Monday Shoot - Ruger Rimfire Roustabout

"LSP, what are you up to tomorrow?" asked the text, followed by one simple answer, "Shooting, join in." And that's what happened, CC drove over from the Metrosprawl, we loaded up the rig with guns and headed to the range. 

I wanted to test out not one, not two but three Ruger rimfires, an American .17 HMR, .22 LR, and the country's favorite semi, a 10/22. But first off we shot off a box of skeet, smoking the biodegradable orange adversaries in good order with a CZ Bobwhite SxS 20. What a great little gun, bang on.

A Gang of Three

Then it was down to serious business with the Rugers, while CC plinked away. I hadn't shot the .17 in ages and, please don't laugh, wanted to see if the dirt cheap, made in China, Simmons 4x scope I'd bought this morning from Walmart actually worked. It boldly advertised itself as ".22 MAGNUM," so perhaps it would.

That's Weird, it Works

And it did, amazingly, right out of the box with minimal adjustment, sending the tiny high velocity rounds into a small silhouette with miraculous $26 precision. Well done, Ruger and Chicom Simmons, you shoot like a laser. I was taken aback.

Best Ruger American .22 LR Group 

Next up, I checked the zero on another Ruger American, a .22 I'd unscientifically sighted in last week at around 50 yards. After a bit of adjustment, it was well in the zone and the same went for the 10/22, which shot as it should given iron sights and LSPvision. So well done, Rugers, you work, but which one's best?

Note Expensive Scope

The American .17 was easily the most accurate, cheap optic regardless, and its .22 twin wasn't far off either, which you'd expect from these rifles because their "Patented Power Bedding® integral bedding block system positively locates the receiver and free-floats the barrel for outstanding accuracy." 

CC

At least that's the marketing and sure enough, the aluminium blocks which the American's receiver screws into seem to do the trick. The barrel's crowned too and comes with an adjustable trigger, 3-5 pounds, which doesn't hurt. 

Proper Little Blaster

Then there's the 10/22, which has been around since 1964 and's still going strong. Why? Because it's an excellent rifle, reliable, accurate, and a lot of semi-auto fun. It's also around $60 cheaper than the American rimfires.

Yet Another Ruger

So I'd say they're all good depending on what you're after. For rounds in the same hole accuracy at an affordable price, the .17 does the trick, provided there's no wind to blow the little bullet off course. 

Random LSP With Shotgun

For a less accurate but cheap to shoot all day alternative, either the 10/22 or the American .22 are more than good and inexpensive to boot. One's semi, the other's bolt, the American's perhaps more advanced but the 10/22 can get a lot of rounds off quickly. Your call.

Needless to say, I like them all, buy one of each if you're into shooting the lowly .22 and its faster cousin, the .17.

Texas

The shoot finished with a good old blast off against the enemy. Soda cans, range debris, steel plates and silhouettes all met their match as the afternoon lengthened into evening under the Texan sky, and that was that. Big fun and always good to get out and shoot.

Gun rights,

LSP 

A Truck Full of Guns

Headed off to the range on Monday with a truck full of guns; an AR, a bolt .22 and the newly fixed up Lee Enfield. GWB brought some Ruger action to the party with a 10/22 and a Mini.

It was mostly about the AR and the Mini, starting off at 30 and 50 yards to get the hang of things then moving out to 100. Two very different rifles. I like the wood and steel of the Mini, which makes it more of a "ranch gun" but I also like the Milspec patriotism of the AR. It's argued that the AR is is the more accurate carbine and I think the best group of the day came from it, but in our hands the difference was pretty negligible. I'd say the Mini's  front sight post is better than the AR's because it's thinner but on the other hand, it's easier to fix optics to the AR. Maybe Santa will task his elves to sort me out for an Eotech or the mighty Trijicon...

At 100 yards we took it in turns to go for head shots/center mass. Ten rounds to each in our own time, several times. GWB claims that his nickname in the Service was "Head Shot." I find that unlikely for several reasons.

A tale of two empires

The Lee shot well but the scope had wandered off zero, so we spent some time getting it back in the X Ring and it still wasn't quite right by the end of the day. This might be the Holy Spirit telling me to purchase a Leupold Rifleman; maybe, I'll give the used Burris Fullfield another chance when time and ammo permit. Still, the gun was "hog accurate."

Moral of the story?

Don't be a slacker, get out and shoot.

LSP

Range Warriors

Just because it's hot doesn't mean that you can't shoot, so I've been taking the young 'uns, 12 and 9,  to my friend's range for target practice, but not before a decent work out on a Daisy BB gun. The Daisy's useful because you can shoot it in the back yard and teach basic marksmanship skills, not least safety, while having fun. 

sizing up the opposition

The boys did well on that and well on the range, shooting .22 bolt action, .22 semi (Ruger 10/22), an AR 15, my philisophical friend GWB's Mini 14, and some .45 (Beretta PX4).

the old contender

We fired from the bench, kneeling, prone and off-hand at 100, 50 and 25 yards. It was good to see the kids getting on target at the longer ranges, especially off-hand; just a lot of fun for them and a fairly full-on introduction to firearms.

the Dallas compound

Important skill, shooting. Start 'em off young.

on at 100

Skeet tomorrow, have to warm up for Dove season.

