The year after the YUGO made it to the US I finally got a Nylon 66. Back in the 1960's Dad had gotten one that he practically never shot or let me shoot, seriously I thing less than 300 rounds have been through it....though it looks like heck now from poor storage. He had asked me t otell him what I thought the neatest .22semi auto out there was and my12 year old self had assumed it would be for me.....it wasn't. I grumpily continued to shoot my old Winchester 67 (with finger grooves!) all summer and when Dad asked the same question around Turkey Day I gave the same answer and was thrilled to no end to note a long rectangular package under the tree from "Santa" to me Christmas Morn. Joy was fleating when I found the box contained a Savage Click Clack......so it was dang near 20 years before I bought my own Nylon 66. Now the stupidest pass I ever made was a collection of all the Nylons, or at least most of them about 1980. I kind of liked the look of the single shot with the butter knife bolt handle.....but the guy would not break the set and I was at that time a starving College student trying to live and go to school on the GI bill and my savings. Fast forward a few years and I was a starving School teacher, but stopped at a gun store in Madison Florida where apparently no one owned a copy of the Blue Book and they had one. Took it home, cleaned it and hung it under the rear storage cover in the Yugo.......look I said I was a starving teacher and that WAS the cheapest new car on the market.......and with good reason it turned out. The lady that was to become my wife loved it and having experienced the heart break of giving a lady a cherished gun and then having her leave with it I began to look for another. I bought her a GR8 which despite looking new had an issue (no ejector and yes Numerich charged about the same in shipping as the part cost) I initially pulled the ejector from mine to be sure a Remington ejector would work in the GR8 and it did.
I have never found the Nylon 66 to be as accurate as more traditional wood stocked and metal recievered .22 semi autos and the GR8 is not as good as the run of the mill Nylon 66......but they are fun guns, that seem to always work and they keep on working. After the YUGO went to the great recycling center in the sky (though totaled it did have all its safety features function and saved me in its dying throws) that first Nylon of mine lived behind the seat of the Copperhead, a little rice burner pick'em truck I ran into the ground over several years. The gun is now semi retired but occasionally makes it out for a little social time
Actually I think the Nylon 66 is like the perfect companion rifle for the Whitney Wolverine .22 pistol. All you need then is a fined space helmet and jet pack.
-kBob
