Shooting 22 LR

5mmgunguy

Shouldn't high velocity 22 LR be more accurate than standard velocity? I have been shooting high velocity and standard velocity at 100 yards. And the standard velocity groups 5 shots in 1 inch where the high velocity goes into 1 1/2 inches and the hyper velocity is like 2 inches. Is this normal?

perry shooter

Standard Velocity makes up 95% of all match winning ammo in 22 LONG RIFLE the thought is High velocity starts out above the speed of sound But by the time it gets to 100 yards it is below the speed of sound and This transition causes lost in accuracy. where standard is below the speed of sound at the muzzle. You may ask then why does centerfire matches all are high velocity they never go below the speed of sound before they get to the target and subsonic whould have too much drop at long ranges.Some of the older target rounds were sub sonic in black powder

bpost

You have discovered the truth about high speed .22 ammo. All things considered it is not as accurate as standard velocity ammo.

You will find that the 40 grain lead target load of high quality will shoot much better than high speed ammo.

Try some CCI green Tag, Wolf Match Target and some Aguila (sp) Match .22 ammo. At 100-200 yards the group size will be about half of the high speed ammo. It is also less prone to flyers and wind drift.

.22 caliber guns are very particular about ammo; more so than center-fire rifles and pistols. The Bench Rest guys will pay huge premiums for a special lot of ammo they find shoots best in their gun.

gotstolefrom

bpost1958 gets the X.

It takes some patience to go through several types of ammo to find which is 'best'. My experience has been that
1) Some will show up as 'loosers' for your gun right away.
2) Then a few will perform about equally.
3) Then you usually find one that does the best nearly every time.

You can get through (1) very quickly. Likely on one shoot.
The examination for (2) can be frustrating, and take a while.
The (3) ammo seems to just 'reveal itself' after a while.

When you find the choice ammo, buy as much as you can. There is always the possibility that when you buy a bunch of the 'sweet' ammo, it is not from the same lot as your test ammo, and may perform differently. I've suspected this happended to me once, but it was not enough difference for me to start over.