Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires why keep 22lr rifle?

Just some rambling thoughts out loud. Since I've started getting into reloading, I've played with the ideal of downloading my 223 rem to duplicate the 22lr and wonder if it still worth keeping rimfire rifle around? What's your thoughts?


Leo

While I do reload my .223 Rem down with Blue Dot powder. I would never consider being without a .22LR as they are just to useful. I have even been thinking about getting another.

Squirrel hunting..... snakes/turtles on the ponds.... crows.....wabbits.... coons...... possums..... etc., and anything else I dont want to shoot with a shotgun or larger rifle.

Everyone needs a .22.

A nice .22rf..............for when new adult family members come along.
Or grandkids.

I can't imagine being without one. Or several. I have them in the house, at our camp, hanging on the wall of the garage, usually in the back of my truck, they're just useful to have around

I'll never be without a 22 or air rifle - cheap ammo and don't have to reload for them. I spend most of my time at a range though, just muckin around.

I also hate reloading these days and the time spent doing so. Hornady makes cheap bulk pack 308 ammo that is on par for accuracy and cost against my reloads, so I use this instead. I forget what they call it but it has the 155gn HPBT so not a good choice for hunting - except head shotss I guess.

^^^This^^^

A fella can do this with a .22 RF or .223, with or without mousefart loads.




Can you do this with your .223 mousefarts?






Can you carry 50 rounds of .223 in your pocket comfortably?
Can you shoot it in the neighborhood w/o pizzin' off the neighbors?

Curious minds and all that........

The .223 loads you talk about are well worth developing, as folks found out during the Obama years, and so are ones that duplicate .22 magnums and Hornets for fur-taking and turkeys. I made up some similar ones, albeit in .308 some years back and whacked some chucks and a fox. Have plans for more of the same, but for my Hornet and my current .308, a Henry SS.

Trail Boss is a good powder for cases larger than the Hornet, and 5744 does well too, according to an article JB wrote during the crunch. He used some cast bullets, as well as jacketed. I've got some 46gr Speer FPs laid in for both my Hornet and sabotted .308 loads; just got to get to it. Trail Boss costs a bit more, but fills the case, and IIRC, 4gr is a .22 LR level load in .223. 6gr gives you a .22 mag. Check the Hodgdon manual to be sure.

Still, a .22 is essential. Nothing else compares in ease or economy, unless you already have a lot of lead and primers on hand that count as "free", and time. CCI SV can be had for about $.05 each, and does well to excellent in almost everything. A couple of fellow geezers at my gun club meet several times a week for "Shoot the Dot" matches, and SV is their standard ammo. Those guys have more fun than most there, and I have a blast just listening to their trash talk.

I gave up my 10-22 after I bought my A17. I have no regrets about that. Later I realized it's nice to have an economical plinker, so I recently bought a bolt action. I figure I have thousands of rounds of ammo, but no rifle to shoot them in, so now I do. That's the best argument for having a 22lr around: CHEAP AMMO...

In the past four or five years, I've gone from two .22s to eleven .22s, and some .22Mags and an HMR. That's just the rifles, not the handguns. Rimfires can be a real PITA, finding the ammo that works and shoots well in them is a headache and half, but it sure is nice to get out there and shoot without having to reload the stuff.

Another thing, trigger pulling is trigger pulling, and doing that right with rimfires makes shooting centerfires a LOT easier. Good practices when shooting rimfire doesn't hurt your centerfire shooting even a little bit. Follow-thru with rimfires is mandatory, and that really helps with centerfires, too. I try to keep a brick or so of each favored .22WMR and .17HMR ammo on hand, and I have cases of .22LR. I can still shoot a lot, even with my loading gear still in storage.

nuthin will ever replace the 22 LR

cheap dependable ammo.......endless selection in handguns/rifles

Nothing more basic than a good .22.

DF

Pappy348;
Good morning to you sir, I hope that all is well in your part of the world and this finds you and yours well.

While I seldom find anything whatsoever to differ with you in your posts, I would at this time respectfully submit that everyone should have at least "a few" .22LR firearms.

Even up here in the restrictive firearm climate I exist in, our safe contains more than one .22 pistol and for a few reasons I won't begin to discuss the number of .22 long arms that may or may not exist within the safe....

In fact, this morning I ordered a Tikka 16" barrel to see what they are like - sorta "ugly/cute" like a moose calf is how I'd describe the photo. Anyway like a good mountain horse, we always said "pretty is as pretty does"!

Seriously though, if there's a better way of teaching good shooting form than with a good .22 rifle I've not yet found it. For the last 30 years that I've been teaching the provincial Hunter Safety course, I've been both instructing new students with a .22 rifle to start with, as well as advising new shooters to pick up a .22 which is similar to their primary hunting arm to practice with.

Then too, as my cyber friend from Florida, the esteemed Barbarian Dan notes, there's all sorts of things one can do with a .22 if one is pressed.

The local Conservation Officers used to use .22's to "deal with" problem bears in urban settings as it disturbed the gentle townsfolk less than either the 12 gauge or .30-06 they're issued. The grand old mountain horse who faithfully carried me for 17 years is buried in our yard and when his time came, we ushered him into a better place with a .22.

Since it's unlawful in BC to shoot deer with a rimfire of any sort, I won't admit to shooting any of them which were either sick or injured from a motor vehicle incident. Therefore I cannot comment on how quickly a well placed 40grain piece of lead may or may not work on mulies and/or whitetail.

