New to scoped shooting... what is reasonable? NEW GROUPINGS FEB 19
quote:
Originally posted by fritz: Understand that a 10/22 is not a precision rifle. A fun plinking rifle that's reliable with the right magazines and ammo -- absolutely. Things that keep a 10/22 from being a true precision rifle: - Semi-auto. In order to reliably cycle many types of ammo, the chamber tolerances are opened up. The gun can thus cycle with lots of ammo types, when the chamber is pretty dirty, but at the cost of precision. There's also more vibration occurring in the cartridge ignition process with a semi-auto than a bolt action. Vibration throughout the firearm is a detriment to accuracy. - The chamber length is longer than that of a precision bolt action, to accept the longer cases that are often used in plinking ammo. Such as CCI Mini Mag. This reduces chances of jamming with Mini Mag ammo, but at of cost of precision with quality match ammo. Match ammo will likely not have the case solidly locked in the chamber, the bullet may have a longer jump to the lands than is optimal, and the bullet may wobble a little bit in the throat before it engages the lands. - Due to chamber design, true match ammo may not produce noticeably better accuracy than middle-of-the-road ammo in a 10/22. In contrast to a quality bolt action, where match ammo's accuracy should be obvious. - A stock 10/22 doesn't have the best barrel.
This doesn't mean you can't shoot at 200+ yard targets, but rather that you should consider larger targets and/or lower hit percentages. Work your way out to longer distances in stages. Learn the drops, develop dope tables, understand wind drift, learn to estimate crosswind speeds.
Well, when the day comes where I am capable of pushing the limits of the hardware, I'll have to get a hardware upgrade! Darn!
I think for now it is safe to assume that the platform is more capable of consistency than I am... so... more practice!
I just worked up some dot targets to try out... I made simple red dots with a black outline. They are sized to print out on a standard printer resulting in dots that are 1 MOA at the marked distance. For now I made 4 versions... 25 yards, 50 yards, 75 yards, and 100 yard.
Look good to you for simple dot practice like you suggest?
That’s similar to the targets I’ve developed for myself.
I don’t have a color printer, but I like the red center. The only modification I’d consider is putting a crosshair or even just a black dot in the center of each circle. I found that having a specific well-defined aiming point helps me get accurate results.
► 6.0/94.0
“To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.” — Thomas Paine
February 28, 2025, 02:36 PM
thumperfbc
Oh that is a good point (pun intended)... I'll make a quick mod.
I like the revised dots better than the original. I find that my vision is better with yellow than red as an aim point. I also suspect that many scopes produce a sharper image in the yellow part of the visible spectrum than the red part. The small red dot offers a more precise aiming point, especially if you don't have to compensate for wind drift.
IMO consider reducing the number of dots per page. Your brain & vision may be fine with the current setup, but I've tried similar dot density targets and I have struggled a bit. Give it a try first, but I suspect you will be happier with about half the current dot density per page. Should you decide to make the change, please post your new targets. I have no qualms in stating that "I will steal shamelessly from others" -- a term a prior company's Chief Officers used when they saw great ideas from other folks.
I often use solid black dots for dot drills. Right up front, I'll state that solid black dots suck with black reticles. But it's a game my instructors & mentors have played for a long time. When we can consistently center punch solid black dots, all the shooting fundamentals are working.
February 28, 2025, 09:38 PM
thumperfbc
quote:
Originally posted by fritz: I like the revised dots better than the original. I find that my vision is better with yellow than red as an aim point. I also suspect that many scopes produce a sharper image in the yellow part of the visible spectrum than the red part. The small red dot offers a more precise aiming point, especially if you don't have to compensate for wind drift.
IMO consider reducing the number of dots per page. Your brain & vision may be fine with the current setup, but I've tried similar dot density targets and I have struggled a bit. Give it a try first, but I suspect you will be happier with about half the current dot density per page. Should you decide to make the change, please post your new targets. I have no qualms in stating that "I will steal shamelessly from others" -- a term a prior company's Chief Officers used when they saw great ideas from other folks.
I often use solid black dots for dot drills. Right up front, I'll state that solid black dots suck with black reticles. But it's a game my instructors & mentors have played for a long time. When we can consistently center punch solid black dots, all the shooting fundamentals are working.
Here, I spent some time this morning making some new versions (all other version remain on the server as well).
In addition to reducing the density of some distances, I also fixed a few more misalignments and added row and column labels.
Let me know if these look better. If I can find a few hours this weekend I'll give them a whirl too.
The newest versions are nice. I tried v2 at 50 yards yesterday. The dot density seemed fine.
The day at the ranch didn't start well. Came close to getting the pickup stuck in a snowdrift. Ran out of gas, located a couple gallons in a carrier, and had enough to get me into town for a fillup. Then forgot to bring a target backer. I had to shoot from a section of a small-ish tree trunk, stood up on end, with the target duck taped to the log. I couldn't see the outer columns, so that's why I shot the middle 3 columns. And after burning about 1.5 tanks of fuel through my Stihl chainsaws.
Breezes of 0-5 mph from my right. JBM says 5mph drift is about .5" -- the width of the dots. I had some challenges guessing the wind. Prone, bipod, rear bag. Ground surface was mostly frozen, with pine needles on top. Some sheepdip shots, some decent shots. I felt rusty.
You can see I was struggling with vertical at the start. Cold shooter sucks. The bottom rows show better vertical, with most of my issues resulting from wind drift.
March 12, 2025, 09:47 PM
fritz
More dots, this time at 75 yards. The morning started cold and dead calm. After 2 tanks of fuel burned in a Stihl chainsaw and a snack, it was time to shoot. Of course a breeze started. I couldn't feel it at my shooting location in the trees, but it was there in the open -- the last 40-50 yards to the target. Headwinds of 0-4 mph, mainly from my 12 o'clock, but switching rapidly from 10:30 to 1:30. During the second row I began reading wind from the mirage off a snowbank behind the target. I feel I got better reading the wind with subsequent & lower rows. JBM says the wind drift could have been 3/4" to 1" at maximum estimated winds.
This time I had a pretty solid shooting position, as the ground wasn't frozen under my bipod legs. I could see all my impacts as they occurred. I could almost always predict the impact location by how I pressed the trigger, and by how the sights moved. Thus, I could almost always determine if a miss was from my shooting technique, my wind call, or a bad round. As I see it: - 4 bad wind calls - 2 high pulls - 1 low impact from bad ammo. This round sounded quieter than the others, too.
BTW, my common miss is a high flyer. It comes from too much downward cheek pressure on the stock and a lazy squeeze on the rear bag.
The contrast on these targets is nice. A good combo of red aiming dot, yellow outer, and black outline. I often aimed at the 3 or 9 o'clock black edge, and hoped that my wind call would result in the impact striking near the red center.
