Slamfire says to me:
You are acting like every other good centerfire shooter to whom I have quoted those numbers. They just can’t believe that a rimfire could shoot that well and certainly not better than their target centerfires.
regarding .38" size consistant groups from a rimfire 22 at 100 yards.
I'll stick to my belief that no rifle shoots that size groups all the time. Group's are interesting. There's the following ways they're referenced:
* "Best group is X inch" which means that's the smallest one shot. Nobody except the shooter knows what all the other were and his agenda may be to think only of that one.
* "Average group is X inch" which means that some of the groups shot were bigger than that; how much is not known.
* "Mean radius of the group (a few to several dozen shots) is X inch" means the group center was calculated as well as the radius of each shot hole from it and the average figured out. Pretty good, but the extreme spread of such methods can still be 3 to 5 times larger than the mean radius.
* "All shots tested into X inch" says what that load did, but is only meaningful if the test is repeated and all shots group within 10% of what happened before. The more shots tested, the better the accuracy that can be counted on all the time is observed. The more shots there are in a test group, the better it is, to me, anyway.
Regarding the many groups shown in the link below (which is an excellent thing to show thanks FALPhil) showing how each fired group's sizes are different than the average. Note that most smallbore prone matches are 20 shots including 5 or more sighters.
http://www.accuratereloading.com/2009/bl100.html
...if one looks at them, they'll see at least one in each 5-group series of 5-shots for each ammo type, there's at least one group bigger than the average. And an overlayed composite of several of the best ones shows that 25-shot group to be 2 or 3 tenths inch bigger than the average listed for each load. Took me a while, but I managed to superimpose some atop each other (aligned on aiming square with scoring rings aligned) and plot where all 25 shots went. So I'll stick to my opinion that the best rimfire ammo on this planet shoots under 5/8th to 3/4ths inch and no better.
But I do believe folks can shoot rimfires into smaller subtended angles onpaper than high power rifles can. I've known for years that smallbore prone scores shot on 100 yard targets with 1 and 2 MOA high scoring rings have been better with less accurate ammo than high power match rifles shooting at 600 yards with the same subtended angles on their high scoring rings. In spite of the high power rifle's ammo shooting 1/2 MOA at 600 yards from machine rests and the best smallbore rifles shooting 1/2 MOA at 100 yards. Why? Simple to figure out. One has to hold still for 3 milliseconds from sear release to bullet exit on a high power rifle, but it moves 3 to 4 times as much during lock + barrel time than a rimfire 22 does; the bullet's departure axes is not all that repeatable. Rimfire rifles have to be held still fo 5 milliseconds for lock plus barrel time before the bullet exits, but they barely move at all in recoil during that time. Rimfire bullet's departure axes is quite repeatable. The winning and record setting scores in rimfire were higher in smallbore matches than high power ones. In spite of the fact that when both rifle types are tested from machine rests at 100 yards, the high power one shoots under 1/4 inch and the rimfire one shoots under 1/2 inch. It's not a "rifle + ammo" accuracy game, it's a shootability game. It's easier to shoot high scores with smallbore than it is high power. I wish my best smallbore scores could have been shot in high power.
Slamfire, I may be one of the few high power shooters who'll acknowledge this. I know most of them don't. All it takes to see the difference is look up the record scores on the NRA's web site or, check the scores fired at the Nationals and regionals and see which discipline has the greatest percentage of 200-17X or better cleans in prone. Betcha a Coke and a ham sandwich it's smallbore.