Velocity equals accuracy? Ruger Precision Rimfire

[Matapatapa]

Sort of. Hyper velocity might be consistent at 50 yards, but as it drops below the speed of sound it becomes unstable. A lot of shooters use ammo that stays below the speed of sound to avoid this, but if youre staying at 50 yards you shouldn't need to worry about this.

Another problem you may be having, is that the [adjustable objective] marks on your scope (if you have the adjustable objective.. Im not familiar with your scope) may not be correct. It might read as 50 but actually be 60. This means any slight movement of your head moves your cross hairs. This can move your groups quite a bit. An easy way to check this is to get set up on target and then move your head behind the scope, if your cross hairs move at all you need to adjust your objective until it doesn't move.

Will do; my scope does have an AO, however the markings on the scope don't match up with the range distance markings, I usually have to adjust it a little more around the exact mark to get it in focus...you may be correct about this; I will check. Or my range may say 50M when it actually means 50Y

 

[Matapatapa]

If you can see movement of the crosshair on the target, that movement is amplified considerably when the bullet arrives at the target.
Think of it this way, the bullet will continue to follow the direction the muzzle was moving all the way to the target. By the time it gets there, it will have moved further than the crosshairs would indicate.
This is why a steady hold and controlled trigger squeeze is so important.
Follow through is particularly important with a .22, since the lower speed means the bullet remains in the barrel longer. Any movement on your part while it's still in the barrel translates to a wild shot.
The difference between "high" velocity and "standard" velocity isn't enough to significantly affect this, definitely not enough to make using high velocity ammo with it's transition through the speed of sound worthwhile.
I'd suggest simply shooting from a set of sandbags if that's convenient. No mechanical rest will ever be as stable as a bag of sand. They're not easily adjustable, however.
The less friction you have between whatever you use for a rest (both front and rear) the better, the rifle should slide freely without sticking or catching on the bag material.
An RPR is problematic in that respect, with its adjustable rear stock design and barrel shroud.
As friend of mine has one that's an absolute nail-driver, it's set up with a front bipod and a rear stock modification to allow it to ride the bag smoothly. He also removed the barrel thread protector, to eliminate carbon buildup in that area.
I was skeptical at first, but that rifle is outstanding when it comes to accuracy.

Sandbags are just not height adjustable enough, its far more difficult for me to adjust everything else ( my seat hight, rear rest height etc ) then it is to just be able to adjust my forward sight.
My old handy rest did catch on my rifles quite a bit, the rifle rest area was rubber. the Rock JR I just picked up is cloth; hopefully, that fixes the issue.

Also, could you draw quickly or post a picture of how your friend has made those changes to the rear stock? If its not major or permanent, I'd like to do it as well.

Thank you.

 

[Matapatapa]

I suspect the Op is getting good accuracy at 50 yards with high velocity ammo because the bullet velocity has not degraded to the speed of sound yet at such close range.

Testing those same bullets at longer distances will surely produce very different results... Likely completely opposite.

Myself, I prefer bullets that shoot best at around 150-200 yards for all around use.

If the goal is to find ammo that shoots best at 50 yards, then just go with what works best at 50 yards and forget about the supersonic debate.

I got this rifle with the intention of it being an all-around platform to do plinking, small game up to 70y, and PRS matches which go up to 250 if I remember correctly. I did have a second rifle for PRS as well, a savage mark ii FV, but I found out that PRS only allows a person to compete in one class per event, so having two was pointless and I sold it.

I could have chosen the CZ 457, but after some research and looking around getting one and modding it to have an adjustable stock or custom length of pull and additional trigger etc; I've never done much DIY work, and doing it on something expensive and new I would shy away from.

I just got a Stiga m98 sporter in 3006 in the mail; getting some mounts for it from amazon on wednesday, and then hopefully a range trip to test it out and try and implement/test all the things mentioned here the day after.

