Precision 22's?

[CountZero]

I recently had opportunity to join local club in some precision rifle matches using 22s and airguns. I always thought of 22s as meh accuracy, center fire as the king. Guys would bring these 6.5 creedmore's to meeker and bang a 2 inch plate at 400 yards over and over cold bore. So never thought much about 22 accuracy until recently.

Granted this is indoor (no wind) and 50ft, but the circles are sized for it (smaller than a pen clicker). I ran a TCR 22 and I was averaging an 80-85 score per sheet. Often the top guy would score 100s on all 3 sheets and determining score be a final 'animal' target that was extremely difficult to hit everyone and even then sometimes get every single animal. Never seen anything like it except for youtube which I never put much stock in. Witnessing these scores.. Wow

So one of the guys convinced me after 3 events with the TCR to buy one of their hotrods. Attached pictures from the first event. Btw, I got 3rd from last place. You can miss a single 10 and maybe get in the top 3. It's a tough sport! Looking forward to doing a little NRL games with the club. I'll be all warmed up for an appleseed come June!

I guess I'm late to the club far as this stuff goes. I always just used the 22 as a trainer for center fire, never thought of it much beyond squirrel / rabbit level accuracy.

[Snow Snake]

 Interresting.I never had a chance to attend something like that.
But I would like appreciate knowing more.Your shooting with the TC certainly was excellent,although what they were doing was on a different level.What were they using (rifles,ammo,bipods,ETC,)?
Thanks

[CountZero]

Oh sorry, the pictures of two targets were from me behind a Tikka I bought recently after getting shown the way! The gang were using a combination of things.

- Scope: Typically 20x or more magnification but more important, adjustable parallax down to 10yards so usable in 50ft out to 100 yards+
- Trigger: 2lb or less
- Support: Bipods, bags, something. This wasn't 3 position stuff, they're resting on a surface but it wasn't concrete so there was still movement had to fight with
- Ammo: Some went to lapua shooting center to find a 'lot' of ammo it liked and bought 5,000, others used SK variety, some used Norma. In the paper I posted I used bulk federal in those 800 round blue boxes
- Rifle: All bolt actions: CZ, Tikka, Ruger, Anshultz
- Barrels: mostly stock but some swapped out for heavy target barrels

- Experience: I doubt anyone of them had less than 30 years behind the trigger. So they had their fundamentals squared away

I look forward to seeing what they do outdoors at 50 yards. Last year they posted many perfect scores in the outdoor events so I know it's not just the 50ft indoor event showing off. I'll be learning a lot from these dudes

[Snow Snake]

 Good overview Count.
It will be quite interresting to read of your travels down this unique path.I'm sure there'll be many pearls for you to pick up.
Thank you for keeping us in the loop...Ken

[CountZero]

I'll try to remember to update on here, but unless the AS in June is cancelled I'll be there and we'll see if the experience helps or hurts results.

[Charles McKinley]

If you get the chance go to an NRL22 or a PRS match and watch them shoot 22 LR at out to 200+ yards at roughly 2 MOA targets.

It is definitely a different world.  I spend my time and treasure kindling the bonfires of Liberty but it is fun to watch them do their thing.

MKM Precision in Kennerdell, PA is only about a 1/2 hour from my house if you can go there.

[CountZero]

That's much too far of a haul for me to just go for fun but it sounds interesting. I'm sure I'll learn enough in the local events with the old hands doing the 50 yard thing! Great idea though, I'll look around see if any NRL are within an hour drive. Could be fun to see

[Smallbore]

My wife and I got involved in a monthly 50' 22lr indoor match at the Sebastopol Rifle and Pistol Club last year.
We did one prior to an Appleseed, and the rest after. Our scores drastically improved after the Appleseed.
We use out of the box M&P 15/22 Performance Center models with Vortex 2-7 Rimfire scopes, and they have held their own against (allegedly) drastically superior match grade guns.
(think, "Anschutz bolt action with a 1# trigger pull and $1000 glass on top" or "Ruger Precision Rimfire").

My wife uses TAC-22 ammo (because she doesn't quite shoot match level yet, but it's still really top-notch target ammo), I use Eley Club (it's more accurate than I am).

My best so far is 283/300, and it's always me dropping or pulling the shots, not the gun.
Course of fire is:
CMP RF 50' A, Prone with or without sling: 5 shots left, 5 shots right. Maximum 10 minutes.
CMP RF 50' A, Seated or Kneeling with or without sling: 5 shots left, 5 shots right. Maximum 10 minutes.
CMP RF 50' B, Standing Off-hand, No sling: 10 shots. Maximum 10 minutes.

