Best .22LR rifle for 100 yard shooting?

[Aftermath]

I have a Bolt Action Glenfield 22 rifle my brother and I bought from K-Mart when we were in the Junior NRA back when I was 12 years old (1967). We put a generic 6X scope on it and could hit woodchucks popping ther heads out of their holes at about 300 feet paced off by foot very accurately. 22 rifle bullets will go a LONG ways.

Great source of information on the Glenfield/Marlin rifle for those interested in what you may have..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marlin_Model_60

[Deersniper]

I just got a CZ 452 Trainer and put a Sightron II 3x9x42 on it. They are very accurate right out of the box with iron sights that slide from 25 -200. But with a scope, it just chews the centers out of targets. If you want a quality rifle that just needs a scope to be customized, check out their line.

[cashman]

i love shooting my 10/22 with a green mountain 20 inch barrel 100 yrds. here is a pic a minimal pause shooting(almost rapid) off the back of a chair at 80 yrds(no fancy rest) and of my gun.
http://img519.imageshack.us/my.php?i...881copy9pb.jpg
http://img527.imageshack.us/my.php?i...sc005901zc.jpg

[Rockh0und]

Originally Posted by Mooseman684

You Shoot Fruit ??? What did they ever do to you ? Shame !LOL

You ever see anybody shoot a water melon with a Barret .50 cal sniper rifle? Funniest thing I ever saw. (The SEALs get bored with pop up targets)


I've got a 10/22 that shoots 1" and under at 100 yards on a calm day, on sand bags. Standard barrel, factory stock. All I've done extra is a good trigger job. As far as the harmonics screw goes, I'd rather have a floated barrel for a wood stock.(which you can't do with the standard 10/22 stock) any changes in temperature or humidity can change the wood enough to put stress on the barrel if it touches the stock at all. Synthetic stocks are good if you want to start playing with screws and shims to put pressure on the barrel.
If you want to have some fun at 100+ yards, try a bolt action 17HMR. I've killed Bobcats at 175 with my Marlin.

[ruger22com]

two words.... bolt-action

[lefty o]

1 word-cooper!

[NRAJOE]

My stainless stock 10/22 with Silver Simmons 4x scope is awesome @ 100 yds...plink the middles out of orange clay targets every time...fun and CHEAP to shoot.

[FutureMarine]

my 10-22 is great at 100 yds with IRON sites

[utahvarminter]

I've got a Ruger 10/22 Stainless with the "Deluxe" stock on the Wal-Mart Special 22" 10/22 Rifle. A few months ago I got a Bushnell Banner 3-9x40mm, and I can peg a prarie dog at 60-75 yds in the head... on a windless day... with the sun behind me... and a whole lot of luck...

But down at the local range. 100yds, federal .22 ammo, 2" group, 4" on a bad day.

[cartergs]

Got a Steavens #-5 bolt.
For $10.00 ??
Can I Play???

Still Coming to, Understand ?? Why you need to spend,
All that $$$$ for A .22" Other word thought of"
For a .22 OH Well.
Cartergs " COME TO AZ. "
Chamber of Commerece Ad. LOL
MIN. OF " SKOAL Can. At 100. IRON SIGHTS.
And yes the bolt, Falls out of it during shootings.
I can live with it.

[MosinDave]

I have come to really love my Marlin 981T bolt action. It shoots everything really well except aguila. With the remington thunderbolts and federal el-cheapo stuff I can bust 4 inch clays off the berm @ 100 yards every shot. I have a BSA 3-7X20 BB Gun scope on it that works pretty well for what I use it for. I've never shot it for groups, but I can say that I can set up shotgun shells at 50 yds and pick em off very consistently.
Does anyone else have one of these rifles?

[Rave]

Sounds like you have it down purty darn good!:lucky:

[ArkansasHunter]

I'm interested in the Marlin 981 T boltaction and found this 2006 G&G info.on the internet. LOL
Whats neat is most of the members are still here...A.H

[Zen900]

Originally Posted by NRAJOE

My stainless stock 10/22 with Silver Simmons 4x scope is awesome @ 100 yds...plink the middles out of orange clay targets every time...fun and CHEAP to shoot.

