First rifle

VSS

Well-Known Member
Ok, so I know most of you guys have been at this game for donkey's years, and grew out of "little" rifles yonks ago, but we all have to start somewhere!

So, after a lifetime of shotgunning, I went out yesterday and bought a .22 LR rimfire.
Main quarry will be corvids. Next on the list will be rabbits, possibly lamping. NWP won't allow .22 for fox (although a local keeper tells me he's always used a .22 rimfire for foxes).

Kept it simple. 2nd hand CZ /BRNO Mk II & moderator, new 3-9 X 50 scope & mounts. Together with cleaning kit and 400 rounds of expanding ammunition, the whole package came in at under £300 (plus the VAT, which I'll claim back).

Firstly, what tips can you give me re: zeroing?
Secondly, how to get the best use from what appears to be a very versatile 'scope?
Thirdly, I read in interesting thread on here re: taping the muzzle. Sounded like a very sensible thing to do, but is it ok to do this on a subsonic .22 ?

Also any other advice gratefully recieved.

Thanks.
 
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rifles set up

hi there

i think you have started very well by getting your cz rifle. i have had mine for about six years and taken account of a fair few rabbits with it. my firearms officer (sussex) is the same and wont put fox on my .22 rimfire but if the range is short and i am certain of a head shot then it does very well. i stress short range as subsonic ammo just dosnt have the punch down range. i set my scope to 6 x magnification and keep it there. others maybe differant its just what suits me. i generally zero mine at 60 yards as this gives a happy medium and you dont have to hold over much for 80 to 90 yard shots and dont have to adjust much for shorter ranges.
hope this helps
 
The firearms officer did unbend sufficiently to say that it would be ok for despatching snared / trapped foxes.

Re: zeroing range, I'm reckoning on having to work on the higher side of the rifle's capabilities for wily corvids. What do you think?
 
with practice you could consistantly drop corvids at 100 yards. do remember that .22 rimfires love to ricochet i went back to using my air rifle in the summer as the ground was hard even shooting into rising ground it was bouncing. the joy of a .22 sub is that you still have to get preety close. while it can be frustrating eapecially with crows your field craft will be so much better for it. and if you move up to larger quarry calibres you will have loads of field craft and find it that much easier.
 
Ground is all hard here - mostly exposed rocky outcrops. The firearms officer wanted me to go for .17HMR, on account of supposed reduced riccochet risk, but I said I wouldn't be able to afford the ammo!

What about the muzzle taping thingy?
 
my friend uses a .17 and loves it but it is really affected by wind. knowing what north wales is like you get get your fair share of wind dont you. when you say taping the muzzle is this to stop snow/rain going down the barrel. if so i have never bothered. it is very easy to get snow up the barrel and not even know with nasty concequences
 
Yes, it's to keep all sorts of muck out when you're lugging the gun through the undergrowth. There was a very interesting thread about it on here a couple of months ago. I just wasn't sure if it would be ok with the lower velocity subsonic. Would the tape blow off cleanly? and would the accuracy be affected?
 
sorry its taken a while to reply. my brother in law passed his driving test a week ago and just had a close shave with a fallow. missed the deer. hit two cerbs and a wall. thats the end of that car. at least no one was hurt. as far as taping over the muzzle i will bow to greater knowledge from others on this one. im not sure if there is enough velocity to blow the tape off safely and not affect accuracy. ultimately its best to keep barrel clear of any debris in the first place but i know were you are coming from.
 
Firstly, what tips can you give me re: zeroing?
Fire it at twenty five yards to start off! At least that way you can see if it is "wildly" off zero! Also at that time set your windage so at least you don't have to worry about "left and right" (in theory) only "up and down".

Wind can affect a bullet drop BUT at least if you set the windage at twenty-five yards your will be confident that the wind has affected it the least. If it is a still day by all means set the windage at fifty yards.

To try to set windage at over fifty yards is sometimes at the luck of any wind!

I'd personally zero a 22 rimfire to shoot "dead on" to sights at seventy-five yards.

