thanks for the advice guys. briman your probably right, i am a very scrawny guy. i will follow up on your advice. but i actualy have a little more riflery experience then you guys think. about 1 1/2 years worth. i only bought my ruger about 2 months ago. before that i had a pellet rifle (daisy powerline 1000s, break barrel) which i recieved last christmas. and before that i was using my firends multi pump pellet gun ( he actualy used bbs in it even tho its chambered for pellets so that didnt work to well) the daisy break barrel was much heavier than my 22, and most of the weight was centered toward the front of the gun. seemed to be alot less wobbly than my 22, i used the stance that you suggested briman when i had the pellet rifle, i leaned back and rested my support elbo on my chest becasue the gun was so front heavy. i guess i got used to it. but the powerline sucked compared to my 22. it had crappy accuracy, the sights were screwed up, the works (i took good care of it to). as for my scope, it isnt that bad. when i had it sighted in the bullets would land right where i wanted them to, the ammo i use is CCI standard velocity 22lr. i just bought a new pack of ammo (CCI 22lr "Blazer") i havent used them yet because i have my scope set for my standard velocity ones, but i doubt there is a difference (the only difference between the 2 is that the blazer ones are more "silvery"

when i bought the gun, the scope was already mounted on the gun, i did take it off to try open sights (wasnt good for the longer shots) so i put it back on, but i didnt mess with the rings at all. (i also recentered it of course). but the biggest problem is that when im hunting squirrels, they are usualy on the run, so i have to aim quickly and fire when they puse for a short period of time. but to the best of my knolledge, i do flinch sometimes, but i can remember plenty of times when i was absolutely positive that my crosshairs where on target when i fired, and missed. my gun has very smooth recoil. i also pull the trigger slowly like u said.

as for my scope, i could just do an experiment, i could set the sight right on, and purposly bump the scope lightly and lay it on its side the rest of the day, and test accuracy the next day. i guess i need practice like u said. i kind of piked up riflery on my own and i wasnt taught marksmanship tips.

one more thing i want to know. does the distance &or angle of the shot affect where it will land (i know distance will, but will it change that much with a difference of 10-20 feet)

im gonna go shoot some stuff now.