If you aim at a target at 100 yds and then at 30yds where does the bullet hit on each? There is an arc to 22LR. The reason I ask this is I zero my 10/22 with scope at 30yds and rarely if ever shoot over 60 yds with 22LR. The arc limits the distance I use 22LR for.

[madcratebuilder]

I think Midway has this GM barrel and stock on sale as a set for $190, add a used receiver/trigger group. You can find all the mods on the web and do them yourself. I have about $400 in this less the scope.

[oldjarhead]

Phrogg, For nearly what you will pay for the bull barrel and good stock, you could purchase a Ruger 10/22 Target. Check it out before you lay out good money to do what you want to do. Although ballistics rate the22LR at 93 yards, 100 yard groups are capable. I have the Target with a Burris 4x and I am more than satisfied.
I paid $352 for the rifle, the barrel and stock that I wanted would have run me $439.

FYI 22 LR Ballistics @ Gunsmoke Engineering

[bosun1]

all i have is a remington nylon 66..bought it 1962, still hits what im shoot at 100 yards. open sights,,,it has been ran over. have taught 6 grand kids how to shoot ..it has never jamed,,never failed me in any weather. its light as all get out,,,i can carry this little baby all day long and never know its yhere,,,i think its the best 22 auto ever made...I also have the all weather ruger 1022. still love my 66 better...just giving my 2 cents worth...thanks for reading..bosun1

[big boomer]

In the book the Winchester 52 they show groups shot at 200 yrds. back in the 1920's and they are amazing and done with peep sights!

[NesikaChad]

Originally Posted by phrogg

...I read an article a while back about a guy who made a thumbhole stock for his Ruger 10/22 and had a special thumb-adjustable screw for barrel harmonics.

That all just sounds fancy and doesn't really help you unless you know what it means, but basically, the guy said he was getting 2 inch groups at 100 yards.

I didn't even know .22s went 100 yards.

Anyway, does anyone have any experience with any .22LR target rifles getting at least mediocre groupings at 100 yards? What would I need? If a Ruger 10/22 and a bull barrel would be the extent of it, I'd probably be willing to invest in a $150 bull barrel/stock and a $90-ish scope (8-32x power) to be shooting at 100 yards.

"match" .22 ammo at Wal-Mart is... what, $5 for 50 rounds, something like that? I know that doesn't compare to the $9 for 550 rounds they've got on the winchester stuff, but it's still cheap as far as ammo goes.

Here is what I've learned:

Regarding 100 yard shooting with a little 22.

Yes, it is certainly possible to do so. In fact, 100 yards is just the beginning. There is also a subculture of gun nuts out there that play with these at 200 yards. It's called "Mini Palma" and it is a hoot to shoot.

Palma is 800, 900, and 1000 yard competitive shooting. Rifles are only allowed to be chambered in 308 Winchester and they must use a 155 grain bullet. Iron sights only and you shoot from prone.
No bags, rests, or bi pods are allowed.

Mini Palma is (this part varies a little depending on where you shoot) 100, 150, and 200 yards with a 22 rimfire. Same general rules though. Iron sights and you shoot from prone. Some matches change the 100 and 150 yard distances to fit their ranges better.

A 22LR at 200 yards is very close ballistically to a 308 at a 1000, in terms of making a windage call anyways. This is why its a great training aid for LR shooters.

Ok, got side tracked, sorry.

Gun specifics. Yes, you can certainly build a 10/22 to hammer at 100 yards. It starts with a premium barrel.

100 dollar drop in "bull" barrels aren't really the answer here if you truly want a high performance 22.

300 dollar barrels are where you should be looking.
If you are like most, you are working within a budget. Given the choice between fancy triggers, stocks, and scopes.

