Skinna wrote:Yes thats right, i am assuming lower accuracy. I fail to see how introducing more trajectory & wind drift into the scenario with a shooter already (seemingly) struggling with, or lacking the ability &/or confidence to aim smaller (head shoot instead of body shoot rabbits), is not reducing accuracy.
Ive never heard a shooter say that introducing more wind (lower velocity) makes no difference to accuracy, particularly in the field.
If reduced noise & meat retention is the goal, strap on a muzzle break, use accurate handloads & learn to shoot smaller targets by practicing better technique. This will disperse the noise more & increase accuracy & give clean bodies.
Im not arguing against the virtues of Trailboss--i love it & some of the best fun ive had is sitting 100-odd yds out over a warren & popping heads, & cheap plinking exploding water filled beer/softdrink cans.
BUT, cases charged with Trailboss & 200metre varminting bunnys for meat retention (requiring head shots) just dont go together in my book.
The bullets will still likely fragment (at least out to 140/150 in my experience) making a mess & the lower velocity just introduces greater inaccuracy.
As for your comment on 1200mm not being a significant holdover...
I commend you & your abilities, but when im out there sniping bunnys & going for head shots, i dont want to be guessing any more than 4 inches holdover, so 4 feet is, yes indeed, what i call "vast" for the rewuirements.
I disagree with you, reduced loads do not automatically equate to reduced accuracy. If the shooter doesn't have the ability to correctly judge distance, wind or holdover, that is not the fault of the cartridge.
Muzzle brakes don't reduce noise in my experience, if anything they amplify it to the shooter and anybody nearby. It's possible they might reduce the report when heard from a distance, but I don't think that is what most shooters' concerns are, it's generally more for comfort levels around the shooter.
Learning to improve your shooting will always be beneficial, even with reduced loads, and regardless of trajectories.
I have never worried about head-shooting to avoid meat damage on rabbits with reduced loads as the bullet is essentially a full metal jacket and simply drills a hole through the chest, which kills rabbits just as well as round-nose .22LR bullets at normal ranges. Rabbits have no meat to speak of around the chest anyway, I really only use the back half behind the ribs, and the front legs if they're intact.
Jacketed bullets do not break up at all for me below about 1600fps terminal, which is probably what a reduced load is doing at the muzzle. My 62gn SP load does 1575fps at the muzzle.
1200mm at 200m is small enough that virtually any scope can dial it in from a 100m zero, even a 50m zero. And it's still close enough to allow at least a decent chance of ranging it pretty closely by eye, with some practice. 1200mm drop was a guess that was exaggerated and based on .22LR ballistics. My 62gn 1575fps .223 load actually drops about 550mm at 200m from a 100m zero (and costs me twenty-cents apiece). At 55m it's about 45mm high and about 200mm low at 150m, very usable. At 200m on rabbits though I wouldn't be holding over anyway, get set up, range the target areas, dial the scope to suit, wait for bunnies to pop up. Like yourself, I only want to be holding over a matter of inches, so closer ranges and/or larger targets. And I wouldn't be choosing to shoot subsonic loads to much further than 150m on live targets anyway, but that's up to the individual shooter.
I noticed recently that Hornady offer a 190gn subsonic load in 300BLK and .30-30 nowadays that drops about a meter at 200m from a 100m zero.
I can only suggest you get out and practice more with the .22LR at longer distances if you want to learn about the effect of wind and holdover. Which is a ridiculous comment I'm sure, you probably already have far more ability than I ever will (without being cynical or sarcastic - I have zero interest in competition shooting).
Basically, if you can shoot well with high-velocity ammo at short ranges, there is no reason you won't shoot equally as well with reduced loads.