Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires Best bargain basement .22 Mag

Looking for a .22 mag for vermin. I looked over the Marlin and the Savage, both look cheap to me, any reason I should spend the extra $30 on the marlin? Owned several marlin rimfires over the years, all were accurate, savage is new to me.

Get a Ruger bolt gun. Way better rifle than either of the two you listed. CDNN was blowing 77/22 mags out for cheap not long ago, they may still have them. Or pick up an American if the 77s are sold out.

Ruger American.



Dave

I don't know about "bargain basement", but if I were you I'd look at the Ruger American. A couple of my buddies liked mine so much they went out and bought their own. I was shooting one of my friends a couple weekends ago and his shoots better than mine and I thought mine shot damn well. Don't waste your money on a savage or marlin, when you can get a better rifle for around $250.00. They were on sale around here a couple weeks ago for that price anyway.

+3 on the Ruger American 22 Mag.

I've got the Ruger American Predator and LOVE it!


Virgil B.

Wow, didnt know the ruger's were so highly regraded. They look like they have some decent irons and I like the option to shorten the LOP for my kids, gonna have to check one out. Grice here in PA had them advertised for $259, I'll have to see if thats still current.

Ive heard the ammo for the .22 mag has improved as a result of competition with the 17 HMR. Anyone using the lightweight 30 gr stuff?

My buddy picked up a Ruger American for $169.00 at Scheels.

Doesn't get much more bargain basement than that.



Dave

I haven't heard that, but the 30-grain stuff shoots great in my Ruger American Rifle. But then it shoots all .22 Magnum ammo at least decently. In fact it shoots a wide variety of ammo better than any other .22 Magnum I've ever owned--and I've owned a bunch, including some that cost a lot more.

My Ruger American out shoots my CZ 452........by a lot.


Rich

You have buddies???

RAR and Hornaday V-Max....can't go wrong

I'm using it because it's the most readily available ammo for the magnums around here. However, I've seen some Remington accutips and some CCI's as well. My preference is for the good ol 50gr. Federal JHP's, they work very well on yotes. As for the 30gr. V-max stuff from Hornady, it works well in my rifle and my buddies magnums. Here are a couple groups I shot in preparation for last Saturday's bi-annual rimfire challenge we have at our club:




As for the rimfire challenge, here's the target from that:



I knew the rifle was shooting a hair low from the previous groups fired from the weekend before, so I adjusted up. My first shot was high and to the left, so I adjusted again 1 click down and 1 click to the right. Managed to get some decent scores with the rifle that day, even though it was a little windy and this is a "basement bargain rifle"...

Mine also isn't the heavy barreled predator (which is said to be more accurate). It's the one with the 22" barrel and iron sights. It's a damn good rifle as far as I'm concerned...:

This, the Predator is even better.

That's a screaming deal. They're $249 and up..

I handled a Ruger American Rimfire in .22 mag at the local Dunhams Sports store today. Definitely a cut above the "bargain basement" models I was looking at previously, but $311 price tag seemed a bit much. Going to keep looking for one around the two-fitty range. If anyone semi-local knows who is selling at that price, shoot me a pm.

Maybe I got lucky, but my Rem 597 semi-auto 22mag has been reliable and accurate.

Didn't they have a recall on those and stop production???

cdnnsports.com has the Ruger American .22WMR for $259 with a free bipod, and the compact version for $10 less.

Was that a 10 foot group? 25yds? 50yds? 100yds?

The 22lr version of the RA is NOT a shooter. Perhaps the 22mag version is better.

From what I hear, you can't get a 10-22 to shoot either. Is this just a coincidence? Some things make you wonder, other things are quite obvious...