Finally had a chance to get hold of a friend and hit the outdoor range yesterday. Beautiful day, light winds from behind, clear skies, and warm. Friend had a .22 he'd repaired to test, a .32-20 Winchester model 92 to try out, and a pair(!) of .32-20 single-action army revolvers to try out- he's decided to get into the cowboy action shooting game, and tends to go all-out on things. I primarily wanted to test out some different brands in a .22 rifle, having decided to save the Benelli and slugs for next time.
About a year ago I lucked out and picked up a BSA Martini 12/15 match rifle(reviewed at Kim's place here) for what turned out to be a very good price, and I've been messing with it since. It's a marvel of simple, strong design and has a trigger that's downright wonderful. I both enjoy shooting it and have done some wonderful shooting with it. As to the strangeness...
I mentioned once before the lengths .22 shooters in search of the finest accuracy will go to. They will weigh each cartridge, and any outside the norm go in the practice pile. There's a guage made specifically to measure the thickness of the rim; since this cartridge headspaces on the rim a slight variation in rim thickness may affect accuracy, so those outside the chosen specs, to the practice pile. The serious top-of-the-line match ammo runs $8 or $10/box. There's a gadget made to use a light mallet blow to upset the bullet to an exact diameter, so it will perfectly fit the bore. And so on. I'm not that worried about it; I like fine accuracy, but unless I decide to start competing in matches, I'm not that worried if the rifle/pistol won't shoot ten through the same hole at whatever range. I have done the standard thing, which is to take a box of every brand/type of .22 ammo you can find and test them from a solid benchrest position. The first time I tried this, years ago, the rifle in question ran from groups damn near 10" across at 50 yards with one to a touch over an inch at the same distance with another brand, so I'm a believer in finding what works best.
The problem- sort of- with this rifle is that nothing shoots badly in it. Nothing. The worst groups it has given at 50 yards has been about 1.5", and the best? About 3/8" for a ten-shot group. Now, I know there are match rifles out there that will better that, but for me, with iron sights at that range, that's damn good. And the other interesting thing about this is the very best results have come from Federal Lightning 40grain ammo. The stuff I buy at Academy Sports for $7/brick. A couple of match ammos have shot as well as it does, but at $2.50 to $4/box vs. $.69/box? No contest there. The subsonic stuff is quieter, but that's not exactly a big deal with .22's, and gives no advantage that I'm willing to pay that much extra for. I have not tried the Lapua or other $7 & $10/box stuff; being chea- uh, financially responsible(shut up) I haven't been able to make my self pay that when the Federal stuff gives the result it does.
One of these days when I can make the time I'm going to set up targets at 100 yards and see what this rifle will do at that range. It's possible that at the longer distance one of the match ammos may work better, we'll see. But I'm not holding my breath. What I'd really like to do is make some kind of scope mount that I can clamp onto the barrel so I could use a scope to remove some of the aiming error-factor from the testing. I could get the barrel drilled & tapped for scope bases, but I really like shooting this thing with iron sights, and I'm not willing to do that right now.
My friend? The model 92 turned out to have an oversized or damaged chamber, accuracy was terrible. But the revolvers worked very well.
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