Long Range Shooting (LRT) with 22 LR

The 22 Long Rifle is by far the most fired ammunition in France and in the world, statistics indicate a French consumption of around 10 million but despite this enormous consumption this ammunition remains controversial. Who has never heard one of these two sentences? "A 22 LR is only good at 50m" or "A 22LR is still dangerous at 1500m" Two sentences that oppose each other but that every sports shooter has already heard at least once in his life. But where is the truth? Somewhere between these two quotes and we are going to make you discover it.

1. The 22 LR is an ultra-popular ammunition with special characteristics

This ridiculously small ammunition never exceeds 25.4mm in length (i.e. 1 inch in the imperial units from which it originates). This ammunition uses extremely low starting pressures (the CIP standard caps pressures at 1700 bars compared to generally 4000 for modern ammunition). This low pressure does not create miracles and the conventional energies for a 22 LR turn between 130 and 280 Joules depending on the loads. There is an incredible quantity of reference ammunition in 22LR ranging from subsonic ammunition (mass of 40 or 42 gr at around 315 m/s) to high velocity ammunition (mass of 32 grains at around 500 m/s). All have in common their relatively low cost, low recoil and low noise level compared to more sluggish ammunition and it is these particularities that make the 22LR the most popular caliber in the world!

1. Doing TLD with the 22 Long Rifle, but why not?

Target achieved at 450 meters

Long-distance shooting is increasingly popular in France, but despite all this enthusiasm is often hampered by the cost of a large-caliber rifle dedicated to this, the cost of ammunition which quickly becomes a big budget, noise pollution and the low availability of firing points allowing these large calibers to be used (800m & more) and what if the 22 LR was the solution to all these problems?

Let's take the example of a 308 Win zeroed at 100m, you generally need to count 12 mil of elevation to hit at 1000m. If we now take a 22LR that is completely normal, also zeroed at 100m, you will need about 12 mil of elevation to hit at 300m. There is little to say that shooting the 22LR is opposed to the same difficulties as shooting the 308 WIN at distances divided by 3 ! Obviously, these shorter distances allow much greater accessibility to the firing points, much less expensive equipment and training at a low price, in fact 50 bullets of 22LR generally cost €6 when 20 bullets of 308 generally cost €30... the calculation is quickly done. We are able to shoot 10 times more for the same price with the 22LR.

But why is this practice of the 22LR TLD not more democratized? Could it simply be a lack of information and the underestimation of the 22LR that would be the primary cause of all this?

We believe that it is perfectly appropriate to start long-distance shooting with a simple 22LR in order to gain experience, practice more easily and all without breaking the bank! The proof? This discipline has existed across the Atlantic for more than 10 years and is only now arriving in France!

1. The theory of TLD preparation for 22LR

Before you start shooting at long distances there is a lot of preparation work that we will cover here. No need for an exorbitantly expensive rifle, any quality 22LR will do !

Regarding the bezel & mounting:

The scope should, if possible, have a sufficiently large elevation range.

• 200m objective : Any optic with at least 15 mil elevation (approximately 50 MOA) no requirement for a sloped rail. (projectile drop at 200m with a zero at 100m: approximately 5 mil)

• 300m Objective: Either an optic with at least 24 mil elevation mounted on a 0 MOA rail or an optic with at least 18 mil elevation and a 20 MOA sloped rail

• 400m objective: An optic with at least 26 mil elevation and a 20 or even 30 MOA mount

• 500m Objective: An optic with at least 26 mil elevation and a tilt mount up to 50 MOA.

• Beyond that: we are reaching the elevation limits of conventional systems. There are ways to get more elevation with systems that allow the telescope to be angled more significantly or even a prism to be mounted on the lens to gain elevation, but we are now entering a world of specialists and elitists and that is not the subject of this article.

