which semi-auto .22 model

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shdwfx

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My Mom bought a used semi-auto .22 circa 1970 and remembers paying 179 or so dollars for it. Short on cash a few years later she sold it even though she loved the piece.

I'd love to find the model, maybe even buy it if only for nostalgia.

I gathered some clues from her as to features since she can't remember the model or brand - it's been 35 years. She remembers it being thin, very well balanced, and ejecting cases out the bottom of the gun. She also remembers buying a silencer with it, but not using that much.

My thought was it may have been a modified Browning semi-auto .22 Grade 1 (bottom ejection), but she also remembers the gun being fed by a removable magazine. I'm having a hard time imagining an action that bottom-ejects and feeds from a removable magazine, but that's what she remembers.

In summary, memory lists these features:
  • .22 rifle
  • roughly 179 dollars used in 1970
  • light, thin, and well balanced
  • bottom-ejection
  • removable magazine-fed (?not sure on the feasibility of this?)
  • could attach a silencer (aftermarket/custom barrel?)

My best guess is still some sort of Browning semi-auto, but was wondering what your thoughts all were?
 
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* 22 rifle
Doesn't narrow it down much
* roughly 179 dollars used in 1970
Ditto
* light, thin, and well balanced
* bottom-ejection
Browning Auto 22
* removable magazine-fed (?not sure on the feasibility of this?)
Incompatible with bottom ejection. Probably misremembered tube magazine of Browning.
* could attach a silencer (aftermarket/custom barrel?)
Custom threading of any barrel.
 
@Natman
Thanks. Those are my thoughts exactly, but that's all I have to go on.
My hope is she is just misremembering the removable magazine, because the only semi-auto .22 I know of that bottom-ejects is the Browning. If the misremembering is reversed and it was a magazine-fed side ejector, there are no other distinguishable features.
 
Most likely a browning standard .22lr rifle. A cpl pics here of the most significant features.

It does eject downward, it had a TUBE magazine fed from the stock and is a two piece take down. Many came with a threaded barrel nut.

The only other piece that ejects downward is the Weatherby .22 lr semi auto. Very much like the browning, except it has a full length sporterized stock and uses a bottom fed magazine, the round being ejected just forward of the mag, downward and as the bolt travels back, it picks up a new round.


browning1.gif

browning2.gif

Regards,
Mike
 
At 179 bucks used in 1970, that would have been at least a higher end .22SA.(of course it might have been LNIB used) That was the heyday of the 29.95 Glenfields etc. The only Weatherby I'm familiar with is the Mod XXII. If I recall it came in tube or mag clip but I didn't know it was a bottom ejector. Hard to figure she would forget about a Browning loading from the stock, that's fairly unique, though there are several others that use it. Chances are she wouldn't recall the Weatherby as "thin and very well balanced", they were full size .22 SAs (not to say they weren't well balanced).
 
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I concure that the $179 used price in 1970 narrows it down to a high-end rifle.

Bottom ejection narrows it down further to a Browning .22, or a Remington 24 or 241 built on the same Browning design.
Browning .22 was first imported in 1956.
Rem 24 was made 1922 - 1935.
Rem 241 was made 1935 - 1949.

The threaded barrel & silencer makes me suspect a way older gun.
Used to see a lot of the Remington 24's with threads that were made prior to silencers being outlawed in the U.S. in 1934.

I'd have to guess that's what it was.

rc
 
I have a Browning 22 auto that was made before 1918 as that is when they changed the loading hole in the stock from the bottom to the side so I am wondering how it got here if they were not imported untill 1956. Unless they imported them into Canada before that. When you mention light and easy to carry and bottom eject it came to mind right away. $179 in that time frame makes for a Browning also as you could still buy any other brand for less then a $100 bucks even up here.
 
I seem to recall that, back then, the Italian firm Franchi made a pricey, sleek, magazine fed, take-down .22 cal. rifle. I don't remember if it was bottom eject.
 
From my 1973 shooters bible..
Browning .22 automatic rifle-Grade l,long rifle or short[interesting-short?]$114.50.Grade ll,$172.50. Grade lll,$312.50. Possibly a high grade Browning?
 
I seem to recall that, back then, the Italian firm Franchi made a pricey, sleek, magazine fed, take-down .22 cal. rifle. I don't remember if it was bottom eject.
Click to expand...

The Franchi Centennial was side eject and had a buttstock tube mag similar to the Browning.

The Weatherby XXII was also side eject and came in both magazine and underbarrel tube mag versions.
 
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