lionelfan

One reason to consider .22 over .177 is that the pellets are easier to pick-up, handle & load, especially if you are considering a single shot air rifle. Pyramid Air is an excellent online resource for investigation/purchase of your air rifle. After much research I purchased a PCP (Pre-Charged Pneumatic) rifle that uses a 10 round magazine in addition to single shot. PCP air rifles have a cylinder that holds compressed air (or CO2 if they use cartridges) and can fire multiple rounds on a single charge. They will be more expensive than pump type air guns. If you want to have maximum fun plinking, I recommend you check-out PCP air rifles. More shooting, less work pumping and with a magazine, less time loading.

I also have several boxes of the thunder'crap's. If you just want to plink for the fun of pulling the trigger, hearing the "pop" and hitting "large" targets, I can recommend either the S&W M&P 22 or the Colt 1911-22. Both of these semi-autos are made by Walther and share similar internal designs. Magazines hold 10 or 12 rounds and I have had no FTFs or FTEs with either gun using the thunder'crap's. Both semi-autos are easy to field strip & clean, which you will need to do because the thunder'crap's leave lots of residue. The M&P has ambi controls, which appeals to me because I'm a lefty. The Colt 1911-22 is all metal and has the same size and feel as a standard 1911. Both can be purchased for under $400. The fun factor is high as well as the value proposition.

As I mentioned, despite the difficulties, it's still an enjoyable gun to shoot if you like to shoot 1911s. I looked at the Sig/GSG version of the 1911-22 and much preferred the Colt because of its greater similarity to the 1911, especially for field stripping. Mine is an early version, so it's possible that Colt/Walther may have made revisions. I did complain to Umarex at the time and even sent the gun back to them to see if they could do anything to make the rear sight blade more rigid. No luck. I have not tried to find an alternate spring for the sight - jus stretched it a little bit which increased the tension and helped somewhat. Depending on the ammo I am using, I adjust the rear sight for more accurate groupings, so usng epoxy is not an option for me. As for accuracy, keep in mind that there is also a fair amount of play between the slide and the frame. This gun doesn't have the manufacturing tolerences to consistently shoot tight groups. I'm not a marksman, but shooting off a wrist rest pad at 15 yards I can consistently hit within a 3" dot target. It's good enough to have fun with a shooting gallery that has 2.5" disks.

I have the Gold Cup version. Purchased it when it first came out. It's a fun gun to shoot and it mimics the full size 1911 right down to many of its internal parts, but don't expect much in the way of accuracy (see below). I have shot mostly CCI mini-mags with nary a failure to load, fire, extract or eject. I have replaced the rubber grip with a set of wood grips wih brass colt logos because I prefer wood grips - they fit perfectly There's a good reason why they give you the wraparound plastic grips like the 45ACP Colt Gold Cup. The black finish on the frame wears off exposing the underlying alloy metal at the edges, the trigger and exposed parts of the grip. Didn't like the trigger pull - it measured 6 lbs. When I contacted Umerex (they were the initial importer - now taken back by Colt), they indicated they could/would not do a trigger job to reduce the trigger weight. Since it uses the same sear, trigger & hammer springs as a full size 1911, I ordered a set of lighter springs from Brownell and am now enjoing a 4 lb trigger pull! I especially like that it field strips easily, similar to a 45ACP 1911, and that the slide locks back on the last round. My one issue with the gun is the rear sight. It doesn't hold a set well because the blade is wobbly. This significantly affects accuracy. You can see the wobble in this short You Tube video, ( ). I had to remove the windage spring and stretch it to increase the tension to keep the windage agjustment tight. I'd love to replace the rear sight, but I have yet to find one that fits without modification to the slide. I tried replacing the front sight with a fiber optic one (http://www.dawsonprecision.com/CategoryProductList.jsp?cat=SIGHTS+FRONT) made for the gun but ran into a problem, again with the rear sight. Couldn't lower the rear sight sufficiently to align the hit & aim points (hit point too high) with the Dawson sight. Another issue that I discovered after several hundred rounds through the gun is the barrel sleeve nut can loosen because of vibration. Be sure to check that the barrel nut is tight with the provided wrench. In spite of these difficulties, I still enjoy shooting the gun for general plinking at 15 yards with a resettable shooting gallery. If you want repeatable acuracy and consistent groupings you should consider a better quaity handgun - perhaps a conversion slide. I did purchase (rather expensive) a Bob Marvel 1911 Knighthawk 22LR 1911 on Gunbroker several months ago that is my go to pistol for accuracy shooting. It features a barrel that is integrated with the slide similar to the S& W Model 41. The Knighthawk shoots almost as accurately as my Model 41. As an FYI, the 1911 22LR Colt Gold Cup shares a lot of its design elements with the S&W M&P22, which is also made by Walther. I have the M&P22, as well, and I enjoy shooting that almost as much as the Colt Gold Cup.

I also have Butler Creek unit, but abandoned its use for a couple of reasons, 1) it would dent each casing as it loaded the cartridge, especially if the a jamming occured and 2) the loading was not reliable - one had to reverse turn the knob periodically to reset the unit and try to continue loading. Invariably one had to remove the errant cartridge to continue. In the end, it was more trouble than it was worth and I gave up on it. I would love to find a unit that works reliably and doesn't damage the projectile or casing.

Have the same rifle. Really like the octogonal barrel. I mounted a 4X Nikon rimfire scope and really enjoy target shooting with this rifle at 50 yards! Also occasionally shoot it out to 100 yards off a rest with good results.

