1. Winchester 9422
2. Ruger 10/22 with Green Mountain target heavy barrel
3. CZ 457

The 9422 is simply a fun gun. When I came across it, it had an old Bushnell "3x-7x Custom .22" scope on it, with a trajectory compensator that actually worked from 50yds to 200yds. I took it off because I love the looks of those old lever actions and it just felt right with open sights. Pop cans and golf balls stand no chance!

The 10/22 was a slightly used standard model wood-stocked Ruger. I put a Green Mountain heavy barrel and a Hogue overmolded semi-target stock on it, and had my gunsmith do a trigger job - taking out the creep and lowering the absurdly high trigger pull to about 3 lbs. The best I ever did with this one was 7/8 to 1 inch at 50 yards, regardless of ammo brand - although I confess I never tried true match ammo and did nothing else to accurize it.

I see this 10/22 as a hunting rifle - squirrels and pests - a slightly more serious "fun" gun. I'm not interested in investing serious money to improve it above perhaps bedding the action and free floating the barrel.

The last is a brand new CZ 457. Still in the box - I haven't even given it it's first cleaning. I'm thinking mostly target shooting, some novice-level competition and maybe some long-range experimentation. A friend has some steel targets out to 350 yards and may extend it some day to 500.


The question is, how do I scope #2 and #3?

This is what I have on hand:

Burris 4x fixed
Sig Whiskey 3 3-9x40 with BDC-1 quadplex
Burris Fullfield II 3-9x40 with Ballistic Plex
Weaver Grand Slam 3-10x40 with standard plex reticle
Burris Fullfield II 4.5-16 with Ballistic Plex
Athlon Talos 4-16x40 with BDC 600 reticle and side focus

I'm not adverse to buying a scope for #3. I've never tried twisting turrets, but it may be fun to experiment with this rifle. I know I can get either an Element Helix APR-1C 4-16x44 FFP/MRAD or an Athlon Argos BTR Gen2 6-24x50 for around $400 from Doug - although I'd much prefer to spend less.

Anyone have suggestions?

SWFA 10x for the CZ, and maybe a rail with some tilt built in. I have an Area 419 rail on mine, but empties bounce off the groove in the bottom and back into the action. Working on that.

That 10x has twice the adjustment range of your Athlon. Not sure how much you need to get to 500 since math makes me sad, but you’re gonna need a lot.

Put the Sig Whiskey3 3x9 with the BDC on the 10/22.

Like Pappy above, I would put a fixed 10 or 12x SWFA on that CZ 457, which I assume is a heavy barreled model.

Maybe sell some of that other glass to pay for it.

I don't know the scopes, but in general I would go with a peep on the 9422, a low power fixed or say a 2-7x32mm scope on the 10/22, and a 4-12x40mm-ish scope on the CZ with parallax adjustment to 15m.

Get some Lapua SK match or Eley green box ammo and try it in the 10-22. You'll be presently surprised.

Paradoxically, I think the 9422 and its Model 61 predecessor were two of the greatest rimfire rifles ever made, but don't own either anymore due to short grooved receivers and the drops at comb. If FN were to manufacture these with drilled and tapped receivers to facilitate Warne or picatinny mounts for red dots or short scopes, especially in stainless, I would own them again.

czech1022;
Good evening to you sir, I hope the day was kind to you and you're well.

The rimfire shooting I do at present doesn't usually exceed 200 yds at most and typically is 25yd and 50yd paper target shooting. For that I'm finding that an adjustable objective which allows the parallax to be tuned is quite helpful.

Years ago I built a bit of a money pit 10/22 and used a 20" Green Mountain heavy target barrel with a Bentz chamber. Because the barrel is so heavy and the receiver comparatively light, back then my research led me to try the following.

I fabricated a small aluminum block which would be a recoil lug of sorts and then drilled and tapped the front of the 10/22 receiver and installed that lug. For bedding, I put full contact on the barrel and the recoil lug, then the rest of the action is floating.

While I did toy with putting in a rear action screw to hold the rear of the receiver in place, the results were positive enough that I've left it that way all these years.

Anyways as always there's many roads to Mecca and all that, but that's the path I took with a heavy barrel 10/22 build.

All the best with your projects whichever way you decide.

Dwayne

Edit to add photo.