Won my first match of our .22 Bench Rest season

[Maven]

Our club (Marbletown Sportsmen, Stone Ridge, N.Y. Google it to see our website.) has been hosting .22 Bench Rest matches for 10 years, but I haven't won one in a while (excuses to follow). Btw, all of our matches are fired at 50 yds. Today I managed to shoot 200-4X and 200-3X in the plinker/marksman class. (A perfect score would be 200-20X, but nobody has ever come close to that.) That class is limited to .22 rifles with no more than a 9X scope (can be 3-9X) and a standard stock configuration and uses 2 target cards of 5 eight inch bullseyes with a ~.22cal. X ring. Other classes include "hunter," which can use a scope up to 36X and a modified stock and true bench rifles ("unlimited" class). The hunter and unlimited classes shoot at 2.5" targets (25 for record) with a tiny X ring: The X ring is perhaps a trifle larger than the period you see at the end of this sentence.

Most of the marksman/plinker class rifles are bull barreled Marlins & Savages using a variety of match grade ammo. Those with aperture sights and Winchester target rifles also compete in this class and often outshoot the scoped rifles. As I mentioned earlier, I hadn't won a match in the 2007 & 2008 seasons until today when I decided to switch the ammo I was using from Aguila Match (supposedly made under Ely supervision) to Wolf (Jagd) Match Target. My rifle has always done well with Wolf Match Target (shot a 200-8X once using it), but not the Aguila, which was very inconsistent even when weighed and sorted. If you shoot competitively, avoid it like the plague! Today's win was a satisfying conclusion to our .22 matches.

[garandsrus]

Maven,

Congratulations... The Wolf Match Target ammo seems to shoot great in every .22 I have tried it in. I wish I had bought a lot more a couple years ago when it was about $2 per box of 50.

I loaned a Kimber 82 and a couple boxes of Wolf to a friend that was going to shoot in a match that sounds similar to yours. I don't think the match has been held yet though.

John

[Maven]

John, I had 1 box of Wolf match Target (from my original brick purchased for something like $30) that I decided to use yesterday. If one shoots in 3 relays (20 shots/relay not counting sighters), you need no less than 60 rounds of ammo. Fortunately for me, the gunsmith from whom I bought my rifle, also competes (but in the unlimited or benchrest class) and just handed me 2 partially filled boxes of Wolf Match Target (~40 rounds), which allowed me to complete 3 relays.
I think you're right about that ammo since it shot equally well in another .22 I have and quite a few of the other shooters use it too. Ely and Lapua are also excellent, but the price/brick is outrageously high. Federal 900A and 900B were also exceellent, but alas, they're no longer made. I think I'll stick with Wolf!

[felix]

Way to go, Maven! ... felix

[Doc Highwall]

I almost feel guilty sitting on four cases of wolf match that I paid $240.00 a case and a case of fed UM1B thats the ultra match 1000 that I paid $650.00 for.

[Maven]

Felix, Thank you! With the right ammo that rifle will put 5 (or more) shots into a dime at 50 yds. The brick of Aguila match ammo (NOT!) that I'm finally rid of wasn't consistent enough to do that. However, 2 out of the 10 boxes shot well, but it was a crap shoot trying to predict beforehand which boxes they were.

Doc Hi Wall, That stuff you're hoarding doesn't necessarily improve with age. Use it and have a grand time doing so!

[Doc Highwall]

Maven, I am not hoarding it, I am recuperating from a work injury. Back in 2000 I got hurt and since then I have had four surgeries one on the neck, one on my left shoulder, and two on my lower back. I might have to have one or two more. Every couple of months I turn the cases over and they are stored in a air condition room to protect them. Typically I shoot 10,000-15,000 shots of smallbore and 10,000 air rifle a year plus high power long range matches. I cannot wait to hit the trail again. My big problem is moving the equipment. That's why I put the smiley face up to keep a good frame of mind.