I will second what others are saying about the Mark II. I have a Savage Mark II BTVS heavy target barrel in stainless with thumbhole stock as well as a Cooper 57M classic. Both are 22LR left handed models. The Cooper was about 4 times the cost of the Mark II BTV. In terms of my holding skills both shoot about the same at 100 yards. I can consistently hit 1.5" groups using CCI mini-mags off a tripod. I have the same scope mounted on both rifles. The BTV is one handsome looking rilfe with its wood laminate thumbhole stock. It features Savage's accutrigger which enables you to adjust the trigger pull, (but it's a pain-in-the ass to do). It's at the higher cost end of the Mark II line, but offers good value and the best bang for the buck at that price point, in my experience.

"Easy to Load" is a relative call as you need to indicate what it is in relationship to! If you mean a double action revolver with swing open cylinder, the answer is definitely not easier. But there are all kinds of qualifiers. The biggest pain for me is having to extract each spent round individually through the loading gate. This gets more cumbersome as you shoot more because of the build up in gunpowder residue in each camber. Same for loading the new rounds in each chamber as you have to push harder on each round to insert it. 6 rounds are easier to load because the chambers are not as close together. An alternative is to have multiple cylinders that you pop in & pop out, fairly easy to do with a Ruger Single Six. You still have to deal with extracting the spent rounds. I have a Ruger New Single Six in stainless steel , 6.5" barrel and adjustable sights. I target shoot with it and prefer the longer barrel for improved sight radius. I changed out the hammer and trigger springs for lighter versions which significantly improved handling and operation. Also replaced the wooden grips, which I felt were a lttle too wide for my hand, with slimmer "ivory" versions from Hogue. I prefer to shoot WMR rounds rather than 22LR because the rounds are longer, easier to hold and insert. Of course, you pay dearly for this privilege because WMRs are significantly more expensive. The nice thing about a SA 22 revolver is that it takes time to load/shoot a lot of ammo! Givn the current tight availability and inflated cost of 22LR this is not necessarily a bad thing! As much as I like to shoot my Single six and S&W 617, they are a pain-in-the ass handguns to clean, especially the cylinder face and the forcing cone areas of the breech. I prefer stainless finishes because I don't have to worry about the possibility of rust in humid locations. I also find that lead-away patches do the best job of removing the gunfire residue and with a blued finish, you have to be careful about removing the bluing if you clean too aggressively.

I had seen one at Shore Shot several months ago. I was specifically interested in the target model (20 in barrel - Hogue free floating forend) which is listed as non-NJ compliant because of its folding, telescoping buttstock. I found one new on Gunbroker. It was shipped to my FFL and I worked with him to make it NJ compliant without making any external (appearance) changes. It amounted to internally pinning the stock and disabling the hinge release. We tried to get some info on the procedure to do this from Sig customer service, but they were not helpful nor willing to provide any assistance. I have a written description of the procedure if anyone is interested.

Yes - I definitely plan to scope the rifle. Can you please tell me more why I should be looking at bolt action rifles? I"m a lefty and I find working the bolt action with my right hand to be awkward. My budget at this point is in the $750 range, but I would entertain spending more if there is a better choice that meets my intended use.

Thanks for the input. One of the reasons for considering the Browning is that I am a lefty and I like the idea of ejecting the spent shells out the bottom. For this purchase, I am interested in acquiring a semi-automatic rifle. My budget for this rifle & scope is in the $750 range. I looked at a site that featured Henry rifles, but Henry does not appear to make a semi-auto 22.

I'm considering getting a 22LR rifle for target shooting at 100 yards. Been looking at the rifles that Ruger, Remington, Marlin and Browning have to offer. Does anyone shoot the Browning Semi Auto 22 Grade I rifle? What can you tell me about its accuracy and reliability? It is supposedly a classical design. The attributes that appeal to me are that it can be taken down for easy of storage and transport and it is bottom ejecting. I also plan to put a scope on it.

I have the Umarex 1911-22 Colt Gold Cup Trophy Model. I had posted my experience with the pistol and the basis for my selection under the topic, "Colt 22LR 1911 Gold Cup Trophy – Observations & Experience" on 2/4/12 in this forum. I have since pumped over a 1K rounds through this pistol with no failures to load, fire, extract or eject. I have been using CCI MiniMag and Remington Gold Bullets, exclusively. My preference is for the CCI as it seems to burn much cleaner than the Gold Bullets. The black finish is holding up very well. My only criticism is with the trigger weight. According to the review on the 1911 forum, trigger weight should settle in at about 4 to 4.5 lbs. Mine is around 6 to 6.5 lbs. It has never really lowered since I purchased the pistol. Perhaps I still need to pump more rounds through it. I recently emailed Umarex customer service to find out if 6.5 lbs is within factory tolerences. The answer came back yes and BTW, they do not have the equipment to do trigger jobs. I recently puchased a Colt 45ACP 1911 Gold Cup (100 year anniversary model). Except for the weight (33 oz for the 22 vs 39 oz for the 45ACP)and recoil spring force, the two guns handle almost identically. THe 45ACP, however, has a 4.5 lb trigger pull! I don't know if this high trigger weight is typical for the Umarex Colt 1911s or just mine. A trigger job for this pistol is looming in the future, as i want it to have a closer match to my 45ACP 1911. First, I have to locate a skilled gunsmith who would take on the project.

Well - I looked at the SR22 and the various reviews. Thought this would be a nice example of a modern day 22 pistol to add to my small pistol collection. After holding it, I decided that it was just too small for my liiking and I opted for a S&W M&P22. One of these days I Will find a Ruger that is comfortable in my hand, but so far it's not been the case. I seem to enjoy holding the S&Ws more.......

In case anyone is interested in what the gun looks like with its replacement checkered wooden grips and Colt factory emblems, here are links to a couple of pics..... http://www.flickr.com/photos/zidecar/6820250453/in/photostream http://www.flickr.com/photos/zidecar/6820250329/in/photostream