Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires Keystone

Recently a couple of range rats showed up with identical Keystone .22s. I have to say, I was impressed with the quality. Nice wood, fit and finish.

One of them, however, kept getting misfires. After a bunch of twiddling around swapping bolts and such, he finally called Keystone. They got the serial number, identified a known issue, and had a new one on the way.

Might have to give one a shot when I get bored with the status quo.

I assume you are talking about Keystone's 'Crickett' bolt-action rifle?

Had (the kids I should say) a couple of the Crickets (a design they "borrowed" from the Chipmunk), The Savage Cub and the Savage Rascal.

In this class of rifle I would go with the Rascal; No manual cocking, conventional safety, loading ramp (no need to load directly into the chamber), drilled and tapped for scope bases (vs the Crickett's less than sturdy mount), etc.

All of them are accurate, shot them at 50 yards... the only detriment to accurate shooting with any of them are the tiny size (for an adult) and the extremely light weight.


Or just buy a Winchester low wall in 22LR!


Jerry

I bet he's not talking about the cricket. I have the 722 classic, awesome little gun, american made, nice walnut stock, love the way the magazine works. Haven't scoped it yet, just iron sites with my son. Their scope system is a little ugly. Anyway, I'm in mine for about 350 after shipping/ffl fees. I think what may be hurting the sale of these is that for a little more you can probably find a cz locally. I only payed 400otd for my 455 american. I never knew keystone made the nicer 22s until about a year or so ago. They have some interesting stuff. You can pick up the phone and talk to them all day too. Pretty nice guys and will bend over backwards to help you I hear. I just had a bolt/trigger question for them when I called. Their earlier models had a issue so I was checking serial numbers to make sure mine wasn't one.

You assume incorrectly. killerv got it.

killerv, I agree about CZs, but these guys live and breathe .22s and have slews of them. They seemed pleased with what they got for their $300. Jury's still out on accuracy, and I also didn't try the triggers. My SS 455 has a very nice trigger right out of the box, better than my 453 had.

Just another option to check.

I've looked at them a little, but never got to shoot one yet. A local shop was carrying them, but they didn't sell well, and they went back to Marlins, Savages, and Rugers. I guess they got tired of CZs inventory issues and quit carrying that brand, though I've bought a couple over there in the past. The Keystones looked pretty nice, but they tie up the bolts, so you can't check them out like you can in other shops. Interesting guns, and according to RFC's posters, they treat their customers really well on warranty/QC issues.

Better not to have those issues, but yeah, they took care of my pal in short order.

At that point, the guns were still new, and still had some bugs to be sorted out. You can't really blame them for that, I guess. I have to admit I was tempted by the Keystones, but by then, I was pretty heavily invested in the CZs, so I decided to stick with what I am familiar. That doesn't mean I'm against them, I think the stocks feel pretty good. I wish KYGUNCO wasn't so protective of their inventory, I'd have liked to fool with them before buying one.