rifle question

patakadarragh

lads i will be soon turning sixteen and applying for a shotgun and/or rifle licence(so excited:D) anyway my question is what does all the letters after the callibre of rifles mean e.g .22lr etc.Dont want to walk into the gunshop not knowing what i want:o

thanks sorry if i sound stupid

Sparks

There's no really consistent scheme to the names Pat. 22lr means .22 long rifle, for example. If you think of a calibre as being a name, rather than a code or a number, it helps a lot.

clivej

patakadarragh wrote: »

lads i will be soon turning sixteen and applying for a shotgun and/or rifle licence(so excited:D) anyway my question is what does all the letters after the callibre of rifles mean e.g .22lr etc.Dont want to walk into the gunshop not knowing what i want:o

thanks sorry if i sound stupid

Best to put the calibre into Google and do a search.
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia will have all your answers.

22lr from Wikipedia, will give you this text along with some photo's.........

The .22 Long Rifle rimfire cartridge is a long established variety of ammunition, and in terms of units sold is still by far the most common in the world today. The cartridge is often referred to simply as .22 LR and various rifles, pistols, revolvers, and even some smoothbore shotguns have been manufactured in this caliber. It is occasionally referred to by its metric designation of 5.6x15mmR. The cartridge originated from the Flobert BB Cap of 1845 through the .22 Smith & Wesson cartridge of 1857, and was developed by the J. Stevens Arms & Tool Company in 1887[3] by combining the casing of the .22 Long with the 40 grain bullet of the .22 Extra Long. For many decades, it has been a very popular cartridge around the world. It is one of the few cartridges that are accepted by a large variety of rifles, as well as pistols. Virtually every manufacturer of cartridge firearms makes at least one model chambering it, and this has been true for more than a century. The .22 Long Rifle and related cartridges (.22 Short, .22 Long and .22 Extra Long) use a heeled bullet, which means that the bullet is the same diameter as the case, and has a narrower "heel" portion that fits in the case.

dCorbus

hey pat - no such thing as a stupid question!

There's relatively few letters you will need to know AFAIK.

It's the calibre of the rifle vis-a-vis what you want to shoot which is the most important - Loads of advice on here for that and the lads/ladies of boards will be more than willing and able to point you in the right direction for which rifle may be best suited to which particular purpose.

Back to your "letters" question, some common ones are:

Rem (Meaning "Remington")
W or Win (Meaning "Winchester")
WSM (Meaning "Winchester Short Magnum")
WMR (Meaning "Winchester Magnum Rimfire")
HMR (Meaning "Hornady Magnum Rimfire")
LR (Meaning "Long Rifle" - already mentioned by sparks)
Win Mag (Meaning "Winchester Magnum")
LM or LapMag (Meaning "Lapua Magnum")
BMG (Meaning "Browning Machine Gun" - you're not going to need this in any Gun Shop around these parts!;))

I'm sure there are many many more, but these are the few common ones that first spring to my mind. AFAIK (and I will welcome any correction on this by those far more in the know than myself), these all refer to the original manufacturer of the ammunition in question or the original firearms manufacturer relating to a specific round / calibre.

There's more information here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rifle_cartridges

And I'm sure other posters will have loads more info for you, but hope this is a start to help you along.

(Ooops, posted mine before reading clivej's - please excuse any repetition!)

I agree with clivej on this - a 22lr is probably your best bet for a starter rifle - great to learn on and will do you forever!

Feidhlim Dignan

if its your first rifle get a .22lr. cheap to buy and shoot and youll learn a lot more with one than a centerfire

clivej

Is this a record all 3 replies with the same timestamp.

Photo from dCorbus's link



From left to right: 1 .17 HM2, 2 .17 HMR, 3 .22LR, 4 .22 WMR, 5 .17/23 SMc, 6 5mm/35 SMc, 7 .22 Hornet, 8 .223 Remington, 9 .223 WSSM, 10 .243 Winchester, 11 .243 Winchester Improved (Ackley), 12 .25-06 Remington, 13 .270 Winchester, 14 .308, 15 .30-06, 16 .45-70, 17 .50-90 Sharps

dCorbus

lads, I don't know if I could summarise our advice so far.....;)

However, the upshot is, pat, that you will probably not need to know anymore about the letters than the couple of more common ones, if even.

Any good firearms dealer should be able to advise you and set you straight - if they're trying to bamboozle / confuse you with technical s***e and abbreviations etc when you've explained it's your first firearms purchase.....Leave the shop!:D You'll only be sold some yoke you don't want!:rolleyes:

If you're unsure about it, and you at all can, bring along an experienced shooter to check out what you're being sold in the shop and to make sure you're not given a pig-in-a-poke.

There's a number of good and helpful dealers listed here somewhere on a previous thread, which I will now try to find.:D

(Edit: Here you go: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055831037)

vixdname

Best of luck to you in your new sport - shoot safely and enjoy everything this sport has to offer !!! The lads here have told you all you need to know to get started and if you listen to them you wont go too far wrong.

