22LR rifle accuracy and range?

[dbHunterNY]

I've shoot 22LR pistols a lot. growing up as a kid we'd shoot 22LR rifles at the farm at squrriels and stuff with open sights but never needed to sight in anything or really paid much attention to group size. Setup a 22LR rifle with 3-9x40 scope that hopefully my daughter will take to in the future and so i could have some fun at a sacrifice of a pretty short gun. i sighted it in at 75 yards and with a mediocre rest got a 3" group only tried one kind of ammo that seems to cycle well.

what's your 22LR rifle sight-in/zero distance and what kind of groups do you get? 

[moog5050]

I previously played with this at the range.  I will say with 100% certainty no matter how accurate your 22 rifle, at 100 yds, any wind/breeze plays a huge role.   Hitting a 10" target was pretty easy but trying to put hole on hole at 100 was very difficult.  They are pushed way too easy.

At 50, it was very easy to put a solid group together.  I think as they slow down and start to lob in past 50, they move.

[dbHunterNY]

3 minutes ago, moog5050 said:

I previously played with this at the range.  I will say with 100% certainty no matter how accurate your 22 rifle, at 100 yds, any wind/breeze plays a huge role.   Hitting a 10" target was pretty easy but trying to put hole on hole at 100 was very difficult.  They are pushed way too easy.

At 50, it was very easy to put a solid group together.  I think as they slow down and start to lob in past 50, they move.

yea at the point where they reach subsonic i know bullets encounter stability issues. shooting Aguila super extra 40gr at 1255fps per the box. it a pretty nice setup. not any custom bolt action 22lr but nice. it was a bit breezy too despite i setup on the leeward side of the barn. just don't have much 22LR experience with anything other than a pistol at 20 or so yards and in. mostly indoors.

[airedale]

Now this a subject that would take a book to cover and to cover thoroughly it would be of many pages. Squirrels rank right at the top for me as one of my favorite animals to hunt.  Being serious I am not talking about bird feeder squirrels, all the things that go into the making of a good hunter are needed for squirrels such as finding habitat, food sources, stealth, concealment and precision marksmanship. 

In a nutshell, early season when the leaves are on and shooting distances fairly short I like using a good quality 22 rifle, a medium powered scope with an adjustable objective for parallax mitigation firing standard velocity or even match ammo which almost always gives me my best groups and has more than enough pop to kill Squirrels. I sight in dead on at fifty yards and my serious hunting rifles will print groups that are ragged holes.

Later in the season when the leaves are off and the shots a bit longer I use a couple of specialized rifles that group very well with hyper velocity ammunition like Stingers, Yellowjackets and Velocitors, this ammo shoots fairly flat and makes for pretty easy shots out to seventy five yards and a little beyond. These rifles are sighted dead on at seventy five yards.

When it comes to Squirrel guns I spare no expense, for my way of thinking my favorite type hunting should be done with the best equipment I can afford.

Al

Edited October 10, 2022 by airedale

[Dinsdale]

I missed a squirrel this morning, so I just shot this group at 60yds. Happen to have a 6x6 laying at that distance……thats about as far as I can see around me, so seemed good.

Have never missed with this gun, so I took one shot and its way right. Then it hit me; forgot I shot up some ammo last year and left one magazine loaded with some Remington can stuff. It didnt shoot well in any of my 22’s.

So the shot on the right is last Remington and the other 4 are CCI Standard Velocity all lead, one inch target. This 22 is a CZ 452 trainer, leupold vxlll 1.5-5 scope; fairly noted on the web that this  gun does well with CCI SV in general. Interesting my 452 full stock shoots ridiculous small groups with same ammo; but my 452 American does not.

Hunting tripod front rest, just sitting on the ground. Decent enough for hunting/plinking, on a proper bench will do better.

 

[eaglemountainman]

1 hour ago, airedale said:

Now this a subject that would take a book to cover and to cover thoroughly it would be of many pages. Squirrels rank right at the top for me as one of my favorite animals to hunt.  Being serious I am not talking about bird feeder squirrels, all the things that go into the making of a good hunter are needed for squirrels such as finding habitat, food sources, stealth, concealment and precision marksmanship. 

In a nutshell, early season when the leaves are on and shooting distances fairly short I like using a good quality 22 rifle, a medium powered scope with an adjustable objective for parallax mitigation firing standard velocity or even match ammo which almost always gives me my best groups and has more than enough pop to kill Squirrels. I sight in dead on at fifty yards and my serious hunting rifles will print groups that are ragged holes.

