I'm thinking that there might be a more practical sight in distance than the 10 yard one that my newly scoped M61 is set for. Sure the thing is right on at my most often encountered red squirrel distance, but it is 2 1/2" inches high at 45 yards. I guess they call that mid range trajectory because it begins to fall off from there. Does a longer range sight in distance, say 20 yards, flatten out the bullet's trajectory at shorter or longer ranges? Head of red squirrel isn't very large and hold over or under has given me some issues.

More practical would be 25 yard sight in.
I set my piney slayer dead on at 50 yards.

No one knows the exact distance game will appear. I sight in at 50 yards and then shoot at 25 to see where I hit. Distance judgment is an art . Even at close range. I’m not squirrel hunting anymore but I’ve been known to shoot a few blue quail while deer hunting. That is just for supper. Hasbeen

The 22 I use for squirrel hunting in our hardwoods is set at around 35 yards. Never shot it any closer to see where it hits and cannot see much farther than 50 yards so I don't worry too much about excessive drop.

My rimfire shots are generally from a handful of feet to about 100 yds. If I am going to use it on small stuff, 50 yd sight-in works great. Trajectory is never more than an inch and a half from sight line out to about 65 yds. If I am after larger stuff, like jack rabbits or rock chucks, I sight in for 70-80 yds. This allows for a dead hold to or just past 100.

50 yards works for me.

Probably the most practical, sensible distance for the majority of rimfire shots. That said, my .22s are zero-ed at 50 yards, which is what the local range has available.

I DO zero my .17HMR at 100 yards, though, it's worthy of it.

You guys are shooting at stuff lots farther than I am. Those red squirrels have never been shot at until they see me and then it is too late. Those 36 grain hollow points are decisive even for a body shot, but I want to make a good shot on anything that I'm hunting.

Yes, a longer range site in distance will flatten out the trajectory, until you reach a certain point.
That point is determined by the distance of your visual line of site above the barrel bore.

I site in my rim fires different than my center fire rifles. I don,t see a need for my rimfire to cross above my zero'd line of site. My shots are just not that far generally. it hits zero once and then the poi starts to drop back down...

On my center fires I like to have the bullet cross over the first zero'd line of site to about 2.5 inches high before it starts to drop back through the second zero,d line of site farther down range. Where ever distance those zero'd points of impact end up being is secondary to me.

Agreed on a 50 yards as a good all around zero for 22RF Long Rifle HV ammo but the bullet is going to start off approx. 1&1/2" below the line of sight with most scope sighted 22s. I've found it's a good idea to put the crosshairs at the top of the squirrel's head or about an inch high of where you want to hit on any shots under 20 yards.

I even shot at 5 yards to hit 1/2" low with that 10 yard zero and then in 5 yard increments out to 50 and it was all above line of sight to there.

50 yds!!

Another vote for 50 yards for tree rats.

25 yds for me.

The biggest problem with shooting a scoped rifle at close rsnges is the height of the sights over the bore . And tge sad favt us a 22 LR simply dies not shoot flat enough to negate that. Actually, no cartridge really does

Lets say you sight in at 25 yards. At 10 yards you still are about 1" low due to to height of the scope over the bore.

My question is if you are sighting in for your normal shooting dustances 10-15 tards WHY would you give crap about were the bullet impacts at 45 yards if you never shoot that far?

If you need precise zeros for various ranges..my suggestion would be adjust your scope accordingly. Record the short range sight setting for "back door shots" at close range and then record a higher 25-50 yard setting for normal hunting ranges.

Zero at 25 yards with the ammo you hunt with, then shoot targets at 5 to however many yards out you want and note the results. That will be a fun day sighting in and will provide you with the data you will need in the fall.

jk 16 being the analytical cuss that I am, I just wanted to know when the trajectory began to arc back over and 45 yards was it. That and I caught up with the Walmart truck when they were bringing in the .22 ammunition back when it was scarce and bought a bunch, so passing the time shooting something is one of my favorite things to do. Not that this 3x9 is mounted that much higher than the peep sight that it replaced, I've just been kind of surprised about the difference in the poi at close range.

If you want to really have something to agonize over, get an airgun. The trajectory issues with a .22 are minor by comparison.

The first time I took the airgun I'd been shooting in my basement outside, I was shocked at how much I had to crank on the high-mounted scope to get it on target. Later, I removed the scope to use a peep sight and it got simple again.

zero at 25 and know your holds. BDC's are invaluable and make a modern 22LR deadly from 2' to 150yds.

The X-ACT app from Hawke Optics lets you plot the trajectory, either using their pre-set data or your own. The reticle figures are for their scopes, of course, but the tables work for any regular single-point scope. I imagine the other makers have similar tools too.

