Can someone explain this?

[Cowpokey]

Took my Anschutz 1712AV to the indoor range today, was having some fun shooting some different ammo at printed paper targets; Eley Club & Team, Norma TAC-22 and some SK Pistol Match. The Pistol Match had me really thinking this rifle really doesn't like that ammo. Since I had another 10 rounds of that box left over after running through all of the targets on the sheet I decided to shoot the bottom two rows again (red rectangle around those rows) and see how much of a shotgun pattern it would print. Well, this just doesn't make any sense, it shot nearly the same holes for 8 of those ten rounds. I only have a 3-9x33 scope on it, so shooting with it on 9x power and holding dead center best I could at that magnification.

Could it be some weird optical illusion or scope image aberration causing it to look centered on the target but not actually centered? Pictures aren't in chronological order, I shot each box of ammo in this order: Club, Team, SKPM, and Tac-22.

It seems to like Eley Team pretty well:

Club did pretty good, I adjusted the scope windage after the first two rows. Club was the first ammo I shot today and never adjusted the scope again.

Norma TAC-22 wasn't too consistent.

The rifle, posed for picture before any shooting, didn't actually put any CCI-SV through it today:

 

[oldrifleman]

Of the boxes, not surprised it was the pistol match. The burn rate was optimized for short barrels. The fact that 8/10 closely matched the first shot does surprise me, that indicates some consistency, I wonder if the rifle position shifted for the bottom 10 targets.
BTW well done getting the rest of the shots! I have never gotten my 1712 to be that consistent on paper it was great on silhouettes, but more of a 1-2 MOA rifle.

 

[SanPatHogger]

That's a pretty cool trick! Can you do it again?

 

[Cowpokey]

Of the boxes, not surprised it was the pistol match. The burn rate was optimized for short barrels. The fact that 8/10 closely matched the first shot does surprise me, that indicates some consistency, I wonder if the rifle position shifted for the bottom 10 targets.
BTW well done getting the rest of the shots! I have never gotten my 1712 to be that consistent on paper it was great on silhouettes, but more of a 1-2 MOA rifle.

It's been my belief that SK Pistol Match is just the next lower grade of SK below Rifle Match, followed by Standard+ then Magazine. I have two lots of SKPM. A half case of one lot and a full case of the other. The half case (that was the limit from Champs at the time) is better than two lots of Rifle Match I have, the full case of PM isn't as good...this box was from that full case. So it didn't surprise me that it wasn't as consistent as other ammo, but to have it nearly match the holes on those ten targets is what made me think there's something else making it "print" this way. I shot the targets left to right for each row, and each row top to bottom. When I decided to shoot the bottom two rows again I shot the bottom row left to right, then the row above it...also left to right. So, the rifle was moving around for each row...the front rest and rear bag stayed where they were the whole time other than adjusting for aim. I never moved or adjusted the height of the front rest the whole time I shot today, just adjusted the rear of the rifle on the bag for elevation of the aim. Hope that makes sense.

 

[Cowpokey]

That's a pretty cool trick! Can you do it again?

I doubt it!

 

[DownhillFromHere]

I have two questions...

1. What range? Is that 25 yards? 50?
2. Did you "shoot for score" immediately upon changing from one brand to another or even one label of a brand to another within the brand (e.g., Eley Club to Eley Team)? Could it be that the Norma ammo shot better the last 10 shots afyter "seasoning" the barrel with earlier rounds?

Both my Vudoo (Bartlein barrel, 22" MTU) and RimX (Shilen, 22" Heavy Varmint) will open groups and shift POI around POA after changing SKUs, even within the Lapua family (e.g., SK Standard+ to SK Long Range to Lapua Center-X) even though the lube on each of these is identical (per what I was told by the AZ test center manager). The more of one SKU I shoot, the longer it takes to settle after changing. If I change from a greasy Lapua SKU to a parafin-based Eley SKU, the group/POI shift is much more pronounced.

I have found group size and POI shifts have been reduced since adopting Vudoo's (Greg Roman's) approach to cleaning: All I thoroughly clean is the chamber and the carbon ring immediately in front of it. I run one wet patch (BoreTech C4) down the barrel twice, followed by two dry patches - that's all the barrel gets. Groups/POI settle within 5-10 rounds after this cleaning approach.

That's a very nice rifle. Seems like it ought to shoot any of those brands pretty well at 25 yards... although a 9x-max scope would definitely increase the challenge.

