Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles ? on "fun to shoot "

A new phase in my life. It began last summer with a cheepo Savage 64 LH semi 22 LR .What a blast and a gopher killer ! NO SCOPE . For me that has been the real eye opener.I can see what and where I hit .No screwing around for the perfect rest or the steadiest hold . I shoot more off hand and quicker. Any body else feel that way just chime in .

I’ll dig out my Stevens Favorite Commemorative model and plink away a box or two of .22 shells. Try using the kids toy little green plastic army men for targets if you can. It’s a hoot! They fly and spin and twist…and the bullet pulls plastic out the holes which is hilarious! Good, cheap, reusable fun!

Doc_Holidude

Sure, I felt that way when I was a kid, killing jackrabbits in Nevada. Got a lot of that chidt out of my system a long time ago though.

I've dumped the scopes on almost all of my stuff over the past 4-5 years and went to peeps. Most of my shooting is pretty short range, anyway, and like you I find the irons a lot easier shooting offhand and from a lot of field positions.

Only thing I left scopes on were my 222, and my CVA muzzleloader for low light conditions, because the peeps do kind of suck when it's dim outside.

A while back I put a barrel mounted peep sight on a Rossi .357 lever action. Shooting light 38 special loads is a lotta fun.

The most fun rifles for me have been 10/22 16” rigs with simple 4x scopes and older, long-barreled 22LR rifles with open sights. Great fun in younger years, for sure.

Add a suppressor and know what 'fun' really is......

Shooting subsonics from my Henry carbine in 32 I don't even need one. 2.9gr of Unique under a 115gr RNFP in 32 S&WL sounds about like a 22CB. It's my favorite for short range steel dinging. Works great on small game inside 30-40 yards, too.

The rifle would probably be my favorite in general if it wasn't so hiccupy feeding. It actually feeds 327 Fed worse than 32S&WL or 32H&R Mag.

Good practice, no doubt. The vast majority of offhand shooting I see at the nearby public range is at 15 yards, even though it’s also allowed on the 50 yard range.

OTOH, at my other shooting spot, one or two geezers like to plink steel at 100 yards with .22s, pistol and rifle, with mostly irons and red dots. One of them is scary-good at it too.

I have rigs available with all kinds of sights, and try to get in some work with all of them. Still, practicality generally demands optics for my hunting, assuming I want to bring home some meat. Lighting is seldom all that great during the hours game is moving on my hunting grounds, and some Xs make it easy to see the sticks in the way.

All my Savage 99s have either factory irons or receiver sights, except one. I bought it wearing a Weaver K4. Same with my Marlins. They're a blast to shoot, and great to carry without optics. I guess it's just the kid in me...

I regularly bring my grandfather's M54 in 30-06 to the range shooting cast bullets as well as my dad's M69 22LR. Both have aperture sights and I shoot sitting and standing. Great practice!

I'll always keep some rifles without scopes. My current ones are a Marlin 39A Mountie 22lr with a Skinner peep, an old Savage 99 30/30 with a Redfield peep, and a Savage 99F 300Sav with a Williams. The Savages aren't exactly plinkers, but the Marlin definitely fits the bill!

I'm a firm believer that new shooters should learn and become competent with iron (factory or peep) sights and basic marksmanship before going to scopes/red dots/reflex or any other "assisted" sight system.