What ammunition to shoot? There is no miracle solution, each 22 LR rifle has its preferences and you will have to test a certain number of ammunition in order to find what is its favorite dish. Be careful, speed without regularity is nothing, moving towards high-speed ammunition for TLD is not necessarily the right solution if the latter do not already group at 50 or 100m, it will not improve! Two criteria on which to base yourself: Size of the grouping and regularity of the exit speeds! One does not go without the other to hope to be efficient at long distance!

Once the ammunition has been selected, you will now need to zero your scope at a known distance (usually 50 or 100m) with this ammunition and you are now ready to attack greater distances equipped with a good ballistic calculator and above all armed with patience and attention to detail!

What if we left the theory for a little practice? We will follow step by step the theory described above in a concrete application!

1. My 22 LR Long Range Adventure from A to Z

The material used for the rest of our article:

The weapon: An Anschutz Match 64, a match rifle more oriented towards the FFTIR 50m discipline but which has all the characteristics we are looking for for long distance: An adjustable comb to be comfortable for hours behind the rifle. A heavy match quality barrel for better consistency on target, the only notable flaw is the absence of a magazine which prevents "shoot-counter-shoot quickly".

The rail: This rifle is equipped with a tilting rail system allowing the angle of the scope to be adjusted by a simple screw. This pressure screw rotates the assembly. No known angular values, all adjustments must be made "by trial and error"

The scope: An ATHLON ETR 4.5-30X56 with 32 mil of elevation, impressive for a scope at this price, this scope also has a very complete reticle allowing rapid and precise counter-aiming.

The bipod: A Tier One carbon bipod, simple preference of the author accustomed to this type of bipod, it is more of a luxury and a pleasure to use than a real necessity in reality.

Now let's move on to the first step: finding ammunition for this Anschutz rifle!

Step 1: Choosing the ammunition

We decided to first test what we have in the cupboards before spending money unnecessarily. Therefore we tested the following ammunition: SOLOGNAC (prototypes), ELEY CLUB, ELEY FORCE, ELEY ACTION, RWS MATCH S, RWS CLUB.

The protocol is very simply broken down into 6 steps:

1st step: adjust to 100m on a secondary target.

2nd step: Cleaning the barrel and installing the 100m test target

3rd step: 10 flambé shots on a secondary target

Step 4: Fire 50 shots at 100m with a radar to measure the speed of each of the projectiles (a simple optical chronograph also works very well, a Labradar is a luxury).

5th step: repeat steps 2, 3 & 4 as many times as there are ammunitions to be tested.

Step 6: Analyze your results and summarize them in table form.

Regarding our results:

Here is the target that served as a test for our experiment. We will note a variation in the height of the groups which is directly correlated with the variations in initial speeds: High-speed ammunition is always higher on target than standard ammunition.

Once the data has been analyzed, here is the summary table of our results.

As a reminder, we are looking for ammunition that gives good groupings and good standard deviations of velocity in our weapon. In our case, the ELEY ACTION PLUS ammunition seems to be the most relevant. This will therefore be the ammunition that we will use for the rest of our tests and TLD shooting.

Once our ammunition is selected and a small stock of ammunition secured so as not to run dry, we can now zero our scope at 100m. Our objective being to hit at 500m, the zeroing operation is a little more complex than usual because we are using a pentable rail.

The goal of adjusting the slope of the rail is very simple: Get the most elevation possible to shoot the furthest possible. To correct our shots we can either click or counter-aim using the graduated reticle. Based on this fact we decided to zero our scope in a rather extreme way.

Indeed we would like to have the entire elevation range of the scope but also the entire counter-sight range! Therefore we do not use the center of the reticle to aim at our target at 100m but the 8th graduation from the top of the reticle (Zeroing in this way allows us to gain 8 mil of elevation.

Let's take an example: To shoot at a distance X I need 13 mil of elevation starting from a zero at 100m, I use the center of my reticle to aim which is 8 mil lower than my zeroing at 100m and I add 5 mil by clicking on my elevation turret. So I get 8 + 5 mil = 13 mil of elevation. For each distance, you will simply have to remember that you will have to subtract 8 mils from the correction given by the ballistic calculator.