Shoot straight,

LSP

.22 Shoot Out

Ruger, Higgins, Browning

After a brisk hell for leather and devil take the hindmost ride across the Waco countryside I got back to the manse to find my philisophic friend and all 'round sportsman, GWB, on the proverbial doorstep. With guns. .22s, in fact. After pounding the mahogany over curry we decided to take the guns out for a shoot the next day. Which .22 was best?

There were three contenders. A Browning take-down, a Ruger 10/22 carbine, and a J.C. Higgins tube fed bolt action, all with iron sights. The winning rifle would be the most accurate, most reliable, give the best bang for the buck and be the most fun to shoot. Look, feel and finish were also important. Ranges to be at 100, 50 and 25 yards, against a variety of targets -- a steel plate turkey, coke cans, a piece of aluminium scrap metal, a silhouette and steel plate spinners of various sizes (serving plate down to silver dollar). Shooting positions standing, kneeling and prone, no bench resting.

fix that gun

A great plan but when we got out in the field the wind was so fierce that it was hard to stand up, not dissimilar to shooting into a wind tunnel; accuracy was going to suffer. Still, you live in Texas, you want to shoot, so deal with the wind.

All the rifles did well. The Ruger came out tops for accuracy at 100 yards, which surprised me. The Higgins did best at 50 yards, making swift work of assorted soda cans  and the Browning was... OK. Reliability went to the Browning, which performed flawlessly. The Ruger was good for the most part, but suffered the occasional stove pipe, and the Higgins went down at one point with a malfunctioning bolt (fixed with a quick bout of field surgery). Word to the wise -- don't waste your money on a 30 round Butler Creek magazine with plastic lips for the 10/22. They're rubbish. At least the one we tested simply didn't work.

Bang for the buck? That has to go to the Ruger, which is hard to beat at $197 from Academy Sports. The Higgins came in second, with plenty of bang for around 100 pawn shop bucks, but it's a 50/60 year old rifle. The Browning has to rank third. This .22 is beautiful and you pay for it, at around $700+++ per gun and, go figure, it works well. Well it should at that price but is it any more accurate than the Ruger or the Higgins? I don't think so, maybe less. Still, it's a beauty.

Plinker

Fun to shoot? I'd have to go for the Ruger because it's neat to blast off 30 semi auto rounds in no time at all. More exciting than the deliberation of the Higgins bolt and the stymied 10 round Browning magazine. As for look feel and finish, that depends on the shooter, but for me, the Higgins felt and shouldered best, followed by the Ruger. I didn't like the Ruger's cheap and nasty plastic butt plate and forearm band, and its inletting could've been better. But at $197? A deal. For overall appearance and total elegance, the Browning wins hands down. So it should, at its price.

The best gun, overall? The 10/22. It's America's favorite .22 for a reason. That said, don't scoff at second hand deals, like the Higgins. An accurate and well enough made rifle, but be prepared for the odd eccentricity. After all, it's an old gun. The Browning is great. If you have the $$$ get one. I shot my first rounds with one when I was 7 and enjoyed it then. I do now, even if the thing ejects hot brass into the sleeve of your coat.  

So. If you're a man of means, get a Browning. If you're on a miserable stipend get a 10/22, probably better value new and right out of the box than many slightly cheaper second hand bargains. Save up and get one.

Shoot straight,

LSP

Get Out in the Field and Break your Gun

Drove out in the scorching, parched, doveless countryside for the customary Thursday morning ride and shoot; rode JB about for a little while but the ground is full of deep and treacherous cracks, which curtails things a bit. Still, it keeps the hand in.

Before plinking about I took the old JC Higgins 103.13 .22 (essentially a Marlin 81 - I think) down for a clean. Very important; if you don't clean your firearms they don't work, even if they're .22s. Trust me. So I cleaned the thing and it broke anyway, because a pin fell out of the trigger mechanism onto the ground. It probably fell down a crack.

Nothing daunted, I pulled out the handy "Leatherman Wave" multitool and a piece of fencing wire -- always carry both in your EDC (every day carry) loadout. That's my advice. Tools in hand I fashioned a new pin, which seemed to do the trick.

Except that it didn't because working the action simply decocked the rifle, rendering the thing useless. 10 out of 10 for in the field gunsmith ingenuity, 0 out of 10 for a working solution. Annoying.

Still, the JC Higgins is ancient, its had many thousands of rounds through it and perhaps the time has come to bite the proverbial bullet and get a new .22 for plinking and shooting the odd rabbit. The broken rifle can be fixed at leisure but in the meanwhile I think I will get an...

Entirely predictable Ruger 10/22 -- birch stock, iron sights (I like the bead front sight) semi-auto, all for the grand price of $200. Thank you, Walmart, for helping me out.

Don't lose bits of your gun down gaping cracks in the earth.

Happy Michaelmas.

LSP