Ruger 22/45

[RJ]

Right, so I arrived at the square range today excited to see how/whether I could improve my scores at 10 15 and 25 yards with static groups. This was target 7, a 25 yard slow group of 10, after all the sight adjustments I made today:



Bear in mind I am no great shot, but for me putting 9 of 10 on paper at 25 using irons is pretty decent. Score of 78-0X not bad for me. Not as good as I can do with a dot, but for irons, ok.

I'll leave off all the cyphering I did in my overly-complicated spreadsheet, adjusting the sights and measuring changes in height to generate inches per click at various ranges...this might be interesting to one or two folks (maybe) but extremely boring to everyone else. I enjoy the simple geometry problem and working out the numbers. It keeps me busy.

Back to the plot: I did end up with a total of +30 clicks on elevation, as I think I have it dialed in now. I will measure the rear sight height and record that setting for CCI Minimags.

For windage, I have not cracked the code on that, and I have more work to do. Maybe in my grip? I was able to zero the gun on target left/right up/down (see picture), but that needed +25 clicks on CW in windage. When I got it home, I looked at the rear sight, and it had more curve on it than Marilyn Monroe.

So I backed all that out, and put the rear notch back to the center. I am almost positive it's me; moving the rear sight to the right a large amount may let me shoot zeroed groups, but I need to learn to shoot the gun with the sights aligned. I will work some with the pistol in dry fire and see if I can cure it. It's weird being a lefty you'd think I was going to shoot low and right (and I did, for years), but now I seem to be shooting this pistol to the LEFT. Which is odd, to say the least. It's possible it's the gun and not me, but I am not convinced. There's a chance I can get someone else to shoot it, soon, so if I do, it will help to isolate me from the gun, if they shoot it centered with the sight in the middle.

At any rate, I left the elevation alone, at +30, as say, and will revisit the range again and work on why I am shooting to the left or right.


A couple other notes:

I shot today with a top of front sight hold. I don't think I meant to, starting out, but it seemed that all those rounds I shot with my 1911 with iron sights, I just reflexively shot with that sight picture. Which I am ok with, as a 6 o'clock hold means I'd need to account for target size at different ranges. With TOFS, I just line my castles up to bisect the bullseye.

And with my corrected nearsighted vision, nothing in my iron sight picture is ever clear, really. Mostly it's all fairly fuzzy. My cataract surgery is scheduled for April. I'm very nervous but excited about that. Not least of which is they tell me my middle distance vision should improve vastly, as well as my field of clear view, once I get my new eyes. Looking forward to that in any event because my vision is a bit cloudier than it's ever been...getting old sucks.

Other thing is I am shooting all this two handed unsupported. I really need to revisit the concept of a simple low cost bench rest for doing this kind of work. If ya'll know of a cheap ($50?) portable bench rest I can get off Amazon, please post a link.


The gun is running great, up to 263 rounds to date. Another 105 CCI Minimags today; no stoppages, no malfunctions. Not a large sample, but I'm glad it seems to run ok. Trigger seems about the same, I'll need to get my Lyman out after 500 rounds, maybe. This 22 stuff is turning out to be pretty enjoyable.

[ASH556]

Great to see you sticking with it and working it out.

2 quick thoughts:

1. I've never found pistol benchrest to be of much use as errant shots seem to have way more to do with pulling the trigger than steadiness of arms. That said, a 50cal ammo can with a small sandbag or other form of padding works decently well.
2. I'd recommend paying a lot of attention to your trigger finger placcement as well as the directional forces being imparted by your finger to the trigger. The windage variations you're seeing sound like grip/trigger pressure issues to me.

[RJ]

I've been wanting a printed reference I could bring to the range when fiddling with the sights. After using a sticky note for a while, I ended up putting the info into the form of my 3x5 Optic quick reference cards. The card has a table for clicks vs poi shift at three common ranges, and the background on side 2 includes a grid of 1/4 squares with numbers of clicks for every inch (4, 8 and so on) at 15 yards. I also added some graphical aids based on photos of the sights on gun as to which direction to move the screws, because I never can remember. For the other side of the card, I just stuck a labeled picture of the gun, but this is no bid deal obviously because it's all in the manual.

I appreciate this is old hat to most of you, but for me, being new to adjustable rear sights, I find this kind of thing useful. So if another newcomer finds it helpful as well, the screenshot and link to where the pdf is parked on my Google drive is below.



https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mYb...usp=drive_link

[RJ]

Reporting in after Range Session 4. 115 more rounds of CCI Minimags, no issues through 378 rounds since purchase. I have another 1K of Aguila Super Extra 40 Grain LRN en route from Velocity Ammo as another option.

I shot all targets today with top of front sight hold, and made no changes in the rear sight.

First set of targets was some experiments with finger position. This did not seem to affect my group center. I ended up with a neutral finger placement; not the tip, not sunk in, just where it landed. The last of these was TT Hot for a 98-3X. Nicely centered, too. This was with a grip reposition, with my forearm more or less in line with the bore axis of the gun. This felt awkward at first but it was hard to argue with the results:



I then continued on, experimenting with different amounts of support hand grip strength. I shot three The Test in sequence, as follows: Target 1 was the my usual office boy Grip: TT 86-1X. Ok not bad. Target 2 I applied more SH Grip: 93-2X. Better. For Target 3 I gripped absolutely as hard as I could, and got a 94-2X. Hmmm.

