Do you go so far as to gauge the rim thickness and weigh your rimfire cartridges to squeeze the most accuracy out of your bullets?
If so, which gauge do you use?
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Do you go so far as to gauge the rim thickness and weigh your rimfire cartridges to squeeze the most accuracy out of your bullets?
If so, which gauge do you use?
I do. You will be shocked when you check rim thickness of cheaper ammo. I use a Raven Eye gage. Its fast and easy. Light primer strikes can translate to slower ignition. It doesnt seem to matter as much on good match ammo, but if you sort the cheaper stuff you can tighten groups considerably.
Go to Raven Eye Custom and read their benchrest page about rim thickness. Now you will know where those unexplained fliers come from.....
I've been meaning to get a Raven Eye tool. Until then, a fired 223 case does the trick.
As was mentioned, you won't see a big difference in match ammo. But definitely in bulk ammo with 22 rifles. 22 Pistols, not worth the time.
14-15 years ago, I took the time to rim guage a couple thousand bulk Winchester 22 Dynapoints. At the time I was shooting Bullseye very well and wanted to eliminate flyers in my practice ammo due to ammo inconsistencies. I ransom tested each group with a 30 round group in 2 of my Bullseye 22's (Hi Standard Citation with an LSP match barrel and an exceptionally accurate Ruger MKII). I also included a blind standard group consisting of picking rounds from each lot, mixing them up and testing. Long story short, no difference. The mixed group was the same size as the carefully sized lots.
Now, 20+ years ago, a good friend of mine who shot 22 Silhouette (the 22 gauge actually belonged to him) had the exact opposite results. In his case it made a huge difference in his accuracy, but that was shooting & testing out of a 541s Remington. He would buy cheap Federal 22 ammo, rim gauge it and be very competitive with anyone on the line.
So yes it help and no it doesn't. All depends on what you're shooting it out of. If in doubt, try it. Other than expend some ammo, it won't hurt anything.
Al
Did you get a chance to check out raven eye? I have an extra I might sell.
I would take $20 for it without dial indicator
I don't remember who made this type RF rim gauge or when but I made this one to measure both 22LR and 22WRM rims. One end for bored for 22RF/17HM2 rim-body, the other 22RF/17HMR.
http://oi64.tinypic.com/nl4v1v.jpg
Bill