Chapter One - Why the 22?

Chapter One - Why the 22?

When I first came up with the concept of this book one of my friends asked me, “Why the 22 Jack, why not just rifles in general that would be a much broader market?” My response was simple, “the 22 is the single most versatile and underrated rifle in the world”. I have always referred to firearms as “the great equalizer”. If you think about it, before the days of modern firearms a man with a sword was only as strong as his technique, ability and his physical strength. If you take a 115 pound weakling and put him in a battle with a 200 pound athlete and give both a sword the outcome would be pretty easy to predict. Likewise, little would be changed if you take away the swords and give men a club, a sharp stick or leave them only with their fists. Yet take a 115-pound weakling who can shoot accurately and give him a gun and his odds are instantly equalized in a combat situation.

It is this equalization that inspired America’s founders to establish the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. They knew intrinsically that whether in the hands of militiamen defending their nation, a rancher defending his property or a woman defending her body that “arms” were the tool that equalized the status quo and empowered a nation built upon liberty. Yet this book is about becoming a sporting rifleman with the 22, not tactical use of arms, so why is this point made in the very beginning of the book?

Simply put to make the next statement clear, in a world where rifles are available it is the 22 that equalizes rifle ownership. I feel blessed to live in a land where a citizen doesn’t just have the right to own a gun but that right to do so is seen as inherent and protected. I feel even more blessed to have choices as to what manufacturer, caliber or style of weapon to purchase when I want a new gun. Yet let’s be honest, having total firearms freedom doesn’t matter much if you can’t afford a weapon, the ammunition and enough freedom to train to use it adequately.

For many new shooters becoming proficient is difficult due to the cost of the weapon and often more critically the ammunition. Then we have to add in the expense or challenge of finding an acceptable place to practice. When we move on to becoming skilled as a rifle hunter the barriers are even greater. A successful deer hunter may be lucky to fire 20 rounds at whitetails in 10 years. Shooting paper and reactive targets is useful training but nothing really compares with the actual pursuit of game in the field.

To reach your full potential as a rifleman there are a variety of things you need to do. Many of them can be done in your own home without using ammunition. In this book I will give you drills to learn alignment, form, trigger control and more, all of which can be done in your living room. Yet those are like teaching an athlete to have proper form with a baseball bat or a golf club. Sure you can learn a lot by practicing form and movement. Yet to become truly proficient we must add a moving ball and eventually we must add an opponent. To master your rifle as a hunting tool you need to shoot it both in practice with live ammunition (adding a moving ball) and in the pursuit of game (adding an opponent).

Consider that spending years on a driving range or in a batting cage will never turn you into good golfer or a great baseball player. To become truly proficient one must play the entire game, gain experience and eventually that adds up to mastery. I ask you simply, how is the average American who works 40-60 hours a week going to gain sufficient experience with a 30-06 to become a master of his craft in today’s busy world. Yet no matter where you live an abundance of small game, varmints and areas where you can safely and legally discharge the diminutive 22 will be no more then a few hours drive away.

This book is the sum total of a lifetime of rifle craft. There are things within it I learned as an Expert Rifleman in the U.S. Army, some I learned from competitive shooters and much of it from two Grandfathers, an Uncle, a Great Uncle and my Father. Yet it all really hinges on a lifetime of plinking, varmint shooting and small game hunting with the 22. In my teens I spent countless hours traveling the old strip mines, forests and fields around rural Pennsylvania. Mow a few lawns and I could buy brick of 22s, take out some trash and shovel some snow, another brick. When I got my first real job that paid $3.35 an hour I had an endless supply of ammunition!

During my youth the rifle I carried most often was the same one you will see in many of the photos in this book. A simple Marlin Model 25, which sold for under $70 when it was given to me at the age of 13. Now at the age of 38 the little gun has fired 10s of thousands of rounds and still will knock out dime sized groups. You have to think about that, this weapon now has a quarter of a century of history behind it, allowed a poor boy from the coal region to shoot almost every day by doing odd jobs and is still to this day a lethal tool in the right hands. I submit to you simply that no other weapon could have served a man so well, for so long, in so many ways with so small of an investment.

A 223 long ago would have needed a new barrel (several times over), not to mention at 13 I couldn’t have afforded the weapon or the ammunition. Of course we should consider that I often hunted varmints and plinked at targets with my 22 in areas where a 223 blast would have gotten me at minimum a harsh visit from the local township cop. When we had a problem with rats in our cellar one summer a few rounds of “dustshot” did the trick and likewise when ground hogs invaded our garden the solid thump of a CCI stinger took care of things with out disturbing the neighbors. In short, as a young boy I was given tasks from providing meat in the form or squirrels and rabbits to defending our property from pests and I was expected to be proficient at it. There was only one weapon that could have filled the bill. Even today I believe emphatically that I owe the majority of my ability with all firearms to the many years spent with that old Marlin.

