In my opinion, consistently hitting a dime at 75 yards with a 22 rimfire rifle is exceptionally good shooting. It would be helpful to know a bit more about your situation to determine why you experienced one good shooting session and the next shooting session did not go nearly as well. Are there any clear trends that can be seen in your shooting sessions over an extended period of time? Are you able to hit a dime every time on a day to day basis or did this happen just on one day? If you consistently hit a dime at 75 yards several shooting sessions in a row, and then suddenly one day you can’t hit the dime at all, it’s safe to say that your shooting skills are highly developed, but you probably experienced a technical issue with your equipment on that one bad day. Or did you experience one good day where you hit the dime every time but most days you are unable to consistently hit the dime at 75 yards? If the latter is the case, then join the gang, you are doing about as well as us regular guys. I will venture to guess that you experienced one rare day where the wind remained calm or very light and steady allowing you to shoot up to the full potential of your skills and your equipment. Do you have a good idea of what the wind conditions were like between the good day and the bad day? One last question, do you use wind flags?
It has been my experience that the wind can have a significant influence on accuracy, especially when shooting 22 rimfires. The best shooter in the world, using the most accurate 22 rimfire rifle ever made, will have a hard time shooting consistently well from day to day without the use of wind flags. If you were to attend a 22 rimfire benchrest match, you would see the competitors using many wind flags, even for shooting at 25 and 50 yards. They use them because they know from experience that they could not shoot consistently well without them.
There are other factors to consider, besides technical issues with guns and ammunition, that make a big difference in how well we can shoot. These factors are often overlooked because they are not popular topics of discussion on the internet shooting forums. In terms of shooting 22 rimfire rifles consistently well, the two factors that I see overlooked most often are the skill level of the shooter and the effects of atmospheric conditions. Just something to consider when comparing the results on the target from one day to the next.
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