Anyway sir, as always that's just one short, bald and increasingly aging Canuck's views on the matter and nothing more.

All the best to you this fall and good luck on your remaining hunts.

Dwayne

PS;
Forgot to mention that .22 firearms are still fantastic "trading stock" in all sorts of deals made up here on this side of the medicine line.

Despite what the media likes to have us all believe, there's still many, many, many Canucks who are licensed to possess firearms - so we do!

If the world goes to hell and the Chinese Commie Muslim Zombie hordes invade, a .22 rifle is the weapon to have, since it and even a mere 5 or 6 boxes of ammo easily carried will sustain you through to the brighter tomorrow...

Dwayne,

It seems our "conflict" is merely a matter of degree, or actually, perceived degree. Currently, I have three .22 rifles, and two handguns. A .17 Mach2 is in the works, if my FFL will just answer the door when UPS knocks. Other .22s can happen at almost any time, since one of the virtues of the little wonder is that one doesn't have to factor in the cost of dies, brass, etc or even ammo for the most part when assessing the impact on the budget. I've got so much this and that .22 ammo laying around from previous adventures that the ritual of buying a bunch of stuff to try in a new one can usually be delayed for a while, or forever.

My handguns live off the rifles' rejects.

All the best.

I have, mostly, ALWAYS had a 22lr, never used one much, now I have 4, and am starting to pare down my rifle calibers.....

AND since you can now reload 22lr................. [ tag DD ] the 22s will stay...............

Yes I can reload the .22s. No more ammo shortages for me.

Dwayne, appreciate your thoughts and I'll put a little icing on the cake.

Somewhere in the neighborhood of my 10th birthday I was riding around with my brother and two cousins on a 2 lane blacktop between nowhere and empty. Along the road was a bridge where we had slaughtered many garfish in the past, tossed them on the road and waited for the daily Greyhound bus to roll by and make them pop. We laffed and giggled a bit over that. Anyway, we had just passed the bridge when a gaggle of large black birds were spotted a ways down the road. We slowed to a stop and turned broadside about 75 yards short of the birds. My grandfather's Remington 513S was in the back seat with me (the big boys rode up front) and the younger cousin. My brother told me to shoot one, so I rolled down the window and stuck that monster cannon out the window, rested it on the sill and made my best guess on where to aim, 'cause brother had told me I'd have to aim high at that range. So I did. Pop'n flop. Near about shot its head off. The big boys were astounded and so was I. That said, good irons properly sighted and used with 20/15 vision works now and then.

Time passed, and about 5 years later my grand dad gave me that gun and I slew many critters with it, mostly rabbits. More time passed and I returned from Vietnam, settled down a bit and decided for reasons that elude me now, to put a scope on that one. The gunsmith installed both bases off center in opposite directions. Dang it....but I made it work with some shims. 5 or 6 years later I was living on the beach and on occasion would shoot a crab or two with BB caps, never giving much thought to cleaning. It was a year or so later that I realized the chamber was pitted. Double Dang it. Funny thing was that it still shot pretty fair most days, but the damage I'd inflicted bothered me.

15 years later I shipped it off to a 'smith requesting that he fix the misaligned scope bases and install a barrel liner....and while he was at it, refinish the stock. He did all that and with a happy heart I went to the range. Lovely patterns at 50 yards, no more than 5-6" wide. Triple Dang it.

Grab a cup of coffee lads, this is going to last a bit longer.

The gun sat in the locker for another 15 years or so and I finally shipped it off to a gun shop I'd done business with in the past. Asked them to rebarrel the thing with a match chambered Douglas barrel. They didn't believe at first that it didn't shoot, but demonstrated that to their own satisfaction and did the job. When it came back three things came to my attention. The only ammo I could chamber was Wolf MT and that took a bit of force to accomplish. It shot lights out. One of the scope bases had been healed again. I fiddled with it awhile and finally sent it off to Mr. Dennis Earhardt in Helena, MT and asked him to take a look at the chamber.

Dennis called me a week or so later and said the chamber was tapered. "Say what?" He replied,"That's what I said." He fixed that, straightened out the one remaining crooked base and refinished the metal....all of it. It showed up and we went to the range and parked on the 50 yard butt. He said he had shot it at that distance and I guess he zeroed the old clunker too.



It has little dust on it these days and nobody gets to play with it except me. Did I mention that I like the El Paso Weaver K2.5 that resides on the roof? I ferget, some of my memory circuits are fuzzy these days. Except for where it counts. Gramps always had a wicked sense of humor and I'm sure he was laffin' all the way thru this adventure. Every time you have a glass of OJ, raise it in a toast to him. He was half the team that invented concentrated orange juice just before WW2. He also wore out 3 LC Smith 16 ga SxS guns hunting quail during his life. Seldom missed a shot made with lead or sharp wit.

From my cold dead hands,

BD




PS: I have a .17 rimfire that was made before any of you galoots were born. Fella named Paul Neubrand made it in Germany prior to WW1 in a little ville called Munderkingen on the Baltic coast. It is a Zimmerstutzen with a barrel insert of 8" length, roughly .177" in the grooves (12) and a 7" twist. I like to died laffin' when I slugged it the first time and thought "What was this loon thinking?" Now I know...

50', indoors and offhand by the notorious SPG his own self. Two shots/target






It has a double trigger. The forward cocks the action, the rear....think about it and it sends a round down range.

Frozen cold hands...........

Cool little rifle and great story DD ! Keep em coming!!!