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Your .22 Rimfire

Would you know about what grit J-B bore paste is in comparison? I’ve used it a couple times. On the USR, and maybe one other of mine. Brother in law introduced me to it when taking me shooting years ago during cleanings after. Thanks kindly.
JB is either 1000 or 1200 grit, basically valve lapping compound. Haven't seen JB since 1982 when I toiled for FW Woolworth in the sporting goods department for almost a decade. We sold insane amounts of guns and ammo, also did minor gunsmithing such as bore and scope sighting, stock and barrel finishing, and cleanings. My wife used to comment of me smelling of Hoppe's #9 from time to time. Most interesting job I ever had was with "Woolies". Miss that place to this day.
 
Love my .22s. I’ve probably shot a .22 100 times over for every other caliber.

My favorite pistol is the Ruger Mk III I got in my early 20s shortly after it released. I’d made E5 right around then and felt like I finally made a living wage and was living in SE GA. Drive up to Savannnah and got it at a gun show. I don’t know how many thousands of rounds I have through it... but it’s a pile. I’ve eyed the Mk IVs and may get one someday, but I’ll never get rid of this one.
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My favorite .22 rifle is a CZ 457 I recently got. It’s the 24” barrel trainer... and it’s just an awesome rifle. I’ve wanted one back when the 452 was the current model and got it as my combination birthday/Father’s Day/making Senior Chief gift this past June.

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Otherwise... I have a Walther P22, S&W 15-22, High Standard Double 9. Couple other older semi-autos. I still have a Savage Model 5 that I grew up with. It has a stock from another gun I whittled the spot for the bolt when I was a teenager when the original stock cracked. I replaced the firing pin in it this past year as it’s been laid up a few years from misfiring a lot (thought it was a weak spring... turns out the firing pin was in 2 pieces). May be missing a few... but that’s it.

I had a K-22 S&W that was my grandfathers I got when my dad passed, but gave it to my sister who has a son so it’d go to her and her son. She and my granddad had the same birthday, so it made sense and while I liked and had shot the gun a lot, I didn’t have a connection to it like I thought she would. Great gun though that I’d snatch up if the opportunity presented itself again.
 
A mighty fine stable of rimfires you have!

Thanks!

My goal through middle age was to acquire enough firearms so that, when the kids are grown and have their own place... they can take a .22 rifle with them and I can probably spare a shotgun if it’s something they’d want.

I’ve got several other .22s I’m not terribly attached to that were bought/traded off folks or passed down guns that weren’t mine as a kid. 10-22, a speed master 552, a Sears something or other semi-auto. I’ve had a couple model 60 Marlins but traded out of the last one a couple years back and don’t know if I’ll get another. Marlin is the only company I know of that still makes a new production bolt action .22 with a tubular magazine, but you never see them in most shops. If I ever saw one, I’d probably get it on an impulse buy.

I forgot about it... but I just got one of those tiny little Savage rascals the middle of last year to let the kids try. My kids are 9, 7 and 5. I have a couple pellet guns... one suited to their size with a stock adjustable for length of pull I swapped in. When I was that age (9) I was using a full-sized pump action .410 that was waaay too long for me. Most guns were a little large as I was a scrawny kid. I like happening upon one on sale and being able to get them something that fits. Heck, as short as it is, I like shooting it too. Any time someone has a good old .22 they’re getting rid of, I consider making an offer.

Some of the best afternoons as a kid living out in the middle of nowhere was having a brick of .22 rounds and property covered in pines full of pine cones for me to shoot out of the trees. I used this old Savage Model 5. You can see where the 16 year old me whittled the bolt recess off a stock I found that had been pulled off another Savage, but on that was a semi-auto.
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It’s just a junky old .22... but it probably has more rounds through it that anything else I have (and ever will). I was glad to have finally gotten around to doing the firing pin this past year. Parts are a little scarce on the old Savages... but I managed to find new production firing pins and replaced the magazine tube follower spring (I think that’s what you call it) so that new rounds fed well. The old one was so worn, it’d barely push the last few rounds to be loaded.
 
