.22 good bets?

Marlin for me

I know the Ruger 10/22 has a large following and there are so many mods available for it it'll make your head spin.

I have a Marlin 60 and two older Marlin 39A rifles. The 39A is a sweet lever action rifle and maybe more than you want to pay for plinker but worth it. I have sinned and have a scope on one of them. It is the bane of the local woodchuck population.

The semi-auto Marlin 60 is one of the best bangs for your dollar that you will find.

You don't HAVE to spend a dime to "upgrade" a 10/22 if you don't want to. I've got three and the only thing I've done to any of them is add cheap scopes and slings. They work and shoot just fine. They're not target rifles, but they all shoot a lot better than I can. Now you CAN spend hundreds if you want to, but you don't have to. It's a decent little rifle for not a lot of money.

The Remington 597 semi-auto and the Marlin 39A lever action are two others I have experience with that I'd recomend. Just depends on how much money you want to spend. Off the top of my head, I can't think of a 22 rifle I've seen I don't like. Marlin 60's, the various Henry's and CZ's all seem to be popular with people here. Look around, find one you like, at a price you want to pay and have fun with it.

Go here and read up - http://www.rimfirecentral.com/forums/index.php If you have the money as recommended the CZ trainer is a nice place to start. If you want to keep a bit less expensive a Marlin bolt action is a less expensive option. Nothing wrong with 10-22 - you just won't learn any discipline.

Look around in pawn or consignment shops for old Remington, Mossberg, Glenfield, or Stevens .22s. A lot of these rifles have good iron sights, even target sights and can be had for under $200. They might not look like much, but they'll shoot as good as if not better than anything under $1000 today.

+1 75shuvlinoff

I would say exactly the same thing and I have the same guns (except that I only have one 39A; my other .22 levergun is a 39M).

I had a 10/22. I agree with rangerruck: it needed 100 bucks and some work to become acceptable, and the accuracy of mine was still crap, so a new barrel and stock would have been necessary, also. I didn't want to pony up. So I sold it.

I'd rather buy a Marlin 60 for a fun little semiauto plinker, and use the rest of the money to get something else, instead of to make the 10/22 worth shooting.

An added bonus of the Marlin 60: the stock geometry works with a scope. The standard Ruger, while it's a great pointing gun with irons, fits and feels terrible with a scope since the stock has too much drop.

Buy what you want. Whatever catches your eye. Jeeze.

I bought a CZ-452 awhile back and have very few complaints. [...]
The only complaint I have is the magazines. They're very stout for a .22 magazine but they also cost like $40 for an extra mag. That's freaking nuts!

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Just be glad you don't have a Sako Finnfire:

Finnfire Blued Magazines

Savage Mark II is awesome. Has irons.

CZ 452 Lux

CZ rifles are like their handguns. Solid, well-made, nice wood, accurate, easy to work on the trigger, great open sights for a stock gun.

Here's my 452FS



Check pawn shops for a nice used Marlin 60. Even though it's a semi-auto, you can't go wrong with the M60.

Steve

Get a CZ 452. I have the full stock version in .22WMR and it is a great gun. I also like the Lux model almost as much. They have awsome iron sights. It was my first rifle with irons and after about a month (and close to 1000 rounds) I can shoot dime sized groups at 25yds.