[Maven]

Doc...., I'm very sorry to learn of your injury and long recuperation. If I'd known that in advance I wouldn't have been so flippant.

[Doc Highwall]

Don't worry about it, I try to keep my mind like a parachute open. When I had my first two operations, titanium plate and a fusion in the neck and my left shoulder operated on one of my team mates introduced me to a 10 year old girl and her father who wanted to learn how to shoot smallbore prone and seeing that I was not going to be much of contender that summer ( I shot my Ruger mk II off a bench at 100 yds) I said yes to training them. To make a long story short we have become good friends. I call her my good looking girl friend now, she has been to camp perry four times with her father and has won three times. Twice as sub junior and this year a intermediate junior. She is also the youngest woman to make the Randal team in US history, 13 years old. This year she will be 16 and her name is Clauda Duksa, and her fathers name is Rich, nice people. I even got a chance to go to Canada and win a match in TRO with my 40X in 223, at 3,4,5,600 yds. Lost to one of my friends last time by one point, some times the pain breaks my concentration and I crossed fired for a V bull of course. Right now I am training several of my nephews about shooting and casting.

[PatMarlin]

Congrats to both of you guys..

The caliber of our members here never cease to amaze me.

[crabo]

[QUOTE=Doc Highwall;400147] Every couple of months I turn the cases over and they are stored in a air condition room to protect them. QUOTE]

This is the first I have heard of this for .22 ammo. Are a lot of people doing this?

[Doc Highwall]

Crabo, I was at a small bore match and one of the competitors was taking his ammo out of the 50 round boxes and the bullets were sticking, upon examining them the lube had run down from the bullets and stuck to the bottom of the box. I am sure this was not conducive to good accuracy so just to be sure I flip my cases of ammo over for piece of mind. In small bore shooting you have to not only have a perfect score of 400 out of 400, but you need as many X's as possible. My record is 400 with 37X's and that was 3rd place the first time I did it. The ten ring is two inches and the X ring is one inch at 100 yds, and this is shot prone with a sling only no rest not leaving much room for error.

[crabo]

Thanks, I understand the logic of that.

[JSH]

IMHO, I wouldn't knock the Aguila to hard. For the money it is better than anything else I have tried in this price range. The MP shot better than the MR, in all the pistols and rifles I tried it in.

Jeff

[Maven]

JSH, I no longer have any of the Aguila Match .22 ammo around so I'm not sure of the exact product #, but it was for rifles. The problem I had was that it was erratic: Of the 2 bricks I had, less than 1/2 produced match level accuracy, even after weighing, sorting and reboxing 18 boxes of it. Moreover, those that were accurate were no more so than Federal 900B or Wolf Match, or frankly some lots of Winchester Dynapoints that I've used. Btw, the rifles are a tuned Marlin heavy bbl'ed. repeater that is capable of putting 5 shots touching or smaller @ 50 yds. and a Remington single shot "Targetmaster" (not really a match rifle in spite of its name), that's accurate, but is handicapped by a 4X scope (wears an obsolete side-mounted scope base & small rings for a narrow-tubed Weaver). Yes, the Aguila was inexpensive compared to current match ammo prices, but given its mediocre performance, it was no bargain.

[JSH]

Huh, may just be the difference in the rifles/pistols?
.22RF are a pretty fickle bunch. I had been looking for somthing that would shoot 1/2" of better at 50M, out of the sons rebarreled Ruger Charger. The aguila did better, for me, than some of the FGM.
I have tried two different Federals in my rifles I do a bit of ammo testing with. Iron sighted WW75 and a WW 52 with a Unertl scope.
Thwe WW dynapoints shot well but had flyers more so than some others. If I could figure out the flyers, and cull them out, I would shoot more of it. Avalability of the dynapoints in this area is spotty. Of course all good to decent .22 ammo is spotty from what I have seen. I did run across a fair jag of RWS ammo that I have high hopes for.
Always interested in other folks results with the .22s. I have a bad weakness for them.
Jeff