Best thing would be to do your plotting, of course, but most ranges only allow firing at the set distances.

Nikon has their Spot On program and app. It has a lot of factory ammo options for rimfire, centerfield, shotgun and muzzleloader data as well as letting you enter your own data I believe.

Dead on at 50........think this one was around 40 yards.
Place has a lot of reds.
Problem is the deer flies and skeeters..........beyond brutal

I find 30 to 35 yards to be a good compromise distance for me.

I like 32 yards, backyard range. Hits low at 50 yards with subs but that is A long shot on squirrels for me.

I got an old Redfield Widefield 4x I could sell you that you could mount super low because the bells are flat on the top and bottom. Now if you take the iron sights off you can get it even lower. Mounted in the lowest possible rings, this'll keep your point of impact closer to your point of aim from really really close out to 30 or 35 yards.

And although they'd likely tear a squirrel up a bit at those short ranges, if you were shootin Yellowjackets or Stingers their added velocity would let your point of impact stay even closer to your point of aim through the same distances.
I'd probably prefer some hot solids like Vipers for damage control.

hookeye:



Wow! We have some flies and skeeters, but I must admit I've never attempted shooting them. You're way beyond my league.

I think the problem is they try to pack the squirrels away!!

I love to hunt gray squirrels with a scoped .22 rifle. I prefer my rifles be sighted in dead on at 50 yards.

They're thick enough you can flock shoot 'em

When I was younger I hunted squirrels early season, and the woods I hunted weren't bad.
Yeah, my tolerance for bugs, and insect repellent.......is long gone.

But this recent little red squirrel haven is simply wicked bad with stuff that makes you bleed.
I learned to stay the hell out of it til leaves drop.

The trajectory is the trajectory -- you don't change it, you simply pick the point along it you wish to have your scope point.

I usually sight in at the distance that will see the most shots, then I learn where I need to hold for everything else. I have to hold over for long shots, and I have to do the same thing for close ones!

75 yards for Scoped .22lr guns. For the hunt, I generally am using CCI Velocitors.

Shoot at 10 yard increments up to 100 yards (beyond if you like). Know your rifle and ammo combo.

Trajectory is the one thing that consistently changes. Just moving the zero'd POI from 15 yards to 50 yards changes the trajectory of the bullet In relation to the line of site.
That's the reason I like to set my scoped rimfire so that the POI just hits my line of site, and never signifigantly rises above it... What ever that distance may be, will depend a lot on your scope and rings combination as well as what ammo you choose.

If my line of site is above the bore an 1 1/2" with poi zero'd at "X" yards, then I pretty much know where the poi will be at half that (3/4" low)or a quarter (1 1/8" low) of that distance. ( the Gravity bell curve will play a bigger part in drop farther down range from Zero, but that's just part of it.)
Squirrel heads have more to do with shot placement than distance shooting Imo.

Thermacell is your friend.

Not a gimmick either. Thank me later.

The Thermacell in conjunction with a good dose of Permethrin will keep the skeeters and pecker gnats at bay. Just sit the Thermacell where wind let's the vapors drift in your direction.

I've had a Thermacell for several years.
Won't turkey hunt without one
Squirrels...................eh, wait til leaves are down.

I have an 8" 22/45 Ruger..........

Might be good for squirrels.............need to figure out what RDS I want for it.

8 3/8" K22 17 and 48. makes for a good squil shooters.
Bought them a long long time ago. Sequential serial numbers. Walnut Case. New.

Pride and joy. They make you a good shooter.

I use open/iron sights and sight in at 25 yards but only because my eyes aren't the most accurate past that.

As some have suggested on this thread.....sight in for the most frequent occurring distances that most of your hunting shots are taken.

I live out more in the desert and hunt mainly jackrabbits with my .22s with most shots in the 50-100 range category so I use 75 yards for most of my sight in distance. All .22 rifle are scoped and the biathlon seems to punch the smallest groups but tough to work that bolt on running jackrabbits.

I've also tested the place on my bottom vertical cross-hair where the taper occurs to know that longer distance. Without wind the .22lr can be effective at longer than thought distances.

Agreed on knowing where your hitting using the top of the bottom coarse vertical cross hair taper as an aiming point. I've found with a 50 yard zero if I use it as an aiming point I'm pretty much on at a 100 with HV CCIs as opposed to 4" low using the cross-hair.

With CCI mini-mags I zero at 25 yards as the bullet is rising and find that it is also zeroed at about 60 yards as it drops.