That way, in theory, at up to seventy-five yards, your bullet will be no more than the distance between height of the 'scope crosshairs and the bore of the rifle below your point of aim. And will never be above your line of sight through the 'scope.

If you try and do it at greater distance I think that actually your bullet trajectory will take it OVER THE TOP of your line of sight.

Once done I'd then walk back to one hundred yards and see how far below the point of aim the bullet has dropped.

And, if it is a STILL DAY WITH NO WIND, re-check your "left and right".

Again, in theory, with a seventy-five yard zero if you aim at the neck of a crow (standing front on) at up to one hundred yards you will hit him there or in the chest.

I'd still stick with this seventy-five yard distance even if using the hyper velocity 22 rimfires.

FWIW I found that the MOST accurate, some twenty years ago when I used such a thing, was RWS HVHP.

What make is your expanding ammunition?
 
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Ammo is winchester.
I have yet to put a round through the gun, but have spent some time today manually bore sighting after mounting the scope. Did that at 50 yards.
I reckon I'll do as you suggest, and work at 75 yards for zeroing. That should give me a bit of leeway in both directions, and I'll be able to allow for that once I've got the hang of the multiple aim point reticle.
 
VSS,

Super set up you've bought. I got a similar one a few months ago and have been really impressed by the accuracy of the rifle. The CZ's also have a repoutation for being very robust. I have mine zeroed at 60 yrds, which for the rounds I use is also zero at about 30 yrds.

Re. zeroing, the CZs seem to favour a particular brand of bullet, which varies from rifle to rifle. There have been a few threads on this which are worth a read. Mine does best with Eley subs, with Winchester a close second. I was advised to buy three or four different brands of subsonic rounds and then see what suits best. It sounds like you've got 400 rounds of Winchester, which may or may not be the best for your rifle. However, don't worry about this as you can easily crack off 400 rounds while setting up, zeroing, practising etc. That's the beauty of the .22 rimmies - the rounds are cheap enough to use plenty.

Enjoy the CZ - they're great fun.

Cheers,

Bob
 
I sight in about 3/8" high at 25 M with high speed ammo and that puts me in the ballpark at 75 yards. Every ammo will act a little different. The key is to find what shoots most accurately, and then put in a good stock of the ammo that has the same LOT number on the box. Once you figure out the range you shoot the most at you can adjust your zero. The best thing you can do is to just practice judging distances and then adjusting your hold over, or hold under. If you do it enough it becomes second nature.~Muir
 
Hiya - I agree with the views thus far expressed. I have a lovely little BSA .22 Rimfire - I have tried it with a variety of ammo and am currently on Winchester. I zeroed at 70 yds and then worked out 100 and 50 yds (inch high at 50 and about 2" low at 100). Works a beauty - recently took a couple of rabbits at about 90/100 yds - aimed a little way up the ears and happy days! Right through the noggin - one jump straight up and collapso deado.

Have fun

Rich
 
Been trying it out today.
Would welcome your comments and tips. Please bear in mind that I've never used a rifle before, so don't be too condemnatious.
Followed enfieldspares advice. Set up target at 25 yards. Shooting slightly downhill on grass field, sloping down to stream about 100 yards away and rising in steep grassy bank on the other side. Target was pinned to sheet of quarter inch plywood, leaning on a trestle.
Fired 6 rounds. All fell within 2 inch group. 4 clustered very tightly together, almost touching, about an inch below and to the left of point of aim. One was bang on point of aim and the sixth was slightly to the left but the right height.
Moved target out to 75 yards. Put 4 rounds through. Fairly tight group, about 8 inches below and 3 inches to left of point of aim. Adjusted scope by required number of clicks, bearing in mind that my 75 yards had just been paced out, so a bit of guesswork.
Another 4 rounds. First one bang on, but the rest spread out a bit (although in the right area). I put this down to nerves, as I had just experienced my first riccochet and was still wondering where it might have gone! I thought I'd been very careful choosing my location etc, but one spun off after passing through the ply and hitting the wooden frame of the trestle at a funny angle. I'm thinking of leaning my target on a stack of straw bales in future.
 
