Another nother shooting thread thing

[iCe]

I've got a little Savage MKII that I use for long range shooting practice. Ballistics wise a subsonic .22LR at 200 yards behaves similarly to a .308 at 800 yards. Wind correction and elevation adjustments are somewhat similar. Close enough to let a person cheaply work on trigger control, breath, etc. I put a Leupold MKIV 8.5 x 25x tactical scope on a 25 moa base so there's plenty of adjustment to play with. The rifle was sighted in at 50 yards. I was able to put three rounds right in the middle with the holes touching. All in all it's a good shooter.

I put a target up at 180 yards. Why 180 yards? Because that's how far the little dead tree in my pasture that I stapled the target to is from my shooting bench. After getting it on paper I shot two groups of 5, making no adjustments to the scope between groups. The first group was shot in a 1-2 mph variable headwind and it looked about right. Group 2 was shot in zero wind conditions and frankly I find it hard to believe. But, the 4 holes at the bottom have matching holes in the tree... so they are real. Each group had a flier but even at 25x I couldn't see bullet holes. I had to walk to the target between groups to see how the rifle was doing. I would like to know where in the shooting the fliers came... maybe when I go to the range.

I use a Kestrel for wind speed and direction, barometric pressure, humidity, and temperature. Those numbers are plugged in to a program called LoadBase (along with ballistics data) and I use that to calc a setting to put into the scope. My scope is a Mil Dot reticle and I messed up and used MOA settings so the first few rounds weren't on paper. I personally don't like Mil Dot or Leupold, which is why a fairly expensive scope is on a .22 LR

OK... no more typing. Here's the target.

[KD5NRH]

What bullet weight? Headwinds can do odd and unpredictable things to very light bullets.

Do you happen to know when in each string the fliers happened? It the first shot, you might just not be settled in yet, if the last, you might be rushing to finish. Anywhere else, could be several things. Maybe try keeping your right hand completely off the gun except for the trigger finger; if that helps, you're not isolating that finger properly during the trigger press. High and right could be the thumb squeezing in and down a bit.

[dixonduke]

I agree with above, I would bet that the flyer's were your first shot from each group.

Very impressive grouping!

[Hanky]

Is it true the sub-sonic 22 has no powder in it?

[Dobick]

with the 3 round burst on an m-16 a2 the third round always had a stiffer trigger pull than the first two (even when firing single shots) which could cause an errant shot during groupings.

I doubt this applies here, but it was the first thing I thought of

[S-Man]

Originally Posted by Hanky

Is it true the sub-sonic 22 has no powder in it?

Last time I bought some SS .22 rounds the guy at the gun shop said they just had primer in it, no powder, or something like that. I don't really remember, but it's something like that

[iCe]

Originally Posted by KD5NRH

What bullet weight? Headwinds can do odd and unpredictable things to very light bullets.

Do you happen to know when in each string the fliers happened? It the first shot, you might just not be settled in yet, if the last, you might be rushing to finish. Anywhere else, could be several things. Maybe try keeping your right hand completely off the gun except for the trigger finger; if that helps, you're not isolating that finger properly during the trigger press. High and right could be the thumb squeezing in and down a bit.

40 grain lead. I think it was a combination of not settling down on the first one and hurrying the second group's flier. I'm pretty picky about trigger control. I'm not saying I always get it right but I work on that all of the time. The MKII has a really nice trigger. It's not a Jewell like I'm used to but it breaks clean and it's pretty light. I consistently shoot 1" to 1.25" groups at 300 yards with my 7 mag.

I need to make one correction. My son and I were looking at the target area and we both thought it was closer than 180 yards. A quick shot with the rangefinder confirmed that it was actually 150 yards. That's a lot of difference for a .22.

I don't know if the subsonic rounds are primer only or not... I doubt it.

<edit> I had to know. The case I opened had 1.10 grains (2 decimal place lab scale) of an unknown powder (flake).

[Truckman]

Originally Posted by Hanky

Is it true the sub-sonic 22 has no powder in it?

Aguila Colibri's are primer powered only...They'll sometimes make it all the way out the end of a rifle barrel...But vewy, vewy quiet...

Standard sub-sonic .22's have a modicum of powder (Note to Capt Tom: Modicum is a French word meaning half a skosh)......Ben

[MrBeta]

I have some of the powderless rounds and they're silent coming out of my Ruger 10/22. I need to get out and shoot it again. No reason not to with 22 ammo so cheap.

[venchka]

The last time I shot a .22 it was on a 50' range indoors. At S.H. State in Huntsville. Our team was from Shreveport. We won! Texas State Champions!

Obviously I'm clueless outdoors at 180 yards. 180 yards?????????? Yikes! I do hope you figure it out.

[iCe]

Probably should've started another thread... but this is my version of controlled chaos- my other vice... In this case I'm loading 7 mag for a powder test (RE19 vs RE22). I stuck some "other rounds" in the loading block just to show size difference. L-R .308, 7mm Rem Mag, .338-300

I'm trying to decide if I have room to mount another press (Redding UltraMag). My Co-ax isn't big enough to seat bullets in .338-00 and it's not easy to resize the necks on virgin brass with it. If I can't make it fit then I'll have to add another bench... which isn't something I want to do right now.

And for those of you that are dying to ask- no... I don't have anymore of that wallpaper. Sorry

[Truckman]

Nice, Michael...Makes me wish for my old Dillon setup...An XL650 and a RL1050, all the auto feeders and lots of caliber conversions...Sigh......Ben

[iCe]

Thanks Ben. The XL650 is a nice press. Especially for pistol (don't much care for loading rifle on it). I have been trying to make the time to set it up to load bulk .223 but there's too many other things to do, like develop an accurate load for my .223 bolt gun. The XL1050 is a hoss I looked at it... but couldn't see the upgrade cost. My XL650 is 5 or 6 years old... something like that. I can load .30 Carbine, 9mm, .38 / .357 mag, .357 SIG, 10mm / .40, and .45ACP... I have some rifle die / conversion kits for it that I'm trying to sell, sort of...

[CaptainTom]

could the .22LR have been misloaded ? A grain or so would make a heck of a distance in trajectory.

I say that with a modicum of humility...

[MrBeta]

I miss reloading. I've never owned anything as nice as a Dillon but I've sure cranked out thousands of rounds on my Lee and RCBS stuff.
When I get out of this stupid apartment, I'm going to buy a Dillon if the boss will let me. Luckily, she's into shooting too. ;)