Later in the season when the leaves are off and the shots a bit longer I use a couple of specialized rifles that group very well with hyper velocity ammunition like Stingers, Yellowjackets and Velocitors, this ammo shoots fairly flat and makes for pretty easy shots out to seventy five yards and a little beyond. These rifles are sighted dead on at seventy five yards.

When it comes to Squirrel guns I spare no expense, for my way of thinking my favorite type hunting should be done with the best equipment I can afford.

Al

CZ 452?

[wolc123]

I make a pile of butchering waste/deer carcasses, dead coons, 100 yards behind my bedroom window.  I sight in my .22 dead on at 50 yards, and I aim a couple inches high at 100 yards.  I regularly kill crows with it, off that bait pile.  I do take the wind into consideration on the shots, holding off farther upwind even it is really blowing.  
 

I also killed a big male coyote on a moonlit night off it one time.  He only ran off about 30 yards, after taking a .22 LR yellow jacket thru the lungs from a 100 yard range.  

[airedale]

11 hours ago, eaglemountainman said:

CZ 452?

It is a 455 model, the 455s were a transition model made for a short time while CZ changed from 452s and 455s to production of their current 457s that are completely different rifles.

Currently I think the CZs are "thee" best buy when it comes to new bolt action rimfire rifles, they pretty much have it all ,price, decent looks, quality materials and they are shooters.

Al

[eaglemountainman]

1 hour ago, airedale said:

It is a 455 model, the 455s were a transition model made for a short time while CZ changed from 452s and 455s to production of their current 457s that are completely different rifles.

Currently I think the CZs are "thee" best buy when it comes to new bolt action rimfire rifles, they pretty much have it all ,price, decent looks, quality materials and they are shooters.

Al

Ah,yeah. Couldn't really see the straight barrel contour forward of the receiver. I have a 455 22/17HMR and two 452s. The 455 is a very good shooter, but those 452s are astounding! I have no experience with the 457...yet. Almost bought one a couple weeks ago, but a Kimber Classic Select fell in my lap, instead. I agree, they are fine rifles.

Edited October 11, 2022 by eaglemountainman

[airedale]

4 hours ago, eaglemountainman said:

The 455 is a very good shooter, but those 452s are astounding!

I have one of the 452s in what was called the Lux model, pictured below it is a good shooter to be sure. I like the 452 models the best personally.

Just want to mention ammo, I have found the Federal auto match stuff to be very accurate in just about everything I have tried it in, works great for Squirrels and target shooting. The good thing about it is that many stores have it in stock and it does not have a premium price.

Congrats on the Kimber, they are good ones.

Al

Edited October 11, 2022 by airedale

[Bolt action]

A few years back I picked up a Savage MarkIIG that came with a factory scope. I typically sight it in right around 50 yds and am able to get 1.5 inch groups without using a rest. That's using CCI or Federal rounds. I could probably get tighter groups with a rest. 

[moog5050]

18 hours ago, wolc123 said:

I make a pile of butchering waste/deer carcasses, dead coons, 100 yards behind my bedroom window.  I sight in my .22 dead on at 50 yards, and I aim a couple inches high at 100 yards.  I regularly kill crows with it, off that bait pile.  I do take the wind into consideration on the shots, holding off farther upwind even it is really blowing.  
 

I also killed a big male coyote on a moonlit night off it one time.  He only ran off about 30 yards, after taking a .22 LR yellow jacket thru the lungs from a 100 yard range.  

No too many 22LR rounds that will only drop 2" at 100yds from a 50yd 0.  I found 5-7" pretty common.  What are you using.   They must be hot and light!  

[Daveboone]

We used to spend alot of time with our .22s wood chuck hunting, then in the fall squirrels. For many years my trusty Marlin 39 reigned supreme....its open sights were all I knew. As money flowed a bit more, I had a stable of semi .22s, all scoped. Marlins, Savage, Ruger, etc. Accuracy wise, they all were pretty even when scoped. I sight for 50 yards for head shots on squirrels, at 100 a wood chuck will get hit solid, but not much oomph left, even with the CCI mini mags which are all I shoot. 

[wolc123]

1 hour ago, moog5050 said:

No too many 22LR rounds that will only drop 2" at 100yds from a 50yd 0.  I found 5-7" pretty common.  What are you using.   They must be hot and light!  

Remington Yellow Jackets 

 

[airedale]

The ballistic chart below covers pretty much most of what is available ammunition wise. There is quite a bit of difference between Standard-Match ammo, High Velocity and Hyper Velocity in both trajectory and energy.