you seem to be learning fast vvs and you seem to be going down the right path as well. one thing i will say tho is dont worrie yet about the ranges your shooting at especially at live quarry as hitting and killing one rabbit at 45yrds is better than missing 6 at 100yrds. just keep practicing at any chance you get on paper and seeing what the bullets are doing as the art of being able to shoot a .22 is acurate range estimation and know what the bullet is doing at the given range. i also see that your a little worried about foxing with a .22, well dont be the rifle is capible of killing foxes comfortably out to about 70yrds with sub-sonic ammo and even further with high velocity stuff
 
Im with muir, i zero mine half inch high ish at 25yds, which puts it back on zero at 70yds. Regarding ricochets, i know what you mean, .22 subs are awful for ricocheting, ive had them ping off after whacking a rabbit in the head, wet grass being the worst. Shoot it lots, even if its just at paper and you will see as your familiarity rises with the rifle, so will your ability. Sounds obvious, but i see so many people who put maybe 10 CF rounds down range a year and less than 100 RF rounds and expect to shoot consistently.

Ive shot a few foxes with the .22, one occasion right outside the 'big house', two foxes fast asleep after a night of loving, my old man thought the .25-06 may rattle a few windows with the laird! so i thwopped one fox with the .22 at 40yds, didnt even move and the second looked up and took the other .22 round.

Have fun!
 
Any tips on aiming / accuracy? The crosshairs seemed to me to be wobbling about all over the place. With my previous experience all being with shotguns, I'm used to keeping both eyes open, watching the target (don't see the gun at all), and firing the instant the gun comes to my shoulder. Instinctive. This rifle business is a bit different. (Isn't it...?)
 
With the "wobbling" you need to stop breathing! Well not until your lips go blue but at least during the final aim, pulling of the trigger and "follow through" of the shot.

How? Breathe in and hold your breathe. That way you'll have oxygen in your body and so can be quite still for the few - three or four - seconds of "stillness" required.

Rest the gun. It's not a competition so, if you can, rest the gun. Now that means actually rest the arm holding the forestock of the gun. As if you actually rested you gun directly with no himan flesh in between on something you might got odd results.

Resting the bare wood of the gun on a rolled up coat on the top of a brick wall. No. But resting it again bare on the top of a wooden gate maybe. So always rest your human flesh on any solid support and rest your gun, as it were, on that.

Squeeze the trigger don't pull it. With a shot gun you might use the front pad of the finger to pull the trigger. With a rifle you use the area between the first and second pads of the finger and then squeeze slowly as if trying to slowly close your finger to form a fist.

If the crosshairs are wobbling and you have a variable power scope then turn the setting to a low x times magnification.
 
Thanks for that. I probably did have the magnification too high. It was on about 5 when I was shooting at 25 yards, but when I moved the target out to 75 yards I wound it up to 7X.
Did have my arm resting on the field gate, but the height wasn't all that comfy, and resulted in an odd stance (I think).

Not sure what part of my finger was on the trigger. I'll see next time, and correct it if necessary. The trigger, by the way, was very very light. At least I thought so, but I've only my varied collection of shotguns to compare with.

(The rifle was spookily quiet too! A bit un-nerving after shotguns. I kind of expect something that is capable of doing so much damage to make a big bang! The loudest noise I heard was the bullet hitting the target!)
 
i would echo what enfieldspares has said about breathing trigger pull etc. i have always used rifles so really struggle with my shotgun. i hold and shoot not swing through. i find just 15 shots a week really improves my shooting. i usually use my air rifle in the garden for this. draw round a five pence piece and you will soon find you can put five shots in the ring. my garden is about 60 foot long and i thought at this short range i wouldnt make much differance but it sure does.
keep practicing you will soon love using the rifle and your shotgun may well become dusty
 
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