Lots of different ways to skin the cat. If you have Stick's resources, he has all the bases covered. I've also been of the mind to have rimfires that mimicked my CF rifles, but I found after a few stumbling steps that they didn't have to be identical to fulfill their purpose of having a like model for practice to transfer over to my centerfire rifle. I have a few rimfires that fit the bill in various price ranges and I've found the more I shoot any of them, the more comfortable I am with the big brother rifles. My Win 52's, 69's, 75 Sporter and Remingto 541S and 40X all work just like the big boys and give me tons of fun practice for cheap money. If you really want to go whole hog, find a Remington 547 and try that out for size. Very nice handling rifle, cut to a full sized feel and the ergonomics are pretty darned amazing. Just about anything you practice with a lot is going to make you a better marksman, IMHO. (which I believe is pretty much what Stick said above)
I"ve also found shooting game that is challenging helps to get the reflexes up with the shooting skill. Shooting from a bench doesn't always do that in the same way. Great for working up loads, but crap for game shooting in field positions. My best practice shooting for getting the muscle memory built up is shooting tons of "sage rats" or belden ground squirrels around here. A few days of that and you'll swear you could take on a Cape Buffalo with a rimfire and shoot them in the ear as they run past....
Bob
