Rimfire prone long range shooting

[hounddawg]

Anyone else do this for mid and long range practice?

this is a no longer a official NRA sanctioned event But a local club has been running some matches using the A-21 target. I have a old CZ 452 that always shot well and love the competitions. I dusted off the CZ and went up and tested some ammo I had on hand. Luckily my old CZ seems to love CCI Standard almost as well as it does the high price stuff. Either that I can shoot well enough to tell a difference. Take your pick. I figure I am good to go with the CCI because any difference gets lost in the wind and my abilities at 200.

The first thing I did when I got home after the range session was order a Boyds AT Stock and a better (1 piece) scope mount for my old CZ American.

This is no substitute for regular centerfire sessions but I think it will help with environmental condition reading and group centering practice. I plan on using about 4 flags and shooting 50 rounds every range session to work on wind and mirage. BTW did I mention it is fun.

 

[TXAZ]

Sounds like fun.
I have a good friend that used to shoot .22's at the National Match level, nominally 100 yards.
He swears by "Ely" ammo which takes extreme care to ensure every lot is identical performance wize, and provides lot-to-lot differences. For precision rifles, it's Anschutz, claiming the combo of the two gives you the very best chance for 5 bullets through the same hole at 100 yards.

Good luck!

 

[hounddawg]

yeah our club does small bore matches. High dollar shooting I call it. The Anshutz is the gun of choice along with Walthers. A entry level gun is around $1500 and the top of the line go way up from there. When those guys start running low on ammo they will buy several boxes with different lot numbers then shoot groups and order several thousand dollars at once all of the best shooting lot to get them through the season. I shot some 1 MOA 10 shot groups at 200 with CCI standard so that will be good enough for me at first at least. If we can get some NRA sanctioned rimfire F class matches at 50 and 100 I may upgrade.

 

[4EVERM-14]

My club also used to run a 50,100,200 yard prone competition. Great fun and also great practice for center fire mid range shooting. Always found standard velocity to be more accurate. Eley,RWS and Lapua at the high end but CCI was consistently reliable.

 

[hounddawg]

Always found standard velocity to be more accurate. Eley,RWS and Lapua at the high end but CCI was consistently reliable.

That's what I really hope to find with my rifle also. Below are my best 50Yard groups shot from a bipod and bag. Hopefully that horizontal on the second CCI group was my wind ability. I think I can tune that SK in with some action screw tweaking and close attention to the wind

I did not even scan in Eley Target, Eley Club or Win Super X, or Remington. For wind flags I was using some surveyors tape on driveway poles. Since one of my weak links is wind reading and I love my shop time I am building some old school blade style wind flags and just ordered some real stands for them.

 

[Erno86]

I like Aguila competition match (eley primed) rifle - standard velocity - for the price. It's good for at least practice ammo, but I find it pretty accurate in all of my rimfires.

My two BSA Martini Henry 12/15's love it...and I'll see how the Aquila fares with my Martini Henry Mark III International that I just purchased on GunBroker.

 

[Erno86]

I find that the tripod mounted wind flags blow over frequently on strong windy days.

For now...I find that the fiberglass curb location poles work pretty well. I sand down one tip of the pole (be aware of the fiberglass splinters), so that a 7.62x54R empty shell casing swivels on top of it. On the base of the shell, I duct tape or weld the center point of a two foot long straight metal wire surveyor's flag locator on top of it. I clip off the loose orange flag on the wire, just enough so that a thin smooth portion of it lies almost flush with the wire.

I then use pliers to make a small hook shape on the tail end of the wire...so as I can tie a 2 foot long or so, yellow "Caution" flagging or surveyors tape to the end of it. I use a rubber headed mallet too drive the pole into the ground --- if the ground is frozen --- I pre-drill a hole by using a screwdriver.

 

[hounddawg]

Update on the rimfire practice

First off rimfire can be addicting. Upgraded my CZ Americans stock and trigger then added a Picatinny rail adapter so I can fit big boy scopes to it. Also fitting out my bone stock CZ Lux with a scope so I can participate in the 25 yard scoped and iron sight contests over at rimfire central CZ forums. Now one range day a week devoted to centerfire and one day for rimfire. Being retired is good

Great practice with the wind flags. This is teaching me how to look for cycles in the wind and patience to wait for the right condition for firing. Before starting to shoot now I will watch the flags for ten minutes or so and time the various cycles and patterns

I pretty sure this will give my my F class scores a nudge. I am topping out in the low to mid 190's in the mid range and low 190's long range. The rifles and ammo are doing their part, my wind and mirage reading is causing me to drop points.

The Amazon two for twenty five tripods are excellent. Can't say how stable they would be on a northwest prairie with 20 - 30 mph wind but so far the flags are sensitive enough to spin and give tail flutter in less than one mph winds and the tails go straight out at around ten. I was getting some 15 mph gusts the other day and so far no tip overs. I am thinking of making at least 1 and probably 2 more for the 200 yard practice.

I find it fascinating to watch the wind come in from my right, hit the treeline and come back across. The 20 yard flag's tail straight out to the left, no wind indication at all on the 50 yard flag with its tail straight down and the 75 yard will be showing the bounce off the trees and the wind coming back left to right.

 

[Don Fischer]

I seldom shoot a 22 anymore but did a lot of long range plinking when I wa shooting them a lot. Never shot at a paper target though. To zero I'd shoot at something like a pine cone on a log! Very precise! Wail I did shoot at paper target's in the service. Shot one year on an indoor small bore team, open sight's.

Got to where if I'm gonna plink I use a centerfire rifle. Those days with a 22 were really fun but boy could I go through the ammo! Lot of guy's here in the valley in Oregon seem to like to hunt sage rats with 22's. One guy wrote he'd shot off something like 1200 rds in two days! I never went after them but think I'd use my 243 and pick only really long shot's.Use up a lot less ammo that way!

I do still have two 22 RF's. A Marlin mod 783 in 22 mag and a Winchester mod 62a. Love that 62a but it's an open sight only deal and my eye's aren't that good anymore. I do use it to discourage predator's in the chicken and pigeon house's though!