First rifle for an adult newbie

[Lantern]

The purpose of the rifle will be mostly for target practicing. I am thinking about a 22LR as the ammunition is cheap and for my purpose the rifle is a good choice. If I go this route something like a Ruger 10/22 might be good option so i dont have to reload after each shot,

However I would enjoy a rifle with a little more kick and I am thinking about a 22 magnum. I understand you can't use the same ammo for the different 22's so I have to decide on one over the other. I am also thinking the 22 magnum could be use for rabbit or fox hunting and would be better self defense weapon as well.

I am open to input on this matter. Thanks

[Sarge47]

I own both a Ruger 10/22 and a Marlin Bolt Action .22 Magnum. It seems that gun manufacturers can't seem to make a .22 Magnum in a semi-automatic version for some reason. You say that you'll be using the rifle mainly for target practice; if that's correct then go with the Ruger as the ammunition is a fourth of the cost of the .22 Magnum. If you want to hunt rabbit, squirrel, of fox with a .22, either one can work if the animal is sitting still, other wise buy a shotgun.

[hpb]

[QUOTE=Lantern;377389]The purpose of the rifle will be mostly for target practicing. I am thinking about a 22LR as the ammunition is cheap and for my purpose the rifle is a good choice. If I go this route something like a Ruger 10/22 might be good option so i dont have to reload after each shot,

However I would enjoy a rifle with a little more kick and I am thinking about a 22 magnum. I understand you can't use the same ammo for the different 22's so I have to decide on one over the other. I am also thinking the 22 magnum could be use for rabbit or fox hunting and would be better self defense weapon as well.



as for a first time gun i would suggest either a h&r or a rossi single shot. not that the 10/22 isnat a great tool. but eith the h&r or rossi you can get other barrels as you progress.. as for self defense its what you have in your hand...its the fight in the dog not the fog in the fight. p.s. been a ffl holder for years & had everything comming & going & still favor my single shot.

[Sarge47]

[QUOTE=hpb;377393]

The purpose of the rifle will be mostly for target practicing. I am thinking about a 22LR as the ammunition is cheap and for my purpose the rifle is a good choice. If I go this route something like a Ruger 10/22 might be good option so i dont have to reload after each shot,

However I would enjoy a rifle with a little more kick and I am thinking about a 22 magnum. I understand you can't use the same ammo for the different 22's so I have to decide on one over the other. I am also thinking the 22 magnum could be use for rabbit or fox hunting and would be better self defense weapon as well.



as for a first time gun i would suggest either a h&r or a rossi single shot. not that the 10/22 isnat a great tool. but eith the h&r or rossi you can get other barrels as you progress.. as for self defense its what you have in your hand...its the fight in the dog not the fog in the fight. p.s. been a ffl holder for years & had everything comming & going & still favor my single shot.

I agree with hpb! I own a Rossi with two barrels, a .22 rifle and a 20 ga. shotgun, both in single shot. The thing is that a single shot slows you down and causes you to be more careful and accurate. Let's face it, with the rising cost of ammo these days "one shot, one kill" is rapidly becoming the the way to go!

[hunter63]

Not much difference brtween a .22 lr and .22 mag as far a recoil goes....just the cost of ammo.

Rossi combo are a good choice, some come with .20 ga, .22 lr and a .243 to start with...and are a good value.........But after market barrels added later are very expensive compared to H&R.

Even with a H&R a rim fire action will not fit a shotgun or larger cal rifle barrel or vise versa.
Before doing this do your home work.

Ruger 10/22's or Marlin Mod 60 are pretty popular and hold up well.

Good luck.

[SARKY]

There is nothing wrong with owning more than one gun. After all you own more than one tool don't you? For a starter rifle, you can't go wrong with the 10-22. The ability to accurize it to the enth degree is a plus. They are relatively cheap and dependable as hell! You can always (hopefully) get another gun or 2 in other calibers at a later date.

[Lantern]

There is nothing wrong with owning more than one gun. After all you own more than one tool don't you? For a starter rifle, you can't go wrong with the 10-22. The ability to accurize it to the enth degree is a plus. They are relatively cheap and dependable as hell! You can always (hopefully) get another gun or 2 in other calibers at a later date.

Thanks for your replies. I will go with a standard 22.

The next question is do I get a 10/22 or standard single shot?

[canid]

If you want a .22 rifle, I absolutely loved the 10/22, so of course I'm biased to recommend it.

A single shot rifle does tend to train one to take one's time in shooting in a way a semi-auto doesn't though.

[Bushman]

Lantern..........

