22lr accuracy at distances beyond 50 yards, and fun shooting

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For my best shooting with the freedom arms
On bench, very firm 2 hand grip but not so that you are compensating for muzzle lift. Concentrating on grip squeeze. Hands resting on a pad. Front of barrel is on a rest but barely touching it. Just enough to steady aim with light contact

I actually have to write this stuff down, firearm to firearm as change in hold has significant effect on outcome
 
xphunter said:
ith the Atlas and Ckye-Pod, because of their design, I very lightly pre-load. Just enough to take away the slack.
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I had been preloading my Atlas, but likely too much, I have not been preloading it all all lately, but that might explain some of the vertical I have been seeing. Maybe a light preload is the way to go. I am still learning shooting from bipods, I always shot off of a front rest until not long ago.

My old Benchrest setup. I built the box for it, and would bring it all down to the bench in the box.
Bench Box 2.JPG
 
Walkalong said:
One of the cool things about shooting distance with rifles is waiting for the impact.

I used to think shooting my Remington Rand in .45 ACP at 55 gallon barrels at 100ish yards was so cool when I was a teenager.

Boom...........................thud, and if the sun was right, you could see the bullet trace. One of my few fond memories from childhood.
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Never gets old to me.

 
216.4 yards, cci standard velocity, offhand 2 handed ruger single 6 with irons. took about 30 shots.

I had to put 4 clays around it to see the darn thing. By the time I popped the container, I was down to 1 clay left to see. Distance shooting is so much fun with .22s.
 

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Yep, long range with rimfire is a hoot.

I've seen it more than once that shooting .22LR out to 200 and 300 yards is much like shooting .308Win out at 800 to 1200 yards. And yeah, wind will blow the bullets off target in both cases. But learning to read the wind and compensate is part of the fun.... I can't do it worth spit... But I do appreciate trying to read it and guess. It's practice after all. Can't get any good at it unless we dive on in.
 
I just found this thread. I have a nice Kimber K22 that I haven't shot yet, but just picked up a Bergara BXR001 last week. The Leupold Mark 4 3.5-10x40mm has +15.4 milrad of vertical adjustment sitting on the 30 moa integral rail and with a 50 yard zero. This should get me to 300 yards but I can use the Tactical Milling reticle for an additional 5 milrad holdover which should get me out to 400 yards. I've never shot a .22 LR beyond 100 yards, at least I don't think I have, so I'm looking forward to seeing what this rifle will do.

I ran some numbers today and this is my starting point using SK Long Range Match ammunition which is subsonic.

50 yards > 0.0 mil
100 yards > 1.8 mil
150 yards > 4.2 mil
200 yards > 6.9 mil
250 yards > 9.7 mil
300 yards > 12.8 mil
350 yards > 16.2 mil
400 yards > 19.7 mil
 
From my experience in shooting 22's the accuracy in ammo varies enormously. What's the best ammo fairly easily found without having to purchase it online?
 
bluetopper said:
From my experience in shooting 22's the accuracy in ammo varies enormously. What's the best ammo fairly easily found without having to purchase it online?
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CCI SV 40 gr LRN, CCI Blazer 40 gr LRN, Federal Auto Match 40 gr LRN, Federal 38 gr CPHP 275 round Field Pack and Aguila 40 gr CPRN/LRN for my factory stock free floated barrel 10/22 - https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...lector-3-break-in.859106/page-2#post-11310458

Just over one inch 10 shot groups at 50 yards (5 shot groups much smaller)

22LR for $15-$20/500 shipped thread - https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...15-20-500-shipped.853059/page-2#post-11226086
 
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MCMXI said:
I just found this thread. I have a nice Kimber K22 that I haven't shot yet, but just picked up a Bergara BXR001 last week. The Leupold Mark 4 3.5-10x40mm has +15.4 milrad of vertical adjustment sitting on the 30 moa integral rail and with a 50 yard zero. This should get me to 300 yards but I can use the Tactical Milling reticle for an additional 5 milrad holdover which should get me out to 400 yards. I've never shot a .22 LR beyond 100 yards, at least I don't think I have, so I'm looking forward to seeing what this rifle will do.