Buying a premium barrel will give you the most significant performance/accuracy increase.

Premium ammunition is the second thing to focus your money on.

Dan Lilja, owner of Lilja Rifle Barrels up in Montana makes a drop in barrel for 10/22's that has the right chamber already cut. Anyone who tinkers with NBRSA knows Dan's reputation as a barrel maker. Great guy and great products!

The chamber:

A competitive bolt gun in 22LR uses a very tight chamber. I learned about all this working for Neal Johnson and Anschutz as a gunsmith on Olympic Target Rifles for resident athletes at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.

The throats on the chambers are short and they are tight. Match grade barrels typically run the minor bore dimension a couple thousanths tighter than what the SAAMI tolerance is.

This "chokes" the bullet and helps insure that it is running concentric to the bore's centerline.

Well, that's great on a bolt gun where you have a powerful camming action when going into battery.

Blow back operated semi autos won't put up with this, so it's modified to what is commonly called the "Benz" chamber. It's a compromise between the two.

The throat region is kept "almost" as tight while the back half of the chamber, the part that supports the case, is loosened up a bit to facilitate operation. (Feeding, chambering, and extraction)

The bullet gets the support it wants and the chamber will let the gun "run" right.

Barrel vibration:

This topic gets so abused and terminology ends up being misused.

I won't go into a long dissertation about grammar.

Simple fix. If you want to devote the time to it, buy a barrel tuner from Neal Johnson's Gunsmithing in Colorado Springs. ( "Neal Johnson's Gunsmithing, Inc. Online Target Shooting Equipment Manual" )

Here is a simple way to explain how all this works.

Take a 12" ruler and screw it to your dining room table with 10" of the ruler hanging out in space.

This is your barrel.

Flip the end of the ruler so that it "boings" back and forth.

This represents your barrel as the shock wave from the firing pin spring/hammer drives the striker/hammer into the primer and the cae rim crushes against the barrel resulting in ignition. Chamber pressures rise, and the bullet begins traveling down the barrel. (All this makes the barrel wiggle)

Observing the ruler as it wiggles back and forth will show you there are two locations where the barrel is seemingly motionless for a brief instant.

Time your bullet to leave the crown and enter its flight path at one of these two locations and you gain accuracy.

This is what a barrel tuner does. Tape a penny to the ruler. It alters the ruler's "wiggle".

Change the location of the penny on the ruler, and it will alter this yet again.

A barrel tuner uses a threaded, rotating cylinder that has graduations marked on it. Much like the barrel on a micrometer. By fiddling with the clock position/location of this cylinder, you can "time" the barrel to the ammunition.

This has much the same affect as when you suddenly gain substantial accuracy from bumping a charge a few tenths of a grain on a centerfire rifle cartridge. People call this the barrel's "sweet spot."

Tuners work, but they can also drive you nuts because if you change ANYTHING you must be prepared to start your testing all over again.

Here's a list of things NOT to change if you don't want to spend another full day fussing on the bench:

1. Lot numbers on ammo
2. Guard screw torque.
3. Changing a scope (torque load on ring screws)
4. Changing/replacing any internal fire control parts. (10/22 titanium hot rod parts for instance)

All this should be considered with barrel tuners.

You also need to glue (epoxy) the sleeve to the barrel when using one of these. Clamping it won't work. It'll move and goof you up.

Ok, next subject:

Semi autos and how they kill accuracy.

22LRs are rimfire cartridges. Stack them up in a magazine and what happens? The rim of the case being chambered is pushed over the bearing/sealing ring of the bullet beneath it as the bolt strips it out of the magazine and chambers it.

Because the bullet is soft lead and the case is brass, an inclusion is formed from the brass rim scraping over the bullet. This causes a very subtle change in the center of rotation for the cartridge.

Typical match grade 22LR ammo has a muzzle velocity of around 1050 to 1200 fps. There's a reason for this big deviation that I'll get to.

Barrel twists for target/bench guns are usually 1-16. Doing the math, that breaks down to the bullet spinning between 47,250 and 54,000 rpm.

