Reccomend a .22 rifle

[Capbyrd]

I have 10-22. It is fine. However, I wouldn't trade my Marlin model 60 for two of them…

People like the 10-22 because they can buy a bunch of stuff to make it look like an AR. Gun shops like the 10-22 because they can sell a bunch of stuff to people who want to make it look like an AR.

Explain the popularity of the 10/22 10 years ago before all of the AR stuff was available.

People like the 10/22 because it is an incredibly reliable platform that has remained unchanged (mostly) for 50 years.

[Capbyrd]

as a general statement...a 10 22 will do what you want...and they're cheap in pawnshops. The recoil spring is built into the bolt...Henry's recoil spring is a million miles long and if it gets bent you'll have to buy another spring...the spring is cheap though.

The spring is not built into the bolt. The spring is on the guide rod/charging handle and is a separate piece from the bolt.

[Guest nicemac]

Explain the popularity of the 10/22 10 years ago before all of the AR stuff was available.

People like the 10/22 because it is an incredibly reliable platform that has remained unchanged (mostly) for 50 years.

Conceded.

People like the 10/22 because they can buy bunch of stuff to make it look like something other than a cheap .22.

[Sean]

Wow. So its down to the Marlin 60 or Rem 572.

[I_Like_Pie]

I have 10-22. It is fine. However, I wouldn't trade my Marlin model 60 for two of them…

People like the 10-22 because they can buy a bunch of stuff to make it look like an AR. Gun shops like the 10-22 because they can sell a bunch of stuff to people who want to make it look like an AR.

People buy a 10-22 because they are inexpensive, easy to work on, and with nothing more than a proper barrel and trigger work will shoot as good as a $1200 target rifle.

[Jonnin]

Conceded.People like the 10/22 because they can buy bunch of stuff to make it look like something other than a cheap .22.

I liked the price, accuracy, available high cap mags, and light weight build. It still looks like a cheap plastic rifle with a cheap clear plastic magazine and a cheap scope, and still shoots great. A few people buy the 10/22 to make it look silly but the current market has a number of .22s that look like that out of the box so the motivation to buy a 10/22 and a bunch of parts to rebuild it is largely gone now for anyone except the most hard core "tatical" 22 shooter. The pre-fab tatical 22s even have a big fake 223 sized mag that doubles as extra weight to reduce the recoil.

[Oh Shoot]

The spring is not built into the bolt. The spring is on the guide rod/charging handle and is a separate piece from the bolt.

Pretty sure he's referring to the recoil spring/charging handle as being a captive, contained unit (and locks into the bolt).

As opposed to say a Marlin 60 where you have a long recoil spring that comes out separately. And which is easily bent on reassembly.

- OS

[Handsome Rob]

Can't believe no-one's mentioned the Winchester Wildcat!

Beautiful, if small framed, classic styled rifle with phenominal accurracy right out of the box. Comes with 1 five round & 3 ten round mags as standard.

I bought one brand new 2 years ago & my first 10 shots, after sighting in, could be covered by a dime at 50 yds. It's happy shooting any kind of LR ammunition you can cram up it.

The trigger is not the best (although on the Target model, it's supposed to be much better & adjustable) but it's OK for a sub-$200 rifle.

As a side story; A friend of mine was bragging on his 10/22 & it being better than my cheap Wildcat. I offered him a 'put up, or shut up' shoot off. We set up a bench & put out a target at 30yds. He shot his group of 5 & we marked the shots. I took up my Winchester & rather than aiming for the bull, I aimed for each individual bullet hole his Ruger had made (I told him I was doing this) 3 out of 5 turned his holes into figure 8s, one was off it's hole but toutching edges, one went right through without making the hole bigger. We traded rifles & did the same thing with pretty much the same result.

He now owns a 'cheap Wildcat'

[Guest nicemac]

Tactical .22.

Gotta love that!

[Capbyrd]

Tactical .22.

Gotta love that!

People always love to joke about it and make fun of it but its a great training aid. And alot of fun for small children.

Everything has a niche and tactical 22's may be new but they definitely serve a purpose.

[Handsome Rob]

Tactical .22.

Gotta love that!

Dude. Al Quaeda squirrels.

Be warned.

[Guest nicemac]

Dude. Al Quaeda squirrels.

Be warned.

Yeah, they're nuts!

