Long distance .22LR - 300 yards 9/1/13

[Tempest 455]

My son and I have been doing long distance .22 for a few years and today he took it to a new level and raised the bar on me. Some facts and background info so I don't get flamed!

* This is not his 1st rodeo, he shoots A LOT and has shot a few 1,000 yard F class matches w/ .308 at 14 years old. He is pretty comfortable w/ windage, holdover etc. for a 14 year old.

* He has 20/10 vision is his right eye. I can't practice enough to overcome his advantage with this.

* He was using a Savage TRR-SR which is an extremely accurate .22 rifle, by far the most accurate .22 we own. I installed a 20 MOA base and the rifle zeroed at 300 yards. Who zero's a .22 at 300?

* A Tasco Varmint 6-24X power scope was used and set at 18X.

* A Huntertown Arms suppressor was used (it tightens the groups).

* For comparison, best 5 round group to date was .680" at 100 yards w/ Lapua Center X ammo.

* Since we were shooting 300 yards, subsonic had too much drop. I used CCI Blazer w/ approx 1235 FPS muzzle.

* Since I can't handload .22, every round is weighed to within .1g on my scale and then the bullet waxed. I did a test on that once and it cut groups in half.

We shot at some paper targets 1st to get the windage dialed in. Once he figured out where the POI was, he made some corrections and was doing pretty darn good on paper at 300. Before we left, we were discussing the rifle w/ some others and got it out to shoot some steel again.

He promptly put 4 rounds in approx a 4" group at 300 yards, with a freaking .22!



I attached pics of two different targets (I shot the larger one after him, reason for the extra splatter). Would be glad to answer answer any questions.

Long distance .22 shooting - 300 yards - YouTube

Long distance .22 - paper targets at 300 yards - YouTube

The planets were completely aligned on this. The range owner looked through my spotting scope and commented on the group size for a .22 at that distance. I was pretty darn happy and had to share this. Would be glad to respond to any questions on this.

 

[muddawg]

I've been working with my ten year old son on his shooting too. It is so gratifying to see when they do well. Honestly it feels better to see him do good than to do good myself. Good job on training your son right. The time you are spending will only serve both of you well over many years. Good job Dad and God bless!

 

[plastikosmd]

How do you apply the wax? I have no experience with that

 

[JoeMartin]

Wow!

I run the same scope at 200 yards on my Savage MKII FVT, with a 20 MOA base, using sub-sonic ammo. I wonder, would a 25 MOA base get you out to 300 with the sub-sonic stuff?

 

[seddo]

I have shot mine at 300y and 500y on f class targets. The biggest issue i had was the vertical stringing in the groups followed by elevation. At 300y i need about 54moa from a 50m zero adn at 500y i needed 104moa. My scope maxed out around 70moa so i wound it back to 6x and held off the extra i needed.

Does weighing the cases reduce the stringing? I went out and spent close to $200 on premium ammo so i could run them over the chrono to see which has the best ES. I am going to try measuring the rims to see if that makes a difference.

I have a set of Barret Ex 15/40moa rings on my shopping list which will fix the elevation issues.

 

[Tempest 455]

Regarding the wax, literally I just rub wax on the bullet and leave a little when I wipe it off. Interesting to note, they drop less at distance when waxed compared to non-waxed. When my Magneto Speed gets here I will chrono them.

We did the same thing yesterday and tried it at 500 using a ton of holdover. For this gun I think it was 15+ mil holdover at a 300 yard zero. Had to back off to 6X and approximate. However, the wind was a killer later in the day and it was pointless. He ran the numbers through his app and if I recall windage was around 110" at 500 and it was on/off. Pretty much need a perfect day to shoot .22 at 500. However, it can be done. Plenty guys on Youtube have done it.

Regarding the 20 MOA base. It actually was not enough for a 300 yard zero and my scope elevation. I had to shim the rear ring about .020". Now I probably have another 10 MOA adjustment up at 300.

 

[Bubb]

What wax are you using? Dipping bullets?

 

[ivans]

Nice shooting for any age. I've never thought about shooting a 22 that far. Give my congrats to your son. I see you list our location as Middle TN, where is that range relative to Nashville? I live in the Nashville area and am always looking for new places to shoot.

