Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires .22 mag

Marlins tend to be pretty accurate, the one in the picture looks like an 882S with a 4-shot magazine.

I have a $150 XT-22VR that shoots better groups than many more expensive rifles. It shot fine straight out of the box, but I have to tinker with my firearms, so I polished the bore with JB's, disassembled/cleaned the bolt, and installed an MCARBO trigger spring kit. I like Marlin bolt action rimfire rifles, currently have 18 of them.

It would be nice if Anschutz made rifles in stainless, but they don't, so the options in the stainless bolt action rimfire niche look like Marlin or Savage.

Well of course you should!

I've got a Mossberg "CHUCKSTER", a Ruger 77/22 mag, and a Remington 597 22 mag. All are accurate enough and tons of fun. The Mossberg is a real good shooter and I imagine one could be picked up cheap.

I love the 17 HMR as well and have a few of them too.

You should probably own both!

I had a Mossberg chuckster years ago. It was plenty accurate but the bolt handle and scope grooves are too far forward. Makes it hard to operate the action from the shoulder and get a scope mounted back far enough so you don't have to creep the stock.

If you have to ask ... the answer is NO!

Search your feelings and you'll realize the answer is yes & a .22 Hornet

Yes, they have their downfalls and are far from my favorite but a solid budget option in my mind.

Every Mossberg rimfire I've had shoots WAY above its price.

There are a lot of cheap rimfires that shoot very well, but then you will have a cheap rimfire. I draw the line at CZ, below that I'm not too interested. Above that I dream about but never have actually pulled the trigger. Speaking of triggers, I will not own a rifle with any little lawyer blades sticking out of them.

As to the new CZ 457's, I have one ordered that should be here any day. In .17HMR - if it impress I may end up with another in 22LR. I would have to start shooting bigger vermin at shorter ranges to add a .22MAG. And/or start eating them - the 17HMR is pretty destructive.

if you insist on bringing 22 hornet to the party then I raise you 17 remington

My Marlin 917M2S is nearly as accurate as my Anschutz 1502, both are great tree squirrel rifles.

My Marlin XT-22VR is nearly as accurate as my Remington 37s and 40X, all four are great rifles for punching paper.

It doesn't seem logical to me for a person to ignore the opportunity to own an accurate rifle just because it is inexpensive. There are probably more inexpensive accurate rifles on the market now than at any time previously which seems like a good thing to me.

Id really like to hear about the 457. I want to get one in 17 hmr as well.

Nope.

Me and two other buddies took turns owning a Marlin 783 for several years. One of us would buy it from another, keep it a couple years or so and then one of the other two would buy it. I think we each owned it at least two or three times. Don't know that any of us actually shot it for groups it just always seemed to hit whatever we were shooting at. Finally one of the others was ready to sell when neither of the others was willing to buy so it left the family so to speak. After that I owned two different 77/22's that never really satisfied me accuracy wise. I couldn't find anything doing any better than about 1 1/2" at 100. The first one got sold and the second got converted to a 17HMR. When I went for another .22 mag I found another old 783.

When I first got it a few years ago I had a couple boxes of the Winchester 40 grn h.p. grey box ammo leftover. It shot them into just a little over 1/2" at 100 with a couple individual groups bettering that. During the shortage I couldn't find them anywhere. After the shortage I finally found and bought some from two different lot numbers. Both lots are over 1 1/4" three shot groups. The 50 grain h.p.'s are doing just under an inch fairly consistently.

thats the bind I'm in...

I want a 22 mag for a truck gun and then remind myself I have a win 43 in 22 hornet that I never put in the pickup... I fear loosing the magazine if I left it in the farm truck ashtray like we did with my dads Marlin

If you get a stainless Marlin 783/883/983 you'd have a hard time losing the tubular magazine and you can leave it in the truck 24/7/365 with little fear of rust.

Horse Hockey.....everyone should have a 22mag.....preferably a lever gun.

I guess I have to go find me a .22mag Lever gun!

Our state doesnt allow loaded guns in vehicles so Ive been thinking about a SS magazine version. One of them cost less than a factory magazine for my 43.

I grew up with a .22 Magnum Chuckster, then graduated to a .222, .222 Magnum, 6mm and now I'm back to a .221 Fireball. The problem being they are all a whole bunch louder than my peep sighted .22 Magnum Savage M24DL with the 3" 20 gauge barrel. If there is a more practical behind the door or just rambling around gun, I've yet to find it. Back when I started with a .22 Magnum we only had the Winchester 40 grain jhp or fmj bullets and honestly those two did everything that I needed done. Now we have a way better selection of 30-50 grain bullets that cover all the bases. MN. is probably a lot like WI. for varmints and farms and farmers only know what they hear and when my 6mm went off, I'm sure they thought I was shooting their heifers. WI. has had some pretty stringent rules about carrying a centerfire outside of the deer season months and my rimfire .22 Magnum is still a rimfire. My experience with the lighter bullets is that they wind drift more than the heavier ones though I've never owned a .17 anything or can even see it useful for what I shoot.

Considering the sheer number of oak trees in this part of the country - the squirrels around here are nearly 'market weight'..

I corn fed the gray squirrels on my back deck and they looked more like woodchucks. Then a new neighbor moved in that had a taste for squirrel stew and he cut into the population real badly. I miss seeing those big fox squirrels that we used to have. The red squirrels never get a pass, but those grays help liven up the winter and give the dog something to chase.