Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires Youth 22

Looking for a good quality 22 for my 7 YO. He’s big for his age at 4’-8” and 90 pounds so he should be big enough to handle the youth models. I’ve been looking at the CZ Scout but I don’t know anything about it. What else would you guys recommend? He loves to shoot and I’d like to get him something of his own for his birthday in a couple months.

I'd go with one of the Ruger Americans. With the interchangeable stock modules, he'll never out grow it. They have an outstanding reputation for accuracy. The 10 round rotary magazine is nice as well. Darrik has a great price on them. https://shop.whittakerguns.com/product/ss-3039. It comes with the adult stock module. Order this one directly from Ruger and he is set with an accurate quality rimfire for the rest of his life. http://shopruger.com/Modular-Stock-System-Bundle-Compact-Pull-Kit/productinfo/26056/

I would shop the used gun racks for a old Win 67 that is nothing more than a shooter grade and cut it back for him. Then when he gets a tad older buy him something nice that he’ll have/use for the rest of his life.

I've got a CZ Scout, that I bought for ME ! (I'm 5"9")

It's a little short, but I had a 1" pad installed it to correct the LOP

I wanted a short barrel rifle for hunting Sage Rats from my truck window, and this one is just right.

It comes with a single shot "adapter" but it can be changed out to a 5-10 round mag.

I installed a Leupold 4X rimfire scope with the parallax set for 60 yards.

GREAT little rifle! Virgil B.

all of the above posted examples probably are very suitable & usable.

my grandson has a youth version of the zastava model 5 .22. there's other distributors of the same gun.

works good. the steel mag is a bit stiff, holds 5 rounds, and has the single shot adapter. good iron sights, but a scope helps.

they're not expensive guns, and are pretty accurate for the price point.

Those Remington model 5 Zastava are real sleepers. Nicest blueing on a new firearm I have seen in a while. Centerfire or rimfire.

make mine just a TAD longer....




at least I missed the glass....

Haha. My dad did about that shooting at a skunk. A Roll-N-Lock bed cover rail will soak up a 17HMR round and keep on rolling...

Huntsman22: Don't feel to bad.
I have a friend here in SW Montana that has shot his drivers side power mirror on three separate occasions over the last 18 years (that I know of!).
Replacement "parts" for his 1994 Dodge Cummins are getting hard to come by anymore.
He indeed needs a longer barrel on his Ruger 10/22.
On one of the three separate occasions he shot the mirror twice in five seconds!
To me that only counted as one mirror shooting even though he "double tapped" it.
A "sportsman" also has to watch out for shorter shooters zinging the hoods of ones VarmintMobile!
I have had two different hoods shot (one by a 270 Winchester and the other with a 17 HMR) over the years.
There's a three door Chevrolet Suburban here in Dillon, Montana with three bullet "gouges" in the hood of his kind of collectible vehicle.
The leaves them there year after year though (no rust here in this climate!) - maybe as a reminder?
One of the times my short friend shot the hood on my VarmintMobile he did not miss a lick or even take two seconds to call out to me "just send me the bill for that"!
It was kind of funny at the time - but still a pain to get fixed.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

I have a CZ Scout (455 in my case) and cannot recommend it enough. I LOVE the little stinker, it shoots really well (better than a 455 American I HAD (sold it when I realized how well the Scout shot)). It is pretty close to my 452 American, and uses the same magazines, a handy feature.

I also have two Ruger Americans, and have the short stock modules on them. They have one advantage over the CZ, the price of spare magazines is roughly half that of the CZs. They don't shoot quite as well as the CZ, at least with the ammo I have on hand, but they are useful and somewhat less costly than the CZ. And those magazines fit 10/22s, which I also have.

I like them all, and will keep them all, but it's your money and your choice. Frankly, the CZ shoots so well I'll probably never ever sell it, though scoping requires a cheekpiece of some sort to use a scope. The Rugers are scoped only (in my case), but the modular stocks will help in that regard.

yep, the adult version is 21 inch barrel i think. w/numerous varieties of stocks.

the youth version is 16 inch barrel, and shortened hdw stock.

it's handy even for adults, but built & sold for kids.

I'd go with a Savage Rascal, or better yet it's predecessor model the Savage Cub Mini.

Adjustable trigger, scope grooves, integral peep sight.

We have a cub mini that I bought for my youngest son to learn on. I am the primary user nowadays and I use it as much as any rimfire that I own. Handy and accurate, if a bit short.

Oklahomahunter,

Went through several Youth guns for the kids (just for fun).

