any semi-serious rimfire shooters here?

[id10t]

OK, so my informal club/group shot a match yesterday. We shoot 95% rimfire, and vary between steel plates/sillywets/etc at 25y w/ pistols, same at 50y with rifle, bowling pins at 200, sillywets at 50 to 150, and medicine matches - tums, tylenol, etc. at 25 and 50 yards. Yesterdays shoot was a medicine match. Once in a blue moon sillywets at 200 with whatever you brought that won't poke holes in 'em.

My Savage did OK at 25 (7/10) using my old standby Remington Sub Sonic 38grn HP. But at 50 yards I got my clock cleaned (3/10). I know part of this is skill, but I know some of it is ammo as well.

Why use the Remington subs? Its the most accurate that I've found locally. CCI subs are more consistient but produce slightly larger groups, as does Fiocchi sub. Unfortunately, no one in the area carries either of those anymore.

I've tried Wolf (larger groups than the 3 above), CCI green tag (only thing green was the $ out of my wallet), and of course teh various bulk offerings (hoping to get lucky - I didn't).

So I'm prepared to order a small assortment of slightly higher quality ammo from Champions or a similar outfit.

Will try 100 rounds of up to 4 different types - I don't have a large budget, and if I find something spectacular I'll end up shooting 500 rounds per year of it for the most part.

So ... what should I order? Leaning towards RWS and SK offerings... the super expensive Fed UM22, Ely Blackbox, the higher end Lapua, etc. aren't in consideration. Max of $8/50 before shipping....

(for those questioning the Remington Sub Sonics, here's an average target at 25 yards - 10 5 round groups. The looser groups in the bottom row are the first I fired after changing ammo from Wolf to the Rem - I've noticed that my gun likes 15-25 rounds of the new stuff down the tube before it settles in on size)

[vash]

damn. you shoot better than i do. i have nothing to add.

that savage..which model? are all these rifles scoped?

[fred cook]

Try the Remington Target loads. They use a 40 grain bullet at about 1100fps. The bullets seem to be more uniform and at the slightly lower velocity perhaps they do a better/neater job of engraving the rifling. They seem to work better in all of my .22 target guns, Colt Match Target Woodsman, Winchester model 52, Colt Officers Model Target revolver, etc.

[id10t]

Originally Posted by vash

damn. you shoot better than i do. i have nothing to add.

that savage..which model? are all these rifles scoped?

Mine is a pre-E receiver (so before 2008) Mk II BTV with the accutrigger (which i've not adjusted - its still factory). Blue steel, heavy barrel, Boyd's thumbhole stock. Factory D&T. Mine wears a Simmons White Tail Classic 6.5-20x50AO scope. The E receiver change was to let the 93 (22wmr/17hmr) be the action used for the 22lr/17hm2. The other guy shooting Savage (a TR) uses a Weaver 36x scope, but then he is older than dirt, took 3rd loosing out on splitting cards at 50 yards (2 cards, 5 shots, as many cuts as you can make). First place made 4 cuts shooting high $ glass on a Suhl 150, second place again high dollar glass and an old Anschutz.

Since our course of fire varies, at times irons and semi autos are a better idea (plates and bowling pins at shorter distances - can't wait for my 22 conversion for the FAL) but other times magnification is required (golf balls at 50, 75, 100, 150 and 200 yards).

[Jeff Higgins]

You didn't mention one, so 'll ask - do you use a rim thickness gauge? If not, add one to your order from Champion's. They are less than ten bucks; basically just a piece of brass round stock with a hole drilled through it. They are exactly one inch long. When you drop a round into it the rim headspaces on one end, then you use a dial caliper to measure the resulting overall length to get the rim thickness. Sorting cheap ammo by this step alone will make most of it shoot quite well. Go one step further and sort the "good" ones after the thickness check by weight, and you have "match" ammo. The outliers simply become practice and plinking ammo.

With spendy rimfire ammo, all you are really doing is paying someone else to do this - the manufacturer. It's all made the same way, the cheap stuff and the match stuff. It's the sorting for consistency that drives the price up and reduces the group size. As such, going through this hassle with the high end ammo doesn't help - the manufacturer already did it. That's what you are paying for.

So, get a gauge and start sorting. It's amazing how fast you can go through a brick once you get good at this. Get about five or six margarine tubs and start measuring, labeling the tubs as you throw different thicknesses into them. I used to sort into .0005" groups. Usually about half of any given brick is in the middle of what will quickly emerge as a "bell" curve of weights. That's your "match" ammo.

From there, if you are really serious, sort those by weight into .5 grain (or smaller) lots. This is still all "match" ammo, but different weights may impact differently. One weight becomes 25 yard ammo, another 50 yard ammo, etc., since you are adjusting sights between the various ranges anyway.

[ODDJOB UNO]

i fell in love with the federal match on all of my .22's. all my groups tightened up asap upon using them, rifle or pistol.

this is combat wombat stationary and moving targets varied distances/timed.


suppwessed and non suppwessed.


note tactical solutions upper w/threaded compensator and adj sights w/picatinny rail for lazar beam death rays. mmmmmyummmmy.


p.s. jeff if i had time to sort my .22 ammo but when werking 60-70hrs a week............i no gots da time and just order a 1000 shipped from midway or ammo to go.com. the super zoomy $1000 a shot .22 match guys here have barrels bigger than a beer can, scopes damn near as long as the rifle itself, and their own damn COMPLETE WEATHER STATION sitting next to them. i have watched them check every single round of their federal match and eley match. they will wait for what seems hours for the perfect moment to take the shot when conditions are perfect. its quite the show to watch and at a $1000 a shot................well it separates the men from the boys real quick. with us we are always moving during stages, meaning we may be shooting over the table for 1 mag, them moving to culvert, then moving to window, or around doorway, so its not so much the group, as we only get 1 shot at the target, if ya miss ya stay on target until ya hit it, then move on to next stationary or moving target to finish stages.

[vash]

my brother has a ruger 10/22 with a suppresor and a simple aimpoint sight on top..that thing is the funnest thing to shoot. flat out giddy fun.

i was going to shoot it in the backyard, but he turned all policeman rule follower on me..j/k.

with a gilley suit, you could lay out in the midst of a rodent field and plink them closerange.

i want to buy a Savage .22 bolt action.