When I decided to author this book my goal was far more then writing just any old book or creating another product for my websites. My goal was really to help more people fall in love with the craft of being a rifleman. To have pride in not just the ownership of but in the proficiency with a firearm beyond punching holes in paper. Shooting good groups is one thing, the ability to silently stalk game, estimate range, compensate for bullet drop and feed oneself with a rifle in entirely different. The ability to shoot targets makes one a marksmen, the ability to fully utilize the potential of a rifle is what transforms you into a true rifleman. That indeed is why I choose the 22 for this project, I don’t want to make you a better marksmen, I want to help you on your quest to become a master rifleman.

Chapter Two - Choosing a 22 Rifle

Before we move into setting up your rifle, training drills and more we need to first choose a rifle for the journey. Let me say right from the start if you currently own any decent 22-rifle, it will be good enough and buying a new gun is not going to be necessary. Yet if I were to omit this chapter the book would be incomplete. More to the point many of the subjects I will discuss in later chapters would not be as clear as they will be after a thorough discussion of rifle choices, options and actions.

Factor One - Utility

Before we discuss actions and manufacturers we need to first accept one very important fact.

A rifle is a tool, it has a job to do; it is not something to fear scratching, dinging up or getting covered with rain and snow. Your rifle is not an eggshell, it won’t break if you use it in harsh conditions and if you don’t use it as intended it really serves no purpose.

Hence to me it makes little sense to purchase a very high-end rifle if you are in need of a utilitarian tool. To be clear, if you were buying a hammer you would want a good tool that can hammer nails, not something with diamonds in the handle and gold plating that you would fear using for its’ intended purpose. So my first piece of advice is, buy a solid tool that is affordably priced. As my old gun clearly demonstrates a solid value doesn’t necessarily mean a fancy stock, a designer name and high price tag.

In fact, one of the really beautiful things about the 22 is that for all intents and purposes it has a limited maximum range for hunting of about 100 yards. It also operates at very modest pressures and velocities. These factors add up along with modern manufacturing to a simple and often ignored fact. That is, very few if any modern 22 rifles exhibit anything less then stellar accuracy. Just about every 22 I have put my hands on will drill out a quarter at 25 yards if the shooter is up to the task. Sure a custom target model may give an Olympian an edge in competition but if you miss a squirrel at 50 yards today with just about any modern 22 rifle, you can bet the rifle isn’t the point of failure, the shooter is. To sum it up shop for utility and durability above brand name and good looks when selecting your next 22 rifle.

Factor Two – Versatility

Note, thus far I have stated over and over, “the 22” rather than “the 22 long rifle”. I have done so because if you buy the right weapon you are actually getting three guns in one. Take a look at most 22s (other then semi autos) and you will see the following or something very similar on the barrel, “Cal 22 S, L & LR” (which is 22 short, 22 long and 22 long rifle respectively). I believe in today’s world of “bigger and faster is better” many have lost the understanding of how useful this flexibility with ammunition is. There are simply times when even the soft report of conventional 22 ammunition is too loud for the environment or the potential reach of the 22 long rifle is a hazard. In such instances the ability to utilize shorts is very advantageous.

Yet there are even more choices then this with the right rifle. I mentioned something called dust shot earlier. For those not familiar with dustshot it is a generic term for a small 22 shot shell, like a miniature shotgun shell. I have heard many people refer to dustshot as useless; a statement that I often find is made in ignorance. I have found 22 dustshot lethal on rats and mice out to a range of roughly 7 yards, just about perfect for taking care of them in the confines of a cellar, with safety glasses and earplugs of course. As a kid I often shot grasshoppers on the wing with dust shot, it was great fun and excellent training. If one is inclined to shoot snakes, (I am not by the way), than 22 shot shells are perfect for the job. I have also used them to solve problems with an abundance of English Sparrows that were raiding grain storage in a barn.

The reason I bring up shorts and shot shells is they will seldom if ever function reliably in a semi automatic. For this reason, I tend to recommend a bolt action as a primary 22 rifle because it will reliability function with each of these types of ammunition and several others we will discuss later.

