Took my gear out this evening to try out the tack driving challenge for the first time at 50 yards (1/2" circles).

The first sheet I had 11 out of 25 tacks driven, and the second sheet I had 15 out of 25.

I'm using a Savage FV-SR w/ Boyd's varmint stock, CCI SV ammo, Nikon 4-12x rimfire scope and an AAC Element2 suppressor.

What are some things that you focus on while precision shooting that maybe I'm forgetting or something I can improve upon?

Should I expect this type of accuracy without pillar or glass bedding my stock?

ETA pictures:

To even begin to guess, we'd have to see the targets.

Was it as simple as misreading wind shifts? It is easy to blow a wind shift and be off by 1/2".

I've never done any precision rim fire but would wind really play that much of a factor at 50 yards?

Added pictures to the OP.

Wind shouldn't have been an issue, 50 yard range has berms on each side but I did have some wind at my back last night.

The easiest things to help would be a higher magnification scope and better ammo. Without good ammo you will always be guessing if the miss wasnyou or the ammo, hard to improve from there.

Next would be increasing the quality of your rest. And then wind flags to get the last bit of accuracy.

Ammo is a huge factor for rimfire.

Even the same flavor of ammo will behave drastically different from lot to lot.

Find an accurate flavor and then buy as much as you can possibly afford.

A 12x scope isn't enough magnification for 50 yards?

And I always use CCI SV ammo.  Many of the guys at my range who shoot sub MOA use CCI SV as well.

I think with that rifle not being bedded, you are doing some great shooting. What are you using as a rest?

So far, from your results, cci sv is not sub moa in your rifle.  If that is you, your rifle, ammo or the conditions on that day, I have no way of knowing.

Reason I said better scope and rest was because that would help get the shooter out of the equation more and let the rifle do the work.  Lots of benchrest guys use a 36x at 100, that would be about 18x at 50.

At 50 yards on 12x, how big is the crosshairs? Even with 1/2 moa rifle and ammo, if you aim at the edge of the circle, some will drop outside the tack and some in. A higher mag will make sure you are aiming in the center so a higher chance of it landing in the tack. Same with a rest.

Not saying cci sv isnt good, but there is better.    The benchrest results I see, cci sv is not the winning ammo on average.  It does occasionally win, but not often.

I don't compete in rimfire benchrest, but follow their sport as I had to learn a bit to be able to test ammo for my silhouette rimfire rifle.  I got tired of trying to find out if the miss was me or my rifle.

Rimfires are known to be very ammo finicky.

I hope this helps.

When you are trying to get down to 1 MOA, yes, wind is a factor.  Let me run by ballistics calculator to get some numbers (deflection by wind).

"wind at my back",... this usually means you have a fishtailing wind.  This is possibly the worst possible wind condition.

I am using a 12-50X scope and would not mind more.

When you are trying to get that last little bit of accuracy out of a rifle, everything matters.

That is true.

Suggestions for a different scope?  I'm currently using a Nikon Prostaff Rimfire 4-12x

I would like to be able to use it accurately at 100 yards as well.

It depends on how much you want to spend really. I like Leupolds for the price to performance. I use their fixed 25x or older 24x scopes a lot, the older.ones can be had cheaper and with their warranty there are no worries.

If you are going to be doing a lot of knob twisting for different ranges, then you should spend some money.

If you won't be dialing in different elevations all the time, something like a Sightron 6-24 or Leupold 6.5-20 would be a good choice.  Both can be found for under $300-400.

Go buy several boxes of match ammo. Eley club, target, tenex, pmc match, Remington match w/ eley bullet. Also get a rim thickness gauge. It is how we " head space" or " adj our aol" for rim fire.  Your rifle may like a .039 rim thickness. Or 041, or .043.  Also, got a good trigger? Good luck