The Rimfire Report: .22LR Vs. 700 Yard Soda Can -The Firearm Blog

Hello and welcome back to another edition of The Rimfire Report! This ongoing series is all about the rimfire firearm world and its many types of guns, gear, shooting sports, and ammunition types! Today’s Rimfire Report is a sort of guest post by Nicholas C. Last February Mike aka Garand Thumb released one of the most highly anticipated videos on YouTube. The infamous 22 Man who claimed he could hit a soda can 700 yards away with a 10/22 and iron sights. Well, I decided to gather my friends to see if we could replicate the result like on Mythbusters. We managed to hit a 700 yard soda can with .22LR but it was not easy.

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Shooting A 700 Yard Soda Can

Recently 22plinkster posted a video showing him hitting a soda can 700 yards away. He used a Vudoo Gun Works rifle using a Cold Shot adjustable base and Federal Gold Medal Ultra Match .22LR ammo.

This pushed my friends and me to try this but with better ammo. How naive we were. My friends Kythe and Kevin brought out their Vudoo Gun Works rifles and I used a RimX in an MDT ACC Elite Chassis.

Kythe on his Vudoo .22LR.

Me using the RimX in an MDT ACC Elite Chassis

Kevin using his Vudoo .22LR.

The biggest challenge is the immense bullet drop of the .22LR. The Minox scope on the RimX only had just shy of 14 MILS of elevation. With the scope backed off in magnification, I could see 35 MILS at the bottom of the reticle. So I could hold up to 49 MILS. But it is hard to be precise when you are at 5x and holding at the very bottom of your reticle.

Kythe has an adjustable Eratac mount that allows him to add elevation. Kevin was able to dial 29.5 MILS in his scope but he still had to hold another 30 MILS in his reticle!!

Kythe and I had hand loaded Cutting Edge Bullets 32 gr .22LR. I did a ladder test of the loads my friend Jerry made.

Kythe had already had his loads with Cutting Edge Bullets but he was using 2.68 grains of powder. Which pushed the 32gr projectile over 1700 fps!

Since The RimX scope did not have much in elevation there was no hope in trying. So I left it to Kythe and Kevin. Kevin was shooting older Wolf Match Target .22LR which allegedly was made by Lapua a while ago but is no longer the case today.

Trying To See And Hit A 700 Yard Soda Can

The problem with trying to hit a 700 yard soda can is being able to see and spot the misses. Our friends Vic, Kevin and myself brought out our tricked-out spotting scopes.

L-R: Mine, Kevin’s, Vic’s. Photo by Vic.

Both Vic and I have cooled thermal spotters mounted on top of our normal spotting scopes. I am using a Bushnell Elite LMSS 2 while Kevin has a Hensoldt spotter and Vic has a Leupold MK4. I am using the FLIR See Spot III while Vic is using a FLIR HISS.

Photo by Vic. Here is Vic’s ultimate spotter setup. He has a Phone Skope to see and capture what the Leupold MK4 spotting scope sees. While his Android tablet records the video coming out of the FLIR HISS.

I had high hopes that my hacked FLIR See Spot III would see the bullet trace but I think the .22LR bullets are cooling down while in flight so they do not show up until they land. Even then it was hard to see the small bullet impacting the dirt around the 700 yard soda can.

Here are some of the misses that I was able to see and capture through the FLIR See Spot III.

Here are some of the misses as seen through my Bushnell LMSS 2 spotting scope.

During our attempt to hit a 700 yard soda can with a .22LR, the wind would blow up to 14 mph. But at least we set the 700 yard soda can so it would be a headwind. Kythe also painted the soda can bright orange.

Kythe ended up running out of his custom-loaded Cutting Edge Bullets so he switched to SK Long Range. With .22 CuRx loads, he had a hold of 38-39 mils. With the SK Long Range, he had to hold 58 MILS with no wind. With wind, he was holding 61 mils. In the end, it came down to Kevin and Kythe who somehow fired almost at the same time. Kythe claimed that he shot first. So if you watch the thermal footage below you can see Kythe’s missed shot low and immediately after Kevin’s shot hits the 700 yard soda can.

Here is the retrieved 700 yard soda can. To my surprise, the bullet went through it horizontally, based on the entrance and exit holes. I expected a more diagonal trajectory given the immense bullet drop.

Final Thoughts Of The 700 Yard Soda Can

The result was sheer luck. While my friends Kythe and Kevin are great shooters, the wind was just throwing the rounds all over the place. They were usually within 1 MIL of the soda can and at the extreme 2 MILS. We hope to revisit this on a day or time that has no wind. Maybe even make it harder by doing it at night with night vision. I hope the cooler night air might make the .22LR bullet trace easier to see in the cooled thermal spotters we have.

This challenge was tough but surprisingly fun to try and achieve. Thanks for reading along.