off one box and the majority of velocitys were very close to or just under 1200fps which although its not startling performance wise is ok - as I have since found out that PMC claim their 38gn zappers are loaded to give 1240fps.
But what really dissapointed me was that the odd shot was well over 1300fps, and more importantly 1 in about five or six shots were only 1100fps or just below or just over. These shots were noticibly quieter in report so that you could predict them before even looking at the chrony numbers. And even at thirty yards the slower shots clearly gave a slightly lower POI on the target.....not enough to worry about if you only ever shoot at shorter distances (perhaps 50yds or less) but I have no doubt that it would not have been very pretty at say 80 to 100yds ( distances I would never even have hesitated to head shoot rabbits with using the yellow jackets)

Back to the sports shop I went - to tell the salesman of my findings , quiz him a little more closely, and hopefully exchange my zappers for some other brands to try out......

The chap I ended up talking to was a different guy than the one who originally sold me the PMC Zappers, and he was happy to exhange the remaining 9 boxes for a variety of other brands. And I quized him a little more about my results and suggested to him that surely he must have had other people notice the difference in noise levels of the PMC?

His answer was that actually yes they had had a few people notice that some of the Zappers were noticibly quieter when shot but that people still are happy with PMC because its almost a third cheaper than some of the other brands. He also elluded to the fact that being the NZ importer they get a better margin on this ammo than other brands that they would have to purchase off other importers, and so thay can "special it"

So my own conclusion is that PMC Zapper is certainly not a premiem or higher velocity .22 round at all, but rather more a budget and fairly lethargic type round that is sometimes promoted by sellers as "premiem" because they can acheive a better profit margin by promoting it as "premiem" while offering it at prices slightly cheaper than other "standard" type rounds .

And that while it may meet the needs of the average shooter, my opinion is that those that want (and expect) the maximum performance from their .22 with the least amount of missed shots would do well to look to other brands.

[Model70]

Interesting Gav, I have never noticed that but a mate of mine says that theyre inconsistent. Ive never really done any sort of testing with them Ive just bought them cause theyre there. Yellow Jackets still being my favourite they get a bit hard to get here sometimes aswell. I did try winchester lasers i think they where called and they where good, but seven bucks a box. Might have to do some testing methinks. Thanks Gav!

[Gavin NZ]

Interesting Gav, I have never noticed that but a mate of mine says that theyre inconsistent. Ive never really done any sort of testing with them Ive just bought them cause theyre there. Yellow Jackets still being my favourite they get a bit hard to get here sometimes aswell. I did try winchester lasers i think they where called and they where good, but seven bucks a box. Might have to do some testing methinks. Thanks Gav!

Yeah mate, to be honest after having shot many brands of .22 ammo over the years if I hadn't heard and seen this for myself I prolly never would have even beleived it (let alone bothered to chrony .22 ammo),
especially seeing as the .22 has become kinda redundant these days since I got a suppressor for my .223

[kjd]

Mate I have to say that Zappers have served me really well. I have never considered them to be "premium" however they have shot really well out of my rifle and are interchangeable with powerpoints as far as zero goes and in my rifle they shot consistent sub .75" at 50m which does me!

Though in saying that the best shot I have ever done is 80m at a fox with a powerpoint though I have pulled off many good shots with Zappers I really think they are a good round.

[Gavin NZ]

Mate I have to say that Zappers have served me really well. I have never considered them to be "premium" however they have shot really well out of my rifle and are interchangeable with powerpoints as far as zero goes and in my rifle they shot consistent sub .75" at 50m which does me!

Though in saying that the best shot I have ever done is 80m at a fox with a powerpoint though I have pulled off many good shots with Zappers I really think they are a good round.

yeah fair enough mate, I appreciate the input, and I noted your comments with interest in the other thread. It seems some people find them good while others find them noticibly inconsistant.

Makes me start to wonder if perhaps there are bad batches.

but like I said I have no doubt they will meet most peoples needs for rabbits etc, especially at ranges of 50mtrs or less.

cheers

[WhiteMeat]

Mate I have to say that Zappers have served me really well. I have never considered them to be "premium" however they have shot really well out of my rifle and are interchangeable with powerpoints as far as zero goes and in my rifle they shot consistent sub .75" at 50m which does me!

Though in saying that the best shot I have ever done is 80m at a fox with a powerpoint though I have pulled off many good shots with Zappers I really think they are a good round.

I'm pretty much in the same boat, for the money and accuracy, i think they are great. I was using power points, but mainly that big HPGS sale a year or so back, my dad and I decided to give the zappers a good run to see how they went against the p/p's.

One thing I have noticed with .22 holllow points in general, 50m and under, they just seem to hit the rabbit, if the shot doesn't kill the rabbit in one hit, they tend to thrash around & follow ups are required - but from 50m out, they knock the bunnies over fairly well.

[kjd]

Mate I have to say that Zappers have served me really well. I have never considered them to be "premium" however they have shot really well out of my rifle and are interchangeable with powerpoints as far as zero goes and in my rifle they shot consistent sub .75" at 50m which does me!

Though in saying that the best shot I have ever done is 80m at a fox with a powerpoint though I have pulled off many good shots with Zappers I really think they are a good round.

yeah fair enough mate, I appreciate the input, and I noted your comments with interest in the other thread. It seems some people find them good while others find them noticibly inconsistant.

Makes me start to wonder if perhaps there are bad batches.

but like I said I have no doubt they will meet most peoples needs for rabbits etc, especially at ranges of 50mtrs or less.

cheers

I think its more of a case of they either shoot well in your rifle or they don't more then anything IMO!

