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

Like most people, I cut my teeth shooting.22s shortly after I learned to walk.
Heck, when I was 8 or 9, I’d save my allowance to get 50 rounds at the local store. Those 50 rounds were usually gone by the afternoon I got them!
Dave had an old Glenfield, made by Marlin that I shot, bolt action, 7 round magazine. I put a lot of miles and a lot of rounds through that rifle. Starlings, Blackbirds, Crows, and Groundhogs.
After while I got myself a Marlin (IIRC) 785 with a tube magazine that held 12 rounds.
Those old Marlins always seemed to shoot good, and when Ben got big enough, I got him a stainless (I think) M725 to start on.
I bought Penny a Ruger American for Christmas years ago. I liked it so much that I bought myself one afterwards.
3 years ago, I was browsing for handloading components, and run across a Ruger American in SS with a thumb hole laminated stock. I swapped that old Marlin and a few hundred bucks for it. (I could hear The Old Man bitching )
By far the best shooting rifle outta the box I ever saw!
I tried a bunch of .22 fodder through it. It seemed to like those federal 40’grn lead bullets best, but I kept on playing with it. I tried everything I could get my hands on, because different.22s are sorta finicky as to what they like to shoot.
Reon

Yup that's the glory of the 22lr.mb

I have more fun with my .22's than my other guns.

Couple weeks ago, I was browsing for components again, and struck up a conversation with a couple guys. We got to gabbing about guns, and I was invited to a “Precision.22 shoot” this Sunday!
You guys that know me, know I was all over that!
I stopped by to get some more of those Federals that that gun likes. A friend who works there suggested I try CCI Green Tags. Competition, 40 grn lead, 1250 fps at get this, $30 bucks a hundred
30 cents apiece for .22 LR shells? But that dang Ruger will spit 10 of them through one ragged hole you can cover with a dime from 40 yards!
I’m a little hard to convince, so I loaded another clip. After the 3rd 10 round clip, I was finally convinced, and went and bought another 100!
So I was just wondering if anyone else has tried these? I can’t believe how good these things shoot!
Reon

From what I can tell CCI green tag is exceptional batches of CCI SV. CCI SV is about 10 cents around. The people at the shoot will likely be using Eley Club, SK Standard+, or Lapua Center-x to name a few. Random flyers are the bane of shooting rim fire.

I’m a 22 rim fire fan as well Reon👍

There’s nothing like .22’s for nostalgia IMO. My first rifle was a Ruger 10/22. I remember everything about that first rifle from holding the magazines in my hand and thinking how cool I thought that they were while loading Winchester Wildcat ammo with the cat on the box.

The smell of gun smoke. Or Walking the woods and trails at my grandparents place and picking off 100’s of chipmunks and a few crows. To how impressed I was with the supersonic crack and what a game changer Remington HV Viper ammo seemed to be on small critters compared to SV.

When I’d visit my grandparents I’d shoot through a brick in about a day. My grandpa liked to pretend to give me a hard time about getting more ammo before taking me to the local gas station/bait and tackle shop for another brick which ran about $10-$12 at the time.

22’s are always fun and not having to pick up brass is a nice bonus.

I went out this morning and played around with three CZ .22 rifles. Good weather for it, and they did make me smile. It was a good morning for it, temps in the 50s, still air. Had a good time. Always do, when I'm shooting those rifles.

Added a 10-22 SS take down to my 22LR stuff

Not sure which I like better the 10-22.....or the M&P 15-22......or Marlin 60 SS Lam

Take down Ruger makes cleaning easy/breazy

Like I said, I’ve been burning up .22 LRs since shortly after I learned to walk without holding onto stuff. I used Dave’s Glenfield while reading Jack O’Conner’s “Rifles and Shotguns”. (Also Dave’s)
Jack’s 7 lesson rifle shooting in particular. I don’t wanna brag, but I’ll say I’m a better shot than most.
When I went into the Army, I bought a stainless Ruger Single Six with a 6&1/2 in pipe. Convertible, had a .22 WMR cylinder with it. It made me a Ruger fan for life.
Me and my buddies and Carol would go through a brick in short order.
When I got home, The Old Man had commandeered my .308, (Remington 788) so I got myself a Ruger 77 in .30/06. Followed by another 77 in 7mm Rem Mag, and another in .257 Bob.
(Im still a sucker for those 788s, and added a .22/250 and a .243 to my battery)
But back to the original subject.
I go through 2 bricks easily in the summer. Maybe more, because I love it, and that SS Ruger is so accurate it’s fun to shoot. Shotgun primers at 30 yards is Childs play.
I also love potting Squirrels with a.22,(head shots only).
I once told our Pastor “shooting squirrels with a shotgun is like shooting deer with a light!
This will be my first competition with a rifle though. I shot a lot of Trap, but it was always for fun.
Im looking forward to it. Wish me luck!
Reon

I've still got the Remington tube feed bolt action Dad bought for my grandfather in 1948. No telling how many thousands of rounds it's digested, with only an occasional cleanup. It will still dot a squirrel's eye at 40 yards, but I will admit I can't do it with iron sights any more. It's got a 3X9X40 centerfire rifle scope on it these days.

I just closed out an afternoon with a 6 and 7 year old pair of brothers. Rimfire spinner and a bowling pin at 30 yards. Both boys were constantly on the spinner with the .22 so we went all out on the bowling pin with an AR .223. They did great. Made my day.

If a Ruger American is the best shooting .22lr you’ve ever had your hands on, you really need to live a little.

A quality .22lr with ammo it likes and a KYL rack is a fun time. A 6” steel target at 300 is a ball.

Ruger American is probably the lowest grade pos rifle ive ever had my hands on and never purchased any of them.

.

My favorite .22 was a 1970’s era Sako with a high comb. I never should have sold it.

My most accurate .22 off of the bench is this restocked Kidd .22 It’s a great shooting rifle but .22’s to me are all about plinking, targets of opportunity and shooting from field positions.

I set up a 1958 Brno model 5 the way I set up my work rifles when I was shooting rabbits for a dollar...with the nice upgrade of a Zeiss C series 10x36...something I desperately wanted at the time but couldn't afford.

It shoots very well and is a pleasure to use, which is useful as I am pretty sure my Daughter has claimed it.

The precision competition.22 matches have really taken off. Rimx , cz, Bergara, are most often.
Monthly field matches with year end regional tourney. We just opened a range bay dedicated to precision long range .22.
Suppressed, chassis .22 that can be shot year round, I am surprised at how fast it has grown.

Pretty good looking rifle J Stuart..mb

My first 22 was an old Mossberg 46b that my father bought at a farm sale in Minnesota for five bucks before I was even born. They had kept it in the barn to shoot birds with birdshot so nothing was left of the rifling. He hauled it out here and finally gave it for me to use when old enough.
I did what I could with it (which wasn't much) but I did refinish the stock and black matte the barrel.
I finally gave it to a nephew for a wedding present who was just tickled to get granpaw's gun.
Believe it or not, I missed that old gun so much that I bought another 46b from Gunbroker.
After cleaning it up I was more than surprised to get half inch groups at fifty yds with minimags of all things.

My 10-22 is the only 22 I got that will out shoot it.

Winner of the dumbest statement read so far today on the 'fire

You haven't live enough with a .22LR in your hand