The Rimfire Report: Poor Man's Match Ammo - CCI Green Tag

Hello and welcome back to another edition of The Rimfire Report! This ongoing series is all about the rimfire firearm world and all of its different types of cool guns, unique history, and of course its ammunition. Last week we took a look at CCI’s Quiet-22 Segmented Hollow Point Subsonic ammunition. Apparently, I am quite the ammo snob as while I thought that the performance of the round was a bit lackluster at longer (50 yards) ranges, most of you said you’d be more than satisfied with that performance since most of you only plan on using that ammo at about 15-25 yards max. Most of you who reached out also commented that the major selling point was really how quiet the round is - so quiet that it can be shot out of a bolt action or lever action gun without hearing protection. However, since I am a creature of habit, we once again will be chasing numbers in this week’s ammunition test of CCI’s Green Tag ammunition. So let’s see how this “budget match ammo” stacks up!

More Rimfire Report @ TFB:

• The Rimfire Report: CCI Quiet-22 40 gr Segmented Hollow Point
• The Rimfire Report: Federal Game-Shok 38gr CPHP 22LR
• The Rimfire Report: The Legendary Ruger Standard .22 Pistol

The Rimfire Report: Poor Man's Match Ammo - CCI Green Tag

To be completely honest, calling CCI Green Tag “match ammo” is a bit of a stretch for a couple of reasons. For one, CCI doesn’t call it such anywhere on their website or in any of the advertising material for CCI Green Tag. Instead, CCI only calls Green Tag a “Competition” ammo and uses “ultimate in accuracy” as part of its list of features. At $31 per box of 100 rounds, you’re paying $0.31 per round, nowhere near the staggering price of some other match rimfire ammunition out there, but it’s also definitely not cheap when compared to even CCI Standard Velocity 40 grain. Speaking of, here are the specs for CCI Green Tage 40 Grain LRN as listed on the CCI website:

“Product Overview - CCI Green Tag 40 grain

Product Link: https://www.cci-ammunition.com/rimfire/cci/green-tag/6-33.html

When a competition is on the line, settle for nothing less than the ultimate rimfire accuracy. Green Tag is suitable for both rifles and pistols, and is designed exclusively for competition.

• Ultimate in accuracy
• Suitable for rifles or pistols
• Designed exclusively for competition

SPECS

• Caliber: 22 LR
• Grain Weight: 40
• Muzzle Velocity: 1070
• Bullet Style: Lead Round Nose
• Ballistic Coefficient: .120
• Package Quantity: 100
• Usage: Target Shooting”

This data leads me to believe that CCI hand-selects Green Tag ammo specifically to keep it on the safe side of the transonic barrier in addition to hand-selecting it for accuracy and consistency by lot. The extreme spread and standard deviation were all great and the lowest that we’ve seen so far in our series of ammunition tests here on The Rimfire Report - very impressive results, at least from a pure numbers perspective.

Accuracy Data

I’ll be completely honest and say that I am not impressed with the results I got this time around. All of the data and previous groups I had shot with bog-standard CCI Standard Velocity 40 grain yielded much better groups than the 5 I shot with this particular ammo on this particular day. However, out of the pursuit of honesty, I feel compelled to share the results I got that day but know that I will also be giving this ammo a more rigorous testing as I’m almost certain it’s capable of more than we are getting out of it.

That being said, our best group of the day measured only 1 inch in size - not bad for what is essentially just specially selected standard velocity ammunition. With the accuracy data I gathered that day, I would not be particularly comfortable taking this ammunition to a Rimfire PRS match, or any sort of high-accuracy-based rimfire competition (pistol or otherwise). Based on a group of CCI Standard Velocity that I shot later that same day with the same rifle, I would probably just wind up taking the CCI Standard since it had slightly tighter groups and also costs one-third of what CCI Green Tag does.

Thoughts Going Forward

I don’t want to quite close the chapter on CCI Green Tag yet. I’ve been a firm believer that CCI Standard Velocity is probably the best competition ammunition out there simply because it strikes that perfect balance by being both accurate and affordable. For the same $30 you’d spend on CCI Green Tag, you can get ammunition that is more than likely to perform well out of your bolt gun and still have money left over for lunch after your match. That being said, the numbers don’t lie and CCI Green Tag did indeed have a better Standard Deviation than CCI Standard Velocity, this convinces me that it’s the shooter, and not the ammo or the rifle that’s causing our widening groups which is why I’ll be visiting this ammunition again further down the road in a more rigorous test. However, hopefully, some of this hair-splitting data is useful to all of you guys out there who are just looking for an affordable and accurate round for casual plinking and target shooting. Well, you’ve found it, it’s CCI Standard Velocity. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this one! Thanks as always for stopping by to read The Rimfire Report and we’ll see you all again next week!