Most people would be impressed by a centerfire gun that can shoot a quarter inch group at 100 yards. It’s quite an achievement to achieve this feat with a rimfire gun, using.22 LR cartridges. Sunday GunDay features a new.22 LR Benchrest rifle that belongs to Forum member Dave Way. It is a gun that is incredibly accurate. This rimfire tack driver was crafted by Wheeler Accuracy’s Alex Wheeler, a respected gunsmith. Here is a five-shot group Dave shot after he figured out the optimal position for his tuner. This is an impressive rimfire rifle. A sub-quarter MOA group at 100 yard is impressive for a centrefire rifle. It is still impressive for a rimfire weapon. This rifle is a hammer!Today I tested three different lots of Lapua Super Long Range. This lot looked great so I bought the case. It’s fun to shoot this rifle over wind-flags. It’s amazing to see how little wind is needed to move the bullets at 100 yards. Today I had to wait to finish groups. It’s the best part. Dave Way Dave wrote in our Shooters’ Forum, “To say that I was impressed with both the quality of the action as well as the accuracy of the gun would be an understatement.” I fired five different lots of Lapua Midas Long Range and Lapua Ultra Long Range ammunition. All the groups at 50 yards were very tight. I was using flags to shoot in some wind. One lot stood out, so I placed a target on 100 yards and fired three rounds into it as aiming point. I shot three five-shot groups with the 15 rounds that I had left of that lot. All three groups were less than 1/2”, and they got tighter as I moved my tuner!” Above is a 100-yard 5-shot group Dave Way shot while experimenting with various tuner positions. The largest group (on the left) was 0.416′, and the smallest was 0.296″. The average of all three groups was a fantastic 0.369′” (0.352 MOA). Dave Way treasures the rifle and praises Alex Wheeler as a gunsmith. “I have never had a rifle that didn’t perform incredibly well, and this one is not an exception.” I’m new to the.22 world, so I’m not sure if this is great, excellent, or good accuracy, but it seems pretty precise to me.
Here are some of the initial groups Dave Way shot while testing ammo. All of them are under half an inch at 100 yards. It’s impressive, but keep reading. Dave’s groups shrank even more when he optimized his tuner and found a great bunch of Lapua.22LR Super Long Range ammo. Dave says: “They could have done better, but I was still getting used to everything.” Here is a series of 50-yard three-shot groups. You can see that this rifle is very consistent. This is with five different Lapua.22 LR loads. Lot Testing with Lapua Ammo – Three-Shot Groups At 50 Yards
Rifle Components Holeshot – 2500X – Right Bolt, Left Port Action
Muller Works 1:16”-twist, 8-groove Barrel
Holeshot Barrel tuner
Bix-Nandy Trigger Rotex stock
Leupold 40x45mm competition scope
Talley Rings
Gunsmith: Precision Quest Products now produces and sells Wheeler Accuracy Holeshot actions and Holeshot tuners. Do you have questions about this ultra accurate rig? Discuss this Wheeler-built rifle in the current AccurateShooter forum thread.
Consistency: Three 50-yard groups all under 0.180″! This rig is incredibly accurate with the right ammunition. Here are three groups at 50 yards shot one after the other. Dave shot three groups in succession while he was optimizing the tuner. It was very consistent and tight at tuner settings 162. Here are three 50-yard groups, each with five shots. The largest group (at the bottom) measured 0.174” (0.334MOA), and the smallest was 0.154′” (0.294MOA). That’s pretty impressive! Alex Wheeler crafted his own superb rimfire rifle first
Wheeler Accuracy’s Alex Wheeler has spent the last few years focusing on high-performance, long-range, centerfire hunting rifles. Alex Wheeler has recently started to experiment with rimfire shooting. Alex built his own “sister” rifle with similar components before building the Dave Way rifle shown here. Dave was so impressed with the gun that he asked Alex to build a second one. As you can see, Dave Wheeler’s new rimfire rifle is a real tack driver. Alex credited Dave’s skills in shooting: “I do not think it is possible for anyone else to send Dave a rifle that does not shoot. He has a natural talent for it. I’m glad I started with rimfire. I’m not interested in rimfire but it has taught me a great deal about bench manners. I also get more trigger time. It’s also a great tool for learning wind flags. It should help me become a better centerfire shot. It was the main reason I built mine. I usually sell every gun I make eventually and Dave was going buy mine but I told him to start gathering parts because I think I’m going to keep this one!
Dave Way achieved great results with Lapua.22 LR ammunition. Lapua Long Range and Super Long Range ammo is made in Finland and is designed to meet the needs of growing long-range rimfire disciplines, with targets between 100-300 yards. This ammo has very low ES/SD numbers. This ammo was tested by our friend F-Class John and he confirmed that it performed very well. (SEE Test video). Geoff Esterline explains Capstone’s marketing director: “Each production batch of Lapua [LR and SuperLR] is tested in 50-round groups to determine dispersion. The results determine if it is Super Long Range or Long Range Packaging.