This is the best pic I have at the moment of my S&W 22a1, on the right side of the pic. It's the second one I've owned of this model, and is quite accurate with my bad eyesight, even without the red dot sight on top.
Edit: the purple and red Ruger is not mine, but was my wife's before she traded it for a Bersa thunder .380
 

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This is the best pic I have at the moment of my S&W 22a1, on the right side of the pic. It's the second one I've owned of this model, and is quite accurate with my bad eyesight, even without the red dot sight on top.
Edit: the purple and red Ruger is not mine, but was my wife's before she traded it for a Bersa thunder .380
Sure it is....... :lol:

What kind of red dot? Looks nice on the smith.
 
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I don't recall the model number, but the brand is NCStar. It works really well, but I've been using the iron sights until I get around to getting a new battery for it
 
Of all my rifles an pistols, these three are actually my favorite. The two Rugers I've built up and improved upon.

The rifle is a Ruger 10/22 50th anniversary edition and the only original part left on it is the receiver. Everything else has been upgraded. 22" Green Mountain bull barrel, Kidd Bolt, Kidd charging handle, Kid trigger, KKC Stock and barrel tuner (not shown). With Wolf Extra Match ammo, I get 1/8th" groups fairly consistently. The tuner made the biggest difference. I use this mainly for bench rest target practice.

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The 22/45 trigger assembly has been gutted and replaced with a Volquartsen trigger assembly, new firing pin, Hogue grips, Volquartsen rail and a vortex holographic sight. Built this mainly for a pistol league I compete in.
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The latest acquisition is actually an heirloom that I bought from my father-in-law. It's one of the original High Standard Supermatic Trophy and it's simply the most accurate pistol I've ever shot. But, this is a collectors item and I'm going to limit its use. The second magazine hasn't even been removed from its original packaging.
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Ruger single six - this is the first pistol i ever held and fired. This is 1973 the first year mfr'd as a 'new' model with the transfer bar. Then I have a Ruger mark 1, that will fire any round you put in it, unlike some other 22 semi's I have owned. - Loving all the Rugers showing up here !
 

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This is a great thread! The kind of guns in this thread warms one's heart. I love .22s very much and a goodly pile of 'em are on hand here, picked up over many years time. Way more rifles are on hand than handguns. As I get older I find I want to piddle with .22 rifles more and more.

Can dispense with the handguns in short order.

My first .22 handgun ever acquired is this Smith & Wesson Model 17 K-22 Masterpiece with 8 3/8-inch barrel. Bought new in January of 1980 so it's been here 40 years now.


As a companion to the long-snouted one, this early 1950s 4-inch K-22 was acquired in more recent times. Later this one became known as the Model 18.


Acquired this Woodsman, a First Series Target from its original owner who bought it new in 1928 for $32.00. He sent along the Heiser Holster as well.


Here's the front of the floral tooled holster.


A good, accurate early 1970s High Standard SuperMagic Trophy with a fine trigger.


Only a cypher in the .22 handguns here. It's kinda humbling when the crummiest, most cheapo, and most useless gun in the house is marked Colt. A "Lord Model" No. 4 derringer chambered for .22 Short. This one was used and worn as if a former owner carried it as is the case. A kind brother-in-law gave it to me so I have a sort of affection for it.



Last summer, after acquiring a couple more .22 rifles at the winter gun shows, I thought to work my way through all the .22 rifles on hand, shooting them from the bench rest in accuracy evaluations and side-by-side comparisons of similar models. Only ever got through the vintage Remington bolt-action single-shot models and one Winchester bolt-action single shot before life events overtook me. So, I'll take it up again this year. Perhaps will finish up by next summer.
 
Wrote out this narrative in honor of a .22 rifle I've had on hand for a long time and put it up on a couple of forums.

