10/22 Accuracy Question...I'm confused.

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I was pretty happy with the 5/8" groups. That was 25% of the groups that I shot with another just a 1/16" larger. The largest of the others was 1 1/4" with the rest somewhere in between.
And, this was not offhand. It was with the forend resting on a bag and me holding the stock. I'm still trying to figure out hold the silly thing to overcome my moving around.

You have everything you need, except a grain of salt. Those 1/2" accuracy claims are with the barrel, a new action,
clamped into a rest, at a closed range, under laboratory conditions. That's how accurately the barrel will shoot, under extremely tight circumstances.

Once you add a shooter, and take away the lab conditions, accuracy suffers, somewhat, for obvious reasons.

Enjoy your target shooting. If you can place all your shots under a quarter, at 50 yards, you shoot better than me.
 
I got my 10/22 in about 1981. It was a 'standard issue' model. I've changed a few things, including the barrel (found a threaded one), a Hogue stock (just a few months ago), and puta Nikon scope on the top.
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But now y'all have me wondering about its accuracy. I'll take it out to the range in a couple of weeks and see what she'll do.
 
Reading the thread, had a thought.
Are you shooting your groups to point of aim? As in first shot or two wipes out aiming point then you're aiming center of hole?
If so move your impact hole an inch off your aiming point. Otherwise you're just chasing holes.
A while back ( several years ) I set up a Rimfire Proof it thread so everyone could show what their rifle could really do. Set it up based on SCORE not group size. Messed with some peoples minds. I've primarily shot competitively for score going on 50 yrs, made no difference to me.
 
Reading the thread, had a thought.
Are you shooting your groups to point of aim? As in first shot or two wipes out aiming point then you're aiming center of hole?
If so move your impact hole an inch off your aiming point. Otherwise you're just chasing.

I'm just trying to put the crosshairs in the middle of the X. I really have no real clue about how I'm supposed to do things. I'm just a hack having some fun. I can sure see how people get drawn into building expensive guns, though. That's not really an option for me, but it's fun to read about.
 
I could move a couple clicks right and shoot the center out but I'd loose my aiming point on shot #2.
For score I'd move several clicks right and deal with it.
For group size I'll shoot away from the aiming point.
Two different games ...
 
I expect one MOA accuracy out of my 10/22 but nothing is stock on mine except for the receiver. My ER Shaw 20 inch barrel likes mini mags. I tested 15 different kinds of ammunition. If your spending 15.00 dollars or more per 50 round box in search of accuracy in a 22 you need a better platform.
 
It sounds to me that your 10/22 ain't broke. Just how bad do you want to fix it?

In my experience, a lot of times an attempt to fix the accuracy of a nicely performing device has led to a degradation of performance and has led to a number of other "fixes" just to get back to the place you started.

The first fix I would suggest is find a 22 LR load that the rifle likes and then send a couple of thousand rounds down range.
 
If your spending 15.00 dollars or more per 50 round box in search of accuracy in a 22 you need a better platform.

Most high end platforms and highly accurate guns like good ammo.
In 50 yrs of competition I've NEVER seen someone win a match with cheap ammo.
That being said, Mini Mags or CCI Std will get you pretty far with acceptable accuracy.
 
I took mine out today. Did the grouping. And threw the target in the barrel at the range. Im planing on going out again tomorrow shooting some hand gun. I'll take my phone with too. And take a pic then of the target.
 
20210819_185104_copy_588x868.jpg I think I'm answering my question by continuing to shoot this 10/22. It's a standard Ruger pencil barrel, but I think it has the capacity to get good consistent groups with someone besides me behind the gun, so, I'm going to continue to work on my shooting skills (of which I have none) and not spend a bunch of money on the rifle. Two decent groups out of seven at least lets me know that the rifle has some potential
One big problem that dawned on me today is that I can't get a good cheek weld on it because my hearing protection is so bulky, so, now I need to find some much thinner muffs.
 
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I didn't get any pictures of my targets, but I did get back to the range with my 10/22 last weekend. I took new-manufacture Federal bulk pack, some PMC Zapper of indeterminate age, and some Remington Viper which was probably 20 years old or so. As a life-long plinker, I'd never really noticed how ammo sensitive .22s can be. A hit on the soup can is a hit on the soup can... That said, of those three, the new Federal was the least accurate, and the Remington was the best. Overall, accuracy was decent, and I do love my 10/22, but I have to admit that the my Ruger American Rimfire, Target is just a more accurate rifle.
 
Two decent groups out of seven at least lets me know that the rifle has some potential
You simply could be seeing ammunition variation/spread.

Shoot several 10 round groups and if the outer boundaries formed by flyers are similar, your 5 shot clusters were simply subset of 10 shot groups.

This is why I stopped shooting 5 shot groups and now use 10 shot groups to better gauge "average" accuracy while capturing 10 shot groups during several thousand round monitoring.

