Thread: What is your measure for practical 22 accuracy ?

Thinking about the 22 PRS style matches run around the country.

GPRE @ Tokoroa
Sparrowhawk 22 Match


What is your measure of "practical" 22LR accuracy ?

Basic group size at 100 yds or maybe further ?
Is is a certain measure of 5 or 10 shot elevation at a particular range ?

Keen to hear what people consider "good" accuracy for multi position, practical type matches.

i have a universal measure that works on everything if i can hit what im aiming at its accurate

Originally Posted by northdude

i have a universal measure that works on everything if i can hit what im aiming at its accurate

The "let's wing it" technique

Was hoping for something a bit more specific.

Originally Posted by northdude

i have a universal measure that works on everything if i can hit what im aiming at its accurate

Ironic that you answered the question correctly.

EBF is asking for precision.

Ok, accuracy vs prescision, I get it

Keen to understand what the prescision measure is you use.

For instance in F-class, specifically FTR, the standard seems to be 1moa or less elevation at long range. If the shooter does their part and manages to read wind correctly, that should result in a 60.xx score.

Ok well um na i better shut up

For me and its not scientific for hunting 1.5 at 100 is what i aim for targets id like to see my shots all touching if im having a good day and depending on what rifle un shooting the 2 i tend to use the most can so it,if i do my bit

A possum falls out of the tree

Same as my center fire 1 moa or better. Just about any modern 22 with a good scope and good ammo can do that.

For 22rf <1 moa at 100yds. Consistantly, not once in a blue moon. Used to be recognised as the holy grail for 22 rf.

Many 22s can shoot great groups at 50 yds ie <1 moa but are poor at 100yds. It doesn't just transpose to the 50yds groups being twice the size at 100yds.

I have been seriously shooting my 22rf at 100yds for the last year. I am on my third serious 22 rifle (now a Lithgow) and running higher and higher mag scopes, and only now getting consistantly less than moa results. Had a few at 0.5 but generally if I fire one like that the next is 1 moa.

In the last year I have also lost count of the number of days I have got to the range and the wind is up. I shoot with wind flags but still get caught out. If its too windy I dont even bother and plink silhouettes instead. I try to go to the range once a week.

I have also spent a fortune trying many many different brands and quality levels of ammo.

Originally Posted by winaa

Same as my center fire 1 moa or better. Just about any modern 22 with a good scope and good ammo can do that.

at what distance @winaa, and how many shots in the group ?

As Zimmer says 100M, 5 shots on a calm day. Its nothing special CZ452 with a vortex diamond back on it. Find the ammo that it likes and your good to go.

OK, back to fundamentals:
What is a 22LR for ?

For some purposes other cartridges are much better, so we dont need to force the expectations for deer shooting or long range hare shooting onto our .22. A .308 should shoot 5cm at it's appropriate range of 200m and the 17HMR say a rabbit chest shot of 3cm 4/5 shots at 150m.
So, the niche of the 22LR is that it can be suppressed for farmyard rabbits and possums and can be shot on an indoor range (25yd).

So, we are talking about subsonic ammo. ANYTHING a supersonic 22 can do, a 17HMR can do better and if you've got the clear firing zone/template behind then the .223 can do even better than that.
As noted above, even a good 22LR and good ammo opens up a lot between 25 and 50m. Some smallbore matches are shot at 100yd.

I think our expectations should be that it is accurate enough ( first shot of the day) to hit the biggest animal it can reliably kill. This would be a 3cm rabbit chest or hare brain at 50m. However, a lot of hunting is done at shorter ranges due to the opening up of groups mentioned. Quite a tricky shot is the possum in a tree where the kill zone ( head or lungs) is more like 2cm at 20m max.
A lot of rifle - ammo combinations will shoot 1cm spread of centers at 25m and I'd suggest that as a practical benchmark. If a system can shoot 2cm spread at 50m, that is well above average.

Once you get into "practical target" competition, other factors like stock fit, shootability, feed and reloading are equally important for performance. The grouping required is arbitrarily tight depending on your competition and the rules set on the day. GPR tend to have a couple of fine accuracy stages but most are designed to be demanding in other ways. The smaller your groups the better you can prepare.

Are we talking 22rf or centerfire

It is for "PRS" type competitions, run using 22LR rifles.

I tend to shoot in Open class, so distances range from 10m to 200m