Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire .22 LR. Random Thoughts

Like most others, I cut my teeth with a good .22. I used my older brother's Marlin with open sights.
When I had my own I added a good scope. Over the years I've had several .22s, mostly bolt guns because I use bolts for big gun hunting, not to mention PA's hunting laws.
I've had a Marlin 925 for 10'years or more. A few years ago I bought a Ruger American for Wifey, and liked it so much that I got one for me too.
I enjoy hunting squirrels with a .22 much more than shotgunning, and I'll go through a couple bricks every summer shooting from the back deck. Last year my son was home for a few days and between us and Wifey, we went through about 1400 rounds of .22, not to mention center fire stuff and beer!
Anyway, I ran across this article this morning, and it got me wondering if I'm typical or maybe just a red-neck. I figure maybe both.
7mm
.22 LR on AM Shooting Journal

I have 2 old Marlin bolts. 1 is a Sears but it's identical to the other Marlin. They're dead accurate. The worst I had was a Rem Nylon 66. The problem was the shim that held the barrel in place was loose. The barrel would move and it was horribly inaccurate.

I like savage mkII,s with the bull barrel fluted or plain.
Put a decent 3-9×40 on em.
They are 1/2 " to 3/4th" 10 shot @ 50yd rifles outta the box with cci velocitors.
And that is with a flyer or 2 fugging up a group.
If ya weigh out the velocitors to 51.8 grs( about 30 of em in a box of 50) they will shoot sub 1/2" 10 shot groups consistently.

Have owned several.
Common easily obtainable rifle.
Dont feel an emotional attachment to em.
I dont even own a .22 right now.

It isn't so important what you shoot as where it hits. The old RF is a killer in capable hands, and a remarkable training tool.

Im hooked on 22 rimfire shooting,I go true a 500 rd brick every week for the last 30 years and it is just to much fun to stop.I been shooting a Kidd super grade for about a year and I am amazed how shooting out to 2 hundreds yds I can hit tiny little targets.

When I was a kid we shot a lot of 22’s. Bricks and bricks using hand me downs and friends guns. Later in my teens all I wanted to shoot were center fires. Remember saving and selling stuff for my first 30.06. In my 40’s I got into shot guns and competition/games with them. Great fun and people participating. Now in my 50’s I’m back to 22’s. Much better equipment and ammo. Still the same joy as years ago running though a brick or shooting for groups. Funny how interests come full circle.

I really like the modern stuff in 22 long...

I detest "Best" articles...

Browning SA-22LR

Marlin Model 39

You can never have too many 22LR’s or too much ammo...

I shoot a savage anshutz bolt and a marlin semi auto. I have shot sub 1 inch at 100 with the marlin and very close to 1/2 inch with the bolt. Fun to shoot and don’t have to reload. The other day 3 of us shot the marlin at 100 and got sub 1 inch at 100 yards. The one was a 10 shot group. I was impressed. Ed k

I have a 10-22 older model and a Winchester model 63.

Both shoot darn good the 10-22 has a 12 power scope and the 62 has irons.

I have a Winchester single shot bolt rifle i need to shoot more as well as a Mossburg 22 that is single shot target model.

I have found a shell plate for the target rifle so they zip right in the chamber now.

Here's another random thought...

After noticing that some .22LR ammo is more accurate than others (not exactly a new observation!) and reading about how some competition cast bullet guys pay particular attention to bullet diameter, I got to cogitatin'. And I discovered that bullet diameter varies a LOT with .22LR.

Bullets ranged from as small as .220" to as large as .224" ALL the really good target stuff was on the large end. The skinny bullets were the least accurate.

Huh.

Rocky back a few years ago i found that as well.

Made a die that screws into my press and now had a way to swege them out some.

Takes some trial and error but it does make a difference.

On this musing thing the other day while out shooting some Winchester M-22 ammo as well as Federal target stuff.
I found that some of the Win.stuff wouldn't fit the cylinder of the Ruger single action pistol but it would work in the semi-auto.

Weird stuff for sure.

Marlin 56 for me

Them new-fangled 10-22s will never catch on.

No kidding? Wow, I never thought about bullet diameter varying from brand to brand!
I've tried several different brands with nearly all my .22s. Kinda funny cause when the boy started out, we both had Marlin bolts. His shot better with Federals while mine preferred Remington "Golden Bullet". But I never thought about getting out the calipers.
I pretty much stick with the Remington, mainly because that's what's available most places and cheapest to shoot, and I can't find anything enough more accurate to be worth the extra money and search.
I did experiment with.22 magnums several years back, just because. I borrowed a couple guns from friends and family and tried a bunch of different flavors among all.
I found that they're decidedly finicky from brand to brand. Of course that's been a somewhat mute point due to availability over the past couple years.
When rimfires got scarce, .22 mags got damn near impossible to find, not to mention costly.
I stockpiled whatever I could.
Mine prefers the Wichester Supremes, so I save them for squirrel. I've got others that I use around the house defending the garden and the yard from varmints. That gun sets in the corner by the back door with the clip nearby!
7mm

I never got around to slugging my rimfire barrels to check for diameter, as that seemed like a difficult task. But I do know that .22LR and .22 WMR are different, with the Mag being a thousandth or so smaller. At least by SAAMI numbers, that is. No telling what an individual barrel turns out to be.

There is always the Neal Waltz die that swages the bullets to a perfect .224 and you can also put hollow points in those round nose bullets, like 22 Long that you can't get hollow points for...

Keeping random: After reading glowing reports about the Thompson 22LR some time back I asked my wife for one for Christmas saying it sounded cooler than some Ruger that everyone else has. Naturally, she went to the shop, talked to the counter guy who asked her what I wanted, and replied, "He said something about a Ruger."

So, never warmed to it much and managed to be the only US American to ever break a 10/22 factory mag first time out. Years go by and I finally dust it off to go plinking with a buddy and realize ( as those who read my sks scope thread know ) I can no longer use iron sights. I order a 2-7x32 Hawke and think maybe if I refinish it the thing will grow on me. I overthink what color stain and settle on red chestnut and decide maybe some after market part.....like a new bolt buffer- will make it more 'mine'. I read on on ammo and settle on std velocity CCI.

I am officially in love with this thing now and shot the crap out of it last weekend. The absolute horrid beech or birch saw marked stock looks beautiful. Well to me it does, exact color and depth I wanted after stain rubbing and a 10 layer tru oil treatment left it satin- so those two aspects are rather winning. The few FTE I had seem to be resolved with the new pin and it is insanely accurate now that I have scoped it. Definition of FUN!

Correction on the post I made up above. The marlin groups were at 50 yards not 100 as stated. Sorry about that. Old age and all. Lol ed k