If you frequent the Rimfire Report, you’ll know that over the last few months, we’ve slowly been working our way through the UK’s ELEY .22LR ammunition catalog. This week, we’re back at it again with ELEY Club .22LR 40gr Round Nose. The ammo, as indicated by its name, is intended to be a “club level” ammunition, meaning that it should produce better consistency, performance, and accuracy downrange - provided the shooter can take advantage of it. So let's crack open a bright Orange sleeve of this fancy rimfire ammo and see what it's capable of, and how it measures up to its claims.More Rimfire Report @ TFB: The Rimfire Report: The Phenomenal Angstadt Arms Reticent 22 Silencer The Rimfire Report: First 1,000 Rounds – S&W M&P 22X The Rimfire Report: ELEY Subsonic 38gr Hollow Point The Rimfire Report: A Step-Up from Target? ELEY Club 40gr RNELEY Club 22LR 40gr Round NoseProduct Link: https://eley.co.uk/eley-club/Specifications:Caliber: .22 Long Rifle.Bullet: 2.59 g / 40 gr round-nose lead; paraffin wax lubricant.Cartridge length: 25.4 mm / 1 inch.Velocity (ELEY test barrels): Muzzle 317–331 m/s (1040–1085 ft/s); 50 m: 303 m/s (994 ft/s); 91 m: 285 m/s (935 ft/s). Energy: Muzzle 14.5 kg·m / 104.9 ft·lb.Ballistic coefficient: 0.112 (RA4 drag model).Max radial standard deviation: 5.50 mm.Strike depth: 0.012–0.015 in (ideal for ignition).Recommended headspace: 0.040–0.041 in.Configuration notes: Tested in .22LR rifle/pistol/LSR/semi-auto pistol; results vary by firearm.MSRP: $11.50 per 50-round box ($0.23 cpr) With a price approaching what you would spend on a 50-round box of 9mm back in 2010, ELEY Club is not cheap. From what I have read about it online and from its official description as the “club level cartridge”, the extra couple of cents per round can make or break a prize-winning match at a local club match in the UK or even a Rimfire PRS stage here in the States. For what it’s worth, I’ve seen this stuff for sale for about $7.50 per box, so pick it up when you can find it on sale, as it does go out of stock very often. If you’ve got a keen eye, you’ll notice that the headstamp is slightly different; it’s the same crosshair-style headstamp typically found on Lapua 22LR offerings, or other match ammo like SK High Velocity Match. Each batch/lot, according to the ELEY website, undergoes rigorous testing against enhanced accuracy standards, giving dedicated club shooters that extra consistency when tenths of a point decide the outcome. Whether or not I’ll be able to take advantage of that extra consistency along with the Angstadt RPR is another question entirely.Velocity DataI’ll cut to the chase here: this stuff is insanely consistent and has provided me with the lowest standard deviation I’ve witnessed in any ELEY ammo so far. Out of a total of 48 recorded rounds (two failed to trigger the chronograph), the Standard deviation was an impressive single digit 9.2 fps with an extreme spread of 35.2. So far, these are the best metrics I’ve been able to record for an off-the-shelf rimfire ammo. These numbers beat the pants off of even the already impressive ELEY Target, which gave us an SD and ES of 15.4 and 72.4, respectively. Downrange, this level of consistency should translate to very impressive accuracy. While that’s not always the case, a single-digit standard deviation and an extreme spread of less than 40 is always welcome at any level of ammo, and honestly expected when you’re paying a quarter or more for each round fired. Accuracy DataI did indeed see a pretty impressive level of performance, perhaps slightly better and slightly worse than what I shot with ELEY Target. This time, I’m 100% willing to blame the inaccuracy on myself, despite the use of a high magnification optic, a shooting sled topped with a bag, and all while being on the most stable shooting platform available (the ground). Normally, I’d blame any sort of vertical stringing on increases or decreases in the velocity of the ammo, but since all of them were within 35 fps of one another, I doubt they’re responsible for the vertical stringing you’re seeing on the right-hand side of the target. Meanwhile, the remaining three groups are all under an inch, with the smallest being just a hair smaller than half an inch center to center, as pictured below: I think this more than demonstrates that ELEY Club 40gr round nose, at least out of this rifle, is genuinely a step up from its already great and slightly more affordable ELEY Target cousin. Final ThoughtsSo, is ELEY Club the step-up from Target that the orange box promises? In a word, yeah, mostly. The velocity numbers don’t lie: that 9.2 fps standard deviation is the kind of consistency that makes most centerfire handloaders drool, especially when you’re used to rimfire’s usual lottery fps values. Pair that with groups that dip under half an inch when my trigger finger behaves, and it’s clear this ammo has the mechanical goods to reward a good rifle and a truly disciplined shooter. Out of the Angstadt RPR, the ammo behaved well without any hiccups or failures to fire. Feeding was flawless through the remaining 48 rounds, no stovepipes or light strikes, which is more than I can say for some of the cheaper bulk stuff I’ve run lately - we’ll be seeing some of this next week. Compared to ELEY Target, Club delivers a noticeable bump in consistency that should translate to more first hits on target or on paper and maybe a couple extra points when the match is decided by tenths of seconds or fractions of an inch. Whether that’s worth the jump from about $0.15–0.18 cpr on sale to a quarter a round depends on your game. If you’re chasing club trophies, running Rimfire PRS stages for nice prizes, or just want the most out of a good semi-auto precision rig, it’s money well spent when you catch it on sale. If you’re mostly plinking or burning through bricks at the range, Target still does the heavy lifting without emptying your wallet quite as fast, but it’s still somewhat of a boutique ammunition over here in the States, and it's only about $1.50 less per box (about $0.02 to $0.03 per round) I think ELEY Club earns its “club level” badge in my book. It’s not magic, obviously, and it won’t turn a mediocre shooter into a national champion, as evidenced by this article, but what it does do is give you the tools to shoot up to your potential instead of fighting the ammo. I’ll be keeping a few boxes of this stuff on hand just because I know it works well out of my particular rig. If you see it sitting at $7–8 a box, snag some before it disappears, as it's not only a steal at that price, but it also is often out of stock, as is most ELEY ammo. Your groups (and your match score) will thank you if you can catch a good deal on some. ELEY Club 40gr RN 22LR Ammo Buy on Optics Planet Next up, we’ll be checking out something on the opposite end of the spectrum, which should keep things fresh for this spring shooting season. As always, thanks for reading the Rimfire Report, and we’ll catch you all again next week! Thank you to Re-Nine Safety for providing the cardboard silhouette targets used in this review.We are committed to finding, researching, and recommending the best products. We earn commissions from purchases you make using the retail links in our product reviews. Learn more about how this works.