22 Bench Rest

[Pyscodog]

A month or so ago I traded into a 22BR. Heavy Hart barrel, Choate stock and a 10oz RB trigger. When I say heavy, its .980 at the muzzle. This bad boy is a tank. I don't shoot prairie dogs and its way to heavy to carry chasing coyotes and i have rifles for that, so what do I do with it? I thought about re-contouring the barrel and dumping the Choate for something lighter but thats just more money invested. Kinda on the fence with this one.

 

[Evlshnngns]

What twist is the barrel?

 

[Pyscodog]

1-9 twist

 

[jds holler]

What kind of rifle? Action?? Scope??
jd

 

[Pyscodog]

Its on a Remington action.

 

[357Mag]

Psyco -

Howdy !

I live near Broken Arrow.

What is your barrel length ?

Are you going after coyote ?

I shot one of the very first .22BRs made, back when the wildcat first came out.
I shot both SR and LR -primed brass, seeing no practical difference in obtainable accuracy between the two.

Fred Sinclair built the .22BR for me for 100yd benchrest, using a Hart 1-14 5-groove SS on a Wichita Mini and Ken Burns converted 2oz trigger. The barrel was the conventional BR taper, in-order to make HV wt class, and was 20.5"
long if I recall..... the heavier .22 barrel needing to be somewhat shorter than competing 6mm barrels, to stay legit for HV.

I used IMR4895 back then. Nowadays, there are more good powders to choose from.

The barrel ended-up being put on a M-77, and used on NE Indiana "Soybenaus Digestus".
We were able to compare results against those obtained shooting these animals w/ things like .222, .222 Rem Mag,
.225Win, .22-250, .220 Swift, .250-3000; and my .22-35 Remington wildcat. We tried out 50s but mostly 55s in the .224's, all of which had 1-14 barrels. In the .250-3000 22" M-77, we shot Sierra 75s.
The .22BR did not accomplish anything above and beyond what might be reasonably expected of a case this capacity, shooting 55gr varmint wt bullets ( Hornady 55SX ) from a 20.5" barrel. My BR-grade 24" barrelled .22-35 Rem wildcat shot just as accurately as did the .22BR.

You'll doubtless want to lighten the barrel wt, for use as a walking varminter and/or predator rifle.


With regards,
357Mag

 

[Pyscodog]

Hello 357Mag. The barrel length on this is rifle is about 25 1/2" long and .980 at the muzzle. I hear pro's and con's about re-contouring the barrel but if I do, it will probably be just a standard Remington Varmint contour. I think between doing the barrel and getting rid of the Choate stock I might/hopefully loose a few pounds. I'm just on the fence about putting more money in it and the possibility of effecting the accuracy of the barrel by re-contouring. Its a cool rifle like it is and shoots really good but it is heavy!! Maybe I should go to the gym instead of the gun club. LOL

 

[17VLD]

I would take up shooting pd’s
Once you start though you will get hooked.
Your 22BR sounds perfect as is for that.
Recontouring the barrel may affect the accuracy as you have surmised.
With the 9 twist and good barrel length it sounds like it will reach out a good bit.
Matt

 

[Pyscodog]

Guess I'll shoot it a little more. Maybe I'll get attached to it.

 

[17VLD]

Guess I'll shoot it a little more. Maybe I'll get attached to it.

When I moved to Colorado in ‘95 my pd mentor shot a 22BR and it just flat out performed.It pretty much can do what a 22-250 can do with 10 less grains of powder.Now that the 53 V-Max is around you have it and a lot of tipped bullet choices that will really perform well in the 9 twist and for pure target fun try some of the benchrest bullets on paper,I don’t think you will be disappointed at all.
Matt

 

[longbow]

Have your recoil lug pinned,buy another barrel.You have a nice switch barrel gun ,takes all of 15 minutes to switch.Or sell the barrel and buy what you need or want.....

 

[Pyscodog]

Its not the caliber, its the weight.

 

[NorCalMikie]

I would think that "most" P dog shooters don't shoot off hand so with that in mind, pack it, rest it and shoot it.
I prefer heavy. (think fence post stock) Most of my rigs are 15# to 18# + so I get less recoil movement.
You could always hire a gun bearer.

 

[Pyscodog]

Never shot a single prairie dog in my life. At this time, I have no plans on it either. I'm not against it, its just not my thing. I hunt deer and coyotes for the most part so a 15 pound rifle serves me very little purpose. I did shoot it again this week and its boringly accurate. Makes little bitty groups. Its throated for 75 grain bullets but I shot 60 grain Sierras and it does really well with them. Big show coming up in Tulsa soon. Maybe I'll swap it off.