Federal bulk pack, some PMC Zapper of indeterminate age, and some Remington Viper ... Federal was the least accurate, and the Remington was the best.
The first fix I would suggest is find a 22 LR load that the rifle likes and then send a couple of thousand rounds down range.
10/22 being selective with ammunition is well known.
 
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The first time with this setup I was able to get my five shot groups down to 5/8" @ 50 yards. Some folks have told me that that is okay accuracy and others all but came out and said "You stink".

I would say that’s pretty good for a standard 10-22 barrel.

Using a good rest one of my stock ones (optic added) averaged 1.259” for 3, 5 shot groups (3 different types of ammunition) at 60 yards.

This is a thread on it
https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/side-by-side-597-10-22-model-60.811602/#post-10380271

At the end I did shoot a group with a Clark custom 10-22 with Lothar Walther barrel and it’s 5 shot group was more than an inch smaller, so it’s a larger improvement.

Of course the “best” Ruger barrel that comes off the line compared to the “worst” barrel from a great manufacturer would show a smaller amount of improvement than if things were the other way around.

I think you should go shooting with anyone that says “you stink” and bring your rifle along and see how much better they do with it. After that you will know how much value to attach to their opinion. You will either want to learn more of what they know or ignore them from then on.
 
if you have a parallax adjustment, make sure it is set correctly. you are shooting 22 rimfire; use earplugs.

luck,

murf
 
if you have a parallax adjustment, make sure it is set correctly. you are shooting 22 rimfire; use earplugs.

luck,

murf

Well, ear plugs don't exactly get the job done at this range that I shoot at. There are people there that are shooting stuff that is extremely loud.
 
The first time with this setup I was able to get my five shot groups down to 5/8" @ 50 yards.

IME: That's good as it gets without spending big bucks. One of my 10/22 guns sometimes gets !/2" five shot groups at 50 yards using some old Winchester Target ammo, but not consistently.
 
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I would try every brand of ammo that I could find when this fiasco ends. I have had rifles that were only happy with one or two brands. My 52B liked anything marked Match except Lapua. My CZ prefers Federal Gold Medal Match and Wolf Match above all else. I have never had a gun that liked Lapua.
 
View attachment 1019428 I think I'm answering my question by continuing to shoot this 10/22. It's a standard Ruger pencil barrel, but I think it has the capacity to get good consistent groups with someone besides me behind the gun, so, I'm going to continue to work on my shooting skills (of which I have none) and not spend a bunch of money on the rifle. Two decent groups out of seven at least lets me know that the rifle has some potential
One big problem that dawned on me today is that I can't get a good cheek weld on it because my hearing protection is so bulky, so, now I need to find some much thinner muffs.

Good to hear you believe you're making progress. I'd be plenty happy if my 10/22 could shoot 5/8". If you have repeated that I'd definitely play with the equipment on hand before going in $200.00 for a new barrel.

I found it interesting you figured out part of the "problem" was cheek weld related to hearing protection. I have found that with some rifles I have a similar issue. Good job on looking outside the box.
 
I'd be plenty happy if my 10/22 could shoot 5/8". If you have repeated that I'd definitely play with the equipment on hand before going in $200.00 for a new barrel.
Agree and I believe the key here is consistent "repeatability".

I am sure many 10/22s with particular random selection of rounds have produced 1/2" groups before subsequent rounds opened up the group size. But key is doing it on a consistent basis of say 10 5 shot groups in a row.

IME: That's good as it gets without spending big bucks. One of my 10/22 guns sometimes gets !/2" five shots at 50 yards ... not consistently.
And consistency is key. To me measurable and repeatable group size on a consistent basis is true accuracy of that rifle/barrel.

I have gotten many 10 shot groups that started out as 1/2" five shot groups but (due to my nod to members like jmorris/Bart B/Nature Boy etc.) as promised, I continue on to see what that particular set of 10 random rounds would produce and subsequent shots open up the group size. To further verify trueness of group size, I shoot several known reference ammo (CCI SV, Aguila along with Federal bulk) at start, middle and end of my range testing (If these groups remain similar in size, group size obtained by other brand of ammo is more believable but if not, then I chalk it up to shooting variables and repeat the range test while chronologically capturing all 10 shot groups on target).

Now, if a particular brand/type/weight of ammunition consistently produced similar 5/10 shot groups repeatedly, I deem that "truer" average accuracy and not the "occasional" small group. So I am skeptical of occasional small group posted, especially cut out from the rest of the target (What are they trying to hide?).

As many members know me from my various myth busting threads, I work to maintain full transparency, regardless whether results are consistent/inconsistent with my expectations.

So, has my factory stock 10/22 produced sub 1" 10 shot groups and 1/2" 5 shot groups at 50 yards during 3000 round testing with various ammo? Sure, but not on a consistent basis. So can I deem my 10/22 is able to produce 1/2" - sub 1" at 50 yards? ... Only with a particular random sample of certain ammunition less than 5% of the time.

Can it "average" around 1" 10 shot groups at 50 yards? Yes, quite often depending on which 10 rounds I pick from the box.
 
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