Sav 22lr accuracy
ok jbell that has been bugging the shit out of me, let me preach on
friend an fellow shooter, now has 2 kidd 10/22. i was not there but he told me they both shot well, an one shot great.
may shoot it at the next match.
now this is what eating me, he has had annie,54,64,40x,an to many to list hear, also a state champ,shooter
to the point how do you get a 10/22 to hang with thoses type of rifles
if you get time please pm me with your thoughts, dont want hijack tread
i know ol chikin will tell me next time we meet up.
I have an old friend/gunsmith by the name of Donnie Fraley here in KY who let me shoot a 10/22 that he built many years ago. It had a Walther bbl, a custom laminated stock similar to some of the Boyds stocks, receiver was threaded for the barrel, nice trigger, etc. We were shooting it off hand a 50yds and it was impressive. He is a former Green Beret sniper, and retired police SWAT marksman as well as IPSC master class shooter, etc. Suffice to say that he shot his rifle way better than I did. Basically one hole groups. So, yeah, Jbell is right, you can make a silk purse out of a sows ear if you put enough money into it.
To the OP, I have two Savage rifles and they both shoot well. They are in 17hmr and 17WSM. I have tried more than once to shoot them for record on the six 5shot groups competition that one of the earlier posters gave you the link for. While I may have a tgt to post at 100yds with the hmr, it is not that impressive. Those that have tried know that it is not that hard to get one or two nice tight 5 shot groups but it a bit tougher to get five groups in a row that are good. To your question of who makes a $1000 rifle that can shoot better than 3/8" at 50yds? First let's define that as better than a 0.375" average for six 5-shot groups all fired in series on the same tgt. That is to eliminate the random good group that might happen from time to time. Let's also say that we are talking about rifle only cost, not rifle with scope as the cost of good optics can also be high. Answer? It is a crap shoot. If I gave you 10 identical high end 22lr rifles they will all shoot different and all like different ammo. The bullets move so slow on 22's that the barrel flex/harmonics have a greater impact on performance and slight variations in velocity often make all the difference in performance. I shoot with a bunch of 22BR shooters who shoot unlimited BR matches in ARA and IR50/50 and if they are not shooting consistent 0.150" at 50yds they are not happy. Winning ARA scores are usually 2300's and IR50 are 250 20x (out of 250 possible). If you want your Savage to shoot to its best potential, spend some time testing different ammo and try some of the good stuff. Eley Black, Tennex, Edge, and RWS R-50, Lapua Center-x, Midas+, Wolf Match Extra, etc.
Examples of lower cost rifles that shot well for me: I have a old Winchester model 52. It had the bbl cut down and recrowned (not by me). That is why I got if for $550 instead of the usual $900-1250 for one of these fine old rifles. The previous owner had slugged the bbl and found the tight spot at 21 3/4" which also happened to match what was thought at the time to be the node on the bbl. This worked in that case and the gun shoots amazing. It also makes for a nice handy squirrel rifle. So, you can cut a gun down and make it better but are more likely to make it worse, I think and it does nothing for the value and in the case of my Winny, it reduced the value by 1/2. I posted a pic below of one of its better groups which was about 0.240" at 50yds from a sandbag rest. It might? even shoot better with a high quality optic on it. At present it has a very low end BSA scope but it is a 6-24x variable with mil-dot and meets my needs. I have shot it in ARA matchs but the best it could muster were scores in the 1500's which is not competitive, even in the sporter class. I have not tried to shoot the six 5sh groups with it because simply put, it is not good enough to shoot six groups that tight in a row.
However, my 2nd example is good enough. It is a Remington mod 540XR. It has a match chamber, heavy bbl, set-back tgt crown, tgt stock and adjustable trigger, all from the factory. I paid $450 for it used but it had been well cared for. You can maybe find a good one for between $400 and $950 more or less. Most of them are shooters. Mine shot a IR50/50 match with a score of 248 12x out of 250 possible using Eley Black match rifle ammo. That was not competitive but was not bad for me using a factory rifle at night in windy conditions. On a less windy day, it shot the attached string of six 5-shot groups which averaged 0.296" / 0.165" best. I was testing ammo that day and shot about 8 different kinds with about 6-7 groups with each brand cleaning periodically between strings. This rifle shoots best when the bbl is hot and dirty. It takes it about 20 shots to start to really sing. If you stop for even 2 minutes, and it cools down, it needs to be shot several times before it returns to printing tightly. It has a used Sightron 36x tgt scope on it that I paid $300 for. Total price? = $750 for the package. I would not sell it for twice that fee. If you want to find a new rifle that shoots that well for any price? better plan on shelling out more money. You can buy that kind of accuracy today but it is going to cost anywhere from $1450 to $2500 in my opinion. Annies can do it. So can some from Feinwerkbau. You might even be able to lay hands on a match grade Ishmash rifle that will shoot like that, but none of them are cheap. With the winter Olympics going on right now, I have gotten the hots to acquire a straight pull biathlon type rifle and re-purpose it into a semi-lightweight very accurate hunting rifle. Everyone that I can find is in the $1450-$3000+ range. Ouch... Hoping to find a retired bi-athlete who wants to sell off his/her gear, cheap.
Irish