Since I had to take the gun out to re-zero, I decided to do some group shooting of different ammo types. I had always been too lazy, or too busy to ever do this. Usually, I just grab any old ammo that is reputed to be target grade and go with it. I guess that’s why I’ve always done so poorly in precision .22 competitions. I just have not been dedicated enough I suppose.

This time I had four ammo types that I wanted to shoot and compare: CCI Standard Velocity, Norma Match, Norma TAC-22, and Eley Semi-Auto Benchrest Precision.

This is the first time I ever bought any Eley. I was buying something online at Midway USA, and to get free shipping, I had to fill up my shopping cart with at least $75 worth of product. So I looked around and stumbled upon this Eley ammo on sale. I added a few boxes to my cart and completed the checkout process.

As for the CCI Standard Velocity, I read online that folks were having real good results with this ammo in their Savage B22s. It’s an ammo that I had never tried before, so I grabbed some when I saw it.

I’ve been shooting the Normas for a few years now. Norma has a reputation for excellent quality. I have to admit though, that I had never done any comparison shooting with either the Norma Match or the TAC-22. Now was the time to finally get around to it.

I decided to use Gerhard’s .22 Field Benchrest target for this job. I picked a rare calm and overcast morning to shoot at the Table Mesa “close-in” shooting spot. The plan was to shoot three groups of three at 50 yards for each of the four ammo types.

Savage B22 Precision on Benchmaster shooting rest

… and with a Caldwell Rock front rest and homebrew rear bag. (That white thing is a spare ammo holder I made. Holds 4 extra rounds.)

When I completed the shooting, I was not satisfied. I was using my old favorite Benchmaster one-piece shooting rest. I could feel the rig wiggle and shake as each shot was taken. That’s not something you expect shooting a low-recoil .22. Before I finished, I had already decided that I wanted to re-shoot, using a standard front and rear rest setup. It seems that the problem was that the pistol grip was in contact with the main beam of the rest. This was causing the recoil shake. When I got home, I didn’t bother trying to measure the groups.

I didn’t even own a benchrest style front shooting rest anymore. I had a pair of inexpensive plastic front rests for many years, but ended up donating them to each of my sons, intending to one day get myself a higher quality metal one – I just never did. Now it was time. I returned two days later, on another calm and overcast morning, with a Caldwell Rock front rest and a homemade rear bag.

I shot another 12 groups. This time when I got home, I measured both targets and tabulated them. My groups did improve with the new rest setup. The results can be seen in the table below, from best to worst, top to bottom.

As might be expected, the Eley SABP performed the best. The problem is that the sale price that I paid for a box of 50 was $11.54. The regular price at Midway has now gone back up to $17.29 a box! Ouch! I will save those for our next .22 benchrest match.

A pleasant surprise was that the CCI Standard Velocity wasn’t terribly far behind. At $5 a box, this will be my ammo of choice for NRL-22.

I was running low on Norma Match and was getting set to place a fresh order. These results tell me that I don’t need more after all. Instead, I need more CCI Standard.

Now that I had chosen a particular ammo, and zeroed the rifle using that ammo at 50 yards, I needed to take the next step, which was to shoot a series of targets at 10 yard intervals from 10 yards to 100 yards to calibrate the trajectory over the distances fired in a typical NRL-22 match.

10 yard interval drop chart with average drop calculated (inches), then converted to mils. Highlighted figure was an outlier and was ignored.

I took my time and verified that the 10 yard intervals were exact according to my rangefinder. For each distance, I fired six shots, except for 10 yards, after the first three shots all landed in the same hole. I marked all the targets for distance before taking them home to measure the drop (or rise) with dial calipers. I averaged the vertical excursion of the six shots from the aiming point to come up with a single trajectory figure for each distance.

Highlighted figures are those adjusted from the real-world data to smooth the trajectory curve

Next, I graphed those average drops to create a trajectory chart. Since this was imperfect real-world data, the curve of the graph came out looking “lumpy”. I copied the distances and the real-world drops into a new table, then copied those numbers again into a third column that I could play with. I re-graphed the trajectory against the new third column. I made slight adjustments to the numbers in the third column until the trajectory curve looked smooth. Finally, I recalculated the mil values against the adjusted numbers. Of course the real figures I was interested in from this exercise, are the mil values required to hit a small target anywhere from 10 to 100 yards. With a mil-mil scope, I can either click or hold using the mil-calibrated reticle.

The next thing I need to figure out is what to do with my dope chart for quick reference during a match. Maybe tape it to the scope or the rifle somewhere?

24x view through the Athlon Argos 6-24x50mm FFP scope at 100 yards. The reticle is calibrated in milliradians. Notice how the mil marks perfectly bracket our Mil-Dot Verification target.