By Dave Workman
Editor-in -Chief
Suffice to say an article by Rich Grassi in the Monday edition of The Outdoor Wire inspired me to look back at all the enjoyment .22-caliber rifles and pistols have provided over more years than I care to acknowledge.
My earliest shooting experiences were with my dad’s .22 Winchester Model 69A bolt-action rifle with its 5-round magazine, plain iron sights. It was a rifle with which he made one of the most astounding shots I’ve ever witnessed, nailing a fat cottontail rabbit on the hop, with a bullet through the neck. My grandpa was there, too, and I was probably 5 or 6 at most.
Then I graduated to shooting my dad’s old Harrington & Richardson Model 922 double action revolver, with its nine-round cylinder which had to be manually removed to knock out the empties. That pistol shot high and to the left so one always had to hold at 5 o’clock to smack the bullseye. I shot tin cans, raccoons, empty pop bottles and a lot of other stuff with that handgun. It was passed down to me, and is now owned by my younger son; a family heirloom which has not seen burned powder for a while.
But this is now, and I’ve had lots of experience with other rimfires, both rifles and pistols. I own a couple of Ruger semi-auto pistols and a 10/22. There have been other Ruger and Marlin rifles over the years I’ve tested, including one bolt-action Ruger with which I apparently was the first guy on the map to take game, in this case a fat blue grouse high on a ridge top in Washington’s east-central Cascades.
Summer is a great time for plinking with a .22-caliber firearm, for any number of reasons. First, it’s definitely a way to keep your shooting skills honed. Second, it is inexpensive, compared to shooting any centerfire handgun or rifle, even if you reload your own ammunition. Third, it can be just plain downright fun for the whole family.
It’s a way to teach children and grandchildren the fundamentals of gun safety and marksmanship, and they won’t even realize what you’re doing.
It can provide a platform for family competition.
You can make a lot of noise with a .22 rifle or pistol, punching holes in paper, shooting bottle caps, plastic bottles filled with water or, if you’re really up to a challenge, wood kitchen matches. I’ve done this using my Ruger 10/22, topped with a 1.5-4X Bushnell scope, off a sandbag rest at 25 yards, and if you can hit a match at that distance, you can hit anything!
Did I say ammunition is inexpensive? You could purchase a brick of .22 Long Rifle cartridges for less than you might pay for a 20-round box of some centerfire rifle cartridges of a 50-round box of centerfire pistol ammunition. A brick is ten 50-round boxes, so you get 500 shots, which is generally plenty of opportunities to demonstrate you need a lot more practice!
Some years ago, I did a story about the various available .22 Long Rifle ammunition, learning in the process that some of these loads can launch a 40-grain bullet up to speeds in the 1,600-1,700 fps, depending upon the brand. A rabbit or other small animal will never hear it coming.
In these pages I’ve frequently promoted keeping your big-game rifles zeroed over the summer, using these long, lazy evenings to spend time at the range. One doesn’t burn up a lot of ammunition in these endeavors, so it is not surprising to find folks bringing along a rimfire to keep shooting between the 3- to 5-shot strings one should fire if keeping your deer and/or elk rifle zeroed. I’ve heard tales of guys who visited the range once or twice a week to fire no more than three shots, just to assure reliability, accuracy and cartridge consistency.
The remainder of such a visit should not be boring.
This gets interesting when someone starts shooting at reactive rubber targets, which are made from rubber and are self-sealing. They are available from a couple of places, they’re not expensive and they can take hundreds if not thousands of hits and keep producing. Champion offers the DuraSeal line of targets, and Caldwell also has self-healing targets.
Never underestimate rimfire shooting. It will keep you busy and easily distract your attention from cell phones, lawn work, house painting, radio and television news, and other endeavors.
Remember to pick up your trash if you shoot somewhere in the wilds.
