Beginner Rimfire advice

Hivemind187

Hi all,

Having had the great pleasure of popping .22lr at paper targets on a couple of occassions I've been considering taking it up as a regular hobby.

I'd like to buy my own rifle to do so and I have been browsing the various websites looking for something that would suit me. I dont know that much (since I'm somewhat outside of my usual field of expertise here) but I have been eyeing up a few CZ 452's (specifically the American, Lux and Varmint models) and the Savage Mark II FV.

I'd appreciate any advice on the rifles (I do plan to give as many of them a try as I can before committing to a purchase and applying for a license etc) with regard to accuracy, ease of use, durability etc.

Thanks in advance.

(mods: not sure if this is in the right place, please feel free to move it if its not)

Meyer

CZ's are good but there more of an entry level rifle for target shooting. It all depends on your budget, ANSCHÜTZare good target rifles and are used by many, but they are big €€€ but you get what you pay for. When I was shooting .22 in bench I opted for one of these,SAKO not too expensive at 750, but I found it far superior to any CZ I had ever used previously.

Sparks

Gonna move it over to Target Shooting.

Hive, if you're interested in taking it up, my first suggestion would be don't buy a rifle, join a club and use their club rifles until you have a better idea of what you want. Mind you, the first time you shoot an Anschutz match rifle, you're spoilt for life (or until you shoot a Bleiker), but maybe that's a good thing!

If you really want your own and don't want to splurge that much, well, there are alternatives. Second hand deals is the first thing to look for. There isn't really a central clearing house for those in Ireland unfortunately; you've got places like irishguntrader.ie and our own buy&sell forum, and most gun dealers will have second-hand deals going but there's no one single spot where everything's listed, so you have to ring round and check.

The other thing to keep in mind is what you want to do with it. ISSF shooting? Silhouette? Sporter rifle? Benchrest? What have you been shooting up until now?

There are some alternatives you could use as entry-level stuff (BSA's for example), but knowing what you want to do is kindof a prerequisite to choosing them.

rrpc

Prone & 3P Rifle (ISSF) and Benchrest tend to use the same rifles. Obviously they're kitted out differently, but the basic rifle and stock are mostly the same.

For silhouette and sporting rifle, again the basic rifles are the same, but for most target shooting you need a rifle with a very good trigger. The base CZ models come with a very heavy trigger which will be a severe disadvantage in competition.

As Sparks said, you need to talk to people who do the type of target shooting you're interested in, have a look at the kit they use and base your decision on that.

You can look up results for competitions on the net (some of them here) and this'll give you an idea of the kind of standard you're looking to achieve. The top score for last Sunday's match in Rathdrum was 588: That means shooting 48 10's out of 60. The benchrest guys don't really count 10's, but look at inner tens to decide the winner.

That's target shooting

Hivemind187

Cheers lads,

I'm not what you would call the ultra-competitive type. I'm really in it for the sheer pleasure of making the next shot better than the last so competition shooting is something for the distant future.

I was shooting benchrest the couple of times I was up, I think the rifles were Anschutz just without a lot of the exposed aluminium doo-hickeys. Lovely rifles to shoot (single fire).

I've got a budget about about €400-500 for the rifle and I'm scraping together the cost of club membership over the next while. I'd like something of an all-arounder, I'm most like to be shooting bench or prone but I'd like to be able to shoot standing too.

rrpc

Hivemind187 wrote: »

Cheers lads,

I'm not what you would call the ultra-competitive type. I'm really in it for the sheer pleasure of making the next shot better than the last so competition shooting is something for the distant future.

I was shooting benchrest the couple of times I was up, I think the rifles were Anschutz just without a lot of the exposed aluminium doo-hickeys. Lovely rifles to shoot (single fire).

I've got a budget about about €400-500 for the rifle and I'm scraping together the cost of club membership over the next while. I'd like something of an all-arounder, I'm most like to be shooting bench or prone but I'd like to be able to shoot standing too.

In that case my advice is to try and get yourself an Anschütz target rifle second hand. There are a few around (though the benchrest guys have been snapping them up ) which you could get for around the money you're talking about.

However, as Sparks said; joining a club would be the best first option. Most clubs will have a couple of club rifles that you can use until you get your own and more importantly will put you in touch with people who might have something for sale.

Hivemind187

Cheers rrpc.

Sparks

Hivemind where are you in the country, roughly?

Hivemind187

Sparks wrote: »

Hivemind where are you in the country, roughly?

Just around the corner from you in Heathervue

rrpc

Hivemind187 wrote: »

Just around the corner from you in Heathervue

Rathdrum or Hilltop would be closest to you so. Unless you're a TCD student in which case you can shoot .22 prone there.

If you don't have your own transport, the train will get you to Rathdrum from Greystones.

Hivemind187

rrpc wrote: »

Rathdrum or Hilltop would be closest to you so. Unless you're a TCD student in which case you can shoot .22 prone there.

If you don't have your own transport, the train will get you to Rathdrum from Greystones.

I've been up to Hilltop a couple of times, absolutely loved the place. I havent tried Rathdrum (to be honest I didnt know there was one there) but I might give it a look.

rrpc

Hivemind187 wrote: »

I've been up to Hilltop a couple of times, absolutely loved the place. I havent tried Rathdrum (to be honest I didnt know there was one there) but I might give it a look.

Oh.. My.. God..

here: www.rathdrumrpc.org

Sparks

Hivemind187 wrote: »

Just around the corner from you in Heathervue

Round the corner, onto the DART and into the city these days
But you are right next door to one of the senior RRPC members, and if you're just starting off, RRPC is where I'd send you from Greystones, it's only down the road, the facilities for shooting are great (but dress warm, they seem to have accidentally built the heating system inside out so it heats the town instead of the inside of the range ) and they have club rifles you could use.

Hivemind187

Sparks wrote: »

Round the corner, onto the DART and into the city these days
But you are right next door to one of the senior RRPC members, and if you're just starting off, RRPC is where I'd send you from Greystones, it's only down the road, the facilities for shooting are great (but dress warm, they seem to have accidentally built the heating system inside out so it heats the town instead of the inside of the range ) and they have club rifles you could use.

Cheers man.