Rimfire can be fun

[TonyH]

I barely count rimfire shooting as "varminting" since in my purist fashion I interpret it to mean zapping pests from a long-ish way off using high-velocity centrefire rifles in small calibres - which for me currently is my 20Tac. But because I neglect my rimfire I'd forgotten how much fun it can be.

Got a call this morning from a farmer whose land i hadn't shot over, but i'd been introduced by his son who's a friend. His newly planted kale was being attacked by hordes of rabbits and would i try to do something. I went over this afternoon and he showed me the worst hit field, saying he'd counted 20-30 rabbits the previous night around 8.00pm.

So I went over again after dinner - and as i was entering the field, spotted two at 30-50 yards, braced the .22 against the gatepost and got 'em. More to my left up the slope, went prone off the bipod and got two more - this was all in the first two minutes.

Over the next couple of hours I zapped another dozen, mostly off the bipod and most around 30-60 yards, closest 20 and furthest 70-75. Rifle is a Ruger 10-22 re-barrelled with a modified Anschutz heavy barrel, improved trigger, Volquartsen thumbhole stock - originally owned by Terry H on here. Ammo was CCI subsonic HP, shoots very well and knocks them over nicely too. Scope is a cheap, primitive Oriental 4X modified by a friend with a double Lee dot reticle - a huge improvement and perfect for close range bunnies.

I'll go back for some more, but especially since I hardly ever use the rimfire I was quite pleased with a score of 16, and I imagine the farmer will be too - his ground is adjacent to two other farmers' land I already shoot on, so it adds up to a nice big block I can wander over... I rewarded myself with a cool pint of 6X immediately afterwards.

Next time I'll try to remember the little camera!

Tony

[Bobbo]

Great write up.

[Andrew]

Nice write up! I love reading about rimfire shooting. Twenty-two hunting is my favorite pastime, and positively addicting. I like rifle shooting but do a lot of .22 handgun shooting. I manage to go through 200 rounds a night, on most nights. Often more. I have 1400 round through my new .22 pistol over the last 12 days! (It's an affliction.)~Andrew

[varmartin]

Great right up Tony, Its good to hear you are having fun with the 10-22.

When I think about all the rifles I have had , I would not be without a .22lr ! Especially my Winchester 52B

[6.5shooter]

Out of all my guns my .22 fac airrifle and my two .22 rimfire rifles give me the most fun per pound so to speak.

I was out on wednesday with my airrifle around the farm peeping around corners and sniping crows off the rooftops and it was mega fun.

Likewise when I stalk rabbits, crawling through the hedges and grass to get a closer shot at bunny with the near silent .22 rimfire is loads of fun.

Garry

[Si-Snipe]

Yeah I have just bought a CZ .22LR from my friend with an MTC Mamba 4-16x50 on it for not much money. They're so much fun. I'm shooting Winchester HP's and my god they hit hard. I was swatting them over out to 87yds on the moors. Awesome for hanging out the truck with on the way to a long range spot.

[foxshot]

Good write up i also like to keep my 22rf in action,always makes thing a bit more challenging trying to stalk close enough to get a clean shot

this is a few photos from my last trip out

you can see this rabbit in the fore ground

 

a few for the pot

 

got to within 40 to 50 yds from this doe

[TonyH]

Thanks for the input, guys - lovely pics Foxshot! I took my little camera out with me tonight, back to the same spot - waste of time! Two evenings could not have been more different, last night being lovely and tonight was, well, bloody awful. Rain wasn't all that heavy but the wind blew it horizontally, and though I spent much of my time semi-shielded by a hedge I ended up very damp, with a soaked rifle too. Saw three rabbits! Even allowing for the number i shot last night it wasn't many - they were probably in their burrows drinking beer and watching TV. I shot one. Consoled myself by filling a couple of sacks with horse manure the farmer said i could have, wife needs it for something or other.

Andrew, amazed by your throughput of ammo, more rimfire shells than I get through in a couple of years! Alas, .22 handguns are a thing of the past for us, and even when we had them pre-1997 they couldn't be used legally for hunting.

Martin, greetings! Glad you're getting on with my old Winchester 52B, great rifle. But I'm very pleased with the custom Ruger, very good field rifle. See you at Zelah sometime soon.

Regards, Tony

[Andrew]

Tony: I used to shoot ground squirrels on the Mexican border and for some colonies, the .22LR was the absolute king. It took a lot of practice to keep up with these tiny rodents. I am back in Montana now and never travel without a .22 LR rifle and 1000 rounds of ammunition in the Jeep. You never know when an impromptu shooting event will break out! I am blessed with ammo availability and land to shoot so I generally shoot every night; especially when practicing for competition (as with the .22 handgun) (truly sorry for your inability to own one) or deer hunting. Prairiedogs are a good target if you can wait them out at close range and I have them in abundance. All shooting is good, but .22LR is painless at the wallet ($125/5000 rounds at the ranch store last week) and therefore, easy to find a happy place with. I believe that a person who can become familiar with the .22LR trajectory and use it in the field will become a better shot with any centerfire. Keep stalking with that .22 and post some pics when you catch them napping in the sun!~Andrew

