Centerfire equivalent of .22 LR?

[MrBorland]

Maybe I should stick w/ the .22LR

Your CZ 452 is a fine fine rifle, and there's quite a lot more you can do and learn with it in addition to 25yd standing. Try some 3-position and/or bench shooting. If you were interested in 200-300 yard target shooting with a .223, 100yd target shooting with your CZ would offer a good challenge as well. A nice happy medium might be to get a bolt .223 target rifle, and go to the range with both. Do most of your shooting with your CZ at 50-100yds, focusing on the basics (sight picture, trigger and breath control, etc), then shoot a bit with the .223 at longer range.

There are a lot of very experienced shooters who do a lot of rimfire shooting. Check out rimfirecentral.com for more info.

 

[tube_ee]

There are a lot of very experienced shooters who do a lot of rimfire shooting.

All very experienced shooters do (or have done) a lot of rimfire shooting. There's no other way to be able to afford becoming an experienced shooter.

.22s are 5 times cheaper to shoot than the cheapest centerfire. Cheapest centerfire rifle ammo I know of is surplus 7.62x54R, at about $0.10 / round in bulk. I get .22s for 10 bucks for 525 rounds at Cinco Grande. That's a skoosh less than 2 cents a round.

If you cast your own bullets from throw-away wheel weights and load with light charges of fast powders, you can load .38 specials for around 3-5 cents a round if you've got the gear and the brass. The time is free, unless you are loading when you'd otherwise be earning money. If you can afford to do that, I don't want to hear you complain about the cost of anything, let alone ammo.

To answer the OP's question, I'd go with the best Mosin Nagant you can find, and a big ammo order from AIM or elsewhere. A rifle and almost 900 rounds of ammo for around $200. And shooting 900 rounds out of a 'gant will take a lot longer than it would from a .22. Just ask my shoulder....

--Shannon