I ran some numbers today and this is my starting point using SK Long Range Match ammunition which is subsonic.

50 yards > 0.0 mil
100 yards > 1.8 mil
150 yards > 4.2 mil
200 yards > 6.9 mil
250 yards > 9.7 mil
300 yards > 12.8 mil
350 yards > 16.2 mil
400 yards > 19.7 mil
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Is there a book or other resource that explains how to arrive at these numbers?
 
kidneyboy said:
Is there a book or other resource that explains how to arrive at these numbers?
Click to expand...

Just need your muzzle velocity, ballistic coefficient, and environmental conditions, and run it all through a ballistic calculator. There are several available online or as free mobile apps. Hornady’s is very good, and free.

Hornady Free online ballistic calculator

Here’s a table of some ballistic coefficients for various 22LR ammunition.

3CF98078-D99A-4C7B-B94E-E4016D9F41FE.jpeg
 
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xphunter said:
On another thread about where you should zero a 22lr, there seems to be this mystical belief of what a 22lr is capable of or not capable of at distances much beyond 50 yards.
You should zero your gun for the uses or type(s) of shooting, hunting, competing, and plinking you want to do.
Honestly, I don't care where you zero your rimfire, but the idea that only a few or competitors can shoot accurately at 100 yards or further, is silly in my opinion.
I would like to see what some of you guys are doing at distance with a 22lr whether it is a rifle or a handgun?
Do the conditions need to be good? Yes
Does the 22 need to be accurate? Yes
Does the shooter need to have some fundamentals down? Yes
This was back in 2016 with one of my clone Charger's.
On a good day this is what one of my clone Charger's (I have two of them) can do at 500 yards.
View attachment 868685

I took Neva (My daughter-in-law to be at that time 2016) out to do some shooting at Chuck McIntosh's/Mac's Gunworks place.
Neva had done a little bit of smallbore shooting when she was younger (4-H) but nothing anything at distance or with centerfire as far as I knew.
I started her out with my other custom clone Charger handgun in 22lr at 100 yards on 10" steel.
View attachment 868686
View attachment 868687
She got bored with shooting the center of the target very quickly, and proceeded to start shooting at the bolt heads. Then she wanted to shoot further so she started shooting at the 5 inch piece of steel at 200 yards.
The scope I had on there wasn't really set up to go to 300 yards so we stopped there.
View attachment 868688
View attachment 868689
View attachment 868690

Further back in time, some goofing around shooting pd's with that Clone Charger, just past 350 yards, after filing my buck antelope tag...Obviously not with the Charger!
View attachment 868691
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This post reminded me of my Ruger Standard Auto that I mounted a 2.5X Weaver on, back in the 1960s. One day I was walking around the woodchuck fields with the pistol and a rifle and noticed what I thought was a rusty can about 100 yards away in a hayfield. I decided to plug it with the pistol, bracing against a small hardwood. I shot and heard a weird sound...more like a "plop" than a "ding", so I went down to check. I was amazed that the large "can" turned out to be a dead woodchuck...freshly shot through the head. Ruger Auto Scope.jpg
 
kidneyboy said:
Is there a book or other resource that explains how to arrive at these numbers?
Click to expand...

The ballistic calculators a chronographs and a BC can get you pretty close.

You can also just shoot and note the amount of drop you actually get.

My buddy I was talking about in the earlier post was down again recently. Interested in playing some more, he brought a 4X8 sheet of coroplast and we put it up on an adjustable stand I have. This is it on the left of the gong target being shot (with 405 grain subs that also have a rainbow trajectory, you can see the amount of elevation compensation for the rifle zeroed at 100).



