Shooting the Appleseed event has left a taste for more of the same. I'll speak of the history lessons another time (I Promise), but for now I'll describe a minor quandary 'Ol Carteach is in.
The marksmanship course is shot at 25 meters, and I can hear you thinking.... "25 meters?? You have to be kidding me! I can spit that far and make bulls-eyes!"
Think again. The 5 point score area of the target is just four MOA.... or one inch at 25 meters. Shooting a .22, that means your target is only four times as wide as the bullet itself. Now.... do that for forty rounds straight. THAT puts it in perspective! Max score is 250 points, and it takes 210 to make Rifleman.
Funny thing is... with Appleseed basic marksmanship training, that is entirely do-able.
Today found me on the back patio of Castle Carteach, putting rounds down range at my state of the art shooting facility (The wood pile out back). The target above demonstrates my quandary.....
An Appleseed means shooting... and lots of it. I burned 400 rounds this past weekend, and that's with sitting out a few AQT's to rest my old bones. The round count pretty much shoots down the idea of doing it with centerfire, for me. I've blown the dust out of my cash box.... and all I got for the effort is a coughing fit.
So.... a .22 rimfire. I own two now that are somewhat appropriate, although both have flaws. One, the M&P 15-22 I qualified with, is very short, very light, very fun, very accurate, and somewhat difficult to operate at that level. It absolutely DESPISES being fired with a sling, and mine will string the shots unmercifully with sling pressure applied. Also, the short sight radius of the fun little rifle turns out to be an extreme challenge for my aging bifocaled eyes. I qualified rifleman with that weapon, but did so with an Eotech holographic sight mounted on it, and no sling.
Rifle #2 is a CZ452 trainer bolt action, with a loooong barrel, excellent open sights, and a respectably good trigger. It's downsides.... magazines cost over $30 each, and of all the slings I own.... not a single one fits the CZ. I will have to order a 3/4" shooting sling. The bolt action is slow for the timed rapid fire, but I am comfortable with operating it under such conditions.
Looking towards an Appleseed 'level' of marksmanship in a .22 rimfire rifle, I guess I have three choices.....
*Make do with the M&P's limitations, and just man up to deal with them....
*Buy a new sling and a few CZ magazines made from compressed unicorn tears and unobtanium...
*Build a whole new rifle for myself, perhaps on the Ruger 10-22 platform.
My goal is to better that 210 score, and do so consistently. I'm at peace with doing it with an optics mounted rifle, but I'd be happier of I can make it with irons.
Choices.... choices......
11 comments:
What ammo did you use at Apppleseed... what did others shoot...
I have had good luck with CCI Greentag for terific precision from our Ruger 10/22's and it makes for far better groups than most fo the bulk-pack "brick" ammo...
I've also had good results with CCI Mini-Mag HP's...
My daughter and I have been having fun learning more about ballistics and windage with some 100 yard shooting with our Ruger 10/22's... It's been a fun test of skill and accuracy...
We sure hope to hit and Appleseed event in the future...
Dann in Ohio
I shot Federal 'American' brand, $20 per brick of 500. My 15-22 likes that brand, although it functions 100% with anything over CB caps.
What other folks were shooting.... I didn't pay close attention. In .22, I saw CCI, Federal, Aquila. In 5.56 I saw Wolf and Federal.
I'm lucky, in that neither my M&P nor my CZ are fussy, and the CZ 452 is a laser with almost any .22 ammo. It has a tight bore, and that seems to make all the difference.
I built myself a 10/22 Liberty Training Rifle.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/47327075/ASSEMBLING-A-LIBERTY-TRAINING-RIFLE
To that list I added a Volquartsen extractor and a VQ firing pin. They come together in a kit.
As for ammo, anything that cycles. My brick of bulk pack ammo got me a 232 on my third run on Saturday, first time out.
The LTR is awesome and will serve me as a fantastic training rifle for a long time. I'll be happy teaching people to shoot with it.
If you have a decent AR-15 lower, a dedicated .22 upper from Compass Lake will do it.
But it will set you back a grand, plus or minus a little.
As you know, you get what you pay for.
James,
You can't do a bad thing by starting with a Ruger 10/22. There is a full industry like the AR15 for mods and all. That and it shoots decent out of the box. I shot my first one back in '74 and it was not hard to make holes in holes with it.
I never got one for myself back when as PA small game shooting didnt allow semiauto. so I got a Marlin clip fed 25 in WMR also nice save for bolt action. That's one I have to correct (owning a 10/22).
Eck!
Savage makes a great bolt action .22 rifle, the Mark II.
The club started running CMP sporter matches, a fun and interesting match shot with rimfires. I have an old Winchester 75, but it doesn't qualify as it weighs too much. So I was going to buy a 10-22, but after some research I ended up buying the Savage as a package with the scope. The model is the Mark II FVXP.
As far as ammo goes, I did some testing with different ammo, and the best ammo in that rifle is Wolf Gold Medal Match. I wish some of my other rifle/ammo combinations were that accurate.
I've always run the Federal 550 bulk stuff with good results. Same for the Winchester 555. I expect a handful of duds in any brick, though - and one tip I forgot to mention for Appleseed is to have a spare magazine sitting nearby with 3-5 rounds in it so you CAN make up those duds without trying to fumble a single-load.
When I started buying the Federal at $10-12 for a brick, shooting with CCI at thrice the price ($30/5*100) made no sense. Federal, however, has nearly doubled in price, while CCI has gone from $6 to $7 for a box of 100. Starting to look more equitable... and it is undeniably better ammo.
You certainly know the pluses and minuses of each rifle at this point, and given your background you know that the tool doesn't make the craftsman... a toolbox full of SnapOn no more makes me an auto mechanic than a full-custom AR makes me a marksman.
I've seen people shoot a Rifleman's score with:
10/22
Remington 597
AR in various flavors
AK 7.62x39
Mosin-Nagant 7.62x54R
Remington 700 in .270Win
Savage .22 (bolt and auto)
Savage .17 (bolt)
Winchester .22 (bolt)
Marlin .22 (bolt, auto, and tube-auto)
tube-fed, magazine fed, stripper-fed...
I look forward to seeing what you decide on!
I'm not sure I would shoot better if my rifle was fed by strippers, but I'd like to try.
I use bulk boxes of Blazer ammo. Once I added the Volquartsen firing pin I've never had a failure to fire, and the VQ extractor has never failed to extract/eject on me. It's been bombproof reliable.
Chris, from Arma Borealis, borrowed my rifle for Sunday and he managed to have a failure to eject or something, but that's it.
I've heard suggestions about using a Ruger 10/22 with the sights replaced with military-style iron sights. These are available online from various sources.
I can't directly speak to this though.
Another vote for a 10/22 based Liberty Training Rifle. Instead of the Tech Sights, I chose the NDS-26 rear sight which allows for co-witness with a mounted Bushnell TRS 25 red dot. http://www.nodakspud.com/NDS-22.htm
And/or a dedicated .22 upper. There are many to choose from. CMMG offers options such as last shot bolt hold open and free floated hand guards.
I also have a 452 Trainer, I replaced the solid swivels, oxymoron, with 1 1/2 swivels to use with the sling. Worked real well. I qualified with a 10/22 liberty. I learned a lot and had tons of fun. The skills I learned also helped in my High Power shooting. Good luck have more fun. velcro8ball
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