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

A good .22LR rifle is the last firearm I would part with.

I'm not even sure how many 22s I own , more than a couple.


Mike

Love my Winchester 94/22.

I've got an even dozen .22LR firearms around here, plus a couple WMRs, a .17HMR and a .22 Short only. All of them are a lot of fun, and I shoot the heck out of them. Half a dozen CZs, six Rugers, and some others.


.


You have that backwards, Rocky, the .22LR is nominally .222" and the WMRs are .224", "nominally" being the operative word.

I spent Sunday afternoon with two .22s, a Walther Sportmodell Meisterbuchse (older Weaver V9 AO scope) and a BSA Martini Model 13 with a Parkerrifled barrel liner (older Weaver 10x). Federal Target ammo and Wolf Match Target. Both were shot off a Bald Eagle bench rest.

With the Wolf, both were consistent sub 3/4 inch shooters out at 50 yards on a gusty windy day. The BSA was a touch better (approaching an average of 0.5 inch) than the Walther.

I'd taken both rifles out to decide which one to sell and which one to keep. They shot so well I don't want to sell either of them. I hate it when that happens.

I also love the 94/22,kick myself in the ass for selling it years ago.

I've had or have about any caliber of centerfire rifle or handgun I could ever need. I've participated in aprrox. 6 different types of formal shooting competitions.

But an afternoon on my backyard range with a 22 or a few of them is still as pleasurable as it gets, shooting wise.






Folks spend a lot of time & money creating a personal shotgun or center fire rifle, & that's just fine. But considering how across the board useful it is & should be the last firearm we'd ever part with, a personal 22 rifle for the rest of life should be seriously considered, if not chosen already.
I think I'm there, but just now realized & haven't devoted near as much thought about it as I have other types of arms.

Like kenjs1 posted, one that's "mine". "I might own a dozen, but this ones mine" is something to ponder.

Anyone have a Browning T-bolt? I'd sure like a review on one.

My somewhat limited examination of production ammo is consistent with Rocky's observation. European ammo huddles with the .224" metric and US production is smaller, typically in the range of .222". + or -

The fat stuff shoots a whole lot better, but that's not the only reason. European QC is miles ahead of our stuff.

I have a Browning T-bolt, the older Belgian-made model that uses the normal vertical stack magazine. It feeds and fires as it should, I don't find it to be particularly smooth or fast action, even after several hundred rounds. It requires enough energy to over come the camming action, on both extraction and going into battery, that it pulls my eye off the sight picture. I prefer my levers 39A, and 9422 for quick following shots. I REALLY want to test out an Anschutz 1727 fortner action!

...I have another t-bolt-like action, an ISSC SPA-22, which I will happily send out for trials to the first person who writes me a $225 check.

I have great satisfaction with early 20th century German 22s, Anschutz, Mauser, Geco, Walther, Haenel, plus a bunch of Czech-made Brno's and CZ's, and a BSA/Martini, all of which started as smooth and accurate, then got better!

I shot 39A, CZ 453 and Anschutz 1710 for silhouette comps for years. A sporterized Win 75 is my behind the kitchen door gun, guaranteed minute of squirrel-head out to 75 yards leaning on the door jamb. The Rem 37 and Win 52 are not worth the current asking prices..IMHO.

I use two different ammo regularly, Aguila 38g standard velocity, and Lapua Center-x, and only need to look further when I'm shooting for points or who's buying lunch.

I cut my teeth on Dad's old Marlin bolt .22 with open sights. I currently own a 10/22 stainless/synthetic and a CZ American. Just the other day I grabbed the CZ and whacked a big cottontail rabbit in the back yard. Those Browning BPR HP's really lay a wump on a rabbit. Shot it in the passenger side of it's head and blew the drivers side all to hell.

If you don't have fun plinking with a .22, time to take up golf...........

I've had 2 10/22s since I bought one for my new bride and myself back in 1973 and never been that fond of them. One day back in the mid 90's, I checked out a NIB Marlin model 60 and it just felt good so I bought it on a whim. I slapped a compact 4x scope on it, took it out plinkin, and loved it. It's been my favorite 22lr plinker ever since and the 10/22s were both just safe queens until I gave one to my son some years ago.

Have three rifles.
A Browning lever, a Ruger 10/22 and a Marlin bolt gun.
Also have a Smith Mdl 17 dad gave me as a graduation present from high school and a Ruger 22/45.

