Ran some .22's

[Gussy]

If you haven't, try just plain CCI standard velocity. Velocity runs 1070 and it shoots very well in my target guns. One hole at 50 yds. Side benefit is it's cheap!!! Like $2.50 a box and if the rebate is still available, less than that.

[Dave Roelle]

Hi Kurt

Ill get to the ranch the first week of january and run the velocity data and if the winds cooperate get some group data out to 200 yards

Have a great Christmas

Dave

[Don McDowell]

Jim when you find the ammo your rifle likes, it's a good thing to keep your eye on target sports usa. They sell 22 ammo by the case fairly cheap and pay the freight. They don't always have everything in stock, but they are worth keeping an eye on.
Also as Dave points out, and I have a friend that has also shot that CMP Eley with really good results, if you are set up to order thru them getting a case is a good thing..

Steve you be careful there with that rifle of your wife's , you get her practiced up with ammo her rifle likes, and she's gonna whip the world in the 22 matches

[Kurt]

The CMP is a good place to get ammo when they offer it. I used it for the CMP matches.
Just a heads up....
If you guys like the Fed ammo they have a rebate going right now. I ordered a case of the .22 Fed. GM and that makes it a good low cost shooting. https://media.mwstatic.com/cms/rebate/20...imfire.pdf

[Gussy]

Some information from what I have and it might help those building .22s.

The 3 guns that literally shoot one hole groups @50 yds are all 1-16 twist. A custom Ruger 10-22 with a Green Mountain 20" barrel, a Ruger Precision bolt gun with a 20" barrel, factory, no mods. My buddies Volquartsen with a 16.5" barrel, also factory, no mods.

Comes down to twist and Velocity being the main factors in our testing. These are used for sage rat shooting, not target. Shooting a 5" high by 2" diameter sage rat out to 150-200 yds does require accuracy.

The CCI std velocity shoots best, but for the rats we use hollow points which generally are 1 to 1 1/2" groups @ 100 yds.

[Don McDowell]

I used my box stock 10-22 and a 4x scope to cull 1000's of prairie dogs shooting the Remington Golden bullet hp's in the bulk box. Even got a double once at about 200 yards.

[Gussy]

I use them Remington HPs for the rats too. Not quite as accurate but usually better than anything else I've found that's HV and hollow pt. They have finally dropped below $20.00 per brick (actually bulk box). Last year I went through about 2 bricks in 3 days of shooting.

[Distant Thunder]

I planned to test more ammo today, but first I needed to get some sight setting with iron sights. This is only my 3rd time at the bench with this "new" rifle and it is now functioning great. My 2-piece extractor is working better than I hoped. It did take me about hour of fiddling around to double check that my tang sight was plumb and get the irons set up so my no wind zero is also my mechanical zero, but it is nearly perfect now.

At the end of the day yesterday I set up 4 gongs that are close to those at the match I plan to shoot in just over a week. At least as close as my home range would allow. The match New Years Day will be 10 shots at each gong at each distance, 4-inch round at 50 yards (offhand), 5 1/2-inch diamond at 100 yards, 7-inch round at 100 yards and 8 1/2-inch round at 190 yards. I am not 100% sure on those distances and sizes but they are close enough that I wouldn't be too far off (I hope).

I had trouble getting zeroed on paper at 50 yards for some reason. I kept way over correcting and more or less worked my way to center like a ping-pong ball. Apparently the math was more complicated than my semi-frozen brain could do, or it might of been the hammer I was using wasn't big enough. No matter, I eventually got there.

When I moved to 100 yards I was shooting at my scaled down chicken swinger. I don't have a diamond suitable so the chicken will have to do. Got that sight setting fairly easy.

I moved to 130 yards where I had a 7" gong hung in place of my pig swinger. I don't have a 150 hanger and the ground is too stiff to drive anything into at this time. First shot was a miss, held high and missed again, held low and caught the top edge at 2 o'clock. A quick guess at the hold under and a sight adjustment and the next 3 went into 1 1/2 inches! I was just shooting Federal Champion ammo and didn't expect it to shoot too well.

   

On to 200 meters where my ram swinger hung yesterday and was now replaced with an 8-inch gong. I didn't take the time to set up a hanger at 190 yards but it should be a simple matter to work back from 219 yards.
First shot was a miss and that is with a 20-inch square plate behind the 8-inch round. Held low and miss. Held high and hit 8 inches below the gong in the cluster from last weeks shooting at my ram. Repeated the high hold and that hit very close to the first hit. More math, guessed at the holdover and the miss below and came up what seemed right and caught the top center near the edge. Down a bit and the next 5 went into 2 1/2 inches just left of center. Again this is just the inexpensive Federal Champion ammo and it's holding just over a minute of angle at 130 yards and 219 yards with iron sights and an old guy's frozen fingers pulling the trigger!

   

At this point and with my bare, frozen fingers working away in 29 degree weather it was time to write down the 200 meter sight setting and head to the house for some lunch and a warmup. And now it's snowing again! I will put the scope back on and set up at 50 yards to test the new ammo I bought this week and retest a couple of the more interesting ones from last weekend. I think I'll retest those Federal Champions too! Then I'll move to 100 yards and hopefully 219 yards if I still have some light.

Today has left me optimistic about my chances of a good score using iron sights at the up coming gong match. It's will be a good first test for this rifle and I haven't shot a match since September so it's time.

[Don McDowell]

Good test DT.
I especially like it that you too, are finding some 22 ammo that doesn't cost a major fortune that can hold it's own at the ramline.

[Distant Thunder]

Don,
Let's just say I was hoping that it would turn out that way. I still need to test all this ammo a bunch more, but I can see that there is some very good shooting ammo that can be had for far less than 15 bucks a box. I could not bring myself to buy any of the $25 a box stuff.

I did manage to get out this afternoon and shoot some more at 50 yards and I have to say I am pretty impressed with what some of this ammo did. By 4pm I was running out of light and my fingers were hurting pretty bad so I had to head back to the house.

First up was the ELEY Target and it did very well. Next was the CCI Blazer and I was surprised how well that shot. Shot 9 and 10 I broke to the right so I know it actually shot better than the group shows. Also I broke shot 8 a bit high and it is the upper one in the group.

Then I went to the FEDERAL Champion and it shot about as well as I expected after my shooting earlier today with iron sights. The CCI Standard Velocity did well too except for that 1st one which sounded pretty weak I must say, but the other 9 came back strong.

Then the FEDERAL Gold Medal Match and I was not impressed with this stuff at $15 a box.

   

I was also experimenting with different target types to see what might be best for this testing ammo. The light grey diamonds were not bad, they were easier to see that I thought they might be. Next are the squares and I was really using the white center as my aiming point but that can get chewed up by holes and your sight picture keeps changing. I didn't care for that much.

So next I shot the FEDERAL Gold Medal HV Match and there was nothing there worth $6 a box. On to the FEDERAL Auto Match and it wasn't too bad for the money. Probably a good offhand practice ammo. Last was the CCI Mini-Mag (40 grain solid) and I thought it might be a little better than the Auto Match and it did shoot fairly well at 200 meters last weekend during my sight in with the scope. Certainly would hit rams pretty good.

   

The next time I'm out testing it will be at 100 yards and then 220 yards. The 220 I will probably do on steel, it's just much easier than paper at that distance.

I'm getting used to this rifle, which I really like, and I think I shot it much better today than I did the first time out last weekend.