For me as I posted earlier standard velocity is pretty much all that is needed for Squirrels, I go with the high velocity stuff when hunting large small game like Woodchucks, Coons and the occasional Fox and even Coyote if the range is short. The CCI Stinger is my favorite ammo for the larger animals with the Velocitor a close second, I can hear a clear audible plop when it smacks a Woodchuck or Fox. It's main drawback is on Squirrels it makes a mess and it does not group well in all rifles.

Al

Edited October 11, 2022 by airedale

[Moho81]

Ours is sighted in for 100 yards and my daughter will hit a 10" steel plate all day long from a rest. After sighting it on paper we just shoot at the plate. Way more satisfying hearing that ping off the plate than shooting at paper! 

I can't recall exactly but I'd guess while siting it in and shooting at paper we destroyed a 4" x 4" section of the paper. We defiantly where not stacking them on top of each other at 100 yards

[wolc123]

AD’s chart shows why you can aim 2” over a crow at 100 yards and hit it almost dead center with a yellow jacket, sighted in dead on at 50.  The drop is 4.1” and that puts the bullet right thru the crow’s boiler room.  Piece of cake with no wind, and a good rest.  It’s much trickier on windy days.  
 

There is also plenty of energy left, at that range with one, to double lung a broadside coyote.

Edited October 11, 2022 by wolc123

[dbHunterNY]

So as a follow up...

As of right now it's sighted in with Aguila Super Extra 40gr HV stuff that says 1255fps for MV on the box. I'm thinking this should be breaking down into subsonic somewhere around 30 yards with what i've got. Zero'd at 75 yards it was a 4" group but it was pretty windy on the mountain. constant of 10mph with gusts higher.
Might be a bit much but the setup is inevitably for my kids. It's a BCA upper with 16" heavy bbl, 1:16 twist (cheaper). Warne single piece mount with a 3-9x40mm duplex scope i had. right now it's sitting on my Springfield Armory Saint Victor lower.

I might walk it out from 25 yards and see if group clearly breaks down anywhere. Maybe change distance it's zero'd but 75 yards seems like a happy medium. at 25 or so it's well within an inch for POI.

[Larry]

If you want to see how good you really are try shooting Sporter rifle it's only at 50ft. A perfect score is 300 have fun.

[eaglemountainman]

4 hours ago, airedale said:

I have one of the 452s in what was called the Lux model, pictured below it is a good shooter to be sure. I like the 452 models the best personally.

Just want to mention ammo, I have found the Federal auto match stuff to be very accurate in just about everything I have tried it in, works great for Squirrels and target shooting. The good thing about it is that many stores have it in stock and it does not have a premium price.

Congrats on the Kimber, they are good ones.

Al

Both my 452s and the 455 are Americans.

They all prefer SK Rifle Match, which is a little spendy, but still a bargain when compared to centerfire ammo. The older Wolf Match Extra was extremely accurate as well as RWS R50. Wish I would have laid a few bricks of Wolf away while I still could.

[Dinsdale]

My 452 American likes that 22lr Wolf Match the best also.

I haven’t seen any in forever.

[Hock3y24]

We shoot a 400 yard 3’ steel plate with 22lr. Drops like 20 feet lol 

[dbHunterNY]

If you want to see how good you really are try shooting Sporter rifle it's only at 50ft. A perfect score is 300 have fun.

Not complete information here but I just might. I shoot NRA indoor precision pistol. 3 courses of fire slow, timed, and rapid. At my local rod and gun club on Thursdays after pistol some are breaking out the rifles. Not sure what people are bringing but it's informal so I'm sure I could shoot what I got.

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[dbHunterNY]

We shoot a 400 yard 3’ steel plate with 22lr. Drops like 20 feet lol 

Must have to paint it and use high power scope or spotting scope? Otherwise you'd never know you hit it. I've shot further with a buddy. I had a 223 and he had a 338 lapua. Couldn't even tell I hit it except the splatter and faint knock sound. Sounds like fun.

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[Hock3y24]

7 hours ago, dbHunterNY said:

Must have to paint it and use high power scope or spotting scope? Otherwise you'd never know you hit it. I've shot further with a buddy. I had a 223 and he had a 338 lapua. Couldn't even tell I hit it except the splatter and faint knock sound. Sounds like fun.

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you can hear them hit, we paint the targets white. it son a hill side and everything echoes back. .223, 308 make real loud noise bounce back to us. the 338 lapua broke the weld on the target mount the one time we did it lol