 

[Petrichor Actual]

Thanks for posting about this. I recently came over from Rimfire Central when I started a 308 project and I've learned a ton. My favorite shooting thus far has been long range 22lr. I have a CZ 452 that I shoot on steel out to 200 yds and plan to take out farther. It teaches you a lot about reading the wind, magnifies any flaws in your fundamentals, it's very kid friendly, and doesn't cost an arm and a leg (at least until recently).

 

[Tempest 455]

Thanks for the comments. To respond to a few things:

I just used what I had, Mothers Car Wax. Coat the bullet and wipe off excess. I've heard people using bees wax for same application.

300 with a .22 is interesting because the elevation increase in the scope is almost the same for .308 at 1,000. I think it's good practice for F class at 1,000 on a smaller scale. Range owner was giving my son some tips on watching wind change. Was time well spent.

Ivans, PM me and I will give you all the details.

 

[AZ.noob]

Wow! Congrats to the young man, and a very cool dad
I've shot 22lr at 200 yards, just to see if I could do it. On average, I was putting 9 out of 10 in an 8" circle and thought that was good (insert embarrassed smilie here)

20/10 vision... that is a gift

 

[NewsShooter]

I was shooting some positional practice with my 6.5 creedmoor but I also brought my Savage MkII to get dope out to 300 Meters. It's zeroed at 50, started out shooting the chickens, then thought I'd try the pigs, dial a bit, look for the dust then dial some more. 24 mils with CCI SV. 3-5 mph wind, holding 2 mils, a buddy hear the hit, then the pig falls. Couldn't believe I knocked down a pig with a .22. I could spin the chickens at 200 meters by shooting them in the head or tail but it took me 10 hits to spin one off. Knocking down the pig made me laugh, called it a day after that feat.

 

[Tempest 455]

Update:

Chrono'd the waxed vs. non-waxed and found the waxed are 13 FPS faster (avg) than the non-waxed. CCI Blazer was surprisingly consistent for not being a match round.

 

[Bevan]

I have shot mine at 300y and 500y on f class targets. The biggest issue i had was the vertical stringing in the groups followed by elevation. At 300y i need about 54moa from a 50m zero adn at 500y i needed 104moa. My scope maxed out around 70moa so i wound it back to 6x and held off the extra i needed.

Does weighing the cases reduce the stringing? I went out and spent close to $200 on premium ammo so i could run them over the chrono to see which has the best ES. I am going to try measuring the rims to see if that makes a difference.

I have a set of Barret Ex 15/40moa rings on my shopping list which will fix the elevation issues.

What action is that?

 

[coues7]

Amazing. My scope bottoms out at 275 yards. What bc are you guys using for the blazers?

 

[Tempest 455]

.13 BC for Blazer. Same as Mini Mag, just not copper plated.

 

[jfremder]

IFor me it's about 45-48 MOA out to 300y with subsonic, 40 MOA with HV Out of a CZ-453 or Anschutz 1416

 

[jfremder]

Does weighing the cases reduce the stringing? I went out and spent close to $200 on premium ammo so i could run them over the chrono to see which has the best ES. I am going to try measuring the rims to see if that makes a difference.

With lesser ammo, weighing can help in my experience. Rim thickness not so much. Weighing our Blazer was a huge help in reducing flyers in our 300y steel matches, but once we stepped up to Wolf Match Extra, RWS-100, or Fiocci SM340 in ammo quality, it didn't make much difference. We found certain guns prefer certain lot numbers too.

 

[pinsandpitons]

What action is that?

+1 Do tell.

 

[cole454]

Nice shooting.

I just took mine out to 324yds on a old railroad tie plate (i think its 6*10 maybe?) Best I could do in the limited time/light I had was 4 out of 5. Will have to put some paper up and check group sizes.

 

[ole'soldier]

Glad to see the young ones involved. I'd like to see my kids this into it when they reach his age. Good shooting btw!

 

[Tempest 455]

Thanks!

He just made his longest shot Sat at 1,100 yards w/ my .308 BA. Wish I got to shoot 1,100 yards when I was 14.

Savage 10BA hit - 1,100 yards - YouTube

 

[Cartman]

Thanks for posting this Tempest.

Beautiful country you've got there.

And I had never heard of waxing bullets like that. Learn something new every day.

 

[seddo]

+1 Do tell.

