Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires SK Rifle Match

I hit the range today prepping for a hog hunt next week with a couple of centerfires and found a brick of the subject ammo for $80. I have somewhat recently acquired a few what have been accurate rifles, a Savage Anschutz M141, a Remington 541S and, most recently, I rebarreled a 10-22. All shot something "non-match" pretty well, 1/2" at 50. Should I expect more with the subject load? Yes, I get rimfires are fickle with loads.

I would expect you would get somewhat better accuracy with those rifles with SK Rifle Match, but as you said, rimfires are tough to figure out sometimes. My experience, however, is that most of my rimfires, especially my 541S and my Winchester 69As love the SK ammo and shoot it quite well. It is made by Lapua, so you know it is good stuff....

Bob

My RimX likes it.

It’s a winner.

Exactly. I'd expect better as well. I get better than that with SK standard, which cost much less than SK match..

I hadn't heard that Lapua was making SK rimfire ammo. I know in the early 1990s, the Nammo Group bought the SK Jagd ammunition plant in Schönebeck, Germany. As far as I know the SK ammo is still produced in Germany although I believe they use Vihtavuori powders now. But it's hard to keep the relationships sorted out in the modern manufacturing world today!

It’s good stuff

I see dozens of lots of SK ammo in use every year in silhouette.

Standard Plus is the default and normally very good. The Rifle Match should be a step up but often is not. It is extremely lot sensitive. Even Center X is lot sensitive.

I have seen a single lot of rifle match that in an Anschutz 5418 with 3-groove Benchmark I used to own, shooting at 77m turkey distance? Fire one shot, aim at that bullet hole for succeeding shots and it would just make that bullet hole "blacker". I have seen other lots that were so bad that guys wouldn't want to use it even for practice.

If you want SK / Lapua ammo that is safely a step up from Standard Plus you need to go to Midas.

In fairness the “really bad” rifle match was 5 or 6 years ago. The stuff we have seen in the past couple years has been uniformly very good. Even the “low end” standard plus has shot well. Maybe not Midas good but you don’t feel compromised using it in any match short of Nationals level stuff.

Some of the best silhouette shooters I know (among the best on the planet) will use Standard Plus for 40m chickens and 60m pigs, and possibly 77m turkeys. Then they use Midas for 100m rams and maybe turkeys. I do the same for big shoots but I am not as good as them!

I look after the order for my club every year. Out of 25+ cases of SK? One or perhaps two will be rifle match. It’s just not consistently worth the extra money over standard plus.

And come to think of it, it’s not the great shooters that try rifle match. It’s normally the guy that has been shooting for 2-3 years and thinks if he buys ammo better than standard plus he will score better. Then ultimately if they improve they go to the standard plus / Center X or Midas combo.

Here is a target shot with my competition rifle. Two 10-shot groups at 100 m at the bottom with standard plus, one at the top with Midas. And the top and bottom groups in particular really demonstrate what I expect with standard plus versus great ammunition. These are typical in that you won’t see much difference in horizontal, but with the high-end stuff the vertical goes away. On 100 m rams with that big window under the belly, vertical in the ammunition can kill you.

Like most silhouette shooters, I shoot 90% standard plus. And then in the shoots that matter, Midas gets used for rams and possibly turkeys.

That’s my long winded way of saying that rifle match can shoot really well, but I don’t depend on it.

Mind you if you’re only shooting at 50 yards, it should be great. A lot of cheaper 22 ammunition shoots really well at 50 yards, and falls apart if you stretch it out to 100. In a 541 I used to own, American Eagle would shoot ragged holes at 50 yards, and be hard pressed to beat 2 inches of 100.

CCI Standard Velocity has that tendency as well in my experience. It can shoot really well at the 40 m chickens and even 60 m pigs but beyond that accuracy falls off.

SK rifle match is good ammo, you’ll more than likely be pleased

Yep, it's good stuff - seems to be "universally" good. The CZ and Anschutz disagree on certain ammo types but they both shot well with SK Rifle Match

Depends on your personal standards, but it is probably the best accuracy for the price point.
For smallbore silhouette matches it is super popular. I just ordered 2 cases from an inside deal at the distributor for competitive shooters, but I doubt it will materialize.
I imagine my check will be returned. Seems to good to be true in these fcked up times.

Rick, that is one of the best discussions of .22 ammo and accuracy that I can recall seeing, certainly on these forums. Thanks for posting.

Discussions of .22 accuracy typically divide into two camps. Those who are really serious and approach the pursuit of accuracy in a systematic, even scientific, manner; and those who chime in that their kids go through bricks of Remington Thunderbolts, and they kill tons of critters with it, and never have to clean their rifles. Two different worlds, and it seems that never the twain shall meet.

I'm envious that silhouette is alive and well in your area. It has died out in the two places I have lived in the past couple of decades, having been supplanted by various forms of tactical rimfire and the associated rifles and related gear. Vudoos off bipods.

Pretty much my experience. All of my .22s with a LR chamber are quite fond of it.

Funny, I'd never considered swapping ammo this way but it makes a lot of sense. I shoot SK Standard for silhouette or Norma Tac 22 which perform identically in my Anschutz 1722.

I suppose that if I had sufficient time, even sorting the good stuff by rim thickness may be worth it or at least at the SK/Norma price point sorting and shooting consistent rims on the turkeys/rams.

Thanks Paul.

Pugs, stating the obvious, it works because those two types of ammunition have the same lube. It’s not like you have to season the bore for either one going back-and-forth.

Identical head stamps among several Euro brands strongly suggest a family relationship.

Not obvious to me but should have been! Thanks for pointing it out. How many types of lube are there and has anyone ever built a cross-reference chart?

Good information for those of us who think CCI Standard Velocity is as good as we need. It may be, but I'd like to have options and experiment. Enjoyed reading the comments.

Pugs, I am not familiar with any chart that identifies similar 22 lubes. I understand Lapua/SK use the same lube. It looks the same, and there’s no variation in bullet impact when first switching between that ammo.

Same for rim thickness. I haven’t looked into it and for my silhouette won’t. I’m just not that dedicated. . When a slow year is 5000 rounds, I’m not sorting for rim thickness. Besides, a GREAT rifle/ammo melding will hit the 3/8 minute dot in our scopes at ram distance. It’s just not the same level of accuracy as benchrest. In silhouette, a great follow through is more important than that last 50 thou smaller group size. I know you know that, just talking.


I was asked how I decide what to use at turkeys. Two things help me decide. First, if my rifle really likes the latest lot of standard plus and it shoots great at 77m, I use it.

Second, if I am not shooting at a level I feel good about I don’t waste the expensive Midas. That’s like a rookie golfer spraying pro-v 1s into the bush ... what’s the point?

My target 1022 and standard 455 both liked SK rifle match.