 

[Cowpokey]

I have two questions...

1. What range? Is that 25 yards? 50?

25 yards

1. Did you "shoot for score" immediately upon changing from one brand to another or even one label of a brand to another within the brand (e.g., Eley Club to Eley Team)? Could it be that the Norma ammo shot better the last 10 shots afyter "seasoning" the barrel with earlier rounds?

I shot 15 rounds before "score" for each change of ammo. I figured that was enough to season when changing ammo boxes...if it wasn't, I still think it should have settled down at some point with the SKPM before I got to the end of that box.

Both my Vudoo (Bartlein barrel, 22" MTU) and RimX (Shilen, 22" Heavy Varmint) will open groups and shift POI around POA after changing SKUs, even within the Lapua family (e.g., SK Standard+ to SK Long Range to Lapua Center-X) even though the lube on each of these is identical (per what I was told by the AZ test center manager). The more of one SKU I shoot, the longer it takes to settle after changing. If I change from a greasy Lapua SKU to a parafin-based Eley SKU, the group/POI shift is much more pronounced.

I have found group size and POI shifts have been reduced since adopting Vudoo's (Greg Roman's) approach to cleaning: All I thoroughly clean is the chamber and the carbon ring immediately in front of it. I run one wet patch (BoreTech C4) down the barrel twice, followed by two dry patches - that's all the barrel gets. Groups/POI settle within 5-10 rounds after this cleaning approach.

That's a very nice rifle. Seems like it ought to shoot any of those brands pretty well at 25 yards... although a 9x-max scope would definitely increase the challenge.

At 25 yards it should put any "decent" ammo in the same hole, or close to it anyway. 9x isn't much power even for that distance with my aging eyes. I have the 21.6" barrel version of that rifle too, the 1712 Silhouette, it has a 6.5-20x40 Leupold on top, makes it much easier to see the bullseye.

 

[grauhanen]

The SK PM results had nothing to do with it being a so-called pistol round. Pistol Match is made on the same production run as SK Rifle Match and SK Standard Plus using the same components including powder.

What should be kept in mind is that SK ammos are entry level .22LR match ammos which means they are more affordable than top tier varieties of match ammos. With entry level ammos, including less expensive Eley varieties such as Club, Target, or Sport, there may be a wider variation in performance than in better grades. In short, some boxes or rounds within a lot may be much better or worse than others.

 

[Milo 2.5]

Some days our shooting just sucks, be honest here, you are no "Iceman".

 

[Charger442]

Of the boxes, not surprised it was the pistol match. The burn rate was optimized for short barrels. The fact that 8/10 closely matched the first shot does surprise me, that indicates some consistency, I wonder if the rifle position shifted for the bottom 10 targets.
BTW well done getting the rest of the shots! I have never gotten my 1712 to be that consistent on paper it was great on silhouettes, but more of a 1-2 MOA rifle.

As someone who has been lusting after a 1712, I'm very surprised to hear this from an Anschutz rifle. I'd be pissed about it and would be on the phone with them to get it sent back and made right.

 

[Cowpokey]

As someone who has been lusting after a 1712, I'm very surprised to hear this from an Anschutz rifle. I'd be pissed about it and would be on the phone with them to get it sent back and made right.

I have three Anschutz rifles; 1416AV, 1712AV and 1712 Silhouette, all three shoot incredibly well. The 1712s both had ejection issues when they were new, don't know if that was a break-in issue or if it was an operator issue. They would fail to fully eject spent casings, where the casing would land in the action. It happened pretty regularly, once or twice in a 5 round mag...that issue has all but disappeared with both of mine, maybe happening once in a hundred rounds. I put 200 rounds through the 1712AV yesterday and it happened once.

 

[Cowpokey]

Some days our shooting just sucks, be honest here, you are no "Iceman".

No doubt, I have days that is very true. I don't know what the "no 'Iceman'" comment means?

 

[Milo 2.5]

No doubt, I have days that is very true. I don't know what the "no 'Iceman'" comment means?

Top Gun reference, cool under pressure, lmao

 

[B y r o n]

Also, the scope doesn't have a parallax adjustment so head placement between shots could be affecting things.

 

[Cowpokey]

Also, the scope doesn't have a parallax adjustment so head placement between shots could be affecting things.

It does have parallax adjustment, it's a Leupold 3-9x33 EFR. The objective is adjustable for parallax, which was set perfectly for the distance.