Rimfire Thickness Gauge

[kip270]

Hi Guy's,

After talking with Pete(Roedale) at the MGF, we got onto the subject about sorting rimfire ammo.

I have a .22 and .17hmr and i am always looking to increase my accuracy, and Pete touched on the subject of rim thickness gauges, so i am now looking to purchase one, but which one??

 

I look forward to your replies

 

Cheers

Kip

[JohnGalway]

Bought one (If what I'm thinking of is the same thing!), and a nice calipers, measured and sorted around 3-400 rounds, fired them. Made spiral staircase all difference

 

Mind you I will say I was shooting from a bipod with the the butt supported on a cap so...

 

But I didn't notice any difference from randomly loading them out of the box.

[Guest varmartin]

why not just use eley EPS/ tenex and be done with it.

It may be more expensive ...but you will bag a whole lot more game and have less missed shots.??

 

Martin

[varminter]

why not just use eley EPS/ tenex and be done with it.

It may be more expensive ...but you will bag a whole lot more game and have less missed shots.??

 

Martin

 

 

Quite agree martin ..

It may cost that much more but when tested at 75-100yds you can see what youre paying the extra for!!!

But like most things people are always experiencing differing results - mine have always lead me to lapua and eley match stuff!!

All the very best.............

RAY.............................................. ;)

[Alycidon]

Thats fine for head shots but I have heart shot rabbits with solid point match grade .22s and had them hop into woodland. I pick them up 5 yards or so in, stone dead but SSHP'S just drop them on the spot.

 

A

[Guest Hoot]

Thats fine for head shots but I have heart shot rabbits with solid point match grade .22s and had them hop into woodland. I pick them up 5 yards or so in, stone dead but SSHP'S just drop them on the spot.

 

A

 

Had exactly the same experience with Eley, RWS and Lapua match ammo. When using the standard SSHP's it matter very little with a 10-22 you just give them another shot, and the cost savings against match grade stuff starts to then make even more sense.

[Redfox]

I'll go with that tried them all and until quality problems used Winchester sshps, then went back to Eley sshp extra. Kill to shot ratio is in the order of over 95%, so I'm happy enough and they drop on the spot.

Used to carry a couple of mags of winchester Rabbit ammo which is not SS but with a 55yd zero on the subs they were bang on at 80-100 yds by just changing ammo and arrived with more clout but a touch noisier. Trouble is they suddenly stopped making the rabbit stuff ( Grr Winchester! ) and I havent found an alternative that is as accurate yet, the Rem and CCI fast stuff is like spraying a garden hose.

Magtech used to be cheap and cheerful with a few non subs in the batches, but I would sooner be certain of a hit for a few bob more.

Match shooters I can understand sorting ammo and buying from the same batch but vermin shooting doesnt need that level of messing about.

Beyond the 80 ish yd mark I use something with more clout, if I really have to shoot that far, but for rimmy shooting I can always get near enough to not have a problem.

Redfox

[kip270]

Cheers Guy's, well that's saved me some money, now what else takes my fancy???????????

 

 

Only problem i have is my local RFD has a limited range of .22 ammo, always used Eley, but when i lived in Scotland Eley ammo was like rocking horse S***, so switched to CCI and then Aquila, so i will have to wait until i get my tickets from Gwent police and see what they have nowadays

[craigyboy]

Never tried a thickness gauge but I do use winchester subsonics in my .22lr at 100 yards she is just under the inch which I think is great for a .22lr I couldnt ask anymore of it, I have always used win subs and they always do the trick, they have killed rabbits out to 130 yards stone dead. Shes a stone cold killer (no scope on it in this pic it was only new)

 

[kip270]

My mate uses winnie ammo, but i found they did not perform too well in my Brno.

 

That is a lovely looking rilfe Craig

[Guest Hoot]

Used to carry a couple of mags of winchester Rabbit ammo which is not SS but with a 55yd zero on the subs they were bang on at 80-100 yds by just changing ammo and arrived with more clout but a touch noisier. Trouble is they suddenly stopped making the rabbit stuff ( Grr Winchester! ) and I havent found an alternative that is as accurate yet, the Rem and CCI fast stuff is like spraying a garden hose.

 

Good job I still have 4.5K of the Winchester rabbit stuff left in the ammunition safe if they have ceased importation.