Cass

Some good advice given by the lads so far but to elaborate on a point dCorbus picked up on..........

dCorbus wrote: »

...... if they're trying to bamboozle / confuse you with technical s***e and abbreviations etc when you've explained it's your first firearms purchase.....Leave the shop!.......

............, bring along an experienced shooter to check out what you're being sold in the shop ........

Do not allow anyone to try to push you into a sale. The market is awash with second hand and new firearms and its a buyers market. Even if a dealer says its the last gun he has and cannot get another ever, walk away, think about it and ask questions to experienced lads you know or the lads here. Then and only then return (or not) and make a decision.

Realistically you could have a .22 rifle (new) and 12 gauge shotgun (new) for around €1200 -€1400. Alot of money by anyone's standards but do not ignore the second hand market. Some real gems to be got at great value.

Anyway best of luck and happy hunting (excuse the pun).

patakadarragh

Thanks for taking the time to advise me lads its not for another few months till my birthday but as ye probably have experienced i just cant wait to get my own gun and go out my dad and the locals.

Ive plenty of time to shop around (and that has got to be a good thing)and from what i have seen so far my fav rifle is a cz .22lr(long rifle haha got it now:D)rimfire any views on this as a starter gun.

Cass

The CZ .22lr is one of if not the best rimfire for your money. They are cheap, reliable, accurate and simple to use. Expect to pay €400 for a new one and €250 - €300 for a reasonable scope and €80 for rings. Ammo comes in at around €5 per box of 50 so there is no end to the limit on shooting.

I used my father's when i was younger and then had one bought for my birthday. 16-17 years ago. Only parted with it recently. Still shot aswell the day i passed it on as when i bought it. You won't go wrong.

patakadarragh

thats good to hear as my grandfather has a cz.22lr and he says when i turn 16 he will give it to me!!!!!!:D:Dits not as if its an old rust bucket either he bought new a few years ago(i will see wat condition it is in later if its poor ill have to break the bank and buy a new gun)

but only thing is when im applying for a licence is there a box to tick or whatever where i can say that im getting it as a gift and is there any special procedure that i need to do in this circumstance? thanks lads

Cass

Under section 3.3 of the FCA1 ( Firearms Certificate Application) you must state where you got the firearm. Normally people use the dealers pulse number, but if buying privately you put down the person's license number. In your case you would put down your Grandfather's license number and on a seperate sheet of paper you would give a brief discription of how you are inheriting the firearm from your grandfather.

If he is giving it to you then he must cancel his license but if you intend to license the rifle along with him you can also do this by filling in section 4.1 and putting you grandfathers license number in here.

There is alot more, but don't worry about the FCA1 yet. You have plenty of time before you need to fill it in.

Here is a copy of one filled in to give you an idea about them.

ivanthehunter

yes..
The 22lr is really a rabbit gun and its best trait is its ability to operate without much noise with the help of a silencer and subsonic ammo (ie ammo with speeds of 900fps-1100fps there or thereabouts).. But remember that these bullets bounce all over the place- especially the round nose type.. A good subsonic hunting round has a good hollow point on it. This helps to aid with expansion and can reduce the risk of the dreaded richiot... wizz-uuuuu

The 22lr rifles can be used with Standard velocity, high velocity and hyper velocity ammo but it will not produce match winning target scores with these ammo types.

No matter how much these ammo types suffer with degraded accuracy they do have a constant grouping that is small enough to fit over any lethal target area on your prey!! and yep they're harder hitting..;).

These higher speed ammo types also offer a flatter shooting bullet which means you'll have to worry less about trajectory (bullet drop) and simply aim for the largest target area..

The 22lr will only ever produce super tight 'competition winning groups' with subsonic ammo which is fired out of bolt action rifles..

The Semi auto rifle models are generally prone to inconsistent chambering of the rounds and therefore this leeds to inconsistent result.

I recently read about a S/A (semi auto) called the Walter GSP and the man writing the review claimed it was the best accuracy that he had ever seen from a S/A..

If you out rabbit shooting the instant second shot is great. Pick off rabbits close to ditch lines first and then plug lads running in for cover while their traversing open ground.
Never chase running targets with a high magnification scope if there is an chance of shooting something that your not meant to be shooting- such a cattle and sheep!!
It can happen all to sudden!!:(

patakadarragh

Thanks lads ye have been really helpful

I have been thinking about it since and if i can raise enough money selling pheasants i might as well go ahead and buy a brand new shiny rifle just in case because my grandfathers gun may well have been locked up in his safe since the day he got it and not been cleaned since then either rather safe than sorry dont want to end up trading in me grandads rifle in three years rather get a new one that will last twenty years. ha im really getting ahead of myself now.

anyway when i do make a purchase i will take your advice on board and not let anyone push me into a purchase or accepting one as a gift.