I then used this same grip to do a 25 yd slow fire target, scoring 77-2X, with 9 on paper, which is my best ever on a B-8 at 25 yards with this gun. Then I shot Find Your Level at 5 yards and scored 10/10 using the crush grip. Just managed to clip the box on the 1" square, but hey it counts.

Take away: A crush support hand grip appears to have fixed majority of me shooting left. And the harder I grip, the tighter and more centered in Az/El I get. I mean, it's possible the CCI Minimags shoot a little to the left in this gun, but I felt that my arm/grip changes removed most of the error in group location in azimuth I have been seeing. It's interesting; this gun doesn't recoil a lot, and I guess I had decided not to use the same amount of support hand grip I normally use for center fire handguns. Maybe I need to use the same grip, despite the gun not jumping in recoil much, at all.

I had brought along some cheap 3" splattter targets (basically same as Shoot N' C). They worked well.


I'm very pleased with the results of today's shooting. I will keep the sights as is, and introduce the Aguila next time, and compare to today's results. I may adjust the rear sight (looking at 6 clicks, Clockwise) but may not.

On the hardware front, I did order a Volquartsen Target Trigger, which should arrive soon(tm). I understand it won't change the pull weight on it's own, but at $40 it seemed worth it to try and get rid of the pre- and post-travel slop in the trigger. I don't mind the 4+ lbs press, to be honest.

[RJ]

Picture sums up my experience trying out the Aguila Super Extra ammo - no good in this gun. I was barely able to shoot two mags worth. Out of 20 rounds, I'd guess maybe I had 6 or 7 failure to eject, and then 3 of these where the gun simply didn't chamber a round, pictured above. As well, the recoil of the Aguila was much noticeably more muted than the CCI, very much so. I dunno much about .22 shooting but the Aguila isn't a good match for this gun, I guess, so I will stick to CCI.

And after the Aguila, of course very single round of the Minimags lit off without a hitch. Gun is up to 468 rounds through today. I did go +8 clicks CW on Azumuth, and scored a 91 and 93 on The Test on targets 7 and 9. The 93 was the first time I put all 10 rounds in the black with this gun. I decided I've shot the gun enough that skootching the rear sight a bit over was ok, and just how I shoot the gun.

I tried bullseye-type 1 handed shooting at 10 and 15, but it was kinda hard to hold gun steady. I like the Volquartsen trigger, but I still have some overtravel and pretravel I may need to dial ouit. Had no issues with Volquartsen mag springs or buttons except mag 3. Based on two B-8s I shot at the end, I may need 6 clicks COUNTER CLOCKWISE on the top screw to coax my groups 1” up, at 10 yards. I plan to leave Windage alone and reassess with crush grip next time.

[RJ]

I replaced the mag springs and button on Magazines 1 and 2 with original Ruger parts. (Man, those Ruger springs are much longer and springier than the VQ springs - it was a small rodeo getting them corraled back into the tubes.) So I'll use Mags 1 and 2 next time with the Aguila. Is there anything else I should try in terms of changes when I try again at next range session? I was going to mark the box I used today and set aside, and fish out a different box from the shipment I got, thinking maybe it was just a bad batch of rounds.

Like say, I don't have much 22LR experience so if ya'll have any suggestions, I'd appreciate it.

[camel]

I replaced the mag springs and button on Magazines 1 and 2 with original Ruger parts. (Man, those Ruger springs are much longer and springier than the VQ springs - it was a small rodeo getting them corraled back into the tubes.) So I'll use Mags 1 and 2 next time with the Aguila. Is there anything else I should try in terms of changes when I try again at next range session? I was going to mark the box I used today and set aside, and fish out a different box from the shipment I got, thinking maybe it was just a bad batch of rounds.

Like say, I don't have much 22LR experience so if ya'll have any suggestions, I'd appreciate it.

I always used factory springs in my 22/45. The problems I always had were what were in the picture upthread when I changed the springs. As far as chambering in .22. I had a lot of problems with that if they weren’t cci.

[farscott]

I wonder which flavor of Aguila Super Extra caused the issues. "Super Extra" is a line of ammo, with standard velocity and high-velocity variants, including lead and copper-washed round nose and hollow point bullets. I would expect 40-grain standard velocity or high velocity variants to cycle just fine in any Ruger Standard pattern pistol.

[RJ]

FWIW these are the two ammo types I have. The CCI read 1,235 fps, the Aguila 1,130. I guess I have standard velocity Aguila because I can't see any thing that would indicate otherwise...

[camel]

I wonder which flavor of Aguila Super Extra caused the issues. "Super Extra" is a line of ammo, with standard velocity and high-velocity variants, including lead and copper-washed round nose and hollow point bullets. I would expect 40-grain standard velocity or high velocity variants to cycle just fine in any Ruger Standard pattern pistol.

I never had good luck with the non washed lead. And aftermarket springs. Or the copper washed for that matter. Just didn’t seem to work.