Long range shooting at 200 and 300 yards, variables with different rifles?

[His lordship.]

I have a CZ 452 in .22 RF that I use with the excellent open sights, adjust the rear to 200 yards and from a bench it puts .22 LR into the paper at that distance.  Tried my Ruger 10/22 yesterday at 200 and 300 yards.  This Ruger is their fancy factory model with the bull barrel and laminated stock, attention done to the bolt and trigger over the cheaper model.  I was using 40 grain Eley target ammo. 
 
As the Ruger has a 3 X 9 Nikon scope on it I could see the bullet impacts, it suffered badly at 300 yards, tried aiming high and it just did not hit the paper, could see it hitting the ground way before the target when aiming right at the paper.  A little better results at 200, but still, a substantial drop at that distance as well.  Seemed like a waste of time to try to hit the  paper at 200 yards. 
 
I know that the CZ uses a very good barrel, and longer too over the Ruger.  I figured with the Ruger having the more expensive barrel for its type it would do better.  At the closer ranges designed for .22 RF the Ruger shoots fine.  Would I be better off putting an after market barrel on the Ruger, or is it the nature of the semi-auto design to not perform at 200 yards over a bolt gun?  How about sticking to light bullets loaded to high velocity over the 40 grain target mediums?
 
There are some guys on You Tube who shoot .22 RF rifles at 200 yards, so I am not the only one who likes the challenge.
 
 
Thanks.

[Bugflipper]

Even their target model is not really the best thing when it comes to accuracy. A ruger barrel on a 10-22 is usually a sad affair if made after 94'. Ruger is notorious for not updating their machinery once it goes down hill. The mini 14 took them a little over 20 years of producing mediocre accuracy to update their machinery. When they were new there were no accuracy complaint. 4 or 5 years ago it was hard to find one that could keep a 3" group, that was a better one in new production at the time.
 The 10-22 is approaching that. I happen to be a 10-22 fan and most likely have more of them than the rest of my rimfires combined. But truthfully a stock 452's accuracy is about where they are at after a good deal of time and money is put into them. There are quite a few posts popping up on the 10-22 being disappointing here lately. With Ruger's track record most likely it will get a lot worse before it gets better.

[Ranch13]

Trying to compare a tight fitted barrel bolt action of the cz against the v-clamp system on the 10-22 doesn't make for a very good comparison. Let alone the difference in trigger and lock times.
 I have no problem shooting prairie dogs to 200+ yds with my 10-22, but when it comes to get down and  dirty with target shooting, I'll take my Winchester lowall or the Winchester 75 target rifle over the 10-22 anyday.

[drdougrx]

I have to agree.  I think 300yards may be a bit over much for the 10/22 though I've not tried it.  My 10/22 is the altemont model with the 20" barrel.  I had it accurized by Connectucut Precision Chambering.  Included a trigger job and it makes all the difference in the word.  Just sent them a new 77/17 for the same work. 
 
I'd suggest that you give Randy a call as he's the rimfire guy.
http://www.ct-precision.com/
 

[Bugflipper]

Doc, never sent anything to Randy, but remember him posting instructions on one of the now defunct boards 15-20 years ago about accurizing 10-22s. Back then there weren't as many parts available. You pretty well had to send it to someone like him or learn to machine and stone. I still use some of his tips today on bedding and such. Quite a knowledgeable fellow.

[drdougrx]

+1 Bug....Dinny, a GB member, turned me on to him and I'm so appreciative that he did.  I think his accuracy jobs are well worth the $$.

[rich56]

As for ammo. You will probably find as I have that standard velocity ammo will group better once you get past 100yd than HV. Reason being when HV bullet goes from above supersonic (about 1100 fps) to bellow, the bullet gets destablized. That being said, I had my 40x out to 200yd twice. Of the cheap ammo I had, the best results were with CCI standard velocity. Next ime out I will try real match ammo and CCI Velocitors (40gn bullet@1400fps)

[Victor3]

There are some guys on You Tube who shoot .22 RF rifles at 200 yards, so I am not the only one who likes the challenge.

 There are also some guys on youtube who have been called on their BS videos of shooting tight groups at 200+ yds with a 22. One in particular frequents RFC, where he blows smoke about how he regularly shoots 1/2" 200 yd groups using cheap ammo in his CZ 455.
 
 Take a peek at what we're dealing with as far as drop, wind deflection, etc. with a .22 at long range. Not even a world champion rimfire shooter can get many tiny groups at 200+ yds. It's simply past the capabiliy of the round, even if fired out of a $5000 target rifle.
 
http://rimfireshooting.com/index.php?showtopic=76
 
 Note that with a 40 grain HV .22 @ 300 yds, you're loking at ~121" of drop and ~39" of wind deflection with just a 10 mph cross wind. And neither of those figures will be constant from shot to shot, due to slight variations in velocity and changing wind conditions.
 
 Still fun to try though.