[Jonnin]

People always love to joke about it and make fun of it but its a great training aid. And alot of fun for small children. Everything has a niche and tactical 22's may be new but they definitely serve a purpose.

Another forum that I use has many foreign shooters and in some places, the price of ammo is so high (they were listing over $50 a box for pistol ammo, in $USA terms) that the .22 is all most can afford to shoot, so they go all out with their .22 guns. It has a place indeed. For the record, I get a kick out of all the tatical stuff in any caliber, shotgun, pistol, or rifle, and yes, I own some of it and laugh at myself as well. Largely because I know what tatical actually means, and drilling extra holes in every piece of plastic is not the defination that I am used to

[JAB]

I have an old Winchester 190 that I bought for $79 at a gun show a year or two ago. It looks well-used. It also needed a new inner mag tube assembly (ordered from Numrich) and now shoots just fine. A lot of folks seem to think they are junk but mine has worked as well as any other .22 semiauto rifle I have any experience with.

I also have the Glenfield that belonged to my late father-in-law. Glenfields are Marlins with stocks made from less expensive wood so it is a Marlin 60 with a different name and wood - this one even has the same rabbit on one side of the stock and squirrel on the other than Marlins have. As a shooter, I'd say it is no better and no worse than the Winchester but it does seem a bit more prone to feeding problems when it is a little dirty.

My nephew got a 10/22 for Christmas last year and I have shot it, as well. In fact, he, my brother in law and I took turns shooting empty 20 gauge hulls at somewhere between fifteen and twenty yards in near-freezing temperatures the day he got it, right out of the box. I have to be honest and say that I like the factory sights on his 10/22 a little better than the ones on the Winchester or the Glenfield. Beyond that, any one of the three shoots just as well as any other of the three. I do like the removable mags the 10/22 has but unless you are going to invest in several of them or buy a high-cap, it isn't that big a deal as the tube mags of the Winchester and Glenfield hold a few more than the standard 10/22 mags. Besides, when is there really going to be a need for fast reloads with a .22 rifle?

I recently lucked across a used Henry .22LR (I was standing there at the LGS when the previous owner was negotiating the trade. When he finished his trade and walked away I asked the store owner to see the Henry. It never even made it to the shelf.) For me, it is a lot more fun to shoot than any semiauto .22 I've ever fired.

I also have a Marlin 925M - a bolt .22 WMR (Magnum) that Marlin also makes in a .22LR version (the 925). Those are somehow 'updated' versions of the older Marlin 25 and 25M (as in the magazines are even the same.) I haven't fired it a whole lot but it is a good shooter with a bolt that operates smoothly. There are five and seven round magazines available for it and my 925M came NIB with one of each.

As for 'classic', I have fired a couple of different Remington Nylon rifles and they were a lot of fun. One was more accurate than the other with the less accurate one being about as accurate as the aforementioned 10/22, Glenfield and Winchester and the more accurate of the two being more accurate than any of those other three. Probably not going to find a Nylon in good shape for less than $200 though, I'm guessing. I've also fired a Remington Viper (which I think is sort of their 'replacement' for the Nylon.) It shot fine and was accurate enough (it had a scope so I don't know how the iron sights are) but didn't have much 'soul' and something about it just didn't 'balance' right for me.

My mom has a Norinco pump .22 and it is a lot of fun but is old (she bought it used a couple of years ago) and has some 'problems'. I suspect it needs a new inner mag tube assembly like my Winchester needed but she doesn't shoot it much and I haven't had the chance to fool with it a whole lot. It is fun to shoot, though, and about as accurate as my semiautos.

I do have to admit that I would like to have a 10/22 because of some of the aftermarket options. Oh, not to build an AR look-alike. I don't even own a real AR and honestly have no real desire for one. Instead, I would be interested in the aftermarket kit that turns a 10/22 into an M1 carbine lookalike. I think that would be a lot of fun. Unless I am mistaken, there is also an aftermarket kit to convert a 10/22 into a Thompson SMG look-alike.

As an aside, I have found that none of my .22LR guns like the Remington bulk pack ammo all that much. They usually fire and cycle but they are the worst of the bulk packs with regard to accuracy in all of mine - ranging from single action and double action revolvers to semiauto handguns to the Henry and the semiauto rifles. As far as bulk packs go, Federals seem to shoot most accurately from all of mine with Winchester being somewhere in the middle.

Edited August 15, 2011 by JAB

[Guest GunTroll]

You should try the Cz's.

