I recently started shooting long-range 22lr, at my local shooting club. It’s a fun and challenging game that requires a good understanding of downrange ballistics.
The max horizontal distance of 22lr trajectory is about 2,020 yards, or 1.147 miles. Practical 22lr shooting is done under 400 yards. The Max lethal distance, as established by the US army, is 400 Yards. For hunting, a 22lr will work out to a maximum of about 95 yards for common small game.
Okay, so you want to know about the 22lr. There’s a lot to learn. Fortunately for you, it’s pretty interesting to read. Okay, let’s dig in!
The Max Practical distance for 22lr.
The maximum practical shooting distance for most skilled 22lr competitors is 300 yards. That’s where standard rimfire shooting matches all stop, if they even made it that far. For most, hitting the target at that distance is attempted solely for bragging rights if they actually hit it. Most shots are misses.
I have watched some rimfire shooters make consistent hits at 300, but it’s out of the norm. That’s a very hard shot to pull off and it takes a skilled shooter. The average joe with his 22 might take an occasional long shot for fun, but really, it tends to be done much closer.
Most shooting and plinking are done at or under 100 yards, and I bet most of it is done under 50. That’s not saying you shouldn’t ever take a long shot.
Before I go too far here, I want to lay out the different types of 22 ammo. 22lr comes in three primary categories. They are Standard Velocity, High Velocity, and Hyper Velocity. It’s a velocity difference. If we give all three a 40-grain bullet, you’re looking at about 1150, 1250, and 1450 fps respectively for each category.
Hyper velocity does give an edge in power and max practical distance. This speed helps up to beat out gravity and buck the wind, which is great for long shots. However, the slower ammo is generally more precise shooting.
In reality, none of that makes much of a difference to the max practical distanced of 22lr. After 300 yards, it really just hits a wall. It starts to really give in to the wind and drops like a rock.
Shooting 300 yards with a 22lr is quite similar to shooting 700 yards with an average hunting rifle. They would both have similar drop and windage considerations. And the drop is fairly extreme. It’d be about 9 foot 4 inches or so of drop, on average.
At 300 yards, High velocity ammo 22lr ammo (the most common option) has 111 inches of drop and 41.3 inches of windage in a 10mph crosswind. Going just 50 yards further makes it 170.3 inches drop and 54.6 wind drift. That’s almost 5-feet of drop in 50 yards. And that’s why it’s hard to go past 300.
How far is a 22lr Really Lethal?
A 22lr is lethal to about 400 yards. At that point it usually drops below 50 ft/lbs., which is the US Army determination of minimum lethal bullet energy.
Pretty much all the experts agree that the threshold of lethality with a 22lr is somewhere between 350 and 500 yards. According to my research, it should fall somewhere in the 400-yard range.
Way back in the day, the US army came up with the idea that the minimum lethality for a common bullet was at 50 ft/lbs. of energy. I think that was applied to an fmj, or ball ammo, style bullet. Due to the 22lr being a primarily a soft lead bullet, it may actually take a tad more, according to the old idea.
During the war in Vietnam, the war department came up with a way in the field to measure check the max lethal distance for a bullet. They decided that if a bullet could shoot the=rough a ½ inch pine board, it was at least 50 foot/pounds of energy and potentially lethal.
I know for a fact that a 22lr can shoot through that at 450 yards. I guess that’s pretty close to that mark of 400. I wrote another great article about 22lr lethality. If you’re interested, here’s the link.
How far Can I hunt with a 22lr?
Small game like squirrels and rabbits can be taken by 22lr up to 100 yards. larger animals like porcupines, raccoons, and coyotes may need to be closer to 50 yards.
There are a lot of different considerations to take in to account when hinting with a 22lr. Different animals and various types of ammo all make a difference in how far you should shoot and how effective it may be.
I wrote a really great article on hunting with the 22lr. Here’s a link to it
How Far a 22lr Drops at 100 Yards
Most 22lr ammo will have around 5.5 inches of drop at 100 yards. If zeroed at 50 yards, you can expect about 4 inches of drop at 100 yards. There is usually 1 inch of drop between 90 and 100 yards.
No matter how you slice it, a 22 drops like a rock. If you want a nice flat shooting distance, keep it inside 50 yards. From 0 to 50 yards, the only change is around 1.5 to 2 inches as the bullet arcs from the barrel, up to your line of sight. After that, it starts do noticeably drop down a bit.
You can certainly shoot it further. It just takes a solid understanding of your bullet’s trajectory, an exact measurement of distance, and maybe some vertical adjustment on your sight. To shoot much further than that, you may need some additional adjustment beyond what your scope is capable of.
Adjustment Needed for Long Range 22lr
If you want to shoot long range with a 22, you need to have at least 60 moa or 18 Mills of elevation. Most scopes only have 30 moa of elevation but some have more. You can add more elevation by installing a 20 or 30 moa rail beneath your scope.
Scopes usually have something like 50 to 120 minutes of adjustment. That on its own would be enough, except that you never know where you will end up within that adjustment. Let’s say you start with a 120 moa and your reticle is centered. That leaves 60 moa for adjustment which should do to about 300 yards.
You shoot a bullet in attempt to zero the scope, and have to adjust 15 moa up to get zeroed at 100 yards. Now there’s only 45 moa of elevation left in the adjustment. That isn’t enough for a 300-yard shot. You will most likely need a canted rail to increase elevation.
They are common with 20 moa of cant, which should do if you have a scope with a full 120 moa adjustment. The canted rail will tilt the trajectory 20 moa up, giving you 20 moa more adjustment to use on your scope. I’ve seen 60 moa rails for ELR shooting. That would give you quite a lot of additional adjustments for elevation.
Author– Jordan Buck from guntradition.com