Now let's move on to the manipulations:

1st step: Set the elevation turret to minimum, keeping 5 clicks in reserve.

Step 2 : Angle the scope using the pressure screw on the rail. To save time, we recommend that you calibrate your weapon with the barrel axis aiming at the center of your target. Angle your scope until the highest graduation of your reticle reaches the center of your target.

Step 3 : Shoot a bullet at 100m using the highest graduation on your reticle as your aiming point (8 mil for us) and observe the point of impact.

Step 4 : Tighten or unscrew the pressure screw to bring the point of impact to the highest graduation of your reticle

5th step: Repeat steps 3 & 4 until you get a target point hit point at 100m (having kept 5 clicks in reserve at step 1 can allow you to finish by clicking)

Step 6 : Disassemble your elevation and windage turrets to replace the 0 graduations opposite your origin.

Having zeroed in this way at 100m we have in elevation available: 31.5 mils by the clicks usable in the elevation turret and to this is added 20 mils of counter aimed by the reticle.

A total of 51.5 mil, this elevation could theoretically be enough to reach up to more than 600 meters!

Now it's time for the first long-distance tests!

First of all, it is important to correctly configure your ballistic calculator.

For velocities use the velocities measured during your ammunition testing and not the manufacturers data.

Like the large bore TLD you will need to measure the weather conditions perfectly for this the use of a kestrel is a real advantage.

You need to measure as a priority:

• Atmospheric pressure
• Temperature
• Wind speed (there are better ways but for beginners this is a good start)
• Humidity (low influence)

All these values ​​are known precisely and the only unknown of our ballistic simulation is the ballistic coefficient. Few manufacturers communicate this value. The first approach is to start with a generic value which is a good compromise because it must be admitted that a 40 gr lead projectile cannot drastically vary in profile on a 22 LR… To do this, use a G1 ballistic coefficient of 0.150 for Round nose projectiles or 0.120 for Hollow point projectiles. We will refine this value more precisely later.

Our goal now is to precisely refine the value of the ballistic coefficient.

Step 1: Measure the weather conditions very precisely before your shots (Pressure Temperature humidity)

Step 2: Accurately measure the distance to your cardboard target (it is best to start at 250 or 300m. (A good quality rangefinder is preferable)

Step 3: Check your Zero at 100m (correct it if it is not perfect).

Step 4: Complete your calculator and use the elevation suggested by the latter.

Step 5: Make a grouping of about twenty rounds on your distant target, measure the speeds of the bullets in this series.

Step 6: Measure the height difference between the target point and the center of your group.

Now we have everything we need to validate our real ballistic coefficient.

The height difference between the target point and the center of the group characterizes the difference in ballistic coefficient and/or a difference in initial velocity. If your group is below the target point, you have a smaller actual ballistic coefficient than what you entered in your calculator, and vice versa if your group is located above the target point.

Convert the distance from the center of the group to the point of aim in MOA or mil depending on the unit used on your scope.

Example: for a gap of 13 cm at 250m: 1 mil = 25 cm so 13 cm corresponds to 13 / 25 = 0.52 mil

This value will need to be added or subtracted from the correction used for the shots. For example, if you are below 13 cm at 250m and used a correction of 12.2 mil then you would have had to use a correction of 12.2 + 0.52 = 12.7 mil to hit dead center.

Now that you know the real correction, you need to modify the calculator so that it gives you this real correction.

Case 1: Your average velocity measured during the series is the same as the one used in the calculator so you only have to modify the ballistic coefficient until the calculator gives you a correction equal to the actual measured correction.

Case 2: Your average speed measured during the series is different from the speed used in the calculator so start by changing the value of the ammunition speed. Check the new correction given by the calculator. If this correction is identical to reality then the speed difference is responsible for your target deviations. If on the other hand you still have a difference then you will also have to modify the value of your ballistic coefficient.