Thread: accurate rifles

Got to bench test alot of 22 makes/models in recent years and some are consistently accurate and some quite poor. What I've often found is that often people call a rifle accurate when it made maybe one particular shot at distance, or fired a tight group once last April. But the ocasional group or shot never tells the rifle story. It is group averages that give an accurate picture. So rifles get found out off the bench at 50 and 100m. I don't take much notice of the occasional good group if I can't consistently repeat it - unless ammo testing.

Some basic sporter 22s can be extremely accurate e.g. a Norinco EM332 that averaged 0.6" over four consecutive groups at 100m. Others like the CZ, Brno, JW15, Marlin 795/925/980/60 have no trouble dropping under 0.5" at 50m - and importantly - averaging close to that. Always the averages that tell a rifle's real story.

It is in this regard that 10/22s fail. They might nail the occasional good group but cannot hold consistency. We've owned 6-7 and tested more and none were good shooters - very poor. Group averages from 1-2" at 50m. Best of them averaged 1.04" at 50m for set of 5 shot groups. By comparison two marlin 60 semiautos surprised the hell out of me - both touching the magic 1/4" for 5 shots at 50m, one rifle averaging 0.295" for 4 groups, and the other 0.39". That's serious accuracy. For a cheaper rifle marlin makes dam good rimfire barrels. Some ruger 10/22s do shoot well but they are rare - depends where they were sourcing barrels at the time. Odd Shillen barrels around. Have found older rugers tended to be better made, slightly better shooters.

After testing dozens of makes of 22 however the 10/22 rates bottom for accuracy. And when we pulled them down three reasons showed up: loose chambers on some, loose barrel pinning on many, and poor rifling issues on others. For example - when barrels were removed and a 22 slug pushed down barrel it might start tight then almost fall down barrel before finding tight section of rifling again near end of tube. Impossible to get accuracy out of that poor rifling situation. The usual solution is rebarrelling, or if slug test shows barrel ok you can get gunsmith to chop off chamber end, mill new chamber and thread it into receiver rather than continue pin set up. Costs a bit but can solve problems. You can also thread barrel and chamber and fit a marlin microgroove barrel to it. We had only one 10/22 that shot well - and it was no longer a ruger. Had mostly VQ parts, green mountain heavy barrel etc and the only ruger bit left was the trigger blade - $1100 spent on it by someone. The Marlin 60DL would match it on the range and was untouched, straight out of the box.

Hard to know why your 925M is shooting/cycling poorly Jake - I'd also suspect ammo type, but would be worth getting a gunsmith to cast an eye over it. They are usually v good shooters. Could be an extractor or spring or two could solve problem - shouldn't be a hard fix as they're fairly simple rifles.

Originally Posted by mudgripz

Got to bench test alot of 22 makes/models in recent years and some are consistently accurate and some quite poor. What I've often found is that often people call a rifle accurate when it made maybe one particular shot at distance, or fired a tight group once last April. But the ocasional group or shot never tells the rifle story. It is group averages that give an accurate picture. So rifles get found out off the bench at 50 and 100m. I don't take much notice of the occasional good group if I can't consistently repeat it - unless ammo testing.

Some basic sporter 22s can be extremely accurate e.g. a Norinco EM332 that averaged 0.6" over four consecutive groups at 100m. Others like the CZ, Brno, JW15, Marlin 795/925/980/60 have no trouble dropping under 0.5" at 50m - and importantly - averaging close to that. Always the averages that tell a rifle's real story.

It is in this regard that 10/22s fail. They might nail the occasional good group but cannot hold consistency. We've owned 6-7 and tested more and none were good shooters - very poor. Group averages from 1-2" at 50m. Best of them averaged 1.04" at 50m for set of 5 shot groups. By comparison two marlin 60 semiautos surprised the hell out of me - both touching the magic 1/4" for 5 shots at 50m, one rifle averaging 0.295" for 4 groups, and the other 0.39". That's serious accuracy. For a cheaper rifle marlin makes dam good rimfire barrels. Some ruger 10/22s do shoot well but they are rare - depends where they were sourcing barrels at the time. Odd Shillen barrels around. Have found older rugers tended to be better made, slightly better shooters.

After testing dozens of makes of 22 however the 10/22 rates bottom for accuracy. And when we pulled them down three reasons showed up: loose chambers on some, loose barrel pinning on many, and poor rifling issues on others. For example - when barrels were removed and a 22 slug pushed down barrel it might start tight then almost fall down barrel before finding tight section of rifling again near end of tube. Impossible to get accuracy out of that poor rifling situation. The usual solution is rebarrelling, or if slug test shows barrel ok you can get gunsmith to chop off chamber end, mill new chamber and thread it into receiver rather than continue pin set up. Costs a bit but can solve problems. You can also thread barrel and chamber and fit a marlin microgroove barrel to it. We had only one 10/22 that shot well - and it was no longer a ruger. Had mostly VQ parts, green mountain heavy barrel etc and the only ruger bit left was the trigger blade - $1100 spent on it by someone. The Marlin 60DL would match it on the range and was untouched, straight out of the box.

Hard to know why your 925M is shooting/cycling poorly Jake - I'd also suspect ammo type, but would be worth getting a gunsmith to cast an eye over it. They are usually v good shooters. Could be an extractor or spring or two could solve problem - shouldn't be a hard fix as they're fairly simple rifles.

Good summing up mg.
I have found the same thing as i sold my ruger and replaced with the marlin mod 60.
As a matter of interest what ammo was the most accurate in the mod 60?
The new lithgoww 22 that i bought is shooting as good as the marlin as i had my cz 455 mod 60 and lithgow out checking zeros for the kids swazi shoot and really pleased with all three.
I have dialing scopes on the cz and lithgow and let the kids loose at upto 200 yards with good results banging claybirds
Accurate rifles rule!

Marlin 60s tend to like all things CCI. Most like CCI subs and standard velocity solids for range accuracy - and one of mine is also super accurate with
winchester powerpoint. CCI minimag a good hunting round. So mostly CCI but each rifle will also have its own preferences.

I think ruger need a kick in the ar*e for not fixing the accuracy issues with 10/22s. They can make good accurate rifles when they wish to and should have solved this problem decades ago. Otherwise than its accuracy problems its a good wee carbine. It is notable that the marlin 60 has outsold it 13m to 6 million over last 50 years. Best 10/22 variant we had is the lovely little 10/22 model 96 lever action. Quite accurate at 0.7" at 50m, and no weaknesses - a wee gem and one of the best wee hunter 22s I've come across. Ruger can do it when they try!

I'd like to hear more about the Lithgow 22 Andy - discussion on this on nzrimfire.