[Gavin NZ]

Mate I have to say that Zappers have served me really well. I have never considered them to be "premium" however they have shot really well out of my rifle and are interchangeable with powerpoints as far as zero goes and in my rifle they shot consistent sub .75" at 50m which does me!

Though in saying that the best shot I have ever done is 80m at a fox with a powerpoint though I have pulled off many good shots with Zappers I really think they are a good round.

yeah fair enough mate, I appreciate the input, and I noted your comments with interest in the other thread. It seems some people find them good while others find them noticibly inconsistant.

Makes me start to wonder if perhaps there are bad batches.

but like I said I have no doubt they will meet most peoples needs for rabbits etc, especially at ranges of 50mtrs or less.

cheers

I think its more of a case of they either shoot well in your rifle or they don't more then anything IMO!

Well today, dispite the horrific weather we are having here at the moment I couldn't resist to crony some other brands just to compare with the PMC zappers,

Here are the velocitys for the 10 shots of the 5 brands I tried:

Remington subsonic
885 (first shot of the day)
964
982
967
969
977
968
958
991
963
Extreme spread of 106 fps

Winchester power point
1259
1268
1268
1250
1263
1271
1260
1264
1262
1273
Extreme spread of 23 fps

CCI Stinger (stated as having velocity of 1640fps)
1579
1600
1579
1550
1588
1555
1578
1600
1567
1595
Extreme spread of 50 fps

CCI Mini Mag (stated as having velocity of 1260fps)
1276
1287
1279
1218
1303
1260
1290
1294
1273
1287
Extreme spread of 85 fps

Remington Hi velocity "golden bullets"
1256
1249
1255
1229
1216
1248
1233
1251
1222
1242
Extreme spread of 40 fps

So not only did all these brands give far more consistant velocitys than the PMC Zappers over all, but even when/if they shot the odd high or low shot it was not as frequent as with the zappers and also the extreme spread between them was no where near as far apart as the spread of the zappers - which was over 200fps.
There was also no decernable difference in reports within the brands as was very clear with the zappers.

So if zappers shoot well in your rifle then all good and well, you certainly won't have to compete with me to purchase them.

[kjd]

Good on ya mate some interesting data!

But what more can I tell you that they work for me regardless of your findings??? hehe..

I have a chrony perhaps I should do some of my zappers next time I go shooting?

[Gavin NZ]

hey atually that would be interesting!

lol....not wanting this to sound like a anti zapper advert, but another thing I noticed straight away when I fired the Zappers (and i mention it here just incase its not the same with zappers elsewhere? ) is that their burnt propellant has its own distictive smell..... strong and almost exactly like wet supaglue.

Because i hadn't used my .22 for a year or two before this i thought that perhaps the propellants for .22s had changed. But it became apparent today that all the other brands just smell like they always did.

Has anyone else noticed this ?

[fenring]

Have used them on and off for 20 years. Nothing special, just another "high velocity" .22. They shoot OK from my Ruger, nothing special, but good for plinking. Tried a batch through a mate's Savage MkII the other week with good results, but have never Chronied any.

My favourite hunting ammo was Expediters that do around 1500 fps, but they are no longer made and I'm nearly out.

[Col. Pogy]

Your observations are pretty good Gavin NZ. Most here have zappers in the bottom list of cheap ammo. And like all such and some higher price too you get lots of variations in velocityand impact. Up close where it just doesn't matter some few guns will shoot them well, most just lousy. May I advise you to just buy a box or two of your dealer's stock, test it and if it does well, then buy what is needed. I usually buy a "brick", test, keep the target results on an index card, NOTING THE BRAND AND LOT, per gun. That way I know the best I have on hand for each gun and the worst. The worst goes for tin cans, the best for game. Our Blazers are notorious for poor priming and thus misfires. But cheap too. pogy

[Gavin NZ]

Thanks pogy,

your post is pretty much the exact conclusion that I had reached.

There is obviously potentual variations from batch to batch in any brand ( I found winchester powerpoint to be the most consistant in my tests yet noted in another thread that someone experianced many misfires with their last batch of this brand)

But it does seem that Zappers are near the bottom of the heap as far as consistancy goes. Non of the other brands chronographed had anywhere near the 200 odd fps variation of the zappers.
Having said that I would still use them.....just not when I wanted to ensure getting the very most out of my rifle.

I have actually magaged to shoot some groups with the other brands tested now and it would appear that the remington "high velocity golden bullets" will shoot the best group in my rifle. They were the second most consistant in velocity consistancy but seem to have a much more uniform projectile than the powerpoints.

And yeah I was thinking of going back to the shop and buying up a few packs just to hopefully be sure of getting a volume of consistant ammo from the same batch, i think your post will ensure i do that!!

thanks for the imput,

regards

gavin

[Knackers]

G'day Gavin, I was using a new brick of Zappers the other day and found that there were a few rounds that were noticably quieter in sound than the majority. As I was shooting a target at 200 yards, the quieter shots fell well short of the target as dust coming off the ground 50-60 yards in front of the target showed.
I never really noticed this before with the last couple of bricks, and since reading your crony results.

[Jack H]

l am using the zappers at the moment as they work well in my rifle. they will group about .75 @ 50m. And expand very well when they hit there mark. The only thing l dont like about them is they are very dirty and leave a lot of residue down the barrel.
l was doing some load testing for the 38 today and did some testing for the 22 as l had some ammo for it as well. l will dig out the chrony results tomorrow. l do recall that the 2 batches l tested were about 1200fps and deveation was about 75fps.
But for the price, $22 per 500, what more do you want.