Practical .22 Shoots

So there are a couple of these types of Practical shoots coming up Simon is running one in Sept. and Kerry has one in Oct. I am going to give one a go but need some help getting setup. I have a few .22s in the gun cabinets so its a matter of deciding which to use. There is a 10/22 a Marlin Lever gun 39A and Remington 541T bolt action. All would have there own advantages the 10/22 well no bolt work or position breaks but will l have to see how it shoots, the 541T will be the most accurate but heavier and the little Marlin well its just a dream to shoot but prone the lever action can be challenging to cycle.

For those who have shot these types of shoots what range do you zero at? OK so next Kerry's shoot has a stage at 150m do you hold or dial for other ranges than your zero. The .22 has an interesting ballistic curve so not sure what you guys do. Wind I suppose will be a real challenge out that far.

Ammo for Kerry's shoot has to be subs what is considered the most accurate? CCI Std or......?

I have done a few Centre fire gong shoots but these .22 shoots have their own challenges. At least the ammo is cheap.

Thanks in advance for any helpful hints.

I've done Kerry's shoot with my 10/22, set it up for it. Found it to be very handy on some stages, particularly when you have to work the action in a unusual position.
The 150 was interesting to shoot, mind you the weather was shocking.
it is great fun and I believe Kerry has refined things a bit.
If I get to shoot this one I'll be taking my lever action.
Best to get on the range, zero 50m and do some working out at different range and have yourself a little range card, beware there are a couple of tricky ones...

We have some static ones at our club. Some bullseye shooting from all positions and silhouette shooting out to 200.

I just use a dialable scope on a marlins 60 and go from there.

When using subs at 200 I have to use a bit of hold over with the aid of mildot due to just running out of elevation with standard dovetail mounts. But not much.

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We had a wee practice shoot yesterday with 22s. I was shooting a stock marlin 989m2 and cci subs with a nikon rimfire scope shooting from 100 out to 330m. had to dial 67moa to hit at 326mtrs(64m drop). Targets were 100m 185m 200m 220m and 326m. Got first round hits at 100m and 220m, took 5 or 6 to hit the 326 due to wind and a few rounds inconsistent speed. was fun hitting a 100mm plate at 200m with a bit of wind. We were just shooting it prone but will do multiple positions next time.
Shooting a 17m2 at the 200m plates was good fun but bloody hard to hear the hits.

My 10/22 eats CCI subs more reliably than anything else I've tried

Kerry's shoot involves some pretty tight time limits and an accurate semi would be an advantage - that being said a the last event the top three competitors were all using bolt actions. What i get out of this is yes a semi would be an advantage but not enough to beat a practiced shooter with a bolt action they know and shoot well with. My target 22LR is a full on varmint weight bolt action and i had no problems with the speed of the stages.

Reliable is also key - jams and miss cycles will cost you when under serious time pressure.

For ammunition i would stay with subsonics and pick the ammunition that shoots best in your rifle - this could just about be any one of the brands. SK shoots well, so does RWS, Lapua, Eley, etc. I zero at 50m for the same reason i zero my .260Rem competition gun at 100m.

Kerry's shoot, the targets were easily shootable and i would not consider it a "precision" event. I had no problems with the 150m target.

What would be a practical (pun intended) sort of group size you'd have to get to at say 100M to be competitive at one of these shoots?? Thanks

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Originally Posted by Tentman

What would be a practical (pun intended) sort of group size you'd have to get to at say 100M to be competitive at one of these shoots?? Thanks

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Grouping less than 3" at 100m would be a good start. At a precision event you would want to be grouping less than 2" at 100m.

At our event we use 8" to 12" sized targets at 200m...

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Originally Posted by Gillie

Kerry's shoot involves some pretty tight time limits and an accurate semi would be an advantage - that being said a the last event the top three competitors were all using bolt actions. What i get out of this is yes a semi would be an advantage but not enough to beat a practiced shooter with a bolt action they know and shoot well with. My target 22LR is a full on varmint weight bolt action and i had no problems with the speed of the stages.

Reliable is also key - jams and miss cycles will cost you when under serious time pressure.

For ammunition i would stay with subsonics and pick the ammunition that shoots best in your rifle - this could just about be any one of the brands. SK shoots well, so does RWS, Lapua, Eley, etc. I zero at 50m for the same reason i zero my .260Rem competition gun at 100m.

Kerry's shoot, the targets were easily shootable and i would not consider it a "precision" event. I had no problems with the 150m target.

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@Gillie makes some very valid points,

I certainly noticed that in the shocking weather I had feed issues (Think it was cyclone Debbie) this really does make the shoot difficult with a semi.
I look forward to using my lever next time.

Thanks for all the advice guys. I am off to the range this week with various ammo types and rifles to see what will work the best. I will set out targets at 50,75,100,125,and 150m to get drop figures. My wife is in the USA for the next two weeks, she is going to bring back a Vortex Diamondback Tactical 3-9x40 which should do the job.

I found this which makes for interesting reading, CCI Standard comes in at the middle of the pack which considering its price makes it very good value.

.22LR Rimfire Ammo Comparison Test within AccurateShooter.com

In general the 'better' ammo will perform better in most rifles. I think the CCI standard seems to be reasonably repeatable in a lot of rifles.

These guys have a lot of different rimfire you can try, Rimfire - Ammunition

You could buy a few packs of 50 to see what performs best. I used to shoot eley tenex and black match, both performed really well but equally expensive RWS was not good in my anschutz.

While some of these are not cheap I wouldn't be put off for these precision events as you dont use too much. I remember the days of putting in an indent for 10000 of black match and tenex and that hurt.

I used Lapua Polar Biathlon for quite some time and still use it in my hunter weight Mauser 107. It is superbly accurate ammunition. I am using Norma jaktmatch at the moment which is considerably cheaper and shoots as well in my rifle.