MacTech
Member
My first .22LR rifle was a Marlin Model 25 7 shot bolt-action with the MicroGroove barrel and a cheap Tasco 4x scope, it was a 16th birthday gift from my father, I loved that little gun, I was never happy with the scope, so I ditched it, and used iron sights, I was *deadly* with that thing, I could take the top off a soda bottle with it on my little .22 range out in the field (50 foot range), it saw use every weekend, it went with me to college (yes, we could keep our own firearms on campus, in the security building, just check them out when we went shooting and return them when done), it saw a lot of use, and was always dead-on accurate.
I started getting into handguns for a while, and I dismissed the humble .22LR as "too wussy", I was more interested in thumpers like .357 magnum revolvers and 12-gauge shotguns, you know "real guns".... (ahh to be young and foolish again...... and also a robot....), the Marlin 25 began gathering dust, brought out only when I couldn't afford a box of ammo for the .357 or 12-gauge.
a few years later, I moved up to Vermont to take a job, and in the process, became interested in paintball, money was tight, so I sold the Marlin to fund the purchase of a Tippmann 98 Custom with expansion chamber and 18" "sniper" barrel....
I got bored with paintball after one game, and used the Tippy as a casual splat-plinker, but got bored rapidly with it.
Dumb, dumb, dumb, bad MacTech! shoulda' kept the faithful old Marlin....
a couple years ago, I got back into shooting after a long break, I picked up a used Ruger 10/22 with a Bushnell 3-9X scope, than a little later, a New England Firearms single shot and Bushnell 3-9X, the NEF became my "whisper" gun, set up for short-range plinking and varminting, and the 10/22 was my inexpensive-to-feed range rifle.
The NEF was a great little gun, simple, reliable, acceptable trigger, but the Ruger, well, I never really completely warmed to it, it would randomly fail to completely eject a spent case, only to mash it into the next loading round, happened with both Ruger mags and Butler Creek Hot Lips mags, completely random and unpredictable.
It was decently accurate, but it had a *HORRIBLE* trigger, 8+# if not more before the trigger would release, I had to check to see if the safety was stuck on numerous times, I tried polishing the hammer, which smoothed the pull somewhat, but never really dropped the weight of the pull, I could practically hang the gun off my trigger finger and the trigger would not release (both before and after the hammer job)
I never really warmed to the semiauto action either, it didn't have the tactile feel of a good bolt, and the temptation to go into an ammo-wasting rapidfire (if the horrible trigger would ever allow that) was always there, I grew up on single shots (Ithaca 49) and bolts (Marlin 25), and semiauto .22's just felt...wrong... to me, I enjoy the challenge of making every shot count, and that's the way I shot the 10/22, heck, due to it's craptacular trigger, that's the only choice I really had, as rapidfire with the 10/22 didn't really "group" well, it looked more like a shotgun "pattern", and I'm not one for turning money into noise or wasting lead indiscriminately.
Last weekend, I had had enough, random jams and misfeeds, a horrible, heavy LawyerTrigger, it had the worst trigger pull of any firearm I have tried, I know I could have purchased a third-party trigger group or even a VQ parts kit, but the gun only cost me $150ish used, I had had enough of it.
I took the gun and mags to my gunshop and traded for store credit, picked up a Savage Mark IIG with the AccuTrigger, and had the scope on the 10/22 mounted on the Savage.
As soon as I picked up the Savage Mark IIG, it was like I had come home, it shouldered and pointed well, was nicely balanced, and just felt *right*, it also had very similar lines to the old Marlin 25, and it has three more rounds available in the mag than the old 7 shot Marlin, it felt like I had come back to my old friend.
So, on saturday, I took it to the range, set up my targets at 50 yards, and had the gun dialed in for the most part in 9 rounds, one more mag to fine tune the scope, and I had it dead-on at 50 yards.
