I seldom shoot paper with a 22 anymore

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I don't shoot steel. My range doesn't have them. But a few times a year I like to take the .22 rifle and try to shoot tight groups on paper. It reminds me of all the fun times as a teenager stalking "tree rats" in the woods.
 
Well shooting non dominant shoulder (like a lefty) the 1022 is a breeze but my 457 is a pain to work the bolt to extract and not hit myself in the nose if I don't lift my head up/back. Same with any of my long guns centerfire or rimfire.

My youngest Son enjoyed challenging me this way when he was very young because he felt it evened the field a bit for him.

We had to unofficially rifle/pistol qual with non dominant shooting mechanics to understand the difference for left handed students. It was humbling at first.
 
The metal targets are fun to shoot at and you don't have to keep changing targets. However if you are working at precision shooting-making yourself more accurate, paper will make you better because it is more demanding. In my competition days I would shoot 50 meter (free pistol) occasionally and it would make you humble and a better shooter. The goal is to hit a center 10 ring just under 1" with one hand at about 55 yards for 60 shots. My brain would hurt from having to focus that hard. It was an education.
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Paper teaches you how bad you are. Steel gives you immediate feedback and satisfaction.
For fun, shoot steel. For serious study and learning, shoot paper.
Once you get the shots on paper going well, the steel is even more fun.
I like to sit on my patio with a pellet pistol and shoot at an old iron frying pan I hung up 60 feet away. Love the sound!
I realized that it wasn't making me better, so I cut a 4 inch disc of 1/16 aluminum and hung it in the center of the frying pan.
If I hit the disc, it jumps. If I miss the disc, I get a pleasant "gong."
It doesn't tell me as much as paper would, but it's fun.
 
Shooting from the non-dominant shoulder teaches one to THINK about the basics. Hold, squeeze, bang.
I do this shooting seated using a 'bog pod' and use my right hand to cycle the bolt. Works fine for 22 but has potential for nose/thumb interference with rifle length action.
 
The ARA Unlimited is the most challenging paper target I've encountered. That little green dot is the size of a pin head. It has to be completely covered by the bullet hole to count. It's checked by a scoring plug to ensure all of the dot is taken out. One shot per bull. It will stress you out chasing that little
dot. I haven't been able to participate the past couple months due to some med issues, but it's a blast and that scoring plug will humble you.
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The ARA-50 target is a very challenging 25-bull target fired at 50 yards, one shot per bull, and scored using worst edge scoring. The target is sanctioned by the American Rimfire Association and is commercially available. The maximum score on an ARA target is 2500 points with 25 X's possible. A typical match, consisting of four targets, would have a maximum score of 10000-100X. The target is available in two formats, the standard ARA-50 and a Factory Class variant. The standard ARA-50 target is used by the Unlimited and Precision classes while the Factory class target is used by all other classes.
 
I fired a 'gazillion' rounds at the 10 scoring bulls with two 'siters' in the middle (can't remember the #) on the 10 meter rimfire range. ;)
Was pretty good in national competition 50+ years back.
 

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