Cheap to shoot and I thoroughly enjoy them.

I have a Winchester pre A custom Sporter and a Springfield 1922 M2 custom Sporter, they're the most accurate .22 RF's that I've ever owned. Both will put 50 rds. of CCI Std. Vel. into one ragged hole at 50 yds..

Back in the very early 90's, Federal was 'miffed' that USA Olympic shooters would not use USA made 22lr during competition, and set about to solve the puzzle of hyper-accurate rimfire ammo.

I read that they spent about $1mil in R&D on this.

There were several reasons, with Number 1 being consistent rim-thickness, followed by consistency in adding the primer mixture to the case/rim, consistent powder drops, etc..

In such a small case, little changes can make a noticeable difference.

Due to a recent move challenging long range centerfire is not an option. Because of this I am transitioning to long range rimfire. Out to 344 yards will be my limit but I’m seeing that as a great challenge that should be good practice for extended range centerfire and hone those skills.

I am now shooting at an indoor range. With the Ultimate Clip loader I plan to put two Ruger Mark II pistols through the ringer. I may end up putting reloading on hold and just focus on rimfire. Pushing distance with a 22lr and good ammo is a fun challenge.

I just spent a few days shooting ground squirrels with my 39a and 513T.. Lots of fun.. Hope to do a bit more this summer, but once the squirrel shooting is over, my .22's pretty much go into storage til the next spring.. Fun guns.. Probably have 4 or 5 more plus a couple mags, and 17...

I started with a Winchester 67-A Boy’s Rifle. When my father and his buds went quail hunting, I would take it along. Daddy, being a participant in the Great Depression, would usually buy 22 longs (cheaper at that time than Long Rifles) and carry them in his shirt pocket and every so often he would let me shoot at a sqwerel or sparrow or some such. I was hooked. I upgraded last year and splurged on a Remington 547-C. 😊

Years ago i asked my dad what rifle he would choose in a survival situation and he said 22lr. At first i thought he was crazy. Then he explained you can kill anything on this continent with a 22 if you take your time and place your shots. Shoot a quail or dove and still have something to eat. Kill a deer or elk if you take your time. A pocketful of 22 ammo is a lot of ammo. At that time every retail store had 22 ammo. If necessary you could steal all the ammo you needed any where you were.

I have several 22 rifles. Mostly lever action Winchesters, Henrys, and Ithacas. A semi-auto Winchester, several single shot Savages and a couple of hanguns. My favorite gun to shoot and carry is the Ithaca with the Savages being second. I have shot several coyotes with the 22lr. They normally spin around about three times and fall over dead. If necessary I can put down a cow or horse with the 22 rifle although I carry a 38 special just for that purpose.

If I could only have one rifle it would be a 22lr.

I have a whole lotta 22s I could keep by the back door but my mainstay is an old springfield savage 120. Silly accurate with ironsites. Did pick up a clean used bl22 last weekend. Always wanted one but never wanted to pay a new price, this one saved me a couple hundred bucks.

"What's not to love"

Winchester 1906 22 short, long and long rifle. 3rd generation ownership and not a safe queen.

Federal petty much just copied Russian 22 that the US competitors couldn't beat. The case head had a dimple in the middle that ensured all the priming compound went to the rim & was evenly distributed. About 1996.
Federal had about 3 part numbers of match ammo. Thinking the best was #900(don't hold me to this number), reportedly it was hand loaded with sorted bullets & went to Olympic competitors. The machine loaded match was 900B & still had the dimple in the base. The other at the time, reportedly training ammo was still pretty good stuff.
The USA took a gold & a silver. Federal then dropped it but deserve a lot of credit for helping the US Olympic team the way they did.

I had some of the lower grade 900B & it seemed comparable to Ely Tenex, a high order. The hand loaded stuff went big prices when found.

Federal is selling RWS R-50 in some of their boxes now, according to some on rimfirecentral. I'm not sure which lot #s of which SKU#, but that's the take. If that is the case, there's some good ammo masquerading as Federal out there.
In the past few years, I've not had any kind of luck at all with Federal ammo, it might as well be Remington rimfire, which is only one step above nothing at all.

The rest of the story I read was that the US (don't know specifically who) stole a box or two of the Russian ammo so it could be dissected to determine what made it so good.

Winchester model 77. It was my first rifle. Managed to find a couple of extra mags for it . I love it. On the fence about whether or not to drill for a sling.

Excellent thread & info; subscribed.