Thread: .22 zero

Just curious what distance people zero there rifles at, every day people tell me how they shoot rabbits at 100 yds , never missing, with there .22 subs, with a zero at 52yds the drop is 7 inches at 100 and in a 15mph wind the drift is nearly 4 ft.
As the bullet is only in the 1 inch kill zone between 10 - 60 yds I feel I need advice or a better range finder as mine makes 100 yds look a long way away.

I zero mine at 20M, which also puts me bang on at 50M, so covers most of the night missions on the rabbits. I have a drop chart for anything out past that.

Are you talking about rimfire mate? If so, 50 metres for me. It's good enough up to 60 metres. I'm also intrigued by what people say about longer range accuracy with subsonics. Drop aside, my groupings are bloody awful. Maybe it's just me?

Anyone who says they never miss is a liar

Mine are zeroed at 70, BDC reticle helps further out but if not using a rangefinder you do have to be shooting a lot to keep your eye in for judging distance etc. Kill zone on a rabbit is bigger than 1" too unless you're only taking headshots.

Wind is trickier than drop though.

i zero at 70, find i can hit at 100 constantly on good days. its always best to try different ammo to see what works best with your rifle. i only use cci nowadays as i found it the most consistent. friend of mine swears by winchester power point.
we both agree that remington rimfire ammo is bloody filthy stuff in a semi auto though

I use 50m for my 10/22 with a bunny buster 10" over barrel suppressed barrel.
My trajectory chart is shown below. Through testing, I found that the CCI standard velocity ammo that I am using was more accurate than HV ammo at 100m. Although the drop was greater, the grouping was smaller, therefore the hit rate was higher. I still prefer to stay under 70m with the .22LR. Over that I get the .22WMR, .17HM2 or .17HMR out for a walk.

thanks for posting that hotbarrels. just a point of interest. CCI standard velocity are round nose. CCI subsonic are hollow point. they are both 40 grain subsonic rounds. i've always assumed the latter would be better at killing, so haven't tried standard velocity. has anyone compared the two in the real world? just wondering which to go for next.

hollows for bunnies, solids for hares

With standard velocity I zero at 75m, which is good with a little holdover out to 100m or a bit more. I was getting over 90% hit rates when there were rabbit numbers around out to about 100m. Now the rabbit numbers are way down it is harder to keep the eye in with distance judging so I tend to use a 223.

So what you zero at is more determined by how and how many you shoot.

Originally Posted by MightyBoosh

thanks for posting that hotbarrels. just a point of interest. CCI standard velocity are round nose. CCI subsonic are hollow point. they are both 40 grain subsonic rounds. i've always assumed the latter would be better at killing, so haven't tried standard velocity. has anyone compared the two in the real world? just wondering which to go for next.

Observant is he ..... on CCI SV

That's why I have a Waltz tool

Whats a Waltz tool? Waltz resizing die - RimfireCentral.com Forums

I bought a couple of slabs of .22LR CCI SV a couple of years back when it was retailing for $37 a brick, and bought the Waltz tool at the same time. I sized and hollow point a brick of 500 at a time for hunting. If plinking, I just use them as RN solids.

Originally Posted by MightyBoosh

has anyone compared the two in the real world? just wondering which to go for next.

I used to shoot about 10k SV on targets and 1K subs on animals a year, far less now. I would use SV on birds and rabbits, but definitely subs on possums. Since I only load subs into my rifle when I go out hunting, I only end up shooting subs at animals. I have tried SV on possums, a lot, each time end up having to use more bullets because a few animal did not die or stop moving after 1 shot. Subs are definitely more humane.

DDS the expert here, you need to get his opinion and the make of his magical range finder
I sight my .22 at 70 metres

I have shot hundreds of thousands of rounds of 22 over the years and have learnt that the best distance to sight your rifle in is 15 yards using standard velocity ammo. Note ,not 15m but 15yards. Accurate out to 80 yards and with alittle holdover 100 to 120 yards. The most consistant ammo Ive found is cci sv and still buy in lots of 5000. Shooting possums is always thru the right eye ,instant death ,rabbits upper body ,head with sv. No issues. Always try for head shots on hare,love the meat ,better than venison . If you want, flame away at me ,then go and test the 15 yard sight in. Its been one of my best kept secrets for consistent hits over the years. That and being a bloody good shot. Not in Dundees league tho.

any one that's done a lot of hunting with an air rifle will know its about shot placement sv solids will kill just as well as hp just got to put it in the right spot

What happens if you shoot them in the left eye?

Asking for a friend.