Even with crosswinds, the Savage was shooting quite well, nice tight groups, not bad for a new-to-me gun that I'm unfamiliar with, at 50 yards, it looks like it's shooting1/4" to 1/2" groups (each hole is 1/4" away from the other)
And yes, this little Savage is just as much a tackdriver as my old Microgroove Marlin 25, plus, the AccuTrigger is *GREAT*, nice, clean feel, light 2.5# pull, and a crisp break, coming from the bricklike trigger pull of the 10/22, the Savage Mark II feels like a true hair-trigger
I started on a bolt-action .22, and I'm back on a bolt-action again, it feels good to "come home"
I'm pretty sure this is "the one", the right gun for me, the 10/22 was a nice enough gun, but we never really bonded or got along, it was just sort of "there", and that heavy "LawyerTrigger" didn't help matters at all
I started getting into handguns for a while, and I dismissed the humble .22LR as "too wussy", I was more interested in thumpers like .357 magnum revolvers and 12-gauge shotguns, you know "real guns".... (ahh to be young and foolish again...... and also a robot....), the Marlin 25 began gathering dust, brought out only when I couldn't afford a box of ammo for the .357 or 12-gauge.
a few years later, I moved up to Vermont to take a job, and in the process, became interested in paintball, money was tight, so I sold the Marlin to fund the purchase of a Tippmann 98 Custom with expansion chamber and 18" "sniper" barrel....
I got bored with paintball after one game, and used the Tippy as a casual splat-plinker, but got bored rapidly with it.
Dumb, dumb, dumb, bad MacTech! shoulda' kept the faithful old Marlin....
a couple years ago, I got back into shooting after a long break, I picked up a used Ruger 10/22 with a Bushnell 3-9X scope, than a little later, a New England Firearms single shot and Bushnell 3-9X, the NEF became my "whisper" gun, set up for short-range plinking and varminting, and the 10/22 was my inexpensive-to-feed range rifle.
The NEF was a great little gun, simple, reliable, acceptable trigger, but the Ruger, well, I never really completely warmed to it, it would randomly fail to completely eject a spent case, only to mash it into the next loading round, happened with both Ruger mags and Butler Creek Hot Lips mags, completely random and unpredictable.
It was decently accurate, but it had a *HORRIBLE* trigger, 8+# if not more before the trigger would release, I had to check to see if the safety was stuck on numerous times, I tried polishing the hammer, which smoothed the pull somewhat, but never really dropped the weight of the pull, I could practically hang the gun off my trigger finger and the trigger would not release (both before and after the hammer job)
I never really warmed to the semiauto action either, it didn't have the tactile feel of a good bolt, and the temptation to go into an ammo-wasting rapidfire (if the horrible trigger would ever allow that) was always there, I grew up on single shots (Ithaca 49) and bolts (Marlin 25), and semiauto .22's just felt...wrong... to me, I enjoy the challenge of making every shot count, and that's the way I shot the 10/22, heck, due to it's craptacular trigger, that's the only choice I really had, as rapidfire with the 10/22 didn't really "group" well, it looked more like a shotgun "pattern", and I'm not one for turning money into noise or wasting lead indiscriminately.
Last weekend, I had had enough, random jams and misfeeds, a horrible, heavy LawyerTrigger, it had the worst trigger pull of any firearm I have tried, I know I could have purchased a third-party trigger group or even a VQ parts kit, but the gun only cost me $150ish used, I had had enough of it.
I took the gun and mags to my gunshop and traded for store credit, picked up a Savage Mark IIG with the AccuTrigger, and had the scope on the 10/22 mounted on the Savage.
As soon as I picked up the Savage Mark IIG, it was like I had come home, it shouldered and pointed well, was nicely balanced, and just felt *right*, it also had very similar lines to the old Marlin 25, and it has three more rounds available in the mag than the old 7 shot Marlin, it felt like I had come back to my old friend.
So, on saturday, I took it to the range, set up my targets at 50 yards, and had the gun dialed in for the most part in 9 rounds, one more mag to fine tune the scope, and I had it dead-on at 50 yards.
Even with crosswinds, the Savage was shooting quite well, nice tight groups, not bad for a new-to-me gun that I'm unfamiliar with, at 50 yards, it looks like it's shooting1/4" to 1/2" groups (each hole is 1/4" away from the other)
And yes, this little Savage is just as much a tackdriver as my old Microgroove Marlin 25, plus, the AccuTrigger is *GREAT*, nice, clean feel, light 2.5# pull, and a crisp break, coming from the bricklike trigger pull of the 10/22, the Savage Mark II feels like a true hair-trigger
I started on a bolt-action .22, and I'm back on a bolt-action again, it feels good to "come home"
I'm pretty sure this is "the one", the right gun for me, the 10/22 was a nice enough gun, but we never really bonded or got along, it was just sort of "there", and that heavy "LawyerTrigger" didn't help matters at all
