What is the rifle set up I use for long range rimfire shooting and how did I arrive at it?
By Steve Isherwood
I was a late entrant to competitive target shooting and my first interest was in historical rifles. Full bore led on to smallbore and a .22LR Stevens 414 ‘Armory’ Model hammer gun which I used in the HARC 25x postal competitions. I also had an SMRC Bonehill .22LR conversion of a .303 Martini Henry which shot well in the historic competitions.
An opportunity arose to acquire a Winchester 52C rifle, lovely gun, heavy barrel, fitted with a x9 magnification Parker Hale Targetmaster scope, and this coincided with the formation of the LRRFC. I upgraded to a Lyman Super Target Spot x 20 scope and this combination served me well, even once winning the Campaign Cup with it in the early days of the club.
As the club developed and more modern rifles appeared at competitions I began to feel that something more up to date was needed. I decided to commit to the F Class Small Bore (FCSB) discipline and bought a CZ 457 LR Precision II rifle with ‘Match’ chamber. This was fitted with a Sightron SIII 8-32 x 56 MOA scope which, with some adjustable rings, could be set up with just enough elevation range on the turret to go from 25x to 400x, albeit not optically ideal.
I combined this with the Seb Joypod bipod which I used on my .308 F(TR) rifle.
I also used this set up for Smallbore Benchrest leagues and competitions but my averages just weren’t good enough to be truly competitive. A chance visit to Fultons for a bronze brush for cleaning my shotgun saw me walking out with a second-hand Anschutz 1913 Supermatch with alloy stock – and a depleted bank balance! Optics Warehouse had an offer on a Vector Sentinel 10-40 x 50 benchrest scope with 1/8 MOA turrets and I was able to acquire an MOAB base to go along with this. This, with the Seb bipod and a back bag, completes my current set up for LRRFC and NRA FCSB matches. Without spending a small fortune on a custom build I don’t think I can realistically better this – all down to reading the wind now!
The Anschutz rifle and scope, with a front rest and no back bag, is also my set up for benchrest competitions at 25x, 50x and 100x. I thought the CZ was an accurate rifle, and it is, but the Anschutz is on another level altogether and the improvement in my averages easily demonstrates this.
Regarding ammunition, I follow the herd and use RWS R50 for up to 100x and RWS R100 beyond that. Apart from slight changes to the elevation settings, I am not fully convinced R100 makes any difference to my scores. I have yet to try any of the long-range ammunition now coming onto the market. The NSRA Eley Competition requires the use of Eley ammunition and I have used Tennex for that with no discernible difference in performance compared with RWS – it’s just a bit more expensive!
For what it is worth, my advice would be to buy the best rifle set up you can as soon as you can. “It’s a poor workman who blames his tools” is all well and good, but it is hard to do a good job with poor tools – and not as much fun either!