Come Get Some, You Bucktoothed Punks

I managed to get some shooting time in yesterday. First real effort since the baby showed up and took over.

I am trying to put together two very nice .22 rifles: bolt and semi-auto. I got myself a Tikka T1x MT-something-or-other and a 16″ 10/22. Both short. Both threaded. I got a silencer to use on both.

I used to think the .22 was hopeless for accuracy, but things aren’t as bad as I thought. You can get pretty good results if you spend enough money on the gun and glass and you also test a whole bunch of ammunition to see which type the gun likes. I should be able to pop squirrels in the head, fatally, pretty consistently at 35 yards, possibly out to 50 with practice.

Two long months ago, I tested three cartridges in the Tikka: Eley Benchrest Outlaw, CCI Sub-Sonic 40-grain, and cheap CCI Blazer 40-grain, not to be confused with 36-grain, which everyone hates.

I posted photos here. I shot 4 10-shot groups of each ammo at 35 yards. They all did pretty well, but the CCI Sub-Sonic ammo gave me a flyer I didn’t think was my fault, and the groups were just…ugly. The average size would have been 0.515″ without the flyer, but I doubt the ammunition’s consistency. I don’t want flyers maiming squirrels.

The Outlaws gave me three very good groups and one very bad one, so again, consistency concerns.

The Blazers shocked me, coming in at 0.555″ with beautiful groups and no flyers. I don’t know why a particular load would produce larger but more beautiful groups than another load.

Of the three types, I liked Blazers best. Good enough accuracy for squirrel heads, plus high velocity for more damage.

Yesterday I tried Eley Match, Wolf Match, and Eley Subsonic. Eley is probably the top name in match .22 ammo.

People think Wolf is a Russian ammo company. I have seen people claiming this is not true. They say Wolf buys ammo from all over the world and puts its name on it. I have seen claims that Wolf Match is really made by a well-known company that makes high-grade stuff for matches. At least one vendor claims Eley makes it. The idea is that somehow or other, the QC is lowered for the Wolf product, so it costs less. I don’t know if it’s true.

Long story short: Eley Match 0.429″ with a flyer I may have caused, Wolf Match 0.520″ with a flyer I probably didn’t cause, and Eley Subsonic 0.429″ with ugly, stringy groups.

Sadly, I forgot I was supposed to shoot 10-round groups, so I shot 5 rounds at each bullseye. That means I have to do it all over again.

Also, the measurements are not totally reliable. With these targets, I found it difficult to be sure where the centers of the bullet holes were.

So far, Eley Match looks like it may be the most accurate thing I’ve tried, but Ammoseek’s cheapest price is 31 cents per round. I think I paid 5.5 cents for Blazers, and they were faster and nearly as good, and they have hollow points. I will repost the Blazer target.

It’s important for me to remember that if a group size is x, it means the bullets landed within something like 0.5x of a theoretical point where perfect shots would have landed. If my test group size is 0.6″, then I should generally be within maybe 0.4″, not 0.6″, of the theoretical point. If I can figure out where that theoretical point is with a given gun and load, and I can rest my gun and take quality shots, I should be able to nail squirrels within something like a third of an inch of my points of aim. That is very good accuracy for the purpose.

I dithered around a lot regarding the Ruger’s scope. The Tikka has a very expensive (for squirrels) Athlon Helos on it. I also have rimfire scopes that cost under $100, and most people go cheap. I figured I should get a real scope because the rifle was pricey and I wanted very good performance. I wanted tactical turrets and reticle illumination.

I ended up ordering an Athlon Argos for the Ruger. It has capped turrets, but that’s okay for a hunting rifle which is very unlikely to see serious target shooting. The Helos has better glass. The Argos is lighter than the Helos, and I thought that would be nice while lugging the Ruger around.

The Ruger’s scope is not here yet. Once it gets here, I will have to go through the ammo tests again.

I may be able to get out and try to kill some squirrels this week. I sure hope so. I don’t know if I can reduce their numbers near the house, but if I can’t, at least I can say I got revenge.

Back when it was starting to get really hard to buy ammo, I loaded up on .22 rounds. This was before I made any effort to check accuracy. I ended up with a billion rounds of so-so ammunition. That’s okay. I have pistols, after all. Mini-mags will do just fine for pistols. I think I should load up on Blazers once the accuracy tests are done. That will probably be next week.

Mini-mags and my other non-stellar ammunition will work just fine on coons and other annoyances bigger than squirrels, so it’s not like they are only good for paper.