Thread: Fun with 22s - wee ammo test

Originally Posted by Tentman

Recently I put my Lithgow LA101 into a laminated stock - they reputedly shoot better in this one than the synthetic. My thoughts were that factory recommended action scew tension of 1.5 Nm (13.7 in lbs) was set for the synthetic stock as this is a very light value. In most cases a laminated stock will stand (and "like") quite a bit screw tension.

So today wasn't too bad here for a quick test. The rifle definitely responded well to more screw tension and when I got to 20 in lbs the attached 10 shot group with the Eley club shows the result. I know this batch of Club to be exceptional and save it for tests like this.

Recently there has been a bit of Norma Tac-22 in the shops and I got a couple of bricks to test. The results speak for themselves, it is very good ammo, but just not held to the same tolerances as a top performing ammo. This is illustrated by both group size and distribution, most rounds forming a tight cluster (like the Club) but a few looser rounds hanging off.

Attachment 219116

I tested 9 different brands of .22 match/standard ammo a couple of weekends ago in my Lithgow and fired two
Cards for each to prove consistency

The rws target rifle came out no1 . The Eley club and Norma were in the mid
Range and the Aguila was last by a long shot.

Second equal and third was the trusty cci standard. It was well ahead of
Most of the Match ammo tested including rws club and sk and others.

Originally Posted by omark

I tested 9 different brands of .22 match/standard ammo a couple of weekends ago in my Lithgow and fired two
Cards for each to prove consistency

The rws target rifle came out no1 . The Eley club and Norma were in the mid
Range and the Aguila was last by a long shot.

Second equal and third was the trusty cci standard. It was well ahead of
Most of the Match ammo tested including rws club and sk and others.

Yeah - 22 accuracy is more related to good luck with batches or lots of ammo. I went back out with some CCI I have here and shot the following target - all t10 shot groups at 48M.



This target highlights the batch issue, I gave away the rest of the brick of the CCI target cause it was crap, and the very old CCI HP is better but still nearly twice the group size of an excellent batch of S&B subsonic hp (which isn't usually up to much).

One very interesting thing is the harmonic which is causing the vertical stringing with the new box CCI versus horizontal stringing with the older CCI hp.

Originally Posted by omark

I tested 9 different brands of .22 match/standard ammo a couple of weekends ago in my Lithgow and fired two
Cards for each to prove consistency

The rws target rifle came out no1 . The Eley club and Norma were in the mid
Range and the Aguila was last by a long shot.

Second equal and third was the trusty cci standard. It was well ahead of
Most of the Match ammo tested including rws club and sk and others.

Hey how about posting up your results either pics or group sizes, helps us all learn something

Originally Posted by Tentman

Hey how about posting up your results either pics or group sizes, helps us all learn something

Unfortunately I left them in the clubrooms but will collect them next time I am out

Originally Posted by omark

Unfortunately I left them in the clubrooms but will collect them next time I am out

Hey @omark if you could also comment on the accuracy of your Lithgow compared with the common "match rifles" that would also be very interesting. Cheers

Originally Posted by Tentman

Hey @omark if you could also comment on the accuracy of your Lithgow compared with the common "match rifles" that would also be very interesting. Cheers

It’s a wee step down from dedicated target rifles I’ve shot such as anshultz and walther and some of the bsa mk2s that I’ve shot but not by much. I consider it to be a multi purpose rifle. Definitely more accurate than the cz s and the tikkas my mates shooting. I had to torque mine to over 20 pounds to get it to shoot. Also it improves with a clean every 300 odd rounds.
I use boretec rim fire and foul with 10 rounds.

It’s such a shame lithgow don’t do southpaws in their centre fire range as I would
Jump at the chance if they did in both .223 and .308.

I am a real Lithgow fan though….so slightly bias…