Tikka T1X, here with SigSauer can attached.
|
It is September 2023. Reloaders moan – plenty of projectiles and powders available,
but not many primers, certainly not for Large Rifle. Circumstances allowed me to check
on this, including far from home. Once, at Bob Ward in Bozeman, I’d seen Large Rifle
primers in those white packages, intended for AR10s. They are on the hard side, and so
was their price. Aside from that, in June at North 40 Outfitters in Spokane, Murdoch’s
and Sportsman’s in Bozeman, in early July at Cabela’s in Kalispell, independent stores
at Dawson Creek, B.C., and in August at Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, and Bass Pro in
Anchorage, you could buy exactly zero Large Rifle primers. However, gun store shelves
bend from all the factory ammo, sometimes stuff like .308 Win. and .223 Rem. stacked on
pallets in an aisle. On the positive side, there’s also plenty of .22 LR ammo available.
Even .22 Shorts are offered in at least four configurations.
We know this was not always the case. Just a few years ago, .22s were either not available
or restricted to a box or two per day. I remember a guy during our last EXPO prior to Covid
to come up, saying he did not want to shoot, just wanted to see again what a .22 LR round
looks like.
There is much to like about the .22 LR. A box of 50 won’t drain the wallet but could be
gone in under 30 seconds via two 25-round magazines and a Ruger 10-22. Or 50 could be
nursed through the better part of a half-hour while carefully aiming with a TC single shot,
or trying for ultra-small groups from a match-grade rifle, reading the wind for each shot.
Clearly, the .22 LR is the king of plinking, a game that most likely would not have been
invented without rimfire ammo and the many kinds of guns for it. Here the type of target
perhaps rules even more than the inexpensive ammo. From the classic tin can, items like
chunks of wood or rocks, to steel anything, those are all fun targets. Glass bottles are
unfortunate, and may be Annie Oakley’s fault, after hitting with a .22 Marlin lever rifle,
4,472 glass balls tossed into the air. When safely available, also do not pass up mud or
preferably fairly fresh cow patties. Those splatter in larger chunks when visited by a
bullet from a rimfire. Then there is moving stuff like debris floating past on a river,
or elaborate contraptions made for just such purpose. Plinking targets offer way more than
a hole in paper or cardboard. Try gluing on animal crackers.
Walking carefully through the desert near Phoenix, a bunny bolted, then stopped under a
short tree. Believing to be safe there was its last mistake. My crosshairs found that
cute little head, settled. I sent a 40 grain subsonic hollow point. Spastic flopping under
that tree resulted. OK, the SigSauer can on my T1X is a bit overkill, but it is quiet, and
my ears love that. Yes, I also enjoy hunting with the .22 LR. In Germany that included wild
pigeons. They toppled out of trees after shedding feathers. Many Arizona squirrels and
rabbits ended up in the kitchen after a .22 LR put them down. Can’t decide what is more fun
to watch: a squirrel falling straight down, only to bounce up a few inches off the pine needle
floor, or one that hits several branches on its final descent. Cottontails are very tasty,
even more so when instead of lead pellets here and there, nothing devalued their meat. Those
I call kitchen-bunnies. Ditto for squirrels, except they score lower in the ‘taste’ category
– ask Steve. By the way, if you want to practice ‘stiff neck’ offhand shooting, or if those
squirrels simply don’t show and you’re getting bored, select a dead branch above, about one
to three inches thick, with the tree trunk as backstop. Then shoot until it breaks off.
That’s even more fun with a buddy, alternately taking shots to see who will make it break
and come crashing down.
CZ 452, plus SPT ("Sewer Pipe Technology") it seems happier with
|
To simulate rabbit hunting, I look for rocks small enough so they will move or sometimes
fracture when hit. Distance and holdover are then mine to guess. Or if I’m in the mood
for more accuracy, I will get into a sitting position and engage smaller pebbles. Again,
distances vary.
We’ve seen it at the EXPOs many times. Those who come by and know or quickly learn how to
shoot enjoy engaging the smaller steel swingers. And or they try for the longer distance
pig and turkey silhouettes. As long as the target moves and or makes noise when hit, fun
is immediate.
|
Along those ideas Steve, Merle and I recently engaged in a lazy Labor Day morning challenge
– hit a thin 14.5” tall and 13.5” wide steel plate at 396 yds. FEAR NOT! This will NOT
become a stage at any future HSC matches! Sorry about the odd size, I found that plate years
ago in the desert, dimpled from bullet impacts, but without holes. Luck was with us, basically
no wind. We all shot with our Tikka T1Xs, mine with 16” barrel, theirs both with 20” tube.
