I believe there were two shot during the matches.
Norm (Ozark Shooter) finished 47th out of 64. It was the same gun that Jerry shot the 2500's with. I only point that out to say that experience and ammo has a large impact on results. I think Norm would agree so I don't think I am speaking out of turn. I spent some time talking to him at the match and enjoyed our conversation. It was also shot on Thursday night by Jerry and Bob. I don't recall the results, but it wasn't top 10. It's also a good example of different venues shoot very differently. One day your gun may be king, the next the pauper.
I believe Greg H shot his for a few cards and posted some nice scores (2300/2400). CW only shot his for some testing as he just got it.
At the end of the day, I don't think anyone who has any experience in the game would call the results good nor bad. It's the simple nature of the game. With more guns being shot, newer shooters gaining more experience, and spending more time with the guns to find out what they like/dislike, they will be able to compete with anyone else on any given day with the right shooter, ammo, and setup. If you think they are just going to show up and win, you will probably be disappointed, but that isn't specific to Vudoo.
When Stephen T asked about V-22S at Chickenfoot (#1560) it occurred to me that there’s probably a lot people following this thread who don’t know what a Chickenfoot is. I may be wrong but I’ve found this thread’s readers are a diverse group who shoot F-Class, club benchrest matches and casual target shooting. Most of the V-22S builds guys have described on this thread are set up for F-Class or casual shooting. The serious benchrest shooters who are bringing V-22S builds along are in the minority. The majority of this post is my attempt to describe the rigors of rimfire benchrest shooting.
Chickenfoot is the name of a rimfire benchrest (RFBR) range that hosts the annual ARA (American Rimfire Association) Indoor National Tournament and one of four qualifying PSL (Professional Shooting League) matches. Chickenfoot is near Cedartown, Georgia on a real honest to goodness American farm.
There’s four major sanctioning bodies in RFBR: ARA, PSL, ABRA and IR-50/50. They are similar if you can agree the objective is the same for all four - repeatedly hit a dot the size of a pin head at 50 yards for 20 to 25 shots per card and anywhere between three and six cards per match. ARA and PSL are the most challenging RFBR targets as they penalize you for a single miss by decreasing your score by 50% (from 100 to 50). The other two sanctions penalize a miss with a 10% deduction (10 points to 9 points). Little mistakes in ARA and PSL cost you big time - not so much with ABRA and IR-50/50. A difference between ARA/PSL and IR-50/50 is the later scores total “ring count” and number of Xs. The target may be more forgiving than ARA/PSL but it’s often the number of Xs that win. Some say the IR-50/50 target is more demanding than ARA/PSL.
I don’t have a problem with what Hozie wrote about my V-22S Chickenfoot results. I do have a few thoughts to share about the other two V-22S competitor’s results. First, my results. I wasn’t happy with where my scores put me on the “leaderboard” but I didn’t embarrass myself either. My 2192 aggregate on six cards at my first National Tournament shooting a rifle I’d never shot before with three different lots of off-the-shelf Midas + that weren’t lot tested will just have to do. My strategy was to show up and shoot, take my thrashing, learn as much as I could, then go home and practice-practice-practice and compete-compete-compete. Next year I’ll go back with my mind set on beating my 2021 results. I don’t have any influence over the rest of the field - just myself - and my work’s definitely cut out for me.
Two other guys were shooting V-22S based rifles - both were their #2 guns. Their V-22Ss, like mine are currently under development. Carl Johnson shot the PSL with his #1 gun and shot the ARA with his V-22S that he’d taken delivery at the match. He only shot four targets because he had to return home for a scheduled family event. His aggregate was 2062.5. Greg Hissong shot all six cards, but shot the first three with his #1 gun. The last three cards were shot with his V-22S and his results were 2400, 2300 and 2400 (aggregate 2366.67). Greg would have been tied for fifth if he’d shot all six cards with his V-22S the way he shot the last three cards. His rifle is a shooter and he’s got pretty good control of it even though it’s still in development.
All three of these Vudoo V-22S rifles are “target” rifles. “Match” V-22S rifles will be built by the gunsmith you select using components you buy from various manufacturers. Per Mike Bush, “Vudoo is building what I've termed as a "target rifle" because I'll never give anyone the long-term impression that we're going to build full blown custom systems used in serious benchrest within what is a production environment.” Actions for both target and match builds are identical - it’s all about what the gunsmith or the owner decides is necessary to bring all the components (action, barrel, trigger, stock) together in a true competition rifle.
My Vudoo is a factory build that’s been measured, adjusted, polished, tuned and tested in an ARA match before being handed to me. The guy who took over where the VGW factory left off shot the first card in an ARA match resulting in a perfect 2500 at Howard Prince indoor range. I decided to shoot the rifle after taking some practice shots the evening before the ARA match and thinking, “this thing is shooting pretty well”. What the hell, I’ll take a chance and try my new rifle with untested ammo in a venue that was new (and intimidating). I might just get lucky - Not!!! My rifle shot consistent scores: 2100, 2150, 2200, 2150, 2200 and 2350 on the last card. The rifle didn’t let me down, I let the rifle down. I’ve now got to bring my aggregate up another 150 points to be in the hunt, at least with this crowd. I shot three different lots of Midas + - they all shot about the same - certainly none of these lots was “killer” ammo. I struggled with nerves and got more than one case of “target fear” as I worked my way through the six card, 300+ sighter/record shots.
Contributors and readers of this thread routinely ask to see targets shot with V-22S builds. We’ve seen a few targets, mostly groups, but few RFBR targets actually shot in competition. The target I’m sharing is my best card from the ARA Indoor Nationals. My score is 2350 out of a potential 2500 points. I’ve circled the three bulls that were 50s - the edge of my bullet broke the blue line which cost me 50 points on each bull. These rounds were out of the 100 ring by 0.017, 0.090 and 0.064”. Scoring is accomplished by scanning the target so a computer can do the measurements.
The 100 ring on an ARA target is 0.50” diameter. A .22LR bullet is 0.22”. A perfect card, 2500 points, requires 25 rounds land within a circular diameter of 0.28”. If you were shooting five round groups you’d want center-to-center measurements to be in the neighborhood of 0.15”. The more rounds shot in a group the more spread you’ll see in group size. Groups are shot without moving the rifle to another target which is required when shooting all RFBR targets. The shooter’s ability to move the rifle from bull to bull is critical. A friend of mine commented that he didn’t think benchrest shooting was a big deal - the rifle is strapped into a rest and the shooter only touches the trigger to send a round down range. I told him that he’d have to throw his rifle down on a bench and shoot a few targets in competition to realize the challenge a RFBR accepts. He has yet to accept my challenge and I’m looking forward to see how he does. The bottom line is a huge amount of RFBR success is in the preparation - everything has got to be optimized for a competitor to shoot a high score on a single card or in a match.
Like Hozie said, “I don't think anyone who has any experience in the game would call the results good nor bad.” I agree with you, Hozie, this is too limited a data set to determine just how competitive a V-22S action will be in an RFBR rifle. When all is said and done, it’s the entire system - all components put together by a competent technician, the right support equipment, the best ammo and the inevitable “nut behind the bolt” that will determine how competitive and popular Vudoo’s action will be in RFBR competition.
After shooting my rifle at Chickenfoot I believe the V-22S will hold it’s own and it’s overall success will be determined by a top-tier seasoned ARA competitor, not a hack like me, who decides to build on this action and campaign it on the “Big Stage”.