Help on scope rail selection please

Frack N Cylons

Frack N Cylons

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Someone BS check me on this…

I’ve got a CZ 457 incoming that I’d like to try out to long range for a .22, perhaps even participate in some long range .22 matches.

My current long range setup is a CTR .223 with an SWFA 10x. I found a SWFA 10x on the forum for a fair price so that is what my new CZ will wear. I’m liking the fact that both rifles will have the same glass.

These scopes have a very generous 40 mil of adjustment, 20 up and 20 down.

I have some work to do, but if I pick a generic standard velocity load and plug it in to my Strelok app with a 50 yard zero, I’m looking at about 19.5 mil up to get on target at 400yd. Hey great, in a perfect world the scope on a 0moa base would be fine. I get that it ain’t a perfect world.

Let’s say I need, guessing, plus or minus 3 mil to get zeroed at 50 yards. Worst case scenario I need all 3 mil. A 15 moa base = 4.36 mil, so I should be good to go. My gut says over shoot that and go with a 25 or 30 moa base for an additional 7.3 to 8.7 mil of adjustment. I don’t see a downside to this on a scope like the SWFA that has such a huge range of adjustment. If it were to zero in perfectly in the middle of the scope at 50yd with a 25moa base I’d have 27.3 mil of adjustment up. That would be just fine for 400 and I’d have another 10mil just on the crosshairs to work with.

I think I’ve got it but please check my math. 🤔😧😛
 
Sounds like you have it correct to me but I’m no LR guy so maybe there’s more to it. 🤷‍♂️
 
Frack N Cylons said:
My gut says over shoot that and go with a 25 or 30 moa base for an additional 7.3 to 8.7 mil of adjustment. I don’t see a downside to this
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This.

I spent a couple HUMILIATING days trying to shoot the .22lr match that Chris Simmons puts on at VOD. I mean....as a collective, those guys can shoot better than any group I've ever seen. They're all running 20+ bases.

The idea is that for best results you want your elevation changes to not butt up against the extreme edge of the adjustment. Apparently there's more likelihood of a click not being a click and other goofiness that went over my head.

RE: the SWFA, what is the parallax set to? I suspect it's fixed.

For most .22 matches, you need to engage targets anywhere from 25 yards out to 400. This made a huge difference in my ability to even focus on the 1/4-1/2" targets he was throwing up at 50 yards.
 
Buy the base that fits.

If you need elevation, cut a coke can into shims. Oh, go to Lowe's / Home Depot and buy longer mounting screws (thread pitch)

Each shim equals 15moa or 4.3 mil of elevation under the rear only (near the bolt handle)
 
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I opted for offset ring inserts on mine.
 
I am still very much in the honeymoon phase, but so far I'm really liking the setup. Here is a 5 shot group from when I was establishing zero at 50yds. CCI standard 40gr.

Not all the groups looked this good so I'll eventually start looking for what it likes. I also want to tweak the scope a little bit, it seemed out of level to me. Super fun little gun, my first bolt 22. 😲

IMG_20220417_203706206.jpgIMG_20220417_203329916.jpg
 
20moa base is the most common I've seen for these applications. If you can really make the use out of it, a 25 or 30moa base sounds like a great idea. But when in doubt, go 20moa.
 
Frack N Cylons said:
Someone BS check me on this…

I’ve got a CZ 457 incoming that I’d like to try out to long range for a .22, perhaps even participate in some long range .22 matches.

My current long range setup is a CTR .223 with an SWFA 10x. I found a SWFA 10x on the forum for a fair price so that is what my new CZ will wear. I’m liking the fact that both rifles will have the same glass.

These scopes have a very generous 40 mil of adjustment, 20 up and 20 down.

I have some work to do, but if I pick a generic standard velocity load and plug it in to my Strelok app with a 50 yard zero, I’m looking at about 19.5 mil up to get on target at 400yd. Hey great, in a perfect world the scope on a 0moa base would be fine. I get that it ain’t a perfect world.

Let’s say I need, guessing, plus or minus 3 mil to get zeroed at 50 yards. Worst case scenario I need all 3 mil. A 15 moa base = 4.36 mil, so I should be good to go. My gut says over shoot that and go with a 25 or 30 moa base for an additional 7.3 to 8.7 mil of adjustment. I don’t see a downside to this on a scope like the SWFA that has such a huge range of adjustment. If it were to zero in perfectly in the middle of the scope at 50yd with a 25moa base I’d have 27.3 mil of adjustment up. That would be just fine for 400 and I’d have another 10mil just on the crosshairs to work with.

I think I’ve got it but please check my math. 🤔😧😛
Click to expand...
If it has 40 mils of elevation then you could run a 40 moa rail. If I remember correctly I ran 35 moa total cant on my 22 prl set up with a scope that has 30 mils of elevation and was able to have a 50 yard zero. A fried has the same set up with an area 419 50moa rail and could not obtain a 50 yard zero.

I will check tomorrow and confirm how much cant I have in mine.
 
Tim said:
I can bring you an assortment of .22lr match ammo left over from when I went through this. My gun ended up liking Eley Match.
Click to expand...
Does that stay subsonic in your rifle? I’m pretty sure eley match is the one I bought (yellow box) 1 out of every 10 or so is supersonic I’ve opened a bunch of boxes and shot one mag out of each box and they all have one or two out of ten that are supersonic.
 
Bigdave0924 said:
Does that stay subsonic in your rifle? I’m pretty sure eley match is the one I bought (yellow box) 1 out of every 10 or so is supersonic I’ve opened a bunch of boxes and shot one mag out of each box and they all have one or two out of ten that are supersonic.
Click to expand...
This is “black box” and definitely stays sub
 
I've got a cz 455 that also loves Eley Match better than all others. As Tim says, this is Black Box

I tried/compared it with Eley Tenex (red box) and the Match was consistently as good or better so no need for me to spend the xtra $$$

Mine really doesn't like CCI Std Velocity which in my general experience is acceptable if not good to awesome in everything else. I've known others with cz 455 that were good with the CCI std velocity so as they say ... every 22 is different.

I also had good experience w/ Lapua Center X in mine.
 
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