First we zeroed at 50 steps with Federal Auto Match. Then it was time to hit that plate so far
out there. With one of us shooting and the other two watching through spotting scopes, it took
Merle and me at least five shots before we could see a bullet hit dirt. Steve was lucky, kicked
up dust on his first try, a good five plates down. It was his 5th shot that hit the steel.
Then he made another hit with shot #10. Merle only hit with his 9th, me with 8th and 9th. Then
Merle switched to SK Rifle Match ammo, I went to SK High Velocity Match, and Steve stayed with
the Federals. For the next 10 shots they did not make any hits. The SK HV shot a lot flatter
than the Federal Auto Match. I was able to make hits with shots #2, 4,5,6,7 and 10. Bottom
Line: except for schlepping that target out there and later back, this was fun. And
educational, in that the SK HV Match ammo appears a very good contender for long distance shots.
I was holding over, aiming at a rock way above the steel plate. Guessing by using the hold-over
lines in my Burris, the bullets dropped about 18 feet at 400 yds.
Schpeaking of lazy, a game we’ve played occasionally is “shoot the dot”. This is only a paper
target at about 50 paces, featuring several rows of equally spaced colored dots, 0.5” inches in diameter. We shoot off benches, restrict ammo to something cheaper like Federal Auto Match,
then engage the same dot with only one shot. Whoever hits closest to center ‘wins’ that dot.
Whoever wins most dots per row gets paid a quarter by the one(s) with least dots won. The
lesser grade ammo trickles in a bit of a luck factor. So does the wind.
About the guns: Absolute king of the plinker rifles has got to be the Ruger 10-22. I assume
so many have been sold that the rifle could be classified as ‘common-use item’. Without doubt
it is also in the lead with aftermarket components. All tricked out, the rig may be difficult to
be recognized as still a 10-22. But any rifle, new or old, single shot, repeater or semi-auto,
shooting rimfire ammo, can be pressed into plinking service. Among the really accurate (plinker)
rifles the CZ 452s, 455s and 457s probably rule, primarily because they have been available for
many years. But Steve, Merle, and I do love the Tikka T1X.
When it comes to handguns the story is similar. Any gun can plink. I’d say Ruger again wears
the crown, with their semi-auto MARK series, and possibly their Single Six revolvers as well.
Steve’s Ruger MK IV, enhanced
|
SIG P322 – made to be a plinker
|
Back to shooting: the luckiest shot my friend Mark in Spokane told me about. When in college
he and a friend were out plinking. A butterfly danced along. His friend ‘quick-drew’ on that
with his 22LR revolver, perfectly hitting the body such that only the two wings twirled to the
ground.
You want to challenge yourself? Begin from the bench, first with bags, then without. Next,
leave that bench, go to cross sticks. Here is a group I managed years ago with my CZ452,
after some practice.
Want more hardship? Shoot from kneeling, finally offhand. And then you could throw open sights into the mix as well.
Not just my favorite, also my only open-sighted 22LR –
Mauser Mod 45 action with
Douglas barrel and ‘special’ R700 front sight
|
These days the best deal going for shooters rolling their own ammo is pulling the trigger more
often with their .22 LR. Not only is that ammo available, more and more types of the stuff show
up on dealers shelves. If suffering from ‘experimenting withdrawal symptoms’, get some of the
new stuff and check how that is doing in your plinkers, or how it compares to their favorite
fodder. Since a box of .22s is cheaper than buying some new gun or gadget, I went that route.
First was a box of Fiocchi .22 LR Range Dynamics, intended to be target ammo. Federal “Punch”
was the other ‘just because’ purchase. Says on their sturdy box (like CCI’s) “Personal Defense”
with 29 grain Flat Nose bullets doing 1070 fps from a two-inch barrel. I also could not pass up
CCI Subsonic, to compare against their Suppressor ammo, both firing hollowpoints. Already at
hand were CCI Std and Stinger (over 20 years old), as well as Norma TAC, all for a quick
comparison test – see below.
|
|
Interesting that the longer barrel on the CZ452 does not always generate higher velocities
(all averages of 5 shots minimum, using my ProChrono). It did exactly produce the advertised
velocity of the Fiocchi ammo and came really close for the CCI Subsonic fodder. The Tikka T1X
did that for the CCI Suppressor stuff. The ‘new’ Federal Punch, at least out of a rifle, may
not have much of a chance against CCI’s Stingers, if speed or stopping power is the main
objective.
Also, here is what died that morning, 7oz cans filled with water, shot at 25 steps:
Note that ‘speed kills’! From left to right: Stinger (1612);
Punch (1582); Subsonic (1077) and Suppressor (968 fps).
|
Maybe it will always be the Age of the .22 LR, even if the primer issue returns to ‘readily
available’. I’m hoping for both.
© Honeywell Sportsman Club. All rights reserved.
|