I squirrel hunt with .22 match ammo, mostly Eley Tenex and Federal Gold Ultra Match. (I prefer pinpoint bughole accuracy over high velocity, and employ heavy target rifles in order to capitalize on that. Even a solid bullet loafing along at subsonic velocity in the head will snuff out their lights instantly, and a chest hit isn't survivable either.) To that end I sight in at 50 yards, and familiarize myself with compensation requirements for various distances closer and farther away. Frankly, wind and accurate range measurement is more of a challenge out past 50 yards than spinning the elevation knob on the scopes (Unertl and Fecker in my case).

I settled on 40 yards years ago. Mainly because it was the easy distance to set up for where i lived then.

I figured out that I was good from about 10 yards to 60 with a head hold on fox squirrels. It's thick where I hunt and I don't get many shots at even 60 yds. Mostly shoot squirrels offhand and even at 50-60 yards I'm looking for something to brace against or rest on.

Hasn't been but a few years ago that I routinely shot 100-150 squirrels a year. Landowners die. Things change.
Think I shot 8 squirrels last year...

I usually do 25 yards as well.

Same here with 36gr bulk Remington. 25 and 50 are right on. 5-1/2 MOA at 100.

Dead on at 20 .............1/2" high at 40 ..........dead on at 60..........1" low at 72...........That's the way I do it

Likewise to a degree. Don't shoot HV in the .22. Sight 1.5" above bore center with SV ammo zeroed at 20 is close enough to a 50 yd zero you won't see the diff at 50. About 1/2" low at 15 yd and 1/2" high at 40.

If I have to shoot further I use a Creedmore AI with plutonium core bullets. And Aqua Velva aftershave.

When I used to hunt jackrabbits at night, we'd sight in at 75 yards. The idea was to be about dead on at 25 and 75, and maybe an inch or so high at 50. About a five inch holdover seemed to work for 100-yard shots. Sometimes we'd take longer shots, but that was rare due to terrain and vegetation.

I've always used a 50 yard zero on my .22's and try to shoot enough to know my elevations at the different ranges I shoot. Don't shoot tree rats much but try to get after the ground squirrels around here a lot and distances can be from 10 feet to 150 yards so knowing drops is pretty critical at times.

On this subject, has anyone used the Hawke rimfire subsonic scope with the drop reticles yet? I have been checking out different sites about them and reviews and I hear the reticles are pretty much right on for these rounds. Just wondering if any of you guys had tried one and what was your results? They also have them for WMR and .17HMR. The one I'm looking at is the 4x12x50 14251 scope...

Bob

I sight in at 50 yards as well, after trying sighting in at different ranges 50 yards seems to work best for me.

FFg or FFFg powder?

Creedmore AI? What are you hunting, Elephants?

Anschutz 1422 Meistergrade with 54 Action.



Dead nuts on at 25 feet to 100 meters using Lapua Midas+ Ammunition,
All drops laser engraved in sun shade on Leopold 6.5 X 20..

Probably smokes Muriels too as where there's Muriel smoke there's fire.

I mostly shoot paper, black walnuts, and grasshoppers with .22 LRs. Although I'm not much of a fan of ranging reticles, I have found that the Nikon rimfire BDC 150 reticle works quite well. i have the ProStaff 3-9x40 version installed on an accurate Ruger 10/22 22" sporter.

The flat trajectory of the 17HM2 makes it my first choice for shooting tree squirrels.

I mostly shoot paper, black walnuts, and grasshoppers with .22 LRs. Although I'm not much of a fan of ranging reticles, I have found that the Nikon rimfire BDC 150 reticle works quite well. i have the ProStaff 3-9x40 version installed on an accurate Ruger 10/22 22" sporter.

The flat trajectory of the 17HM2 makes it my first choice for shooting tree squirrels.

I say old spice is better.

William's Lectric-Shave?

What? No Hoppes #9?

Sorry, that's classified. DoD is seriously interested for over the horizon anti ship applications.

Mennen skin bracer,and CCI HP minimags..............The squirrels fear me,as do the women

If you have a scope on your .22 that has a duplex reticle you might consider sighting it in so that at 100 yds POI is at the top of the thick part of the lower crosshair (use it like a post reticle) and then see where it hits at 50 yds. My rifle with standard velocity ammo hits about 1.5" high at 50 yds and at the top of the thick part of the duplex reticle at 100 yds. A good plinking compromise for me.

Pass the 50yd zero and a scope that steers bullets,instead of all the Stupid Schit you gals dream up.

6x MQ and 10 Mils on the windshield...though the Laser Etched Stupidity upon a scope that can't track or hold zero,was squarely fhuqking HILARIOUS.

Hint.....................

😂😂🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣😂😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂😂🤣😂



😂😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂. PASS the GRAVY. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

I sight in my 22's at 75 yards if scoped. Iron sight are sighted in at 50 yards.

