Steel Target TESTING IN THE FIELD With the range work complete, it
was time to take the Stinger out into the field and work on a few ground squirrels at a ranch somewhat far away. As with prior articles, I didn’t want to include any images of dead critters, so I decided to use small oranges to demon- strate the explosiveness of the Stinger. I switched back to the Anschutz
2013 and short 18" Lilja barrel for this part of the project. Once testing began on the oranges placed at 50 yards, I could see signs that the Stinger’s 32-grain bullet rapidly fragments when it strikes the oranges, blowing some of the balls of citrus a good distance from where they were sitting. Almost every
time, bits of orange were blown out the back with other parts of the rind falling down around the target. Hitting the oranges at 50 yards was not difficult, but at 100 yards the small fliers which were present at 50 yards sailed clear of the oranges at 100 yards. For the most part they just drifted off in random directions, but I was getting the impres- sion that the misses tended to be over the targets. Once the fruit was exhausted, it
was time to clean out a few squirrels. Knowing that the rifle had a zero for 50 yards, I quickly missed the first squir- rel, talking to myself for getting too aggressive with the trigger. Through the scope I watched the squirrel spin around as the bullet streaked over its shoulder, but luckily it remained on the mound for a second attempt. That shot and the following four squirrels were all impressively dispatched in terms of terminal performance. The Stinger creates a serious surface impact on the critters, quickly shutting them down. Even out to 100 yards, it provides plenty of punch for squirrels and other smaller rodents. At 50 yards, the destruction is too great for any squirrels destined for the slow cooker back at the camp. This is something to keep in mind when tree squirrel season starts. A few days later back at the range,
I decided to demonstrate the differences in accuracy between 50 and 100 yards. To start, I set up a steel plate marked with three-inch square black stencils at 50 yards and fired a 20-shot group. Then I moved the same steel plate out to 100 yards and repeated the same 20-
Page 70 Spring 2013
shot group. On a separate target, I had to add 12 clicks of elevation in the scope, bringing the shots to the center of the target. The conditions at the time were not ideal, but in fact much more like the conditions you’ll actually find in the field. The wind was blowing from left to right at about 5 to 10 mph. Holding about four inches off the left side, most of the group was pushed from the center of the target off to the right side, show- ing how much the wind influences the light 32-grain bullet. These rounds were fired from the prone position off a large X-bag full of heavy sand, again some- thing that most of us are accustomed to using when out in the field. It’s obvious how much the light
32-grain bullet is affected by the wind. Not only is the bullet’s light weight part of the equation, but the high velocity further adds to the amount of wind deflection it suffers out at longer ranges. With careful wind correction, a shooter can still land a round on a ground squir- rel at these distances. CONCLUSION
The level of accuracy from the
Stinger was about what I had expected, and the terminal performance was outstanding by any measure of rimfire ammunition. It takes the power of a 22 WMR or 17 caliber rimfire to surpass the surface splash and target destruction the Stinger offers. With 36 years of continued sup-
port by rimfire shooters, the Stinger shall continue to be a mainstay of the CCI rimfire ammunition line. Outside of a few cosmetic alterations to the bul- let nose and case, little has changed over the years. When paired to a rifle that seems to agree with the round, it is more than capable of bringing down in spectacular fashion just about any small rodent out to 100 yards.
CONTACTS CCI
www.cci-ammunition.com Anschutz
www.anschutz-sport.com
Tactical Solutions
www.tacticalsol.com Brownells
www.brownells.com
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