Accurate Factory Rifle

R

Russell B

Guest
A friend called me and ask what I thought would be an accurate factory rimfire 22. Factory that is. For stuff like squirrel hunting. I told him I did not know but I knew where to find out.

Without paying more than 400 dollars, drilled and tapped for scope base, bolt action with magazine. Any thoughts?
Russell B.
 
CZ is good. I like the MARLIN MODEL 980V BOLT-ACTION .22 "Squirrel Gun". I have one and found the ammunition makes a big difference and it likes Wolf Match Target, which of course has doubled in price. I paid less than $200 for it and put in a Rifle Basix trigger and mounted a Weaver 2.5-7X28 rimfire scope. It will shoot groups under a dime at 50 yds. - nhk
 
KEITH MYERS said:
A used Remington 541-T
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I don't know if you could get a 451 for under $400.00. Other choices would be CZ or Savage. Both seem to work well out of the box and both work better with a little tweeking. Mainly reworking the trigger a little. My CZ's, although they are not box stock, can put 5 rounds under a dime,at 50 yards, if I do my part.
 
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russell,
Does your friend shoot tree squirrels as game or does he hunt ground squirrels as varmints? If he is a ground squirrel hunter and wants to rid his orchards of critters that will destroy his fields and crops he might want to consider a 17 hmr. I've seen many a Marlin 17hmr that can shoot .75 inch 5 shot groups at 100 yards with inexperienced shooters pulling the trigger. I believe they are under $300. I prefer to shoot 22lr myself but it is much more challenging at 100-150 yards. The 17hmr shoots around 2500 ft per second vs 22lr with subsonic round at around 1050 feet per second. And the 17hmr is extremely accurate cartridge but used as a game hunting load it tears up the meat pretty much. Check out the impact of 17hmr on squirrels on "YouTube" I second the recommendations of Savage and Cz as great choices. ifldned
 
russell,
Does your friend shoot tree squirrels as game or does he hunt ground squirrels as varmints? If he is a ground squirrel hunter and wants to rid his orchards of critters that will destroy his fields and crops he might want to consider a 17 hmr. I've seen many a Marlin 17hmr that can shoot .75 inch 5 shot groups at 100 yards with inexperienced shooters pulling the trigger. I believe they are under $300. I prefer to shoot 22lr myself but it is much more challenging at 100-150 yards. The 17hmr shoots around 2500 ft per second vs 22lr with subsonic round at around 1050 feet per second. And the 17hmr is extremely accurate cartridge but used as a game hunting load it tears up the meat pretty much. Check out the impact of 17hmr on squirrels on "YouTube" I second the recommendations of Savage and Cz as great choices. ifldned
 
Dime size

KEITH MYERS said:
It will shoot groups under a dime at 50 yds

How big are your dimes?
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They started out as $.10, but in this economy who knows.

My calipers say the diameter of a dime is 0.705", so a .22 caliber group (covered) is roughly 0.482" or less. - nhk
 
Yep, groups under a dime are very doable and frequent with the CZ, and best of all bad CZ’s are few and far between.
In readable conditions my 452 American aggs in the 3’s and scores in the low 230’s on the USBR target using cheap-o Wolf MT.
I highly recommend the CZ 452 American while you can still find them new, but if cost is a major issue I’ve seen Savage’s that shoot good too.
 
Butch,
Your custom comp gun must shoot like crap.
Did you build it yourself? ;)

Just kidding Butch, but did you even read the original post?
Jim
 
. I have about $800.00 in my CZ Varmint and the best I have shot with in USBR is 241 with 8 X. If I could afford a $2500.00+ rifle I would sure have one. But until then I won't look to shoot any 250's.
 
I have a Savage Mark 11 that I shoot in some matches around here called the Barnyard Shoot. The rifle was under 300 Dollars, has a 6 & 1/2 power scope on it, shoots Federal 711B real well. It is a rifle used by about 50% of the shooters in our club. We all are very pleased with this rifle.....Slim
 
blvedere said:
. I have about $800.00 in my CZ Varmint and the best I have shot with in USBR is 241 with 8 X. If I could afford a $2500.00+ rifle I would sure have one. But until then I won't look to shoot any 250's.
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You might spend $2500. and still not be able to shoot any better than 241-8x. People usually don't sell rifles that shoot "Killer" until they no longer shoot Killer. Having said that, I think it is extremely unwise to spend that king of money ( $800. ) on a so-so factory made rifle. It will never alow you to be truly competative and you have little chance of recovering that money. If you save up and buy a used custom rifle you can usually recover a lot or most of your money when you want to sell it.

Much of this is from personal experience. I have spent a lot on trying to make Factory rifles shoot competatively. While I have seen a few Factory rifles that were capable of winning and did win matches, they are rare and all of them cost more than $800. I'm not talking Plinker Class rifles here.
 
Pete Wass said:
Do you shoot this size group every time or was it once?
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If the question was for me.
No not every time and that’s a very important point to make.
I pounded my head against the wall for a couple of years trying to make my factory sporter “consistently” shoot groups like most everyone posts on the internet. Trying to get there was a learning experience, and I ended up with a much more accurate & consistent rifle in the end. Going to a match or two is the best way for someone learn where they need to be without setting false expectations.
But the reality of the matches I go to is, a ½” or 200-210 USBR in good conditions factory sporter isn’t even close.

Something to keep in mind when talking “custom” anything is.
The only thing that can win the USBR sporter class is a <8.5-pound “factory Sporter” because customs shoot in the custom class. Same goes for other un-registered club matches around here.
If the OP’s friend ever decides to take his hot shooting factory squirrel rifle to an un-registered club or USBR match, its almost guaranteed they will have a factory sporter class he’ll fit right into.
 
About 14 years ago - - -

I learned about Rimfire benchrest from some old PS magazine. I encouraged a group of friends to join me in some unregistered shoots. All of us began with"Factory Rifles". It didn't take long until a 52 Winchester International with plenty of good ammo showed up and won every week. Lads began to buy 52 Winchesters then one of the guys bought a 40 X and some of us bough those smaller Remington Position Rifles. I had the action of mine threaded thinking it would do wonders. It might have if I had screwed a good barrel on it after but had no knowledge about that then.

I decised if I was going to be able to win I needed a real Bench Rifle. I bought a newly done 40X by Lamon Loggins from a Gentelman who was loosing his sight. The rifle was wonderful but the ammo! So hard to get and because I live so deeply in the woods, by the time I found ammo that worked, other people had also discovered it was good and it would be sold out.

The rifles that beat me; Anschuts' . One was as good as my 40X and would beat me regularly. He paid a lot for it though; I think around $1500. back then but it SHOT. Folks began to drop out because they did not want to go beyond where they had spent themselves into.

Several of us drifted off to Centerfire Score Shooting and have been there since. I recently bought a couple of RF Bench Rifles to try RF again along with the CF shooting.

SO, that is where this kind of thing always leads to. One is always looking for the Holy Grail and spending a lot of money along the way seeking it. I believe now folks would be better off to either 1. Go for the Ghusto and buy the best or 2. Set up a plinker org with a claiming rule of $300 to $400 for the rifle less the scope and let it go at that. One can cycle through lower end rifles if the cost isn't terribley high and have a good time shooting.
 
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