Today's Turkey Shoot Was Windy

[Rangem4]

I was one of a dozen or so guys that braved the rain and wind to try our skill/luck at earning a turkey.
The stage was set at 100 yards with any rimfire. My first mistake was choosing my favorite CZ 22lr. I should have picked the Savage 93BTVS 22WMR to reduce the wind drift. I was shooting Eley 40gr. match. (The ammo and equipment was perrfect, the shooter was weak).
I am reminded once again how far a 22lr will drift in a 20/30 mph breeze.
We had 5 shots at a paper turkey target with hidden stars to earn the prize and 3 shots each at 3 baseball sized highest score qualifier targets.
I was pathetic, I thought I could shoot. Last weekend it was calm, the scope was dialed in and I was hitting 2" diameter groups looking forward to today. My shots were high and the wind pushed me where I was not expecting. Other club members did much better.
I walked away with a humbled heart. I did not put meat on the table.
I have a great respect for the seasoned gentleman who earned those 12 lb. turkeys.
Happy Thanksgiving fellas!
Maybe I will find my self respect at our (Bring a toy for kids Christmas shoot on December 6th).

[Fjold]

Where was this?

[capitol]

I was one of a dozen or so guys that braved the rain and wind to try our skill/luck at earning a turkey.

I'm gonna wait before I say it...









































































































































Ok, I waited long enough...

[as_rocketman]

Shooting in high wind at decent range is no joke...

Rule of thumb says .22LR at 100m, 30 MPH full-value wind, is about a 12 MOA or 12 inch correction. Definitely not something you can ignore.

The .22 WMR would have been slightly worse in the wind, believe it or not.

Hope it was fun, at least! Shooting against calibrated targets in those conditions is highly educational!

[Rangem4]

Shooting in high wind at decent range is no joke...

Rule of thumb says .22LR at 100m, 30 MPH full-value wind, is about a 12 MOA or 12 inch correction. Definitely not something you can ignore.

The .22 WMR would have been slightly worse in the wind, believe it or not.

Hope it was fun, at least! Shooting against calibrated targets in those conditions is highly educational!

My motivation to purchase the 22wmr was to have a farther reaching flatter option for these fun shoots. I am under the impression the projectile has less time to be pushed by the wind therefore mitigating some of the drift.
Your comment the 22wmr may be slughtly worse is interesting. Can you explain why that may be?
I am not trying to be a smart *** I really don't know the answer.

This shoot was at the PRGC. Is that you Frank?
If it is the Frank I am thinking about you did a great job. I wish we were shooting at 50 yards though. On a calm day 100 would be fine.
I had a good time just pissed at myself.

[as_rocketman]

My motivation to purchase the 22wmr was to have a farther reaching flatter option for these fun shoots. I am under the impression the projectile has less time to be pushed by the wind therefore mitigating some of the drift.
Your comment the 22wmr may be slughtly worse is interesting. Can you explain why that may be?
I am not trying to be a smart *** I really don't know the answer.

You can check yourself using a ballistics calculator. One of the more user-friendly ones I like is at the Winchester website.

The reason is that a typical .22 WMR round has a lower ballistic coefficient than a quality .22 LR bullet. While the .22 WMR is faster, that initial advantage evaporates quickly -- lower ballistic coefficient means not only it drifts faster, but it decelerates faster as well. This is even more true if you're comparing against a standard velocity or high-subsonic match-grade .22 LR. The supersonic .22 WMR has higher drag, and the entire shock cone is affected by crosswind, meaning its effective ballistic coefficient is lower still until it too goes sonic.

So as a result, at 100 yards, in a 10 MPH full-value reference crosswind, you expect a typical 40 gr full jacketed .22 WMR to drift about 5.5 inches -- call it 6 MOA. This puts it in between cheap bulk HV .22 LR (which has a lower ballistic coefficient than .22 WMR, and also suffers from transonic effects) at 6.6 inches (7 MOA), and quality subsonic .22 LR at about 4.5 inches (5 MOA).

Since you're specifying Eley Match, which is pretty nice stuff, I'd expect it to perform even a touch better.

The exception would be if you can find some "match grade" .22 WMR round with a ballistic coefficient of 0.13 or higher. I think some exist, but the typical BC is more like 0.11 -- well below a typical match .22 LR.

The real wind-cheater of common rimfires is .17 HMR. Better ballistic coefficient (0.125 is typical) AND way faster, and doesn't go sonic until way beyond 100 meters. Some loads experience only 2 MOA of drift in a 10 MPH full-value crosswind.

[Rangem4]

Maybe I should have done this research before I invested in my Savage 22wmr. It is very accurate on a calm day though.
Now I know why one of the guys at the range said, "22wmr is inherently inaccurate when compared to 22lr".

Critical defense Hornady got this result at 50 yards.

[as_rocketman]

Maybe I should have done this research before I invested in my Savage 22wmr. It is very accurate on a calm day though.
Now I know why one of the guys at the range said, "22wmr is inherently inaccurate when compared to 22lr".

Don't know if I'd go that far. The problem is that high precision loads for .22 WMR are uncommon, not that there's anything physically wrong with the caliber. Kind of like how nobody shoots a .270 Win as a precision rifle... the market has determined it's a "hunting caliber" and target shooters look elsewhere, but that's all the logic there is to it.

In general, though, one doesn't fight wind by going faster. Faster means lighter bullets. Instead, what you would do is use more powder to push a heavier bullet the same speed, since a properly designed heavier bullet has a higher ballistic coefficient. But the heavier bullet may need more freebore and/or tighter rifling, and there may or may not be enough rifles able to take advantage of these heavier bullets to make it worth the trouble.

Real serious competition shooters (centerfire, that is) speed up their bullets only to make sure they stay supersonic out to whatever distance they care about. Otherwise, going faster is a losing proposition -- you increase recoil and gain almost nothing in return.

Field shooting, on the other hand, going faster makes sense because there's less correction for elevation required, regardless of ballistic coefficient (although faster and better BC is nicer still). In the field you may not know range precisely, or may not have time to dial in a correction, so this matters. Going faster also means better terminal effects, if you're shooting something other than paper.

This is where .22 WMR shines, in my opinion. HV .22 LR falls apart after about 70-80 meters, but .22 WMR is good to about 150 meters. Less drop, comparable windage, and far more lethal on small to mid-size varmints. And it's accurate enough to take advantage of the longer range.

But for rimfires shooting paper at known distance, where you can work out precise come-ups and terminal effects aren't a factor, with .22 LR you have the option to start subsonic and stay subsonic -- and that is another legitimate recipe for high accuracy. It just drops a lot.

.22 WMR will always start supersonic, so you either keep it within its sonic range, or you eat the accuracy penalty going through the transition.

Different tools for different tasks. All have their place.

Looks like your rifle is a fine shooter, though. I wouldn't be sorry to have that in my safe.