Shoot BB Caps in my Contender now and then, with a short chamber. 20 yards is a good zero. Ballpark 1" high at 10. Kills squill OK.

Them that cain't afford a 22,must plagiarize and extoll their very wellfounded Insecurities. Hint. Laughing!

29gr CCI CB's at 710fps,still zero nicely at the 50yd line and from 10yds to the 60yd line,POA/POI are within 1.5". Prolly shoot a few,in a herd of 39's.

Hint.......................

LOL. Sugar tits talking money and you can’t afford pants or a healthy diet.

Them that cain't...simply must plagiarize.



Google it.

125yd zero(s).

Hint.

Laughing!.........................

My 22 I squirrel hunt with I sight in at 50. My backyard gun for CB caps is at 18yds. Both bird feeders are 18 yds from the back door. Certain times of the year squirrels really hit the feeders.

For Backyard Safaris.



Hint.....................

I have a Benjamin pellet rifle but it is louder and one of my neighbors calls the police. They don't hear the CB caps.

You're using CB Caps? Third from the left?



And all this time I thought I was the only oddball in the neighborhood. I'm using 4th from the left, the renown BB Cap.

I have a stash of CB caps as well, but IMO they over penetrate squill. I save the CB shorts for hogs (far left).

I should have said CB shorts

I should have said CB shorts

I shoot CB's and BB's in all configurations...but they cain't begin to hang with the FWB 300S's Precision. Hint.

Nor an HW97K's. Hint.




Easy for me to say,if only because I shoot it all and then some.

Hint.........................

Yeah, I shoot'm all too, but I'm out of longs at the moment. Probably won't buy any more due to an overabundance of caps, shorts, LR etc etc. Local squill population will claim that BB Caps suck. I disagree, but they are filthy foulers. Surprised me awhile back when I popped a 'dillo with the BB cap. Thru and thru on a broadside shoulder shot at 30 yards. Pop'n flop, kick'n twitch. They ain't toys.

Hogwild, I sorta figured that was what you meant. Lotsa folks confuse the vernacular on shorts and caps. Keep on keepin' on.

Modest impact velocities,are rathger forgiving upon projectile integrity and them "surprises" are none.

Hint............

That's a fact.

I've a "hunch",that I weren't guessing.

Hint.....................(grin)

75 yards for CCI LRHP 36 grains.

Nope, no guessing at all.

A sound Air Rifle would floor you.

Hint...................

Got one of those that's been making sounds for 60 years or so. Gunpowder and mufflers are quieter with pedestrian velocity.

Anyone known how long it takes to wear out a Benjamin 312?

A '312 is hardly "sound". Hint.

No thang to muffle a sound Air Rifle.

Hint...............

Zero my squirrel getters at 32-35 .Have used them to 60+ by holding on upper portion of ears. Only use subsonic hps.

10 Mils in the windshield and DOPE broken into 10yd increments inside the scope cap...do not suck.

Hint.................

Get a good PCP and you will use the springers for targets...Hint.

Have it all.

I like the transition from Springer to Rimfire best......................

Well, it's wood and brass ya know. Sometime around my 12th year on a cold winter day I shot myself in the left big toe and was only wearing loafers. Doing so prompted a lot of sound. Try it, you'll see! Or hear. Something like that.

Imagination and Pretend are your friend.

Hint..................

Them Anschutz are the ugliest rifles on the planet. I've seen Ruger Americans outta the box out shoot them.

I haven’t, and I’ve shot plenty of both

It's your Imagination,be SURE to Pretend with it as you must.

Pardon my shooting it all and then some...as you set on the sidelines and Pretend.

Hint...................

Just stop.

Bless her heart for TRYING.

She's simply a function of her IQ and pay stubs.

Hint.

LAUGHING!................

I know right! Sorry just had a lil side bet with the wife as to what Stick would say. 🤔. I won. We laughed. Never held or shot an Anschutz. Just never been interested in one.

The Nikon prostaff II rimfire I have is set up for a 50 yd zero. It has additional hatches that correspond to 75, 100, 125 and 150 yards. Although I don't typically shoot my rimfire more than about 75 yards, it's been a great scope for $100.

Smallbore silhouette targets are at 44 yards (40M), 66 yards (60M), 84 yards (77M), 109 yards, (100M)

Typical zero for standard ammo is 40M, +2moa for 60M, +4 from zero for 77M, and usually 8 from zero for 100M. That will be pretty close, depends on scope mount and barrel angle.

Dangle a pic of your wife,to put all in perspective.

Hint. LAUGHING!

Bless your heart.

Hint................