I mounted my Vortex Diamondback Tactical 6-24×50 scope on my new CZ 457. Rather than waste my limited supply of CCI Standard which I was saving for the match, I opted to use some extra (“Blue Box”) I had, figuring I could waste it to get a rough zero on paper before fine tuning with the CCI Standard.

In the process, I noticed that the Federal Champion was printing surprisingly tight groups. As good as good as the CCI Standard I was planning on using at an upcoming 100yrd match. I was down to 40 rounds of CCI Standard (since the COVID pandemic 22LR has been in limited supply at any gun store near San Francisco). Rather than risk running out of CCI Standard during the match, I went out on a limb and used the Blue Box instead and son-of-a-gun, I took 1st place!

Match-grade 22LR has still hard to find and due to California’s inane laws, mail-order ammo is both a hassle to get and with extra State fees tacked on to boot! While not specifically marketed as “match-grade”, has recently become available at my local Big-5 Sports. This high-quality 22LR sold by the US subsidiary of the Swedish ammo maker, Norma.

But look closely and you’ll see that the Tac-22 cartridges have a RWS headstamp. It’s rumored to be rebranded RWS Target Rifle or RWS Rifle Match ammo; sharing their black oxide colored bullet and thick European wax coating. Like some strange Euro-Pop Band, it’s a German made product, sold by a Swedish company, packaged under a US brand.

RWS 40gr ammo was the type used by CZ to proof test my CZ rifle. If the rumors are true, Tac-22 should perform pretty close to that. As a benchmark I chose to compare Norma Tac-22 vs Federal Champion.

I put up a paper target at 100 yrds and fired 20 rounds in 4 groups of 5. I started with a clean barrel, fired a single fouling round before each test, and snaking the barrel before switching to the next ammo brand. Federal Champion shoot better, printing sub-MOA groups on average. Tac-22 printed an average group of 2MOA. The groups were getting progressively smaller by the time I shot the last 15-20 rounds on my 4th target. But that group was still 2x large as the smallest Champion group.

FEDERAL CHAMPION 800rnd BOX


NORMA TAC-22