Pennsylvania Game News - May 2011 - 61

with a long scope, resting on his gun rest, set up for shooting at 200yard targets. I couldn’t see the receiver, but I figured that his rifle must have been chambered in a centerfire cartridge, maybe a .222 or .22-250 Remington, being that the bore seemed pretty TOP TO BOTTOM: Winchester Model 52 Target .22LR from small. 1960 with an Unertl 20x scope. Anschutz Model 1913 .22LR It took me a few with Leupold 6-20x scope. groups to get my Marlin sighted in to where I felt it was where it the windage and elevation, plus the report of the .22LR didn’t spook them as much. needed to be for hunting purposes. With him shooting that .22LR like Finished, I began to pay attention to the guy shooting near me. As I was watching he did, I wondered what his definition of his target through my binoculars, I heard long range was when he used his .22-250. him say in a low tone, “That’s about 16 I couldn’t resist the question on how far clicks high and maybe four left due to the he had ever taken a woodchuck with the breeze.” And then I heard him click the .22LR. He explained that for hunting purposes, he keeps his shooting range relalarge knobs on his scope. As I was expecting the sharp crack of his tively short, because a .22 rimfire doesn’t rifle, my instant thought was that 16 clicks have much energy at longer ranges. He seemed to be a lot of clicks for a varmint said, though, that for hitting chuck size centerfire. Just as I finished that thought, I targets, about 300 yards was the farthest. heard the pop of a .22 Long Rifle cartridge “I wouldn’t hit them every time at that and what seemed to be about one second distance, of course, because doping a good wind and judging correctly for the severe later, the bullet struck his target. As I glanced over from my binoculars I drop for the .22 is challenging, but it sure was suprised to see him eject a spent .22LR is a lot of fun to see what a rimfire will do case from that small receiver, I was abso- at what many shooters feel is beyond its lutely stunned. Even though I knew the range.” He must have seen that look of disbeanswer, I couldn’t help but ask, “Is that rifle a .22 rimfire?” His next comment, which I lief on my face and began to explain his will never forget was, “Yep, my Winchester reasoning. He figured being that target Model 52 with this 20x Unertl will put ammo flies around 1,050 fps and high speed good target ammo inside a silver dollar at ammo travels at about 1,200 fps and their 200 yards, and if I’m real careful, it will do full trajectory runs about 1 to 1¼ miles respectively, then once the bullet trajectory that well at even farther ranges.” In our time together, we got to talking is understood, a 300-yard shot would not about chuck hunting and I asked whether be out of the realm of reason. What he did was use his 100-yard he had any other rifles for chucks, and he admitted that he had a .22-250 that would competitive zero for reference, and then take them out pretty far. But he went on to shoot in 25-yard increments out to 300 say, though, that he liked to bring out his yards (that was the maximum of his club’s high grade rimfire target rifle to keep his range) and take note on the amount of eye sharp, and for the challenge of working scope adjustment that was needed for each
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Pennsylvania Game News - May 2011

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