Then last but not least, 60 seconds to hit an itty bitty little bullseye, standing offhand, no sling. Winner takes $5.
My wife won that last month.

[CountZero]

My wife and I got involved in a monthly 50' 22lr indoor match at the Sebastopol Rifle and Pistol Club last year.
We did one prior to an Appleseed, and the rest after. Our scores drastically improved after the Appleseed.
We use out of the box M&P 15/22 Performance Center models with Vortex 2-7 Rimfire scopes, and they have held their own against (allegedly) drastically superior match grade guns.
(think, "Anschutz bolt action with a 1# trigger pull and $1000 glass on top" or "Ruger Precision Rimfire").

My wife uses TAC-22 ammo (because she doesn't quite shoot match level yet, but it's still really top-notch target ammo), I use Eley Club (it's more accurate than I am).

Very nice! I'm not discounting experience at all and I think I mentioned that above. Looking forward to learning from the old hands in these events.

I guess point of the post was just express my shock in how good a high grade 22 can shoot. At appleseeds I've seen some pretty good rifles, but I never saw guys hitting the ten ring 30 times in a row kind of stuff. I've only seen that level of consistency out of center fire before this year.

[Smallbore]

One of the keys that we found, and for .22lr, this rings especially true, is finding good ammunition that your gun likes.

I used to be in the "run what ya brung" department, but two out of battery discharges with injuries made me really look into good, reliable ammunition.
And that being said, even among the best, there may be a cartridge that your gun doesn't like.

The M&P eats Eley Club, Eley Benchrest and Benchrest Outlaw like it's caviar, but Eley Force turned my M&P into a jam-o-matic, where Force ran flawlessly in a former jam-o-matic Ruger Mark I.

[Will]

I regularly shoot a .22 Sporting Rifle match, we shoot plates out to 400 yards. I shoot a Bergara B14, rifle prefers SK Long Range though I just got in some of the new Lapua Long Range ammo I have yet to try.

It's great training for precision rifle.

[CountZero]

Attended another match recently had a good time. I started off in the morning got a good zero (the orange circle paper) at 50 yards. Then I left got some lunch came back a few hours later for the match to start up. On the big sheets the targets in the top row and very bottom (not in photo) are for sighters.

Sighters on the first sheet (4 total) were good so I proceeded through the 25 bulls getting a pretty good start. There were several relays so after each sheet there was about a 35-40 minute break. Then the second sheet went up and I could see a mirage in my scope and the barrel was cold so mirage was coming from down range. I knew I was in trouble and sure enough impacts were high and I had to make an adjustment but it wasn't quite right. My first two rows on sheet two were pretty bad. Made another adjustment on the scope and the next 3 rows were good but the trouble was reflected in my score. Once sheet 3 was up the temp had already peaked and was slowly cooling so my zero was stable and I scored 2125 and finished out with a 2325

Sheet 1: 2275
Sheet 2: 2025
Sheet 3: 2125
Sheet 4: 2325

I didn't realize how much temperature would impact the mighty 22 at 50 yards! It was very interesting and fun. There were 14 competing in my class and another 6 in unlimited. I managed to come in 5th of 14. The top 3 guys were clearing the cards hitting perfect 2500 several times. They knew how to manage the temp shifts better than most. Wind was low all day so it wasn't a factor

Since I never noticed this point of impact shift in appleseeds I'm guessing it's not a factor at the 25 yard range, that or my ruger tcr isn't accurate enough that I could tell a difference? Maybe both! haha

[Charles McKinley]

At the Orwell Rimfire KD this winter there was a 2 MOA shift up between morning and afternoon.

[CountZero]

At the Orwell Rimfire KD this winter there was a 2 MOA shift up between morning and afternoon.

Wow that's incredible

[scuzzy]

At the Orwell Rimfire KD this winter there was a 2 MOA shift up between morning and afternoon.

So the temp had increased by about 40 or so degrees?

The KD manual says for each 20 degree increase in temp to come down 1 MOA. Since the air is less dense. I'd guess that would be similar for rimfire? Or maybe even more adjustment due to lower velocity and more of a chance for the air density to act on it?

I'd guess though that it wouldn't be too noticeable at like 25 yards?

[cwcdl79]

Scuzzy,
Our experiences are showing some major temperature impact on rimfire. There was about a 20* change over the day.