MY take on this is to go for a bolt action rather than a semi-auto....All .22RF semi-autos work on the 'blow-back' principle which works well, mostly.....except they are a 'dirty' action type and leave powder/gas fouling in the chamber/bolt area. which HAS to be cleaned off on a regular basis. Just ask the boys and girls in A/stan about keeping their M4's clean !!

A 'cleaner & inherently more accurate' action type is the bolt action. I've owned/used many over the years but keep coming back to the CZ brand.....(used to be known as 'Brno Model 2'......) Now know as the 'CZ Model 2'.......... These rifles are for the price, exceptionally well made, and utterly reliable. They have double extractors and 2 bolt lugs, and not a few get 'tuned' up to 'competition standard' for smallbore shooting.

Mine is fit with an old K3 Weaver in low mounts and lives off Winchester sub-sonics. The action has had 10's of 1000's of rounds through it, and now is slick as a well used bank vault !! It'll shoot 'minute-of-rabbit' out to 40 yards........ if I want 'more distance', I load Winchester Power Points instead. But for most things here, sub-sonics do fine.

Harry

[Geek]

You've already got opposite opinions on the 10/22 (semi-auto) vs. The bolt action. I own a 10/22 takedown and you can find threads about that model from about 6 months ago. I am very pleased with it.

[kyratshooter]

I have owned several 10/22 rifles over the years and anyone that finds them the perfect .22 rifle has never taken theirs out of the box.

A "fair" rifle, yes. "Super", no. Thes sights are too low, the stock not made for iron sight use, the trigger is pure S!&t, accuracy is pathetic out of the box and they will jam in spite of the claims otherwise.

The cheap bolt actions are little better.

I would agree with Bushman and go for the CZ bolt gun.

I would also consider the Henry Lever Action.

[Wildthang]

I have owned several 10/22 rifles over the years and anyone that finds them the perfect .22 rifle has never taken theirs out of the box.

A "fair" rifle, yes. "Super", no. Thes sights are too low, the stock not made for iron sight use, the trigger is pure S!&t, accuracy is pathetic out of the box and they will jam in spite of the claims otherwise.

The cheap bolt actions are little better.

I would agree with Bushman and go for the CZ bolt gun.

I would also consider the Henry Lever Action.

This is real scary, but I agree with Kyrat on the 10/22's. They are just OK, and I would never consider them to be tack drivers, or super reliable.
The CZ is on of the finest 22's for the money, and are great shooters. I bought a little Marlin XT-22 last year for around $200, put a Nikon scope on it, and it is amazingly accurate for a $200 dollar rifle. The tube feed magazine holds 18 .22 LR bullets, and so far it has never jammed or failed to fire once.
I have shot 1/2" groups at 50 yards on a still day, and for the price, it has really impressed me. Yes I would much rather have the CZ, but that would have cost me around $500 and I didn't want to spend that much money on a .22 at the time. The iron sights on the Marlin are junk, but the rest of the rifle is good quality.

[hunter63]

For a first time rifle one doesn't "need" the "best", unless one can afford it.....You need something "to start with"....Not saying that good tools are a bad thing, just saying that operator skill also has a lot to do with it.

Friend started shooting years ago, (his wife still blames me for leading him astray), and being an engineering type, did his research, and after all sorts of conflicting information, opinions, oped for a Weatherby bull barrel target rifle.(don't remember the model), as he figured if was expensive it had to be good.

Turned out it was a very nice 'expensive" rifle, but just a little long heavy and pretty for hunting squirrels.....and shooting skills have a lot to do with operator.

He still has it, and has rememded me that a true engineer does't design the "best" whatever unless required and funded,.... just design most effective for the bucks.
Buy the best you can afford, and start shooting it..."alot"
JMHO

[kyratshooter]

OK, I take it back!

If WT agrees with me I must be terribly wrong!

!!!OH THE SHAME!!!

[Lantern]

I was thinking about a Ruger 22LR as it a popular model. Any other options that is better? What ammo?

[hunter63]

Some day when y'all are older I'll tell ya the story of the $20 dollar arrows,.... top-o-line, custom made, balanced, super tipped, plutonium shafted, fairy wing fletched........all of which allow them to fly deeper into the swamp , never to be seen again, then any $2 buck arrow I had ever got at Walmart.

All started by asking a friend that was REALLY into it...."Hey what's the best arrow"....he was far enough along as a shooter that, the little edge by using all that stuff became important.....for me not so much.


Point is most people don't really need the best rifle to start with.

Does everyone remember the first .22 you ever were given, bought, inherited, and learn how to shoot with?

