To make a long story short, back on my 16th birthday (I’m 41 now), Dad bought me my first gun, a Marlin Model 25, a 7 shot magazine-fed bolt action .22
I loved that gun, and was quite accurate with it, able to take the cap off a plastic soda bottle with iron sights, I loved that gun, and spent many relaxing afternoons defending the family farm against vicious paper targets, cans, and plastic bottles, the plastic bottles were especially nasty if they were wounded, or when protecting their young, the only effective shot was a cap-shot, the equivalent of a headshot…
fast forward to around 2003, I started to get into paintball, and stupidly sold my 25 to get paintball gear, which I rapidly got bored with, I went back to the gun/paintball store to buy my 25 back, but it had been sold already 
I promised myself that day that if I ever found another Marlin 25 in good shape, I would buy it without hesitation, I should have NEVER sold my first gun…
Fast forward to two weeks ago…
I found a Model 25, a 1985 vintage gun, almost identical to mine, in 98% of new condition, looks almost unfired, it came home with me, it was cleaned, and given a nicer scope (it came with a Japanese made Tasco 4x32, the Japanese manufactured 25’s are rather nice inexpensive scopes), a Bushnell Trophy 3-9x 40mm, I took it back out to the range to get it sighted back in
I normally shoot at 50 yards, but when sighting in, I go to the 25 yard range, tonight, after work, I stopped at the range, set up some 25 yard targets, and sighted in the gun…
Using cheap CCI Blazer plinking ammo ($20 for 500 rounds), and using 9x magnification on the Bushnell scope, the 25 was capable of repeatedly shooting 1/4" groups!, absolutely amazing performance from an inexpensive factory rifle with the factory barrel and trigger, this is a box-stock rifle, just the way it came off the production line in 1985 (scope excluded, obviously)
Here’s my MobileMe gallery page with some of my targets
each of the squares on the target represents 1/4" at 100 yards, so, depending on how many squares the group covers, that gives a guideline on how tight the group is
all the sight-in targets were shot at 25 yards 5 shots per group, shot data is;
IMG 3626 and 3627- Marlin 25, Remington CBee ultraquiet rounds, 740FPS, about as quiet as a pellet rifle, .8 grains of propellant, these rounds are designed to be used at no more than 15 yards or so for decent accuracy, anything beyond 15 tends to open up the groups
IMG 3624 and 3625- Marlin 25, CCI Blazer cheap plinking ammo, aside from the single flyer in 3624, the remaining 4 rounds went through essentially the same hole, widening it slightly with each shot, not a true One Hole Group, as that would be .22 inch in diameter, this would be considered a Ragged One Holer, the flyer could have been a slightly out of spec cartridge, or more likely, could have been me not being dead-on for that shot
IMG 3623 is my Ruger 10/22, a late '80s vintage rifle, with CCI Blazer, this kind of accuracy is almost unheard of in an UNMODIFIED 10/22, it’s the original Sporter profile Ruger barrel and the original Ruger trigger group and bolt, everything’s stock, typically, 10/22’s are 3/4" to 1" group guns as they come from the factory, and the newest ones can be as loose as 2-3" groups at 100 yards
so, in the case of Ruger, they definitely don’t make 'em like they used to, they’ve been slowly cheapening the components in the 10/22’s
my 10/22 has;
an anodized reciever, a decently blued barrel, a metal trigger group and barrel band, and a nicely finished Birch stock that looks like walnut
New 10/22’s have;
a PAINTED reciever, cheap bluing that looks like paint on the barrel, a PLASTIC trigger group, and PLASTIC barrel band, the finish on the stock looks horrible, it just plain feels cheap (talking about the base, entry level Carbine here)
So, anyone else out there a fan of Long Range Hole Punching 