So I’d like to do a little light duty target shooting. I’m interested primarily in an autoloading rimfire .22LR rifle. Nothing too fancy, about $300-400.
Must haves:
Be able to support a scope (I think this is pretty standard)
Nice to haves:
Available extended magazines
I’ve tried a Ruger 10/22 and it had a tendency to jam. Maybe it was just a lemon. Most people seem to love theirs. I also like the new Walther G22.
There seem to be a lot of well informed gun owners on this board, so I’m hoping someone can point me in the right direction. Thanks in advance!
You must have gotten a bad 10/22, or their quality has slipped since I bought mine eighteen years ago.
I have never had it jam and it is one durable, fairly easy to maintain rifle.
One key point: I bought all of those silly aftermarket 30 and 50 round magazines back then (when they were legal), and I found that they all had a tendency to jam.
I then bought four or five more of the Ruger-manufactured 10-round magazines and found that I was able to shoot fifty or so rounds fairly quickly, swapping the magazines with ease. The only real modification I made that I would recommend is to buy the extended magazine release lever. The original is a button that you must depress upwards, while the one I bought adds a lever to the bottom that is so much easier to disengage.
Stick with the Ruger magazine and you can’t go wrong!
Another 10/22 recommendation here. Like others have said, most jamming problems are caused by extended magazines. Use the Ruger 10 rd. mags, or get a quality extended mag such as the Butler Creek steel-lipped 30rd. I hear good things about those.
Your jamming problem could also be from cheap ammo. You don’t have to break the bank on handloaded target stuff, but some of the cheaper stuff (I can’t think of the name but it comes in a pint sized milk carton style box) has jammed in my 10/22 also.
If semi-auto isn’t your thing, the 77/22 is also a fine, fine Ruger made .22 rifle in bolt action.
Incidently, does anybody know what one has to do in order to buy such a weapon in California? I can’t imagine it’s just as easy as walking into the store and picking it up.
This one is a little bit out of your price range, but if you get a chance to shoot one you should. It’s unlike any other rimfire I’ve used. I just want to smile like after every shot - the action is like butter
i had the older Model 25 and it was a great little rifle, accurate, smooth, and accurate, Marlin’s MicroGroove barrel is not just a sales point, it actually works, it’s got some of the tightest rifling i’ve seen
The 10/22 is also a great gun, i’ll agree with the general consensus that it was probably cheap 3rd party magazines that caused your jams, i have a Ruger Mark II Target pistol, and the only clip that jams is the cheapo 3rd party one, neither of my Ruger clips jam
Go into your local sporting goods store and order it. There is a 10 day waiting period on all gun purchases. Other than that, if you are of legal age, you are good to go.
To be clear, I got my Ruger 5 years ago, at most, so the new ones are still good.
And why would you need to buy handloaded ammo? The regular stuff tends to be 1000 rounds for maybe $10. That’s a pretty good deal.
I’ve looked for the extended mags, but the pre-ban stuff tends to be far too expensive for my tastes. Particulary when I can get 30 rnd .223 mags for much less if I’m going hi-cap.
Same here… never had a problem with my Ruger using a 10 round clip.
The worst .22 I ever owned was a Stevens/Savage with a 10 round clip…That plastic piece of crap jammed ALL the time.
Thanks for all the suggestions! I don’t think I was using cheap ammunition, but I was using a 3rd party magazine. Oh well. Wouldn’t be the first time I’ve misplaced the blame
I think I’ll take another look at the Ruger, then, before making my decision.
I had a 10/22 back in the '80s. Never jammed. I have a new 10/22 that I’ve never fired. It’s a stainless steel deluxe model with a longer-than-normal 22" barrel. The longer barrel and deluxe stock gives it very nice lines.
One problem I had with my first 10/22 was that it used too much ammunition. Autoloaders can do that. My other .22 rifle is a Sears single shot (made by Marlin) that I got from a pawn shop when I was 18. I’ve replaced the spring so that it will fire every round. To work it, you open the bolt and put in a single round. Close the bolt. Pull back on the plunger, and you’re ready to shoot. I never had any problems with burning through a lot of ammunition with it. It was pretty accurate, too.
Ruger 10/22 here, too. No problems jamming, but only used Ruger mags. Reasonably accurate, stainless steel and wood stock. Have a maglite rigged up with a pressure switch on the grip. I shot a coyote with it that was eating pears under my yardlight last summer and it dispatched him readily.
Another Ruger 10/22 recommendation here. The jamming is an ammo-issue, and maybe a magazine-issue; you just have to find ones that work well. The factory barrels and triggers aren’t great, but you can get aftermarket parts to improve them. If you put on a target barrel, you usually also have to replace or modify the stock. There is a factory heavy-barrel version available now, but most people think the aftermarket target barrels and stocks are better. There really is no other semi-auto 22LR rifle with anywhere near as much accessories available as the 10/22 has.
For a regular bolt-action, the CZ rifles shoot very well (without modifications) and don’t cost much.
If you’re right-handed, the EAA Biathlon Basic is a fairly-inexpensive side-pull bolt that is very accurate as well, out-of-the-box.
~
Yeah, your 10/22 problem was definitely because of the magazine. I can rattle off a Ruger stock 10-round mag in a couple of seconds, even with the cheapest ammo imaginable, but I have a cheap 30-round magazine that jams like clockwork on every fifth round, no matter what.
It was pretty accurate, too.