Rimfires I've loved or hated

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Picher

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This rifle is similar to the Stevens 87A that I owned as a young teen in Waterville, Maine. It was quite reliable for a while, but it kind-of stopped shooting well and the feed mechanism failed to work. The steel seemed to be quite soft and the bore wore out after a few thousand rounds. The action is kind of clunky, since after firing a shot, the bolt stops in the rearward rest point until the trigger is released, then it goes forward, picking up a round from the tubular mag system and the bolt chambers the round. Every shot and round-feed is a clunk-clunk.

The feed mechanism failed on mine and I couldn't find parts at the time. Metals in the action appeared to be soft. The rifle was never very accurate, but okay for shooting rats in the open pit dumps we, as teens, love to shoot in and kill rats.

After a while, I decided to shoot the rifle to see how accurate it was with an old Mossberg scope on it and was discouraged that it could barely hit a 6-inch circle at about 40 yards. Accurate enough for rats the dump, but not conducive to hitting anything beyond 50 yards or so.

I traded it in on a Remington pump .22 LR and was fairly happy for a while, but was earning a bit more money and kept trading up for a few years.
 
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When I was 15 I bought a Marlin bolt gun that was a little different than their standard fare. It had a black forearm tip, shadowline cheek piece, clip fed with a metal floorplate/trigger guard. The former owner had filed the trigger sear to a dangerous point. It would fire when you slipped the safety off if the gun had been bumped. I paid a whopping $27 of my own hard earned cash for it. I sent a couple bucks to Marlin for a new trigger and finished the checkering that the former owner had started. I stuck a 3/4" Weaver 6X on it and nothing was safe after that. That rifle would shoot as good as my Winchester 56B Sporter that I had in later years.

My closest friend's dad was my employer and he would order us 2 cases of ammo every year until we went to collage. We would shoot 5000 rounds during the summer at turtles and frogs while seining ponds for crawfish. Then another 5000 during the fall and winter hunting seasons. That makes for awesome practice. I wish that I still had that gun, but alas, it is gone.
 
Rimfires I've loved: Marlin Model 60
Rimfires I've enjoyed owning and would buy again: Ruger Mark II, S&W 22S
Rimfires I've hated: Remington Nylon 66, Ruger 10/22.
 
Man, the Savage 24 .22/.410 was accurate, but it had a super heavy trigger, and shooting it well was a challenge.

And I'm going to say that I like the Stevens 87. My brother had one with a synthetic stock, and it seemed fairly accurate in our hands, didn't really check it out on paper though. When it would jam, you knew you had to tighten the round knob on the back.

The 77/22 is probably too expensive for what it is, but what a joy to shoot.
 
My first store bought gun was a Savage Model 65 bolt action, clip fed. I would shoot anything from CB caps to Stingers well. I still have this gun after 65 years. My other favorite rifle is a Mossberg model 146-B. A tube fed bolt action with a 24" barrel. More accurate than me and it has a great trigger. My favorite .22 handguns are a Ruger Mark I semi auto, and a S&W Model 18 combat masterpiece.
 
My first .22 rifle was a Remington Nylon 12, a bolt action with a tubular magazine. The biggest problem was if you wanted to remove it from the stock to clean it thoroughly you had to drive out the barrel retaining pin and remove the barrel. After a few times doing this the barrel became loose in the action which affected accuracy as the rear sight was mounted on the receiver. I put a lot of ammo through it but I wouldn't buy one again even if they were available.
 
Rimfires I've loved: Marlin Model 60
Rimfires I've enjoyed owning and would buy again: Ruger Mark II, S&W 22S
Rimfires I've hated: Remington Nylon 66, Ruger 10/22.
I've seen some Ruger 10-22s that didn't shoot great, but have one with the sporter stock (no barrel band) and worked it into a gem that averaged under 1/2" groups at 50 yards. The trigger is about 2 lbs. and the barrel has about 6 lbs. of uplift. The action is bedded and a bit of the back end of the Shilen target barrel. The extractor is tuned/hardened, bolt face planed to .32" headspace, bolt modified to eliminate first-shot flyers. What's not to love?
 
The Winchester 190 is probable the least favorite 22 rifle I own. The only reason that it is still in my safe is because my grandpa gave it to me. For out of the box accuracy in a semi auto, I've been very happy with my Marlin Model 60 and Model 70. As far as bolt actions, all of my Savage MkII rifles. My favorite hand gun (though not the most accurate) is my Harrington and Richardson 949 9 shot revolver.
 