Factor Three – Action

Before I go through the primary action choices I need to be clear that I am not in anyway bashing semi automatics. I in fact, dearly love both our Marlin Model 60 and our Ruger 10/22. My goal in this section is simply to explain the advantages and disadvantages or each main action and further to explain how some “advantages” are not all they are propped up to be. You will also note that I only discuss the advantages of each action. The reason is simply because in discussing the advantages of each the disadvantages of the others become apparent. Rehashing them for each action would therefore be redundant and only serve to pad the pages of this book.

The Bolt Action – If you didn’t own a 22 and wanted my advice on which action to consider first, my answer would take little thought. I wouldn’t pause for a second in saying that a bolt action is the way to go. Keep in mind that I am saying this in the context of becoming a master rifleman and a skilled hunter. If you want to have a blast at the rifle range just plinking your brains out there is no doubt that a semi auto is a hell of a lot more fun.

Bolt Action Advantages

Reduced Rate of Fire – A reduced rate of fire really is an advantage in some contexts. First, in practicing you will be far less likely to mislead yourself. I have watched many people shooting semi autos nail targets with follow ups and feel very good about it. Yet they missed the first shot, unlike targets rabbits and squirrels do not stick around after you miss. Additionally a reduced rate of fire will result in more careful practice and less rounds fired; hence it will save you money.
Great Reliability – Ask any engineer the easiest way to reduce malfunctions in any machine and most will include “less moving parts” at the top of the list. Devoid of any complex mechanisms and based on a simple action that is almost 150 years old, bolt guns seldom jam, fail to feed or fail to eject. When they do corrective action is generally simple to perform with no tools required.
Inherent Accuracy – I don’t want to over state the accuracy argument for the bolt action with the 22 rifle because most semi, lever and pump actions are more then accurate enough for small game hunting and general plinking. That said bolt actions are known across the board as the most accurate action in general when all other factors are equal.
Maximum Flexibility – While many pump and lever actions will easily fire 22-shorts they are not exactly easy to swap out a round on the fly with. Take a bolt action and drop the magazine, quietly open the bolt and slide in a short and you can quietly take out that close target. Or carry a second magazine loaded with second type of ammunition, swapping rounds then is fast, easy and very quiet done properly.
Cost – In general, when you look at rifles in the same level of class, bolt actions will be the least expensive option. While semi autos are also very affordable they lack the flexibility, accuracy and reliability of a bolt action and pumps and lever actions are in general far more expensive to purchase.
Availability – Unlike lever and pump actions almost every company that offers a 22 rifle of any kind offers a bolt-action version. This gives you a massive variety to choose from and varying levels of cost, look, feel, etc. Contrast this to the handful of selections for the lever and pump action and consider that a few of those are not suitable for mounting a scope.
Scope Compatible – I don’t know of a single bolt action 22 currently being made that is not easily scoped.
Ease of Maintenance – Cleaning a bolt action 22 is as easy as it gets. Yank the bolt out and you can easily swab or brush the barrel, with so few moving parts getting out gunk and residue is simplistic. Because it is easy to clean you will do it more often and due to the actions simplicity it will be more forgiving if you neglect your regular maintenance for a period of time.

The Lever Action – The lever action is in and of itself a true American classic. Nothing is more of an American original then the good old “saddle gun” made so famous in many of the old cowboy films. They feel good in the hand, are well made and certainly are worth consideration.

Lever Action Advantages

Moderate Rate of Fire – This is something I really like about lever guns as it allows some of the fun factor associated with semi automatics but yet it is slow enough to keep you from burning up boxes of ammunition in under a minute.
Reliable – I have always found well made lever actions reliable in all walks of life. The occasional feed failure is almost always easy to remedy and the action itself is old enough that lever guns saw service in the Civil War.
Class – This is more of an intangible but to me lever actions just have class. I personally cannot pick up any lever gun with out working the action, shouldering it, etc.
Flexibility – While at times you might experience a feeding issue with 22-shorts or swapping out a round on the fly may not be as easy as doing so with most bolt actions you can use just about all 22 short and long rifle ammunition in lever actions.
Fun Factor – You can’t help but feel a little bit of the John Wayne spirit in you when you shoot a lever gun. They are a joy to shoot and a lot of fun.
Scope Compatible – Most modern lever action 22s are easily scoped today. This was not always the case and when buying used guns should always be considered.

The Pump Action – I personally have an affinity for all pump action firearms. My first deer rifle was a Remington 760 in 30-06; I learned the craft of the shotgun like many Americans with several versions of both the Remington 870 and Winchester Model 12. Yet I fired very few 22 pumps in my youth simply because at the time there was only one manufacturer (Remington) currently still making them. Today Remington, Henry and Rossi all make very nice 22 pump rifles.