Now, just imagine a football being thrown with a tire weight taped to the outside. It's going to wobble. The bullet does the same thing.

This wobble will induce a subtle change in flight path and it will cause a group to spread more than if this didn't happen.

I'm not claiming that its a huge difference, but it is there.

Match ammo velocity. One would think that supersonic ammo is for longer distances and subsonic is for close up.

Actually, it's the opposite. The supersonic won't stay supersonic out to 100 yards. It'll shed enough velocity to where it passes back through the sound barrier. This causes a reduction in accuracy.

Subsonic will stay subsonic through its entire flight path so its better for longer ranges. (100 yards and beyond)

All ISSF (International Sports Shooting Foundation) competition for rimfire is held outdoors at 50 meters. (Olympic type shooting) The supersonic ammo will stay above the sound barrier at 50 meters. This is helpful because it reduces time in flight just a little and makes it just a bit more resistant to conditions.

Back to gun stuff:

The other obvious reason for larger groups in semi auto 22's is the use of energy to operate the fire control of the rifle/pistol.

Bolt guns don't do this, all energy generated by the powder charge is used to propel the bullet.

Ok, class dismissed.

No quiz today. . .

Here's a sample of a highly accurate 22LR rifle.



I built this for Cathy Winstead. Cathy is the only person in the history of smallbore silhouette to win both world championship events in small bore rifle silhouette. She won in the heavy gun unlimited class and the hunter lightweight class. Lucky for me, I built both of her rifles. (woo hoo!)

This was done in South Africa in early 2004.

The rifle pictured is an Anschutz 54 action with a custom barrel. The stock is a Boyd's design intended for a 10/22 Ruger. I ordered it as a blank and did the inlet and bedding work.

The scope on it is just a test scope that I use for performance testing on the bench. The gun would never make weight with that big monstrosity on it.

Cathy has always shot a pink gun. She's been shooting since she was very young. We decided it was time for a "ladies pink" instead of the "Gawddy Miami Vice pastel Pepto "dismal" pink" that she had been using.

So, "Rose Quarts Metallic" from PPG it was.

I like it personally. Looks sexy to me.

At 100 yards using Eley TENNEX EPS the gun shoots a five shot group that averages right at about 3/4's of an inch.

Now, five shot groups aren't all that impressive to me. What I was taught with 22's is to shoot TEN five shot groups and then average the spread.

So, you end up shooting a 50 shot group to achieve a "real world" average and expectation for performance.

So, thats the story about the Pink gun.

Hope this helped someone.

Thanks for listening to my rant.

[primerate2]

Last spring I did a lot of experimenting with making a 10/22 shoot better and here is what I found.
The standard factory barrel haqs a chamber that requires the bullet to have a jump of almost 1/4 of an inch befor it hits the lands. This makes sence to prevent ejacting a loaded round and having the bullet remain in the barrel because its stuck in the lands. However that jump ruins accuracy no matter what ammo you are shooting. I took the barrel off and turned the reciever end shorter so that the bullet was just short of touching the lands and then cut a new extracter slot and also turned the part of the barrel that fits in the reciever the same same amount. Well here is the result of the test. 5 shot groupe of less that .14 of an inch from center to center of the widwst shots with 8 differant brands of ammo. Then I but on a bull barrel and the groups were much much larger. Its not the sive of the barrel that maked the most differant in the accuracy of a 10/22, its the chamber. The benz chamber happens to have a larger jump that the one I make.

There are a few other things you can do to them that is imporant. I have learned how to modify the sear to give a reliable 2 1/2 pound trigger and that is a must no matter what stock or barrel is being used. Also qa slight modification to the V block that holds the barrel in the reciever helps so the barrel is not pulled down like it is from the factory when you tighted it up.Should any one be interested in how to modify the factory stock or any thing else about making that little rifle out shoot the $800 jobe feel free to contact me and I would be glad to pass on more details .