 

I have never found the CCI fast stuff to be as that bad. Not fond of either Remmy or RWS .22lr ammo.

[Guest 308Panther]

A few years back I was actively shooting a .22 lr pistol at the range,

and used any ammo I could afford...

You would be amazed how much ammo a little .22 semi auto can burn in an

hours time....900 plus rounds if ya really want to sit down and work at it.

One of the worst for dead rounds or fail to fire was Winchester.

I would come across 5 shots or more in a 50 round box.

and it the time I was buying ammo in what we called a brick....

or 500 rounds at one time....

 

I also have to admit that this was in the Pre Brady Bill days

when there wasnt a max cap on how much ammo a person

could legally have.

 

Yes...Now thanks to Sarah Brady we have an ammo cap limit

of 500 rds...Its a shirt tail charge that the government likes to add

once they are already in the door or have searched and seized.

 

Anyway...I found that if headshot the game is alot easier to recover

and there is no question of it bein dead on the spot.

Anytime I used a body shot there was always a bigger chance of crawl off,

and longer look see to recover.....and always found them farther away than I

thought they could crawl.

 

CCI ammo was the better stuff although I didnt like it....

 

After I bought my .17HMR I ran a few boxes of every brand I could get

my hands on...This was in the "earlier" days of the HMR and the Hornady

stuff was harder to get...I found that the Rem and Fed stuff varied alot in

velocity and if I sighted for the Rem that the CCI and Hornady would group

an inch and a half higher....and slighty to the right....

 

I try to keep my shots down to head shots if at all possible,if not, then I go for the front

shoulder or neck.

 

308Panther

[DeltaV]

Well i still think the thickness guage is well worth the investment.

I suppose it depends what the accuracy of the rifle is like to start with,

I haven't shot the .22 for a couple of years at targets but hunt with it occasionaly.

I only use RWS Pistol Match ammo, it is subsonic and from a box of 50 get typicaly 3 to 4 different batches of rim thickness.

The rifle is a 16" barreled Brunner with an A-TEC moddy, the action is floating and the first 8 inches of barrel are bedded/ glued and screwed to the stock. Its got a 6.5-20x40 leupold on it, and i adjust the BDC for range. head shot rabbits at 150m with a plummeting .22 lead bullet is fun and good practice,

the batches tend to shoot between 1/2 to 1 1/2 inches apart, and definate groups can be made out, one batch will shoot tighter than the others, which tells me the rifle like that particular rim thickness. The thing is extreemly accurate for a .22lr, but only with subsonic ammo, and then best with the RWS pistol stuff, it chucks everything supersonic all over the place.

 

craigboy, those sako's are a nice rim fire, the stock is a very handy shape.

 

Pete

[kip270]

Cheers Pete

[craigyboy]

sounds like your rimmie is a real screamer deltaV, I too love pushing the little .22 out, the furthest i have made it so far with it was 130 yards on rabbit head on, I use a mildot for it but recently started dialling in and its working a bit better, I dont think I could ever get to know a round better that the .22lr over the years I must have shot 20, 000 of them. The sako stock is great for offhand shooting, the groups that can be shot with this stock off the knee are crazy, its heavy but worth it as I dont need the bipod just the sling.

[DeltaV]

Hi Craig. yep it shoots a damn sight better than it looks, its had some hard wear over the years. I'm going to give it to my lad and put my self another together. I find that most people put a naff scope on thier .22's over here, using that high mag leupold with adjustable turrets and paralax realy lets you get the best out of the rifle, its accounted for a fair stack of game (and you'd be surprised at the size of some of it) and i used to hold my own against the anschutz crowd when the garrison shooting team took on the local Schuetzenverein's. I think plenty of practice with a .22 dioesn't do anyones riflemanship any harm.

Ive just had a stock maker copy the stock on your type of sako for a mate of mine, and i'm inletting it to fit a Barnard SM with badger mag system, thats going to be the base for a mould so we can make a synthetic version, he loves his .22 sako so much he wants the same stock on his .260

Pete

[ds1]

If you have a Stoney Point compatator tool (measures bullet ogive length) it will serve as a rimmy guage using the 24cal insert - vernier then measures rim thickness.

 

David.