Was it the best?, or just something that was the best you could do at the time,..... that you had to hold left as the front sight was bent, from falling off your handle bars riding out to the dump, to shoot rats.....and all the great memories.

[kyratshooter]

Point is most people don't really need the best rifle to start with.

Does everyone remember the first .22 you ever were given, bought, inherited, and learn how to shoot with?

Was it the best?, or just something that was the best you could do at the time,..... that you had to hold left as the front sight was bent, from falling off your handle bars riding out to the dump, to shoot rats.....and all the great memories.

I remember mine and I would not wish that POS on anyone! Why should someone else suffer just cause I was a broke kid?

I went straight from that POS to a good quality Ithica and learned that twice the price sometimes ment 3x the quality.

I must say that going from a $150 Walmart special to a $500 CZ is a jump, and not everyone should take it. I can say they would never go wrong with the CZ. They would never go wrong with a $300 Henry lever gun either.

There seems to be a real big gap in the .22 offerings were you go from POS to good quality with very little difference between a $150 and $250 rifle, then at $300 you start getting some good offerings.

I was never one to put a fortune into a .22, as generally useless as they are, but I do get caught up in my projects and shooting .22 holes into the same spot is one of my big time wasters. Once you get started doing that you wind up spending some time and money and if you start with an accurate rifle you get to the small groups much faster.

Then there are my projects where I work on the smallest group that costs the least money, but that means some serious tuning work way beyond the bulk ammo and tin can efforts.

[hunter63]

Henry Lever rifle is a sweet little unit.......

[Wildthang]

Well I have had those majical old POS cheap azz .22's that would put 3 shots in a dime at 50 yards, and could never figure out how an el cheapo rifle could hold a pattern like that. I had an old Sprinfield like that, and was so old and wore out that the bolt would fall out if you tipped the gun up with the bolt open, but it would shoot a minute of a nats AZZ even after all of those years. It was so old and rusted that I finally gave it to a friend and bought a 10/22. I actually wished I had kept the old Springfield!

[Bushman]

Lantern.............

a further take on this theme........you DON'T have to buy NEW...........there are plenty of GOOD 2nd hand rifles out there..........many of which have had very little use !! So while a NEW CZ may well cost $5-600 a 2nd hand one will be less than 1/2 that....... My current Brno/CZ is a 1976 model...(date of manufacture is stamped on the barrel) and was in outwardly POOR condition when I got my grimy mitts on it a decade or more back. The barrel and action had been removed from the stock and stood up against an 'I' beam.........the stock was dumped on a pile of scrap wood......and the bolt....you guessed it, was in a workbench drawer labelled 'bolts'............i.e. 3/4" Whitworth....5/16"SAE etc etc...

However, once I got it home, removed all the surface rust, patched up the stock, stripped and cleaned the action and barrel, replaced the missing magazine well and mag......then mounted the scope I had sitting doin nothing........ I found the rifle shot as good as new..... and will STILL shoot 1/2" groups at 50 yards !!

The reason for this is mostly due to the fact that almost never will you wear out a .22RF barrel !! 45 grain lead projectiles (even copper plated ones) travelling at very moderate speeds (and even the so-called 'hi-speed' rimfire rounds are NEVER going to cause any significant amount of wear !! Too, almost ALL rimfire projectiles are 'lubricated' with a form of wax....which further helps to preserve the bore. So while the exterior of the barrel can be 'rough'....the INTERIOR is almost always in Good Condition !

What DOES wreck rimfire barrels is 'cleaning-from-the-muzzle' . This is particularly the case with semi-autos and other rifles that can not be cleaned from the breech end. While other action types such as lever guns and pumps usually can be stripped and the bolt removed, most people DON'T.........and just whack a rod into the muzzle and poke away...............invariably this results in damage to the rifling lands....which leads to 'poor accuracy'.............and the only 'cure' is to shorten the barrel to get back to undamaged rifling.

Hence my liking for good quality bolt actions. I'm what they call a 'utilitarian'.......I don't give a rats *** for 'appearances'.............what is important to me is 'function'....is the critter 'fit-for-purpose' ??? Does it do what you expect it to do ?? If it doesn't...or 'can't/won't'....the get rid of it !!

I suggest you get on the web and hunt about for 2nd hand rimfires (GOOD QUALITY!!) and see what you can get ?? Private sellers usually get 'ambitious' in their pricing, whereas Gun Dealers are all about 'moving stock'........guns sitting on their shelves and not 'moving' are costing them money......so while they have a 'price' stuck on them....2nd hand guns on a Dealers shelves are ALWAYS 'negotiable' !! Find what you want, and HAGGLE.......its well worth it !!

Harry