[kent]

Lets be honest its great fun shooting rimfires, cheap also extreamly good practice and besides i love eating rabbit

[Toby]

Having just purchased a CZ 455 in 22LR (with the excuse of teaching my youngest to shoot ) I can honestly say I had forgotte how much fun rimfires are. It's very easy to get hooked on the more gun syndrome as one starts off in the sport but the humble 22LR is perfect in so many respects, cheap to shoot, low recoiling, ease of finding safe shooting areas, accurate and FUN! I was at the range yesterday and burnt through 50 22LR rounds and 15 308Win rounds in an hour and a half. Although the 308 was putting round after round sub MOA at 100m it was the 22LR at the same distance that was most fun. I really miss the rabbits in the UK and gophers and prairie dogs sound like a blast. Over here for me it will be gulls and corvids that will be in the crosshairs after the summer.

Regards Toby

[sir-slots-alot]

Nice write up Tony.

 

I love the 22 rimmy - silent and deadly - I would never be without one in my cabinet.

 

 

ATB

Alan

[Andrew]

Nice write up Tony.

 

I love the 22 rimmy - silent and deadly - I would never be without one in my cabinet.

 

 

ATB

Alan

 

I'll second the sentiment of never being without a good .22 Long Rifle. I carry a tattered Brno#1 wearing a Leupold scope under the rear seat of my Jeep at all times, along with two large boxes of cartridges. As I mentioned earlier, I believe that mastery of the .22 trajectory (trajectories if you have an abundance of ammo varieties) will improve the your marksmanship with other calibers. The ammo variety world-wide is boggling. Here we can get loads ranging from 20 grain bullets powered by only priming compound at air-rifle speeds to 60 grain sub-sonic loads. Other oddities include tracers, frangible bullets like the Quik Shok and high speed rounds tossing a 30 grain bullet at over 1700 fps. Or there's the powerhouse rounds using a 40 grain bullet at 1500 fps. Truly, a .22 is like a switch-barrel centerfire when it comes to application. A different cartridge for each situation.

 

As I mentioned, I shoot upwards of 200 rounds of 22LR a day when the weather isn't raining too hard or sub-zero cold. Some of the games we play when we get bored are:

 

Shooting shotgun hulls off hand at 50M. (or, applying to all of the following, at any distance on a wager from a shooting buddy...)

 

Splitting playing cards set edgewise at 25M using only a foreend rest.

 

Shooting paint-balls.

 

Cutting bits of straw off of hay bales from a foreend rest.

 

And the standard: Shooting clay birds offhand at 50M, then shooting the pieces until they are tiny bits, then setting the rifle on a foreend rest and shooting those bits until there is nothing left to shoot.

 

All of these kind of 'games' will teach you breath and trigger control quite quickly. It's a hell of a lot of fun and a great stress reliever. I am often surprised at how much enjoyment I take from it even when weighed against my favorite centerfires.~Andrew

[v-max]

Hi great read & its funny as i hardly ever used my .22lr for years up until 2-3yrs ago where i got asked to do some local estate & got just under 1600 in 7-8 months. The winter just past wasent so good with 900 for my season. I have had help from my brother (sauer) on here with his queer hand stuff (lefty) but this works out good as i drive & shoot right handed i can shoot left aswell & my bro sits in passenger & shoots lefty & works well for us with some good nights of 70-80 rabbits for a couple hours. I now have a new spot that would scare yous & on thursday past i got from 10am till 3.30pm & 200 .22 sub-sonics i shot 161 rabbits just driving round & my best day being 181 to date. I am having the time of my life just now with the .22 & use around 2000 .22's a month its really good fun I have some video footage of me sitting at a warren but cant get it loaded up to put up for yous. The ammo bill is picked up so im really lucky with this too so im spoilt & loving it.

[Toby]

 

Espen's first 25 shots with the CZ 455 today

[Andrew]

 

Espen's first 25 shots with the CZ 455 today

 

[TonyH]

Toby, nice to see pics from Norway, unusual. I got out with the .22 again last night, beautiful evening, aimed to dispose of a few more bunnies that are still gobbling the farmer's young kale. I think I must have eliminated over half of them on Thursday night, since I didn't see more than a dozen or so altogether this time, and they were a bit more wary, but I got another seven. And it was just a great evening, warm, clear, watched another sunset beyond Dartmoor (seen hundreds from various shooting spots hereabouts - see pic), shot rabbits, called into the pub (ancient, huge timbers, friendly, new owners haven't mucked it up) for a couple of pints of Dartmoor Pedigree.

Regards, Tony

[Toby]

Nice photo Tony. Whereabouts are you exactly in Devon. My sis lives in Newton Abbot and has nice views over Dartmoor as well.

Regards Toby

[TonyH]

Nice photo Tony. Whereabouts are you exactly in Devon. My sis lives in Newton Abbot and has nice views over Dartmoor as well.

Regards Toby

I'm just the other side of Totnes from Newton. Keep thinking about moving to somewhere warmer but when the weather's OK, South Devon is just such a damn nice place to live - and shoot.

Regards, Tony