Could use some advice for groups

[Asinity]

I was out at the club today enjoying the crisp fall air and the few snowflakes that were falling. I took out my Savage Mark II G with 4-12 Bushnell Banner and put up a paper with 20 half inch targets on it, aiming 5 shots at each dot at 25 yards. I shot from a bench, with a bipod.

I've never actually taken a few minutes to measure my groups before, but rather always thought to myself "that doesn't look too bad" without questioning if it actually is decent or not. I shot a variety of ammunition to see what it likes, and to see if I fixed the failure to extract problem I had (and aside from a couple Winchester 222 brass that didn't extract the first time, the rest had no troubles at all which was substantially better than the first time I had this rifle out... bonus!)

What is the proper way of actually measuring a group? Center to center distance of the shots with the farthest distance between them? If I take 5 shots and have a nice group of 4 with 1 flyer, is the flyer included in the measurement? Does number of shots in a group matter? As far as .22LR groups, what is considered to be 'good' at 25 yards?

Overall I think I'm pleased with the groups, but wouldn't mind some opinions. Pictured are the tighter groups.

 

[kamlooky]

I've come to the conclusion that if one really wishes to keep tight groups with
rimfires, the optics must be of that with the parallax for close range.
There are some sweet well laid out plinksters here that shoot very well with
the right eyes behind them.
Center fire scopes on rimfire or less than hundred yard shooting is really hard
to get tight clover leaf groups unless the shooter is consistent with their shooting stance.
As time goes on, I'm am replacing my center fire scopes on my rimfires with higher end
rimfire scopes.
Just makes shooting that much enjoyable.

 

[dryfire]

Measure your groups at the extreme spread and subtract a bullet diameter. Your groups are a reasonable start. Better quality ammunition, improved technique will improve results.

kamlooky
Does your scope have an adjustable objective for distance focus ? If so , a higher end rimfire scope will give no advantage. Make sure your reticle is focused by adjusting against a plain background , then focus the view of the target with the objective focus.

 

[Kody]

Good shooting Asinity! I agree with both posts above. I would recommend trying to shoot 50 yd or meters. You will be probably looking at groups slightly over 1 in and that is pretty respectable with the ammo you are using. I would also try some decent quality subsonic ammo if you can find it (CCI SV, SK Standard plus) and that will give you good basis to start working on your technique, etc. Keep up the good work!
Kody