Bergara BMR 22 Mag at the Rifle Range

[Bowhunter57]

I took 4 boxes of ammo to the range to see which type of ammo my rifle likes the best, at 50 yards.
As it turned out, it likes all of them, but loves 1 of them the best.
This is all on a concrete shooting bench with the rifle on a full set of sandbags.
* Absolutely love the factory trigger in this rifle.

Bottom Left: Winchester 40 gr. JHP bullet at 1910 fps.
Top Left: Hornady Critical Defense 45 gr. FTX bullet that's a JHP at 1700 fps.
Bottom Right: Hornady 30 gr. V-Max JHP bullet at 2200 fps.
Top Right: CCI Maxi-Mag 40 gr. JHP bullet at 1875 fps.

I decided to go with the Hornady 30 gr. V-Max ammo, for varmints!

 

[Knelly]

Nice! I'll be picking up the same one in a week or so. I'll be curious if mine will like the same, looking forward to trying a few on the range soon. Any suppression used?

 

[Bowhunter57]

Nice! I'll be picking up the same one in a week or so. I'll be curious if mine will like the same, looking forward to trying a few on the range soon. Any suppression used?

I am using a Rugged Oculus suppressor. It really tames the noise level down enough to not need hearing protection.

I used the same suppressor on my M&P Sport in 22LR and it was so quiet, all you could hear was the semi-auto action running....with subsonic ammo. I need the knock-down power of the 22 Mag, for immediate kill purposes and that's why I stepped up to his cartridge.

 

[Dannmann801]

I took 4 boxes of ammo to the range to see which type of ammo my rifle likes the best, at 50 yards.
As it turned out, it likes all of them, but loves 1 of them the best.
This is all on a concrete shooting bench with the rifle on a full set of sandbags.
* Absolutely love the factory trigger in this rifle.

Bottom Left: Winchester 40 gr. JHP bullet at 1910 fps.
Top Left: Hornady Critical Defense 45 gr. FTX bullet that's a JHP at 1700 fps.
Bottom Right: Hornady 30 gr. V-Max JHP bullet at 2200 fps.
Top Right: CCI Maxi-Mag 40 gr. JHP bullet at 1875 fps.
View attachment 218862

I decided to go with the Hornady 30 gr. V-Max ammo, for varmints!
View attachment 218863

That shot group is thumbthing else!

 

[Dannmann801]

I am using a Rugged Oculus suppressor. It really tames the noise level down enough to not need hearing protection.

I used the same suppressor on my M&P Sport in 22LR and it was so quiet, all you could hear was the semi-auto action running....with subsonic ammo. I need the knock-down power of the 22 Mag, for immediate kill purposes and that's why I stepped up to his cartridge.
View attachment 218885

Attractive rig ya got there

 

["J"]

That shot group is thumbthing else!

 

[Hedgelj]

Why did you go 22mag vs 17hmr

 

["J"]

Why did you go 22mag vs 17hmr

No replacement for displacement…..

 

[Hedgelj]

No replacement for displacement…..

Flatter shooting, and i haven't seen anything not go down with an HMR that i thought a 22mag would have solved the problem any easier

 

["J"]

Flatter shooting, and i haven't seen anything not go down with an HMR that i thought a 22mag would have solved the problem any easier

I’ve owned a Marlin 782 since my fiancé (now wife) bought one for me for a Xmas present in 1983. Killed a lot of small game with it. Including a ton of ground hogs. My longest shot was 125 paces.
My brother bought a .17 and we sighted it in. Didn’t impress me enough to add one to the collection.

 

[Bowhunter57]

I've owned a couple of nice 17HMR rifles and despite their awesome accuracy, I've had groundhogs walk off after being hit in the heart/lung area of the chest. Most of those groundhogs died, but not after a follow-up shot or two. Upon inspection, the bullets hit exactly where I had aimed.

I made the switch for the increased kinetic power of the 22 Mag cartridge. A larger diameter bullet with the same speed at the 17HMR, hits harder....basic physics. That being said, time will tell, this year as the g-hog hunting season gets under way.

Overall, I'm really happy with the accuracy of this Bergara rifle. I had some concerns of obtaining decent accuracy, due to a couple of Marlin rifles that I've owned many years ago. I had a tube fed and a magazine fed Marlin 22 Mag and despite trying different ammo brands, 1 1/4" to 1 1/2" groups at 50 yards was the best they would get. So, shooting dime sized groups with this Bergara has impressed me. I just hope it doesn't let me down for killing power.

If I were going to purchase another rimfire rifle, it would be the 17WMR or Super 17. I had one many years ago, when they first came out and it was like shooting a 22-250, but in a rimfire. At 3000 fps with a 20 gr. V-Max bullet, it would outright kill a groundhog out to 186 yards. After sighting it in at 100 yards, my next 4 shots were on 4 groundhogs at 62, 136, 138 and 142 yards.