 

[Freefall]

I've had a couple of rifles shoot better with high velocity ammo. One heavy barrel savage that I had would keyhole standard velocity rounds, but shoot decent with high velocity. I think the crown may have been damaged. I sent it back and savage fixed it. A perfect crown makes such a big difference and it is so easy to damage a crown when cleaning a rifle that I think that often causes this effect. Pulling a boresnake out of the end of a barrel on and angle or not being careful with a cleaning rod is probably the biggest source of wear and tear these rifles face.

The other thing is shooting temperature. Rimfire ammo is so fussy when it comes to temperatures and it is so close to the speed of sound with standard velocity that on a really cold day standard velocity can actually be supersonic. Top that up with cold ammo and all the other issues with metal in the cold and shooting on a cold day can be a real pain. I've played around with shooting high velocity on cold days and it should be possible to keep 1200 fps ammo supersonic at least to 50 yards.

 

[Eagleye]

You could live to be 500 years of age, and still never fully sort out the idiosyncrasies of rimfire rifles/ammo.
I have an older lot of PMC "Zapper" LR ammo that my 541T Sporter just loves. [this ammo is NOT plated]

I have actually got a trophy on my cabinet from a 100 yard match that I won with this rifle/ammo combination.
10 shots for group [.570"] 10 shots for score. [99/100] Many match loads will not do that well at 100 yards.

However, that is a rare exception, and I would certainly not expect this performance from HV 22 ammo

I have 1½ cases of a particularly accurate lot of ELEY Match EPS [Black box], and it has proven over and over
in not just 1, but in 3 rifles, it's consistency off the bench. Glad I laid a bunch in, despite the cost, lol.

If the temperature drops below 0ºC, accuracy drops off, and I move to the Polar Biathlon ammo.
Buying 22 match ammo is a crapshoot. Sometime one gets lucky, other times it's a bust.
Dave.

 

[Maple57]

With my RPR 22LR, I made 0.55 MOA groups at 100m. Standard 1070 Velocity CCI.

As mentioned, keep away from transonic.

That's pretty standard advice for any caliber.

I'm thinking, heavier bullets doing 1050 would be interesting.

I would very much like to see this in a video with a certain amount of consistency. I've seen many RPR 22s bought and quickly sold over disappointing accuracy and Ruger does not make accuracy guarantees and will not correct accuracy complaints. I'm wondering if perhaps the barrel has been upgraded.

From my experience the word Precision should not be associated with that particular model rifle.

 

[Matapatapa]

Okay, managed to get a short trip in; I fell for the trap that is the weather forecast! Said it was going to be 20C or so, turned out to be 31 with a heat warning; I ended up going home early.

Either way, noticeable improvement in groups with the new rest. As for different velocities, can't really tell just yet wasn't out there long enough.
Maybe once we get a cool day again.

 

[Matapatapa]

FINALLY

managed to get a half day off free from day to day crap to get back to work on the rifle.

I didn't manage to try it at 100meters, spent all my time getting this data together. See the first link below:

https://ibb.co/nnV1H28

Pictures of the gun as requested by some :

https://ibb.co/XpLYZpt
https://ibb.co/bQW4FBR

Images of the targets at the range:

https://ibb.co/Hd3G82r
https://ibb.co/j5tF6Gr
https://ibb.co/9Yjw6Vf


Images of all the ammo I used ( Excluding CCI mini mags; I shot my last box and chucked the empty plastic container )
https://ibb.co/th6Dy9G

Let me know what you guy's think with these results.

I shot it using a sandbag rear, a Caldwell rock jr from a seated wooden bench.

Somebody else here DM'ed me that Federal black pack is the way to go; I'll report back next time I go with that stuff. ( Been spending my time fishing; the season ends at the end of this month so I'll get back into shooting after that )

EDIT: one more thing, until now my opic was mounted but not loctited down; I went back and reattached it with loctite all over the place, will report back if that does anything when I'm trying out the federal black pack as well.