Then you just need a good rest so you can have the rifle setting where you were aiming and drive the reticle to the point of impact. Good idea to record the number of clicks, if you are wanting to go back. Pretty much like this.

 
@Varminterror, that's some useful information there. I use a couple of ballistic programs but was using Exbal yesterday to back out the BC of the SK Long Range Match bullet shown in the link below. I tweaked some values until the numbers were close to those provided by SK and the G1 BC I ended up with is 0.16 which isn't too far off some of the numbers in your chart. SK used a 26" barrel for their data whereas I'm using a 16.5" barrel with a suppressor, but I'll shoot at 100 yards and 200 yards this week to see if my numbers are close. I have a LabRADAR so will measure muzzle velocity. I have the accessory microphone for that unit which will help since the noise signature with suppressed/subsonic is very low.

http://www.sk-ammunition.com/en/products/long-range-match.html
 
@MCMXI - I forget where I found that chart - I’ve had it saved on my phone for years, but I’m fairy certain I just googled “ballistic coefficient 22 LR”.
 
Years ago, when doing gun repairs for a business, I had to sight-in a lot of rifles, often after mounting scopes. I bought a Sweeny Site-A-Line, which is a movable rifle vise with rubber feet. After verifying mount tightness, I'd take the rifle to the range and shoot one shot from my benchrest setup, then I'd clamp the rifle in the Vise, adjust the vise vertically and move it on the bench (horizontal adjustment) to get the reticle centered on the target center, then adjust the scope's reticle to coincide with the bullet hole or other impact point desired at that range. Then I'd fire a couple of shots to make sure the bullets actually hit where I wanted them to in relation to the bullseye. (Most people wanted theirs to hit center at 100 yards.) After I was satisfied that the rifle was hitting where it should, I'd fire a few more shots to confirm the setting and check that everything was working properly and that the settings weren't wandering. The nice thing is that scope, mount or rifle problems could be found rather quickly.

Recently, I used the vise to check-out a friend's rifle and discovered that the base screws were relatively loose, so fixed it at the range and completed the sighting-in.
 
I was shooting Rimfire Benchrest several years ago and the ten ring is 1/4" and the "X" is just a Dot. Recently, a perfect 250x25X was shot at our club range which is the first time one has ever been shot...by a guy I know. I once fired two 250s and a 249 and the X-Count was in the teens. That was the best I'd ever shot, with the only 9 being on the last shot of the last target. This competition is shot at 50 yards and considering the price of ammo, I never tried shooting that rifle at 100 yards, because there's no point in doing so when there weren't any competitions at that distance.
 
Picher said:
This post reminded me of my Ruger Standard Auto that I mounted a 2.5X Weaver on, back in the 1960s. One day I was walking around the woodchuck fields with the pistol and a rifle and noticed what I thought was a rusty can about 100 yards away in a hayfield. I decided to plug it with the pistol, bracing against a small hardwood. I shot and heard a weird sound...more like a "plop" than a "ding", so I went down to check. I was amazed that the large "can" turned out to be a dead woodchuck...freshly shot through the head.View attachment 878375
Click to expand...

Note that the scope was a K 2.5 with about 3" eye relief. We didn't have special pistol bases back then, so I mounted the scope off-center to the left, so I could use either iron sights or the scope and could remove the scope and not have the bases block the iron sights. The other weird thing was that I turned the scope so the reticle was an "X" instead of a cross. It worked well, except sighting-in was a bit weird. Kind of innovative for a high-school kid in 1963. BTW, the grips were made by Fitz and they had a large thumb rest.
 
For long range, is the consensus that supersonic ammunition is better than subsonic? Running some numbers, a 40gr bullet at 1,600 fps with a G1 BC of 0.15 goes transonic between 100 yards and 125 yards.
 
Used to spend some time shooting golf balls at ~230yds. Don't have any pics beyond that of one of the rifles. When I really wanted a challenge, I'd shoot at paint cans with the iron sighted Single Six.

IMG_8118b.jpg
 
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