quote:

Originally posted by Vaftocr:
Looooong time pistol owner. I have owned an AR15 and a Mini 14 in the past. I have shotguns and a .22. I don’t hunt.
I love shooting pistols but never got into rifles. With that background I’m thinking about buying a rifle just to plink with at the range. Recommendations?

You have a .22 pistol and shotguns, you are interested in buying a rifle to plink and target shoot with. My suggestion for that would be a bolt action rimfire rifle, scoped for greater accuracy (but really I enjoy open sights again now that my cataracts have been removed). Savage, Bergara, CZ, Anshutz, Browning, Tikka, and others offer nice rimfire bolt rifles.

The type of shooting you describe is what I mostly do and while I have a number of .22 rifles and a couple AR's, the 3 I use most are:
1) CZ 457 American with a Leupold 3-9 scope.
2) CZ 452 Ultra Lux, open sights. (The current version is the 457 Jaguar)
3) CZ 452 Full Stock, open sight. This is my go to if I'll be carrying it much.

As you see I happen to be partial to CZ but I also have older Remington, Weatherby, Anschutz, as well as other CZ's. CZ's better target .22 is the 457 Varmint MTR which I don't have.

Good luck with your decision!

When I think of plinking, I think fun, informal and cheap. That and .22LR are made for each other. What kind of .22 do you have now? (You could just use that, but that's no fun; we would be poor "enablers" if we didn't tell you to go buy a new gun.) What is your budget?

I have personal experience with CZ (452 "Training Rifle," a bolt-action); M&P15-22 (AR-style semi-auto); Browning Auto-22 for its unusual design and appearance; and the Ruger 10-22, all great rifles. The Browning BL-22 lever action was mentioned. I have always fancied one but never got - and will likely not get - around to it. Unlike other lever actions (but like its centerfire counterpart), the trigger group moves with the lever, no chance of pinching your fingers. I have no idea of the quality, but there is a .22 lookalike of the HK 416 (labeled as HK but made by Umarex). One that would really turn heads at the range is the .22 lookalike of the Sturmgewehr 44, but I haven't seen one for years.

Tikkas are a joy to handle and shoot. For plinking I’d recommend a T1X in 17 HMR, 22 if you must.

Some thoughts about “getting into” rifles, or any firearm.

No one has any business telling someone else how to have fun of any sort.
If all we want to do is reliably hit soda cans at 50 feet, then any bulk ammunition and previously-owned Ruger 10/22 we find at a local pawn shop will scratch that itch. The same is true of shooting an AR to get the enjoyment of a more powerful gun that will allow hitting something like an IPSC-sized target at 200 yards.

For me, though, I get the most satisfaction and therefore enjoyment out of shooting if there is a challenge involved that allows me to not only develop a skill, but to also permits me to measure that development.
That’s why I’ve spent so much time following and commenting on the journey thumperfbc is documenting in this thread: https://sigforum.com/eve/forum...0601935/m/6610012905

He is making a similar effort to develop his rifle shooting skills, and is doing it with a decent rifle, ammunition, and shooting method that permits an objective way of seeing how that development is progressing. Is it necessary to do something like that to have “fun”? Of course not, but it’s the sort of thing I enjoy and the challenges and satisfaction it provides me don’t fade as they do after I’ve mastered being able to hit a soda can with most shots at 25 yards.

A few days ago a friend and I fired a series of drills using 1 inch targets at 50 yards and 223 Remington rifles. We shot from the standing position with our guns supported by bags on top of tripods, something he had had no previous experience doing, but it was a skill he was interested in developing. A 1 inch target at 50 yards measures about 2 minutes of angle and therefore doesn’t require exceptionally accurate shooting—except when we’re trying to control the wobble with only one standing support.
When it was over he remarked about how much fun it had been, and we were both able to take some satisfaction in how not-horribly we had done.

Shooting similar drills with different targets (usually smaller) and from different shooting positions is something I frequently do with 22 Long Rifle ammunition. Even with mid-level ammo I can shoot 50 to 100 rounds in a session without wondering if I’m going to have to eat Ramen for a week, and without feeling like I’d just gotten out of a boxing ring.

The 22LR ammo I normally shoot costs me about $10 for a box of 50 with tax and shipping. The lowest-price 5.56 stuff I see at my favorite vendor is now $0.40+ per round (before tax and shipping); a 30-round mag dump that some people find fun would cost a minimum of $12. That difference isn’t too much, but I get far more skill development value, and enjoyment, from a two shot each, 25-target dot drill in the hour or so it takes me to shoot it.

What’s more, many of us believe that shooting 22LR rifles accurately is more difficult in some ways than becoming proficient with centerfire guns. That helps condition us to concentrating on doing everything right, and that definitely carries over to shooting more powerful guns.

So, if someone is attracted to the idea of all that, what do they need?

The obvious answer is a rifle and ammunition. Depending upon the level of accuracy we want that can indeed be the pawn shop 10/22 (or others) and bulk ammunition. For anyone who wants to develop the shooting skills I’m referring to above, though, just like only shooting at soda cans from 50 feet, it will soon become unsatisfactory because we’ll quickly get to the point of wondering whether a bad shot was our fault or that of the ammo/gun.

Before going further, though, I’ll also point out that even with top tier guns and very good ammunition, 22 Long Rifle ammo is not, and probably cannot be, as consistent and precise as top tier centerfire loads. I have watched countless videos of precision 22LR shooters with $3K+ plus level rifles and otherwise excellent ammunition. Time and again I’ve seen 0.25 inch groups at 50 yards suddenly open up with a flyer that has everyone going, “Where the eff did that come from‽” That sort of inexplicable inconsistency is just a fact of 22LR shooting life.

None of that means, though, that we can’t expect better results with better guns and ammo. I recommend watching videos about precision 22 Long Rifle shooting. Having done that for years, I agree with ridewv and his comments about CZ rifles. The Tikkas mentioned also have a good reputation. Another option is to get a basic Ruger 10/22 and then upgrade the barrel and trigger, which is easy to do. Scope sights can be hideously expensive, but for the type of shooting I’ve been referring to, anything that allows us to see the target clearly and zero at 50 yards will be sufficient.

In any case, let us know what you decide, and definitely get into shooting rifles one way or another.

Any CZ .22 bolt gun, a 10/22 from mild to wild, I have a CZ 527 in 7.62X39 that is a tack driver. Still looking for Lupua match ammo for that. Have a Savage bolt gun in .223 which way more accurate then I am. Lots of fun.