Originally Posted by
Olde NE Hunter
I do enjoy reading these posts. I don't think that at my age I would ever "trick out" a 22 to shoot that far. Although I might take one of my 22's out to the range and play around a little.
I'll ask a question what you you think would be a possible range for an off the shelf 22 rifle?
With any good shooting Marlin, Savage, Remington, Ruger, CZ, Winchester, etc 22LR, 300-400 yards on a 10-12” plate is possible, even probable, just using common optics and an inexpensive set of Burris rings and/or a 20MOA rail. The rifles will shoot farther, but most scopes run out of adjustment somewhere around 400yrds, even if we use an angled base and shimmed rings. With preferred ammo and a stable rest, most 22’s seem to be able to pull down about 1” at 50yrds, and given enough scope to get there, 1” at 50yrds (2moa) tends to open up to about 3-4moa by 300-400 as wind influence simply becomes overwhelming. So getting a fairly common Marlin 60 or 10/22 to 300 is really just a matter of sticking a scope on top, putting a hub cap on a fence post, and stepping off 300 yards.
All of the pistols and rifles I shared above are really just off-of-the-shelf models.
There’s really nothing special about any of the firearms I have pictured above which makes them more accurate. The Go Wild Charger has a cool paint job, and the Savage BSEV has spiral fluting, but there’s no accurization done here, no custom parts or gunsmithing. A bunch of cheap firearms on top of imitation Harris knock offs from Kmart (that old), and a mix of cheap scopes and nice scopes.
The purple rifle my son is holding is the cheapest stainless model Savage makes. I changed the stock so it could be more easily cut down to fit a 10.5” LOP, but otherwise, it’s a $250 factory Savage Mark II FSS, with a $150 Bushnell Trophy scope. It would shoot just as small and just as far with the factory Tupperware stock. He has been shooting that rifle out to 300 all spring and summer with rot-gut Armscor, Win Wildcat, Rem Golden Bullet, and Rem Thunderbolt ammo on 66% IPSC, tightening down on a 4” square and a 3.5” wide prairie dog at 200 when we get our wind calls tuned in.
The two Charger pistols pictured are under $300. These are standard 10/22 actions with 10” barrels and pistol grip stocks. The Savage Mark II BSEV is a factory rifle my wife picked up for herself ~10yrs ago for $550 at Gander Mountain on a whim. Other than fancy spiral fluting, that’s just a Savage Mark II FV in a Boyd’s stock.
The three scopes are nice, but as mentioned about the discounted Bushnell Trophy on the purple rifle - 300yrds can be done with a very inexpensive scope. It’s a challenge, since it has coin-click dials and a spinning c-clip for the adjustment wheel, but it’s still not so difficult. My son was managing it at 7yrs old, maybe slightly more capable than a caveman at the time.