A Sad Little .22



This scarce model and very uncommonly seen Winchester Model 57 .22 target rifle was unearthed sometime about 1979-1980 in the South Main Pawn shop, now out-of-business, formerly located strangely enough, on South Main Street in Cleburne, Texas. One day as I was browsing the fairly extensive inventory of used firearms they carried, I spied a fresh pile of long guns crammed into a heaping stack into one corner. Perhaps I should have said pieces of long guns for this jumble really consisted of a lot of junk they'd cleaned out were intending to scrap. Stuff like: broken stocks, broken cheap-o single-shot shotguns, damascus twist double-barrels without stocks, a sporterized Arisaka missing its bolt, cut-down 93 Mauser also missing a bolt, junk Crosman pellet rifles, rusty BB guns. Just a lot of junk, truly worthless junk. I asked to dig through the pile, thinking I might come upon a 98 Mauser action or similar. None were found, in fact there wasn't a single complete firearm in the entire pile except for one, found deeply buried. I almost lost interest before rooting far enough to discover it.

It was a very broken .22 rifle. I was not familiar with my Winchester models back then, but knew the name could mean something so I fished it out. It looked like it would have been cute at one time with its cocking piece reminiscent of a 1903 Springfield. But it was in a sorry state. No finish, ample rust, bore like a plowed field, and the stock had been horribly smashed. Extensive crude repairs had been made and then the stock had been broken badly a second time at some later date. When I held the rifle horizontally, supported at the pistol grip, the barrel pointed drunkenly toward the floor, a frightfully extensive and splintery split running through the fore end and back to the action.

The Winchester Model 57 was designed to be a target right for junior competition, intended to be a sort of "junior" Winchester Model 52. It was manufactured from 1926 to 1936, serial numbered to 19000-and-something, the serial number sequence being shared with the even scarcer Winchester Model 56, which was the sporter version of the same action design, only with a different stock design and lacking the Lyman sight. Most were produced prior to 1930 and the final few years were probably assembled from a parts clean-up.

The pawn shop gigged me for $30 for this piece 'a junk and I carried it home. I had me a project. I had hopes that the barrel would clean up enough to group decently. If it did then I was going to order a generic stock that Fajen then advertised in their catalogs that could be adapted to several different Winchester magazine-fed bolt-action .22s.

The 22-inch barrel sports a '27 on its underside, beneath the stock and in front of the action. This means the rifle was produced just prior to the advent of non-corrosive priming and the bore was a testimony to the ravages of the corrosive ammunition of the era in which it was made.

Impatient to fire a round through it, I just grabbed the bottle of Elmer's Glue out of the kitchen hardware drawer and filled up the huge fore end crack with glue, wound several stiff rubber bands around the repair and screwed a couple of c-clamps to the fore end for good measure.

The aperture in the Lyman 42W receiver sight was smushed so I stopped by Gary Fellers' tables at the next Fort Worth Round Up Inn gun show and got a replacement.

These two repairs and the clean-up represent the sum total of effort expended on the rifle to date and that was nearly 40 years ago.

I likely purchased my first jar of JB Bore Cleaner for this rifle and after much scrubbing, produced a bore that appeared as if a bullet would actually pass through it. A jillion rounds later and with regular cleaning, the bore is burnished to the point it doesn't look so bad.

Right off the bat the rifle was bench rest tested for group at 100 yards and it proved good for easy 1 1/2-inch 5-shot groups, one even measuring 1 1/4-inches. It's a sleeper and one of the most accurate .22s I have. Remember, the bore doesn't look bad, but it also doesn't look good by any stretch of the imagination.

The rifle possesses the most wonderful two-stage trigger you ever saw with a dreamy trigger sear. This trigger has much to do with its accuracy performance.

Since its early days here, the rifle's been toted to Lake Leon on endless occasions for hunting and plinking, pursued rabbits back on my parent's old place where I grew up, pursued more rabbits and squirrels in the Island Creek bottom south of Grandview, Texas. My brother-in-law's been on outings where it came along. My huntin' cousins have been amused by its homeliness. It's done duty as the yard defense gun, even recently. Most importantly, our two sons received early instruction on shooting and gun safety with it. They also competed with it in junior small-bore matches at the Central Texas Rifle & Pistol Club near Waco. It even occasionally won them first place ribbons against competitors with far more elaborate and expensive match .22s.

