Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires New rimfire shooter

A short update. Received my Ruger 10/22 SS varmint target a few weeks ago. Put my eBay Redfield (made in USA) 2 to 7 scope on and went to the range. Did OK but I decided to take your advice and go with a new Volquartsen trigger. Watched two separate disassemble Utubes about 5 times each and took very detailed notes. Had a little trouble installing the new trigger, but went back to my notes and got it figured out. Took it to the range yesterday and was very happy with my shooting. Thanks for your help and suggestions. When I get to where I can cover 10 shots with a quarter I’ll go back to the picture issue and try it again. Enjoy your times at the range. Thank you all
WispY

Great report!

Hard to go wrong with that combo. Which ammo did it prefer?

10 shots covered with a quarter is obtainable, but I’d recommend 2 things!

1. A more powerful scope. Shooting a squirrel at 50 yards with 7x scope is fine and been done thousands of times for over 100 years, but trying to shoot tiny groups at 50 yards is a whole different ballgame! Get like a 6-24x scope and a tiny target like size of a dime or smaller and try to hold same point of aim each shot!

2. The wind! The wind and a .22lr are not friends at all!! If you know how to read wind then simply watch your wind. If you do not know how to read wind, get a roll of survey ribbon and tie a few 2’ to 3’ lengths up on tree beaches at your range and watch them. Also another tip I’ve found very helpful is set a wind flag up in your yard where you look most often. Have 5 mins just sit there and watch and learn. Focus on your left and right wind first. Once you get a feel for that then start paying attention to the wind hitting your face or the wind hitting the back of your neck.

Hope this helps somewhat, and please post some pics of the new ride and some targets you shoot with it! Cheers and happy shooting!

Another trick for tiny groups, eley tenex

On my target/bench 10/22, sporting an old V16 fine crosshair.

Have your parallax adjusted to something in the 50-75 yard range, or if the scope is user adjustable, do that.

2.5X El Paso Weaver w/parallax adjusted to 50 yards. 10/22, full length bedded, with Power Custom trigger, 5 shots:


3 shots:


Another of my .22's prefers a different ammo and uses a Leupold M8-2.5X
50 yards, 5 shots

Your 2-7x scope is ok for 50yd. work. The trick is to match the target to your crosshairs and magnification. If your groups are big as you're alluding to then you have other issues to address such as ammo selection and basic marksmanship (which includes how to mind the wind), given that the rifle is completely up to snuff of course. High magnification scopes are fine and dandy but without the skill to master breathing and trigger control the high magnification will just add to your frustrations. The old adage "learn to walk before you can run" comes to mind....

Thanks guys! I’ll work on all of your suggestions. This is why I enjoy this website so much.
Happy shooting.
WhipsY

+1. well put.

High magnification has its advantages, but without adjustable focus parallax can kill your buzz. There are ways to minimize it, but better to eliminate it. Most fixed focus scopes seem to be set for 100 yards these days, but some like Leupolds meant for CF rifles are set for 150, not helpful, and it gets worse when you crank in more Xs.

Set your scope at 7x and put the rifle in a steady rest. If you can make the crosshairs move around on the target with small movements of your head, you have a parallax issue. Any inconsistency in your head position will affect your results on paper. Add that to the effects of even a little wind, and you’ll never get the best from your rifle.

I’d check for parallax and correct that, then get or make some wind indicators and learn to use them. After that, you’re ready to start seriously testing ammo.

Also, don’t forget to fire 10 or so “seasoning” shots when switching ammo. Sometimes it doesn’t matter much, but sometimes the difference is really noticeable, to where you can watch the impacts move across the target as the barrel settles in to the new lube.

"but without adjustable focus parallax can kill your buzz." Pappy

Yes either a scope that is adjustable for parallax or a rimfire scope.

Rimfire scopes are generally set to be parallax free at 50 or 75 yards.

Jerry

Along those lines. It's usually a safe bet to just buy/use a rimfire scope. With that being said, I have used Bushnell Rimfire scopes from 3-9 to 6-18x40 and they all work well. However, my current 10-22 has an AR specific scope on it right now and it works very well. Burris AR556 4.5-14x42:


That is one scope that I've found to work excellent on every kind of rifle I've used it on. I have multiples of this one and even use them on 300 magnum bolt actions. They were a limited run, so they are hard to find.





There's a lot of good info in this thread. As some guys have demonstrated, you don't need really high magnification if you match your target to your aiming device.

When I read through some of these posts, I think about all the ragged hole groups I've seen from rifles using iron sights. Which proves that point. I still think it's damn cool that the OP is excited about shooting. He reminds me a lot of a guy at one of the clubs I'm a member of in Washington. He also has a Ruger 10-22. He bought it new back in 1968, but never used it. I always thought that was weird though. Anyway, my buddy Steve, who is a retired Airborne Ranger has been helping him with that 10-22. They put a Volquartsen trigger in, I sold him a nice Magpul stock (like the one pictured in this post) for cheap and he's running a 4.5-14x42 scope. He's like a kid in a candy store. It's fun to see him in the club shoots because he improves every match.