Rodents Fall Victim to Improved Technology

Today, I tried out my new shooting bench, and I also did some rimfire research. I tested two rifles in my pasture.

As covered earlier this week, I built myself a massive square shooting bench. I welded it together from 2″-square steel tubing, and I put two-by-sixes across the top. It has two wheels so I can move it around.

Yesterday, I moved it to the pasture. I would have done it sooner, but I needed to have forks on my front end loader, and they had been removed so I could move dirt. My forks are held on by chains with big turnbuckles, and I learned that some bubba in the past had ruined one of them. I had to fix it before I could put my forks back on.

A turnbuckle is a tube with internal threads on each end. One set of threads is left-handed, and the other is right-handed. You screw threaded parts into each end, and these parts are attached to cables or chains. When you turn your cylinder, the threaded parts move into it, and you tighten your chain or cable.

Some master engineer had apparently used Vise Grips to hold onto a couple of my turnbuckles in order to get a grip so he could turn them. This compressed the tubes slightly. When you compress a threaded tube, you make it very hard to screw things into it.

I had to buy a 1″ tap and fix one of my turnbuckles. The other one isn’t all that bad. I put the turnbuckle in a vise, used a breaker bar to get the stuck part out of it, ran the tap through it, greased the daylights out of everything, and reassembled it. About 99% of tractor owners would have been lost, but because of my hobbies, I knew what to do, and I had all the tools I needed except for the tap.

I intended to fix this a year ago, but I forgot. I ordered and paid for a tap, and it never arrived. I didn’t check on it, so I’m out five bucks.

Anyway, I attached the forks to the tractor, put moving blankets on them, and lifted the bench. Moving it was no problem. I scuffed the paint while backing the tractor out, because I dropped the forks and forgot about the lower crossmembers in the bench, but I can fix the scuffing in two seconds, literally.

I put the bench by my shooting platform, 100 yards from my target area. Today I was shooting rimfire, and I wanted to see what the guns would do at 50. I lifted one end of the bench and rolled it forward. No problem. It was not light, but I was able to balance it on the wheels so I didn’t bear the weight.

I used a Home Depot folding chair. It was okay, but I need a higher chair or a board to put under the chair’s feet. I need to be down low, and the chair’s feet sink in the ground.

The bench was excellent. Like shooting from a boulder. It was also spacious. Lots of room for junk.

I shot my newish Savage A22 and my friend Mike’s old Marlin Model 60. I have a Nikon Prostaff II scope, and he has a Tasco which looks like it came from a drugstore. The Nikon is pretty nice for a low-end scope. Both guns are semiautomatic.

I wanted to try these guns on a rest, because I have been thinking about trying “precision rimfire.” I use quotation marks because I’m not sure “precision” .22 LR exists, for people who are not willing to rob banks in order to finance their shooting.

I have a Ruger Precision Rifle which will shoot 0.5 MOA, no problem, consistently. I saw that Ruger had come out with a Ruger Precision Rimfire rifle. The purpose is to give people a practice gun to shoot at shorter ranges, with cheaper ammo. I got all excited. Most .22 rifles won’t beat 2 MOA at 100 yards. In fact, 2 MOA would be much better than average. I figured if Ruger was willing to put “Precision” in the rifle’s name, it ought to shoot sub-MOA.

I watched some videos, and boy, where they disappointing. The reviewers who made the videos squealed like little girls. They were thrilled with the accuracy. And how accurate were the rifles? Maybe 1.5 MOA, at 50 yards.

I figured I could do that with a cheap semiauto, so I wondered why anyone would pay a lot more money for a “precision” .22. What were the reviewers excited about? Were they just bad shots?

I went to a sharpshooting forum and asked questions. I learned some things.

There is one well-known brand of .22 rifle that will shoot sub-MOA, and you can expect to spend close to $3000 for one. This is what the forum guys said, anyway. I was also told I would have to test the boxes of ammunition I bought. So I would be spending maybe 30 cents per round for post-coronavirus ammunition, testing boxes, and throwing out the ones that didn’t pass. Basically, I would end up paying 6.5mm Creedmoor prices, or more, to shoot a .22. Actually, I would pay more, because the rifle would cost over twice as much.

If I can shoot 0.5 MOA at 500 yards, why would I pay the same money to shoot 1 MOA at 50 yards? It seemed like a stupid idea, so I dropped it.

The company that makes the accurate .22 rifles is called Vudoo. After giving up on precision rimfire, I read that Anschutz and Lithgow (an Australian company) made cheaper rifles that would do nearly as well. You can get a Lithgow rifle for about a thousand dollars, which is not totally out of the question. This renewed my interest in accurate .22 rifles. I decided to find out what the rifles I already possessed would do.

Today I got out my dwindling bucket of Remington Golden Bullets and a box of CCI Mini-mags. I refused to use expensive ammunition, because it would make the test pointless.

With Golden Bullets, the Model 60, its 20-pound trigger, and its claw-machine scope annoyed me by outshooting the Savage. It shot around 2.5 MOA, and the Savage did slightly worse.

I wouldn’t wish the Marlin’s trigger on a mass shooter. It’s like lifting weights. At one point, the pull was so heavy I thought I had the safety on, so I checked. Nonetheless, it was accurate when I concentrated. The Savage has a very nice Accutrigger, but I had it adjusted too low, so it was tricky. You don’t want a rifle to go off before you’re ready.

I kept shooting, and I moved to Mini-mags. Both guns liked them better. What I found was that these guns, with this ammunition, in my hands, would shoot 1 MOA 5-shot groups, or similar groups that were ruined by one flyer. My best guess, which is only a guess, is that both guns will shoot 1 MOA most of the time at 50 yards, if I fix the triggers and practice a little.

That’s not bad. If I can shoot 0.5″ groups at 50 yards for a few cents a round, it’s worth it to do it regularly. All practice is good, and cheap practice is better.

I can’t be sure of my conclusions yet. I was not completely consistent. The trigger issues may explain that. A really good marksman who was used to these guns could work around bad triggers, but I was not able to make them behave 100% of the time.

I’m wondering if I can improve my accuracy by working on the Savage. I can’t hack up Mike’s rifle, but the Savage is all mine.

I’ve read that one reason the Vudoo shoots so well is that it has special magazines that make sure bullets don’t get damaged on the way to the chamber. Cheap .22 rifles don’t have features like that. My Savage has a crisp chamfer on the lower side of the chamber mouth. If a bullet hits the upper edge wrong, it may to get scraped, and this could cause it to fly crooked.

I’m wondering if I can put a smooth radius on that edge and make my shots more consistent. I looked it up, and I read that other people have already thought of this. They do it to pistols and some centerfire guns. I’m thinking about trying it. If I ruin my barrel, it’s not a big deal. Savage barrels can be replaced with simple tools.

If I can turn this gun into a 1-MOA rifle, maybe I should put better glass on it. I have an MRAD 4-14x scope which is gathering dust. It would make it easy to spot my own shots. It might work for hunting, too, since small animals suitable for rimfire hunting go well with high magnification.

I doubt this gun will ever break 2 MOA at 100 yards, but if it will get to 2 MOA, it will still be pretty great for a .22.

I feel like I should see what I can do with this gun before looking at other options.

The bench is great. The rifles and ammo are better than expected. I expect to do better with a little gunsmithing and practice. That sums it up.

If not, there is always Lithgow.