Mrs. noelekal even used once it to defend the house against a nitwit feral dog bent on digging his way into our house through a dryer vent. He kept returning, had torn up the vent and was doing extensive damage to the exterior brick work. One day she'd had enough and surprised our sons by employing the Model 57 to drop the dog in his tracks as he was attempting to make his escape, running across the back yard and into a field.



Our eldest son about 32 years ago, on his first hunting trip to Lake Leon with Dad


Probably 20 years after acquiring it, the rifle was lying on the reloading bench, its bore soaking after a shooting session. The freezer was situated right next to the reloading bench in a large laundry room. Mrs. noelekal dug through the freezer for something and had placed a package of frozen meat on the bench. A couple days later I discovered the now thawed package lying across the barrel of the Model 57 and bloody meat juice pooled on the bench. A further indignity that the rifle suffered.

I've often thought of providing it with a complete restoration with careful polish and blue, a new walnut stock custom made to correct profile. It's been a part of our family so long, looking bedraggled as it does, that I'm sentimentally attached to it. When I kick off, it'll likely be the single firearm our two sons fight hardest over. It was once sad and forlorn, but it's been a happy working rifle and well appreciated for a long time now.

 
Let's "parse" the "finer" details of this sow's ear.


Stains from the thawed meat.






The glue I poured in for the second repair as well as evidence of the first repair.


Brass pins, part of the first repairs.


Genuine vintage cloth electrical tape and who-knows-what wraps on the pistol grip, part of the first repairs.




Nasty steel screw through the stock at the wrist, a part of the first repairs.




Hey, the steel butt plate is pretty nice.
 
@noelekal, great .22’s!
If you get a chance, keep an eye out for the Remington 580 Series(580, 581, 582). They are underrated and pretty outstanding. The .22’s of the early and mid-20th Century a special.
 
Let's "parse" the "finer" details of this sow's ear.


Stains from the thawed meat.






The glue I poured in for the second repair as well as evidence of the first repair.


Brass pins, part of the first repairs.


Genuine vintage cloth electrical tape and who-knows-what wraps on the pistol grip, part of the first repairs.




Nasty steel screw through the stock at the wrist, a part of the first repairs.




Hey, the steel butt plate is pretty nice.
Now that is character!
 
Love lever guns, just not in rimfire. I still enjoy a good bolt action either single shot or tube fed mag. Plenty of fun, especially for low volume shooting. Now, if you want to spice it up, you can jump down into the ruger custom 10/22 rabbit hole. Those are pretty fun when you make one in your preferred flavor.

as for handguns, I have a strong preference for a smith model 617 over all others. But that’s not a popular opinion. I have a ruger MKIV and a browning buckmark. If you want something that keeps the grip angle of a 1911, I would steer you toward the buckmark all day long. But if you look at a ruger, and like the regular Nambu style grip angle, then that’s the one for you. I would happily swap out my 22/45 for a regular MKIV, especially since I have the buckmark as well.
 

FarmerTan

"Self appointed king of Arkoland"
I'll show youse guys my ugliest gun.

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It's a Romanian Training rifle. Weighs about a ton, which might be why I look like such a good shot with it!

It helped me dispatch a decent sized Skunk the other day that has been stealing my chicken feed, right out of the feeders, lol!

Hated to do it, but I was afraid the rooster might get all up in his face and get sprayed.
 
I'll show youse guys my ugliest gun.

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It's a Romanian Training rifle. Weighs about a ton, which might be why I look like such a good shot with it!

It helped me dispatch a decent sized Skunk the other day that has been stealing my chicken feed, right out of the feeders, lol!

Hated to do it, but I was afraid the rooster might get all up in his face and get sprayed.
Nothing ugly about that .22!
 
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