Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires Little things matter

Now and then one needs to step back and not be too quick to blame this or that for a disappointment. As some of you know I've been plinking pigs over the years with a Contender and CB shorts. They worked because I could put them where it mattered.



Note the label style on the ammo box please. Time passed and my supply was getting low so in good faith I orders another brick and it arrived with the new blue label. Didn't give it a lot of thought at the time, but then one day I put some to the test. Yuk. 'Curse the new product' was my thought. Tried some CCI .22 Short Target with the same results. Dang it all. The old stuff shot very well, thank you. Starting with a clean barrel at 25 yards with a red dot sight.



Well, of late I've been having some vision issues and it has been quite vexing. Bad enough that I finally took the red dot sight off the gun due to the dot's appearance of being a bowl of spaghetti. Put an ancient Leupy M8-2.5x Compact on it and today was the day to get it zeroed. As it typical the first shot thru the clean barrel went wild in the streets. #1 far lower left. Then it got a little better. Hmmmmm...adjusted the sight and went a step further.



The next three targets were shot in numerical order, #2 & 3 using CB Short and the 4th with Target Shorts. Target #3 is a perfect 1/2" group. #4 illustrates something of interest. Put two in nearly the same hole and decide you need to adjust the bags? Sure....and put the next three in another hole. -laffin' here-

Gettin' old ain't for sissies.

You might try leaving your rifle dirty. Many times 22's like a dirty bore.

Damn near every time in my experience. When I used the gun frequently it did not get cleaned very often. Moved on to a .30 cal lead slinger awhile back. Most guns shooting lead do better after a fouling shot or two.

Nice shooting Dan. I do like that little 2.5X Leupold.

nice

the nice part about getting old is that you dont worry about the same schitt you used to worry about ... you worry about NEW schitt that didnt even occur to you before!

I think someone needs to neck the .22 short down to .17 and give it a snazzy name, like .17 Rimfire Creedmoor.

Dan, I've found that for my eyes, pretty much the same correction that gives me the clearest distance image (about +1) also cleans up those red dots. Your solution is good too, as long as you're able to focus the scope to your vision anyway. Some of mine are getting close to the end of the threads!

Well, I like the idea of the .17 RF Creedmoor Short, will have to ponder that a bit. Maybe even a BB cap Creedmoor? Wait, I already got one of those! Imagine this if you can. .17 caliber shooting round balls, primer powered with a 7.5" twist on 12 grooves. I think if I were to reinvent such a thing I'd stay with the .22 brass and call it the .17 FYVM Creedmoor Short RF. Or .17 FYVMCSRF for short. Pun intended.

SHAZAAM! My .17 BB gun target.


The gun:


Them German gun builders were pretty special back in the day, no? That's a 50' offhand target by the way.

Well, on to more serious matters, I zeroed the second one today, an old Ruger 10/22. Stock gun except for the trigger and a bedding job done 25 years back. It's always been finicky with the ammo it does well with and for many years the only thing it shot worth a toot was WW Power Points. I still have a bundle of the old production, but the newer stuff isn't quite as good. OTOH, it seems to like CCI SV a fair bit and pigs don't quibble much about being off a 1/4" from point of aim. So anyway, there I was on the line this AM and figured to burn up a wee bit of ammo to get the scope zeroed.

First 3 shots were a diagonal of about .35", 1-1/2" low and left. Twiddled the dials and it put 3 in a similar sized group. Went to target #2 and put 3 in one ragged hole, a triangle with about .375" spread. Twiddled the knobs just a wee bit. So OK, time for some Wolf MT. 3 shots in .15" dead center. So I'm smiling here.

Pappy, the problem I'm having with the eye (right) is the result of a rather aggressive Chemo/Radiation therapy I experienced about 14 years ago. Radiation was zeroed from the side and front of my left eye, about 1/2" behind and above the orbit center. I'd won the lymphoma lottery (two styles) in the eye. Long term results led to cataracts and surgery, plus a raging case of dry eye. A few years after the cataract surgery the polarity axis on my right eye became mobile. Took awhile for the docs to figure that out, but the short version is that some days I see pretty well, others, not worth a bucket of crap. The astigmatism is the thing that queered the red dot theory. I like them and have used them for some time on several guns, but to quote the raven, "Never More."

Did I say how much I like Wolf MT and SK Standard Plus LR ammo? I have a good supply and they are one and the same. It is the first time I've shot Wolf in the gun and I'm pleased to see there is something out there as functional as the Power Point of old.

Your supply of wolf MT- is it newer or older? Newer stuff, within the last year or two- is made by eley. I only have experience with the SK made wolf- and am a fan. I have not bought any of the newer eley made wolf as i have read mixed reviews which have generally said that the eley made wolf isn’t as good as the SK made wolf was.

It be sourced from SK and I've had it for quite a spell. When that source dried up I went to SK. Identical in all regards. 3 bricks and change in the locker.

That’s been my experience as well.

Gotcha.

I don’t see the need to bother trying the new wolf considering how well SK preforms.

Nor do I. The label isn't near as important than the contents and I"m not inclined to fix stuff that ain't broke. Not too long ago I was fooling around with my Contender during work on the .22 GTC and shot a 5 shot group of .09" with Wolf of the SK persuasion. Hardly gets any better so far as I'm concerned.