Stiller Lonestar

 

[turret]

nice shooting! always good to see solid father/son time.

 

[docholliday1]

Awesome shooting for anybody, much less at 14. I was prarie dog hunting 3yrs ago and killed a pdog @ 328yds on the 3rd shot with my 10-22 (adams&bennet heavy barrel and Fajen stock and Bushnell 4-12) using Rem. golden bullets

 

[sscoyote]

I also like to shoot long distances with the 22. My favorite is using 2Xish pistol scopes on a Ruger Mk III. I like to apply the plex reticles in the 2X's for windage applications as it's a fun challenge to break down the ~15 MOA subtensions accurately (can be done BTW) along with the .5 MOA elevation turret clicks set up to maximize the ~100 MOA of travel in the turret. Here's 10 shots at 200 with 50% on target in a 20 mph x-wind. This same day I killed a prairie dog on the 1st shot at 150 yds. using the windage calcs vs. reticle subtension. That was one rewarding LR shot--



...and 600 yds. in <40 shots at 140 MOA almost dead nuts on for ballistic program calcs. With the Bushnell grid boresighter I can set up the Burris Zee rings to maximize my system before I even go afield--

 

[TOPO-sniper]

Thanks for sharing Tempest, great job.

 

[Hook Creek]

Good stuff

 

[hillbilly grandpa]

Silicone?

Tempest:
Interesting discussion of your wax process. What is your take on how and why this works? I've often thought of attempting to achieve similar or other results by wiping bullets with liquid silicone. Any thoughts on that approach?

 

[tomcatfan]

Thats really nice to see people carrying on the shooting traditions. I have also tried shooting 300 yds once with my savage 22. My scope didn't have any where near the adjustments necessary to get to 300 yds and I was shooting sub sonic ammo. I run the numbers in Strelok and had a good guestimate on holdover, so I just held over into the trees above the 6x6" steel target. While I shot over 20 rounds at it, I was able to hit it once or twice. It was kind of fun to fire, lower the scope and wait to see impact.

 

[Rob257]

Good shooting, I was recently at a range in Elberton, Ga. There was a gentleman there shooting a Remington 40x at 400 yds 10 rounds hit for a group of 18 inches 22 Long rifle. No scope iron sights.

 

[Sasuke]

Awesome!!! Conditioning at that age is only going to set him up for success in the future. Next he'll be wantin a 40X! LoL

ASNF !!!

 

[Tempest 455]

Thanks for the comments. A few follow ups.

I tried a variety of things on the bullet tip and wax worked the best. Oils were very inaccurate. Hence, they tell you not to shoot an oiled barrel. Silicone did not work near as well as wax. Wax must fill in the grooves to an extent. All the high end match .22 ammo seems to waxed and apparently for good reason.

Yes we have a 20 MOA base on the rifle to shoot that far, so we are zeroed at 300. Tried 500 but you really have to back off the magnification to get enough hold over. Going to see if I can get a base w/ more incline so we can try 500.

 

[jfremder]

You can gain another 40MOA with Burris Signature rings and inserts... Likely need all of it to get to 500y!

 

[Tempest 455]

Awesome!!! Conditioning at that age is only going to set him up for success in the future. Next he'll be wantin a 40X! LoL

ASNF !!!

Thanks, he's a better shot than most of my friends. He did a 1,000 yard match a few weeks ago in really bad wind, worst conditions he ever shot in. When we got done the guy next to me asked how my son shot. I told him and he said, I guarantee there are grown men here today that didn't shoot that. Turns out I think he was right because 7 or so people never even turned in score cards for the match.

 

[Daryl licht]

I regularly shoot my savage mark 2 at 300 and if the wind isn't bad I'll take her out to 500...just something magical about waiting 3 or 4 seconds to hear an impact. The gentleman is absolutely correct about ammo being the key. We actually did a test last week out here at the ranch on .22 ammo and distance. We had several varieties and as far as vertical dispersion goes at distance you can't beat the eley match. We will be doing more testing next week as soon as the lapua comes in. The ammo I'm using on a day to day basis chronos at 1050 with much appreciated monotony. With a 25 minute base on the weapon at 300 yards I screw in 48 minutes of elevation

 

[Nemesis Lead]

I look forward to doing this with my daughter one day. She is a bit too young now!