Long Range .22 Rifle Shooting - By Frank Brophy

Long Range .22 Rifle Shooting

The Anschutz .22 rifle and equipment used.

It’s long been accepted that an further than 100 yards (or metres) was accurate 100 metre shot with a .22 considered unethical and probably still calibre rifle is about as good as it is. Oftentimes when someone claimed gets using either high velocity or sub- hunting success with a shot at sonic ammunition. Back in the old considerably longer range we simply target-shooting days, Olympic 50 didn’t believe them. Many variables metres was the standard shooting come into play – wind drift, mirage, distance and we groaned if an shimmering and refraction of light from occasional competition required firing mist or rain, even shadows created by out to 100 yards. clouds moving across the sky on a

Notwithstanding, the Anschutz 1413 bright day – all affect pinpoint accuracy. rifle that I used was fitted with Freeland Recently a colleague in South Africa tubular aperture sights fore and aft that mentioned that he was having great involved simply swapping the foresight success with a bog standard ‘scoped .22 tube for a custom-made replacement sporting rifle using high velocity with a lower base, designed to raise the ammunition, competing at 200 and 300 bullet’s point of impact from 50 to 100 metres against shooters using centre-fire yards. No rear-sight elevation rifles in .223 or 6.5X55 calibre. The adjustments were necessary apart from immediate reaction was “can’t be done”. compensation for wind drift. Apart from accuracy problems at long Comfortably elevating the muzzle range, small-bore calibres are not brought the foresight aperture to bear on normally permitted in centre-fire the black bull target. Despite using the competitions anywhere, no more than a most sophisticated match rifles of the family saloon can be raced in Formula time, 100 yards was usually considered One. a .22’s accuracy limit– probably However, knowing the man because it never occurred to anyone to concerned, the claim warranted another look beyond that. look just to see if it was possible.

Even in the hunting field when using Africa’s hotter climate affects a rifle’s a .22 sporting rifle and high velocity muzzle velocity – as temperatures ammunition, a shot at a live target increase, so too does muzzle velocity. So, using a .22 rifle in those conditions should raise the bullet’s trajectory for both distances mentioned; although susceptibility to wind-drift etc would most likely create difficulties. A field test under Irish conditions could be an interesting exercise so I decided to try it out.

The .22 sporting rifle, an Anschutz, was cleaned and oiled. Although stamped “made in West Germany” (pre 1997) it’s in mint condition and very accurate – age has no bearing on the reliability of a quality .22 if it’s properly looked after. One slight issue existed –when new the foresight had been removed, the screw-holes plugged and a ‘scope fitted, which in turn had recently been replaced by a red dot sight for 25 metre indoor shooting. The foresight had long since gone AWOL and no amount of rummaging turned it up, so factory iron sight tests were out. That left the red dot or the ‘scope. I opted for the latter as it’s more suitable for long ranges.

Precision shooting at far distances requires decent rifle-rests fore and aft along with a spotting ‘scope and tripod. While the Schmidt and Bender 6 X 42 rifle-scope is more than adequate for

Ammunition - note the scope adjustment reminders in the turret caps. spotting fall of centre-fire rifle shot on paper targets at 100 metres, it’s not ideal for reading.22 strikes at 200/300 metres, hence the spotting scope.

The field test was postponed until early September

Carrying out the test wasn’t as simple as piling the gear into the car and heading off to the range – it was entirely weather dependent. Given variable Irish conditions particularly in March, the checking of weather forecasts for a suitable day became a ritual, as was a planned early morning start to get shooting before the wind rose. Covid 19 put an end to the planning in March and most of the summer, postponing the field test until early September when one misty night was followed by a flat, calm morning.

In previous 100 yard tests with this rifle using various ammunition brands, Remington Yellow Jacket bullets produced the tightest groups on paper; proved very efficient in vermin control, and so was the obvious choice for this exercise.

In the summer ’20 edition of Irish Country Sports and Country Life I referred to some manufacturers that produce rifles with tighter chambers thereby increasing accuracy. Similarly, ammunition manufacturers produce more “accurate” (and expensive?) bullets by fractionally increasing the projectile’s diameter to create a tighter fit. In the southern hemisphere a tight .22 chamber coupled with “accurate” bullets plus local high temperatures could create interesting results, the very least being cycling problems in a semiauto firearm. I’m assuming a bolt rifle was used by my Afrikaner friend.

On the range, an initial 5 shots were taken at 100 metres to check accuracy and grouping before switching to the 200 metre target. The ‘scope remained at the 100 yards setting for the first three shots on the 200 metres, registering low strikes – just a safety precaution - as it wouldn’t be unknown for long shots dropping early to ricochet off hard ground and skip over the backstop. It required 41 upward clicks on the elevation turret to achieve a half decent group at 200m. One click equates to a quarter of an inch at 100 yards, so the adjustment necessary to raise the fall of shot to 200 yards indicated a drop of almost one foot from the 100 yard point. Scope adjustments are set in inches, not metrics, by the manufacturers.

Grouping at 200 metres and then at 300 metres

A final group fired at 200 metres was quite respectable - but on moving to 300 metres the wheels came off. Ten shots registered on the backing board 3 feet below the paper target. Unfortunately it was not possible to elevate the scope setting any further because 7 clicks brought the adjustment turret to its full extent. No left or right wind adjustments had been required at any distance - a surprise despite the calm morning.

It wasn’t clear from the South African claim whether a scope or iron sight was in use so I fired just two shots, aiming high above the top of the target resulting in two lucky strikes within the black border. It’s very likely that aiming up is what’s being done in South Africa, although the scoring area on centre-fire targets is huge making it far easier to register a score with the .22 bullet.

The target I used was designed for 100 yards - tiny compared to the large targets used in long-range centre-fire shooting. Had a much larger target been available (I didn’t have one) the 300m hits probably would have registered using “hold over”. Far too much hit and miss is involved in firing high, compromising safety, so I called it a day.

Military ballistic studies have shown that a 40 grain .22cal high velocity bullet has an extreme range of 1,500 yards. Accuracy was not a factor in these studies which were carried out on high ground with a safe, suitable dropoff, and where a shot might eventually land was anybody’s guess. A .22 performs best within a 100yd/metre distance, there can’t be many reasons for going outside that. The manufacturer’s warning on the side of an ammunition box about distance and danger is deadly serious and is not an advertising gimmick – because when a bullet exits a firearm’s muzzle, the firer no longer has any control over it. That’s

quite a responsibility.

A reasonable group at 200 metres.