[Teddy Bear Rat]

Well, I got to the range without incident and was able to shoot the .22 Tanuki for the very first time this weekend.

The bad news:
First, it was pretty gusty out, but I really don't think it impacted the grouping much. Second, only about a third of the rounds would chamber. This is completely my fault, and I half anticipated this, since I had used formed cases as headspace gauges. I should have either bumped the cases to be fired slightly before charging them, or added some thin tape to the headspaceing cases to provide that last bit of space. Still, I got about ten rounds to chamber, and they were all close to chambering, so I'm on the ragged edge of functional headspace.

Now the good news:
The rounds that chambered fed from the Sako magazine very smoothly. This was one of the primary goals in this project, so I feel very good about this outcome. Also, the necks on fired cases are .0025" larger than the necks with the bullets seated in the loaded rounds. Perfect. The ones I got to chamber were all 16.5 grains of 4198 behind 50 grain BTs and showed no signs of pressure. I would say the report was just slightly above Hornet levels, and I also fired my ULA .22 Hornet and Dakota M10 .218 Bee on this trip, so I feel I had a very good feel for the noise level. Interestingly, the Sako L46 .22 Tanuki is the heaviest of the three rifles but still exhibited the most recoil; that 50 gr BT at 2875 FPS definitely produces more recoil impulse than the 40 gr. Hornet and Bee loads, as one would expect. Still, it was no where near the recoil and sound levels as a .222, so, again, mission accomplished.

On accuracy, after getting on paper and fouling this brand-new barrel, I was really only able to shoot one real 5-shot group. Four of those shots went into about 1/2", with the last round opening it up to about 7/8", so I have .22 Tanuki shivers running up and down my spine!

I would love to attach some pics, but PhotoBucket is trying to hold me hostage, so no pics yet.

TBR