Thread: More 22lr Ammo/Accuracy Testing - New Toy!! Pic Heavy

Interesting. Any new rifle is always a work in progress and its a solid start for the Bergara B14. I do enjoy trying to accurise rimfires. The Annie is shooting beautifully and I would expect the Bergara will improve significantly with time and fine-tuning. Wind doesn't seem a factor as rounds are mostly well centred, there is no evident horizontal spread due to wind variation, and the Annie is 100%. I don't know this Bergara at all so my thoughts are general, but here are a few a basic comments - things I'd do first up to standardise the testing and tweak accuracy.

First the obvious - go over the rings and mounts again to ensure 100% firm. Then I'd choose the 4 best ammos for closer testing - leave the others. Strip clean the barrel again, then relube it with 10-20 rounds of your first type of test ammo. Then drop the silencer - its a variable and may help the Bergara or it may not. Then check floating barrel is directly in centre of channel - can sometimes be left slightly off when tightening bedding screws. Then drop to 5 shot groups - helps take ammo fliers and your/my variation out of the picture. Then shoot five 5 shot groups with each ammo, but not more than 30ish rounds in a row as I have found some (predominantly thinner sporter barrels) 22 barrels can warm and begin to spread groups. For sustained accuracy some needed a short cooling break. Note - I am unsure on carbon barrels. Then after testing an ammo for 5 groups, put through 2 new mags of the next ammo to relube before proceeding to another set of 5 x 5 shot groups. This lube change before new testing can take 2 to 15 rounds - so shoot the changeover rounds until you're satisfied the new ammo is settled into its own stable pattern, and then do your five test groups. Depending on results from one or two types of ammo, be prepared to experiment with torque pressure on your bedding screws - this can affect 22s alot. But again I do not know this Bergara setup. With care those groups should come down towards 1 MOA, and drop under that at best.

You'll find your best 1-2 ammos - then you can repeat process and drill into those further. Some of my sporters would shoot 0.25" at best at 50m and average close to that for consecutive group sets. The best 22LR sporter at 100m could dip under 0.5" at best, and average 0.6" for a group set. (EM332). There are some good wee 22s around - not necessarily name brands. That Annie is beauty - be interesting to see how the Bergara unfolds.

All good fun.. good luck with the tuning..

Nice setup! I've ended up with pretty much the same but with the steel barrel B14r and have been loving it so far.
Looks like you've had similar results with some of the same ammos I've been testing. I've tried a few hunting types plus some SK magazine, Fiocchi 280 and 300 and Eley match, sport and standard. Mostly been shooting at 100m with the best results from Eley match with the sport and SK close behind.
I've also played around with the suppressor trying it off and also varying the number of baffles. Best so far seems to be 3 baffles on the DPT although I need to do more testing!