The Savage Cub & the Rascal are the best of the "mini" sized guns. Both are single shot, they have a loading ramp, a safety, excellent peep sights and are grooved for scope rings (the Rascal is also drilled & tapped for bases). Besides this they are both quite accurate. The Cub had a wood stock while the Rascal is plastic stocked (in Your choice of color) The Cub is a used only option now, while the Rascal is the current model. But it sounds like they may be too small for Your boy at this point... He'd have to shoulder one to see.

Next step up in size are the CZ Scout & the Ruger American;

My CZ Scout (a452... the present model is the 455) has a one inch pad on the stock now and I still shoot it, makes a handy carbine. It is barely... just slightly more accurate than my Ruger American, the safety is backwards if that is an issue, grooved for scope rings, comes with iron sights, comes with a single-shot adaptor which can be replaced with a five or ten round magazine, 16.x inch barrel.

The Ruger American has a tang safety, grooved for scope rings (and drilled & tapped for bases), available now also in stainless, uses Rugers excellent & inexpensive 10-22 magazines, can be had threaded, Youth model has an 18 inch barrel, not sure but think the adult model has a 22 inch barrel(?). Comes with a stock module for iron sights and one for scopes, and as stated above you can buy from shopruger the adult/full length stock module for something like $25 when He grows out of the youth version.

To me the CZ is the classic blued steel and wood, while the Ruger American is the modern plastic modular rifle.


Jerry

If you could find one, the discontinued TC Hotshot.

Savage had a $50 visa card rebate on several of their rim fire rifles the Rascal being one but unfortunately the rebate offer just expired on 12/31/2017.

Hi! the zastava is a fine shooting 22 rifle, Its light and has an old world stock on it. I collect and shoot 22s and in awh! of the Anschutz's But the Zastava's for the money shoot very well! I have a Mp22 model with a model 5 Remington stock on it. Which in fact would be for an adult shooter, But the factory stock is light enough for a child shooter. Hang with the Zastava it will no doubt be his go to 22 when he's older and heads for the woods!

welcome aboard, cappy72. looks like this is your first post. and this is an excellent forum to talk rimfires. i'm more of a accumulator than collector.

do have a iver johnson, made by irma in germany a semi-auto .22 made to look like a m1 carbine. very nice rifle. bought it at k-mart. should have bought every one they had.

I am honestly trying to put myself in your position here..

I have owned lots of CZs in the past but no m452 or m455 would be my first choice currently for a kids first rifle.

And I currently own both recent made CZ and Ruger RAR rifles. I think you should be careful that you buy a gun that HE NEEDS ,not merely one YOU want to buy. I only say that because its human nature and sometimes we forget those two things don't always align.

I'd get him a Ruger American compact. I think his first rifle should be made in the USA. And really, the current CZ m455s don't seem to shoot any better than the RAR rimfies do in .22LR. At less than $250 alnost anywhere , the Rugers are a solid value and the best bolt gins in their price range.

They perfect for a first rifle because-

The Rugers come with different height/length stock modules, which will allow him to grow into the rifle.

They have a proper tang mounted forward to fire safety unlike the backwards CZ safety. If this were a rifle for an adult , maybe it would not matter. For a kid, don't make it harder for him to use that safety than you have to.

The Rugers also have a safer and much more easily and cheaply modified trigger than the CZs. If he get to the point he wants the trigger lightened or does not need the safety blade in the trigger, they are easilly modified. My RAR has a ttrugger tgat breaks like a glass rod at 2.5lbs and all I did was put a lighter return spring in the gun and remove the safety blade. Those mods took 10 minutes and cost nothing but my time. You cannot improve a CZ trigger to that extent without investing a LOT more money and or time.

The Ruger has good sights and a versitile scope mounting setup .Couple that with the much lower bolt lift on the RAR rifles there is MUCH less hassle selecting and mounting a scope low over the rifle(where it belongs) than on the CZs which are a PIA compared to most .22 bolt guns.

One point I will concede to the CZs is single shot magazine adapters are available for the ,I believe. I don't think that's the case for the Rugers. But the superiority of the Ruger rotary 10 shot mags pretty much make up for that..:)

http://shopruger.com/22-LR-1-Round-Rotary-Magazine/productinfo/90344/


I still like the CZs a bit better, they ARE more accurate than the RARs I own or have shot, and the short stock and great iron sights make it a solid value. However, and I mentioned it in my post, the Ruger magazines are about half-price compared to CZ. And yes, they DO sell a single-shot adapter.