Feeding The Beast...My 10/22 That Is **PIC HEAVY**

Pigeonman

Pigeonman

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Over the weekend I decided to take a little bit of time and do some testing to see what my Ruger 10/22's ammunition of choice is as far as accuracy is concerned. Keeping mind of course the limitations of the rifle, set up and the shooter.

The rifle is a plain jane 10/22 carbine, serial 251-8###X placing it as a 2000 manufacture according to this nifty little chart I found on Rugers site.

http://www.ruger.com/service/productHistory/RI-10-22.html



It has the stock rail and a fixed X4 Bushnell scope that I purchased with the rifle and is otherwise bone stock. For my first tests I figured I'd start small at 25m. All shots were taken prone with a backpack and front bag rest.

I tested the following ammunition that I had on hand or could find locally:

PMC Zapper 38gn.
CCI Stingers 32gn.
Federal Champion 36gn. - 525 Value Pack
Winchester Dynapoint 40gn. - White Box 500 round bulk
Winchester T22 Target 40gn. Standard Velocity

Each target represents one brand of ammunition with 5 groups of 5 shots each. I don't have any callipers yet so I downloaded On Target for Mac to take care of the measurements, maybe a little overkill but it looks cool and the program makes all the math much easier for those of use who are math challenged.

Target 1 - 38gn. PMC Zapper. Average over 5 shots of 3.337 MOA


Target 2 - 32gn. CCI Stingers. Average over 5 shots of 2.583 MOA


Target 3 - 36gn. Federal Champion. Average over 5 shots of 3.003 MOA


Target 4 - 40gn. Winchester Dynapoint. Average over 5 shots of 1.973 MOA


Target 5 - 40gn. Winchester T22 Target. Average over 5 shots of 4.184 MOA


Looks like the winner of the day for my 10/22 at least is the Winchester Dynapoint white box Followed by the Stingers, Federal,PMC. and the not so "target" Winchester T22. Next time I'm out I plan to repeat at 50m to see if my results are consistent and maybe try my hand at 100m.

If anyone has recommendations for some other brands that have worked well for them please let me know. I'm heading to Edmonton at the end of the month and will try to source some different brands. Once all the ammo testing I plan on swapping out the hammer and sear for aftermarket target ones to see what improvement I can get over stock. From there keep adding slowly just to see how good I can make it without breaking the bank or changing any major components ie. barrel, bolt, stock.

Cheers,
Pigeon
 
Nice work! I'm gonna have to download that program....

I found the two limiting factors in accuracy for me and the trigger (duh) and the barrel.

Any good aftermarket barrel will shrink those groups by a lot. My customized 10/22 likes Winchester Power Points (XLRPP on the box). Next is Dynapoints. Worst is 'Thunderbolts'... no surprise there!
 
Yeah the trigger on mine just about needs to be smacked by a hammer to get it to break its so heavy. Someday I might change the barrel out but I want to keep it as close to original in appearance as possible. It is my first rifle and I'm kinda sentimental that way. Anyone know it there's such a thing as a match barrel with the original contour?

I'll keep my eye open for power points, our local Walmart has a few varieties of Winchester that I haven't tried out yet.
 
Nice work. I think Winchester should take the word "target" off the T22 box. It has no business being associated with lower than bulk quality ammo. Me and everyone I've talked to experience the wild flyers and overall poor groups in any rifle they're loaded into. If your rifle can cycle subsonics try some Rem subsonics. They shoot pretty good in my bolt guns. And don't forget Blazer, mini mags and Velocitor. Theyre usually pretty good too.
 
canucklehead said:
Nice work! I'm gonna have to download that program....

I found the two limiting factors in accuracy for me and the trigger (duh) and the barrel.

Any good aftermarket barrel will shrink those groups by a lot. My customized 10/22 likes Winchester Power Points (XLRPP on the box). Next is Dynapoints. Worst is 'Thunderbolts'... no surprise there!
Click to expand...

Power Pionts didn't work so well in mine.
Average 3.218 MOA. Ended up doing 6 groups with one group of 6 shots. Couldn't count for the life of me yesterday. On the plus side I had fun after trying to whack steal at 200m. Had to use the top of the frame above the gong as a poa, probably 4-5 feet above the target. No where near enough elevation adjustment in my scope.
Target6Image13-05-16_zps4ee81213.jpg
 
After the same sort of testing I found the RWS Target Rifle worked the best with mine. All shots touching at 25m. About $50 a brick from Target Shooting Products.
I have a 10/22 with an ATI stock(can you say flimsy?) target hammer and sear.
 
Re: Target Sports shipping.
I ordered a bunch of different stuff under $100 a brick for testing and I'm not that far away but it's small and shouldn't be too much.
Just because mine shoots best with that doesn't mean yours will. Guy who shoots another 10/22 gets best results with the Club, about the same price.

One thing I'm almost sure of.... ammo that's designed for target shooting like RWS, Lapua will put US made bulk ammo to shame... for about twice the price.
 
Last edited:
Perforator said:
Re: Target Sports shipping.
I ordered a bunch of different stuff under $100 a brick for testing and I'm not that far away but it's small and shouldn't be too much.
Just because mine shoots best with that doesn't mean yours will. Guy who shoots another 10/22 gets best results with the Club, about the same price.

One thing I'm almost sure of.... ammo that's designed for target shooting like RWS, Lapua will put US made bulk ammo to shame... for about twice the price.
Click to expand...

Thanks,
I was more wondering out of curiosity for now about Target Sports. I have plenty of bulk varieties left to try before I need to consider the more pricey higher quality stuff.
 
Perforator said:
Re: Target Sports shipping.
I ordered a bunch of different stuff under $100 a brick for testing and I'm not that far away but it's small and shouldn't be too much.
Just because mine shoots best with that doesn't mean yours will. Guy who shoots another 10/22 gets best results with the Club, about the same price.

One thing I'm almost sure of.... ammo that's designed for target shooting like RWS, Lapua will put US made bulk ammo to shame... for about twice the price.
Click to expand...

But where do you find the stuff..
 
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