Ah, you are right Sir. I completely forgot about them but they are out of the $200 budget and perhaps thats why they slipped my mine. You are absolutely correct though. You get above the $300 mark and there are some fine rifles for the 22 still being made.

I'm sort of funny and buy up old classic stuff. I recently picked up a Winchester 63 from '41 thats a real classy rifle. Also picked up a Winchester 67 thats in great shape. That's the sort of stuff I'm going for. If you can get it at Wal-mart, chances are I don't like it.

[Dolomite_supafly]

As far as not being tactical I used a conversion in my practice AR when I was home. It was setup similar to those I used overseas and saved me thousands of dollars. In that particular kit I had well over 15,000 rounds through it before I went to a dedicated setup. I have at least 5,000 through my dedicated now. And those are very, very conservative estimates. For the training I needed to do it was perfect and more than accurate enough.

Realistically using them to teach is far better than starting a new shooter out with a 223 or any other centerfire caliber. My wife was blast sensitive and didn't like the 223. I moved down to a 9mm and it made her happy. Same goes for a lot of new shooters. Other platforms are used for training other types of shooting as well. I know people who use 22's to practice for their long range matches because if you can read the wind to 200 yards with a 22 you can do it to 1,000 with a high powered rifle.

In a real world enviroment there are uses for .22's. When suppressed they are great for shooting out lights, taking out dogs quietly as well as plenty of other uses. I wonder how many people have been killed covertly with a suppressed 22 pistol. I do know that High Standard pistols with suppressors are in the government's inventory. The Israelis also used a 10/22 as a "less lethal" for a while as well until people started dying.

I can say that when I have problem animals show up in the middle of the night I grab my 22 AR before anything else. Even without a suppressor it is still not disturbing to most of my neighbors. And because I am so familiar with the platform it makes perfect sense. Follow up shots are fast and can easily take down most of what causes problems around my place.

Dolomite

[Raoul]

Dude. Al Quaeda squirrels.

Be warned.

[graycrait]

Sean,

If you can find them butt fed tube Mossbergs are fine guns in semi-auto, nice wood too.Look for the 151 and 51 series, pretty old but not that uncommon.

Again, the older Remington ADL 552s are the semi-autos you should conside while the 572s are the pumps. The pump is the one that will let you shoot anything including Colibras. The 552s will allow you to shoot everything but Colibras. Another even older Remington that runs nice in semi-auto is the 550-1, the 552 predecessor.

Craig

[Oh Shoot]

KISS plan:

Buy a 10/22 basic carbine for $199.99 or less at Wally's or Dicks or Academy or somewhere. Get a couple bulk packs of .22 (anything but Remington Golden Bullet). Shoot the piss out of it, you'll never wear it ouit.

Over time, add a few extra mags, better 2 or 3 of the 25 round Ruger mags for more shots between reloads.

You'll want to get more precise, so at some point add a $35 Bushnell or Tasco or BSA 3x9 scope.

At some point later, you'll want to get even more precise so drop in a $30 Volquartsen hammer to lighten trigger, also a $10 Volquartsen extractor, 'cause that's actually the only iffy part on a 10/22. Most all failure to feeds on a 10/22 are actually failure to extract properly.

Maybe clean it every thousand rounds or so. Or not.

- OS

[whiskey]

I have owned a 10/22 and a 597. I enjoy the Henry lever action more. Of the choices you've listed I would get the Marlin 60. I like tube mags.

[wjh2657]

Ruger 10/22 or Marlin 60. I have both. Both are classics and more fun than should be legal!

[Sean]

Ruger 10/22 or Marlin 60. I have both. Both are classics and more fun than should be legal!

Thanks

[Guest oldsmobile98]

I'll second 1gewehr's recommendation of the Marlin 39A. A lot of fun to shoot. It's my only lever gun. Mine is a late model, but you might scan GunBroker for a nice older used one.

[Guest capt usa]

If your wanting pretty fun guns to plink with, look at the Marlin 925 bolt action. I have a M model (magnum) and a R model (long rifle) that my son shoots mostly. We shoot against each other at coke cans and paper out to 150 yards and I have to say they are pretty accurate and a blast to shoot. They come with two magazines, a four and a seven shot. I bought them this summer and they were under $240 each out the door.

[Guest rocktheglock]

If you have an AR15 just by the cmmg SS kit, thats what I did and love it!!