Effective range of a .22

Barrel length makes quite a bit of difference,,,

In recent weeks I've been shooting the heck out of my 24" CZ-452,,,
I've been making groups at 150 and 200 yards that really are actual groups.

Last session out I put 21 out of 25 rounds in a 10" paper plate at 200 yards,,,
This is off a bench with a plastic front rest.

If I tried this with any of my 18" or 20" rifles,,,
The hits would have been less than half of those fired.

Aarond

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I would be willing to say that maximum effective range is probably going to be about 250 yards which would have you hitting about 2-3 inches high at 100 yards. beyond 250 your hold over is going to be quite significant and you will barely retain the needed energy to kill a squirrel.
 
Jim Watson hit it right!
If the OP can shoot 1/2" groups at 100 yds with Wolf / SK ammo, he should enter some NRA smallbore matches & clean house. He'll be a high master after no more than 500 rds downrange.
Perhaps he should offer that magic Savage up for auction and make a LOT of money. The folks I shoot against in NRA smallbore competition are using Anschutz rifles that START at $3600.00, add their scopes / sights, the cost runs WAY over $5000.00 and they are shooting Eley Tenex @ $19.00 per box of 50. They are (VERY) happy to keep to the X ring of 1.2" diameter at 100 yds!
Of course, they are holding their rifles up without bags, stands, holders, bipods etc. Just a rifle, a sling, jacket and glove.
He can enter bench rest competition where the costs (in my club) are at least equal to the smallbore competition rifles and clean house there too.

Roger
 
I imagine with a 22lr it really depends on wind. With some stingers and no wind you could probably stretch out to 300. The bullets are so light that any variance in wind is going to cause huge problems though.

I am trying to remember if I have ever shot a 22 at 100 yards even and i think not. I am sure my Marlin 891TS would shoot that range quite well, but I use it to practice fundamentals and to let kids shoot, so I don't know. Maybe I will give it a try now.

As far as shooting Coyotes at long ranges, I am sure it can. I am one who looks at shooting varmints like coyotes a whole lot different than shooting game animals, but I still would probably bump up to a 223 if shooting coyotes.

"Effective range" has nothing to do with shooter. I believe the military uses the point at which a hypersonic load goes to subsonic. I am under the impression the abnormal turbulence/drag involved at this point greatly reduces accuracy. Assuming I am correct in this belief, it may not really work here as some 22lr loads used are subsonic in the first place.
 
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Once upon a time a guy on a 'survival site' reported that his 'weapon' was a 10-22. He claimed to be able to easily hit a frozen turkey at 300 yards. He also claimed that at 300 yards a .22 long rifle would completely penetrate the frozen turkey when it was wrapped in 3 layers of clothing.
I've made some pretty fair shoots with a .22 revolver but they were all within 50 yards. I consider a .22 to be a 100 yard max hunting tool, 25 yards is much better.
 
I've killed a lot of critters of various kinds with .22LRs (and many other cartridges).

Most of my squirrel kills have been within 50 yards; the vast majority closer to 25 yards in the woods. Shooting into the upper branches of trees (where it's safe to do so) lengthens the distance that the bullet stays within fractions of an inch of line of sight because target distance is dependant on the horizontal distance to the target, not the line of sight distance (hypotenuse of the triangle).

When trying head shots on squirrels, etc., the kill zone is very small. For such hunting I used to prefer receiver sights with twilight apertures, but my aging eyes limit best shooting in the woods to scoped rifles these days.

Receiver sights put the line of sight closer to the bore, which, for short ranges, keeps rounds in the kill zone. The larger the distance between bore and line of sight, the more difficult it is to hit very small targets at various ranges encountered in the field. Receiver sights are more accurate than open sights, especially under varied lighting conditions.

That said, I did kill a woodchuck at 100 yards with a Ruger Standard Auto .22LR, but thought I was shooting at a rusty can in a field. You can imagine my surprise when there was a "plop" instead of a "ding" as the chuck fell dead from a neck shot. :D
 
Target shooting at 100 yards with a 22lr is fine but hunting beyond 70yards with a 22 is not humane in my opinion while yes they will kill beyond 100 what is the point no one caliber fits all requirements.
 
I was shooting my Marlin 60 with Tech Sights at 200 last weekend at the range for kicks. With my 50 yard zero the holdover must have been something like 30" because the sweet spot if I wanted to hit a 12" target was somewhere up on the berm above the target stand. Never tried anything past 100 up until then.

I do shoot at 200 with a Marlin .22 mag quite a bit. It's significantly less drop at that distance, I want to say about 5.5".
 
My club has a tactical 22 steel challenge match every month. Distances are out to 210 yds with small steel targets, some with hostage targets in front. The targets are in the shape of IDPA silhouettes but only about 6 inches tall.

I haven't made it to a match but some of these guys helped me get my 10/22 consistently hitting 1-2 inch spinning steel targets out to 150 yds when I ran out of Elevation adjustment and mil dots on my scope. There was no wind to speak of. I was using Wolfe standard target ammo I believe.

I put som Burris offset scope rings to get me to 210 yds but haven't gone back out to get the new dope numbers

Mark
 
Hmmm.......

I got stuck on this one:
A cheap form of target practice is to go get a bag of cheap styrofoam cups and go to the river..fill them full of water and set the up along one bank then ride to the other side and shoot them.
Click to expand...
Is this how it's done in Dixie?
 
Thanks for the help

thanks for all the help and advice. i have been looking for some competitions but i haven't found anything around maryland. i took the rifle back out this week and i was able to shoot a clip off a soda can hanging from a string after about 20 shots. if anyone knows where there is a competition in maryland can they let me know
 
I shoot My CZ 452 alot (3,000 rds. a year) Mostly at 50 & 100yds. shooting SK std.+. At 50yds. I avg. in the mid .4" , the best I ever shot was .16". At 100yds. I avg, 1.0" with my best ever at .650". The smallest group I've ever shot at 200yds. was 2.25" but my avg. is about 3.5" all 5 shot groups. Any body that can look you in the eye and say they are shooting .5" groups at 100yds. With a Savage MKII and cheap scope. Should run for office.
 
Drop is easy to compensate for. The 50cal bmg drops something like 12ft at 1000yards and its considered to be very accurate but for different reasons. With a good bolt gun 400 yard hits is not out of the question. As kids we would shoot 5 gallon buckets at 400yards+ with our 10/22s with about a 75% hit rate. It would be unethical to shoot game at that range imo but for target shooting its not just a lucky shot.
 
My father told me of hitting a crow at 300 yards with his bolt action springfield 22 rifle which he got when he was 10 years old. (about 1930). I did not say anything but I had my doubts.

Several years later in 1977 we were walking through a field which I knew to be 300 yards long. A crow landed on a fence post at the far end of the field. He shot the crow from the standing position. I now believe that he made at least two 300 yard shots on crows with that 22 rifle.

My point is that a shooter who has shot the same rifle over a lifetime over many ranges can connect on some unreal shots. The shooter who knows his weapon and his capabilities can do some unbelievable shooting.
 
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