If I had to pick one it would be my CZ 452 American

Yeah. I hated to be the first to jump on the “I love my CZ” band wagon, but my 453 is awesome. When you can shoot one hole groups consistently what’s not to love?

I had a 10/22. I suppose average. Nothing really bad, nothing really good. Dunno that I’ve had an exceptionally bad .22 that I can remember

My little Browning Buckmark is a fun gun
 
I still have the first firearm I ever shot. It was my dad's (he has gone home) and I'll keep it to surrender to my eldest grandson. I like it for a number of reasons, mostly happy memories. The rifle is a Marlin 39, no 'A'. According to the internet source, the serial number puts it in the first year of production.

The worst rimfire I ever had was a Buffalo Scout. It was a knockoff of the Colt Scout. A four inch barrel and interchangeable cylinders in 22 LR and .22WRM. The sights were fair, had no relevance to the point of impact. .22 Magnum was loud and expensive and of very little advantage to me. The sear on the top end of the trigger was prone to breaking. I finally sold it for a good price (to him) to a fellow I knew in the Service. He later lost it to the police. Later he admitted he got drunk and outside his house attempting to shoot street lights. I don't think he hit many, if any.

Since I owned that, I've no use for .22WRM as a cartridge and products of Rohm manufacture. The German spiritual predecessor of Jenkins, Raven and that other thing.

My favorite for how it shoots is the S&W M41 in my gun room. It isn't one of the 'old ones' but shoots well.
 
Also not a fan of the 10\22. That stupid bolt hold open is just asinine and for all their great reputation for reliable feeding, my experience has been that they are no better or worse than any other SA rimfire- which is to say they jam once in a while.

Then there was the ole Charter Arms AR7- what a peice of junk. Id have thrown it in the river, but it would have floated right back with my luck.

OK, flame suit on.......I didnt like my vintage Single Six. Nice looking, well built and accurate, but the cylinder timing was such that it was a real chore to line up the chambers with the ejector rod when unloading.

As far as those I love? Pretty much all the ones I still own. .22s rule!
 
I have never had or shot a 22 rifle that I didn’t like. I really haven’t owned that many.
I did not like a S&W 22S that I bought back in 2000. Finicky SOB. Dumped it in 2014 for what I paid for it. I also had a Ruger Single Six “Convertible” that I truly disliked. Inaccurate as heck with Long Rifle ammo and wasn’t much better in 22 Magnum. Sold it with the S&W.
 
I hate single action 22LR revolvers. Bearcats, Single Sixes, Rough Riders...

There should never be a governor on enjoyment at the magnitude a 22LR handgun can bring.
I want to argue sooooooo bad, because single action 22s are so much fun......
but i cant, because reloading the things irritates me so bad I sold both of the ones i had after the first range trip.

Ill take a 10shot swing out cyl tho......


My favorite .22 is (i think...so far anyway) the 457 I just picked up. Tied would be the Rem597

The least favorite would be the 10/22, and model 60, both because of feel. Which is mildly odd as i do like the 795 i have, with a m60 barrel on it.

honorable mention for both would be the nylon 66 i started with.
 
Also not a fan of the 10\22. That stupid bolt hold open is just asinine and for all their great reputation for reliable feeding, my experience has been that they are no better or worse than any other SA rimfire- which is to say they jam once in a while.

What he said.

Then there was the ole Charter Arms AR7- what a peice of junk. Id have thrown it in the river, but it would have floated right back with my luck.

This is a big part of why I haven't bought one of the Henry Rifle variants (The U.S. Survival Rifle), well that, and I just don't need one. But I sure like the whole pack it down inside the stock and it floats part.
 
I did not like a S&W 22S that I bought back in 2000.

Funny how rimfire guns go. One is junk. One is great. It's as random as a roulette wheel. I had a 22S and it was awesome. Loved the oversized wood grain grip. Superbly accurate. (More so than my Ruger MarkII with the bull barrel). The only problem was the plastic buffer on the recoil spring kept breaking, but S&W wold send me 10 at a time free.

I'm glad to see a few more people hating on the 10/22. Everyone seems to love them, so I bought one. What a POS. Lot of people hate the Marlin 60 because of the tube mag (or some other reason.) Mine has been far superior to the 10/22. I also had a really bad experience with the Nylon 66, but somehow, they're a collector's item. That's like calling a Yugo a collectible car.
 
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