As some of you all know, I compete in the Smack the Smiley comp and have been doing pretty well. Y'all also know that I am an Eley fanboy. Eley has changed the way that they distribute ammo, which makes it harder to test lots, so my source turned me onto RWS. I shot one lot at 100 yards and it shot lights out. Instantly, I bought half a case.
At 50 yards, I shot the 50yd tactical target, and while I cleaned the target, I came close to dropping a bunch of points. So something looked fishy. I shot a couple of groups after that and they tightened up, so I thought maybe it was a form issue.
Then it came time to shoot Smack the Smiley this round. I shot 3 targets and dropped a bunch of easy points... could it be that the ammo that I just bought a half a case of doesn't shoot at 50? I have never experienced anything like that before.
People ask me from time to time if I run a chronograph on my 22. The answer is I don't... because what am I supposed to do with the information? I can't reload with a 22, so there is nothing I can do to improve my SD's. And I don't really need a ballistic program to calculate my drops because I shoot mostly known distance and the unknown distance I shoot with, I know well enough to dope by knowledge (in other words, in this part of the field, I hold .2 mils high).
But curiosity got the best of me on this one. I thought that perhaps, the RWS was moving faster than the Eley, allowing for better performance. This was because I noticed less drop with RWS than Eley.
Here is what I found:
RWS Velocity: 1,119 fps, SD (20 shot): 5.1 fps
"Bad" Eley Velocity: 1077 fps, SD (20 shots) 8.8 fps
"Good" Eley Velocity: 1,076 fps, SD (20 shots): 7.2 fps
The "Good" Eley is the stuff that has tested well for me. The "Bad" Eley is lots that I determined don't work for my gun. I keep those around for foulers. Interestingly, the "Bad" Eley is rated at 1063 fps, and the "Good Eley" is rated at 1080 fps, yet they chronoed esentially the same.
What stands out about these results is that the RWS R50 is both faster and has almost half the SD of the Eley. At 110 yards (my testing range), 2 times the SD equals an advantage of .1 inch for the RWS. That doesn't sound like much, but it is huge. For me, the difference between a good lot and a bad lot is around .1 or .2 inches at 100. BTW... this is using Eley's published BC, which is .14, compared to RWS's published BC, which is .105. I can see Eley delivering a higher BC, but not 30%-40% higher in a round-nose bullet configuration.
Another striking thing is the fact that the velocity of the RWS is higher than mach. So, the RWS is travelling in the transonic zone for some of its travel. This lack of stability early in flight could be part of the accuracy issue I am having at short range. The interesting thing is that RWS sells an even hotter version of the R50 called R100. The truth is, I probably need a slower version.
So it is apparent that the issues with R50 at short range are overcome at longer range, where it can equal and perhaps best the Eley. I need to try at 200 where the ballistics should really take over and JBM predicts that RWS will shine...
One more thing. After cleaning my bore, the first Eley shot came in at 1168 fps. This is nine and a half standard deviations above the average. Statistically speaking, something is up if you are 2 standard deviations out of the average, so clearly, there is a huge first round clean bore effect going on, which is why I don't like to use a cold bore shot for record. Experience tells me it is around .2 mils high at 50. Now I know why.
At 50 yards, I shot the 50yd tactical target, and while I cleaned the target, I came close to dropping a bunch of points. So something looked fishy. I shot a couple of groups after that and they tightened up, so I thought maybe it was a form issue.
Then it came time to shoot Smack the Smiley this round. I shot 3 targets and dropped a bunch of easy points... could it be that the ammo that I just bought a half a case of doesn't shoot at 50? I have never experienced anything like that before.
People ask me from time to time if I run a chronograph on my 22. The answer is I don't... because what am I supposed to do with the information? I can't reload with a 22, so there is nothing I can do to improve my SD's. And I don't really need a ballistic program to calculate my drops because I shoot mostly known distance and the unknown distance I shoot with, I know well enough to dope by knowledge (in other words, in this part of the field, I hold .2 mils high).
But curiosity got the best of me on this one. I thought that perhaps, the RWS was moving faster than the Eley, allowing for better performance. This was because I noticed less drop with RWS than Eley.
Here is what I found:
RWS Velocity: 1,119 fps, SD (20 shot): 5.1 fps
"Bad" Eley Velocity: 1077 fps, SD (20 shots) 8.8 fps
"Good" Eley Velocity: 1,076 fps, SD (20 shots): 7.2 fps
The "Good" Eley is the stuff that has tested well for me. The "Bad" Eley is lots that I determined don't work for my gun. I keep those around for foulers. Interestingly, the "Bad" Eley is rated at 1063 fps, and the "Good Eley" is rated at 1080 fps, yet they chronoed esentially the same.
What stands out about these results is that the RWS R50 is both faster and has almost half the SD of the Eley. At 110 yards (my testing range), 2 times the SD equals an advantage of .1 inch for the RWS. That doesn't sound like much, but it is huge. For me, the difference between a good lot and a bad lot is around .1 or .2 inches at 100. BTW... this is using Eley's published BC, which is .14, compared to RWS's published BC, which is .105. I can see Eley delivering a higher BC, but not 30%-40% higher in a round-nose bullet configuration.
Another striking thing is the fact that the velocity of the RWS is higher than mach. So, the RWS is travelling in the transonic zone for some of its travel. This lack of stability early in flight could be part of the accuracy issue I am having at short range. The interesting thing is that RWS sells an even hotter version of the R50 called R100. The truth is, I probably need a slower version.
So it is apparent that the issues with R50 at short range are overcome at longer range, where it can equal and perhaps best the Eley. I need to try at 200 where the ballistics should really take over and JBM predicts that RWS will shine...
One more thing. After cleaning my bore, the first Eley shot came in at 1168 fps. This is nine and a half standard deviations above the average. Statistically speaking, something is up if you are 2 standard deviations out of the average, so clearly, there is a huge first round clean bore effect going on, which is why I don't like to use a cold bore shot for record. Experience tells me it is around .2 mils high at 50. Now I know why.
