Experienced shooter Dick Eussen harks back to his first love
It matters little how old you are, you’ll never outgrow or tire of a .22LR rimfire rifle and I can’t image life without one in my gun safe. As a fun toy and training tool the ‘twenty-two’ is for everyone and the first firearm a youngster, or first-time shooter, should be introduced to. The .22 rimfire rifle has an irresistible appeal for young shooters as it fits their dimensions and abilities better than a noisy, hard-kicking centrefire.
The whole range of fundamental shooting and marksmanship are easily mastered by learning how to use this humble little round. It offers restful recreation in the form of shooting random targets at a nominal cost, and can be used in locations where the blast of a centrefire is offensive to others.
It won’t singe your eyebrows and blast your ears, unlike a high-power centrefire. Some people never recover from their first high-power experience and flinch all their lives. Therefore it’s a good idea to start newcomers, especially youngsters, with a .22LR rimfire rifle to ensure an orderly transition to a larger calibre when the time comes. Best of all, it matters little if you’re into serious target shooting, bunny busting or plinking a few cans, it won’t break the bank as the .22LR rimfire is our most affordable round.
Precision rimfire competitions are nothing new and are part and parcel of the Olympic shooting calendar, with the rifles used being highly specialised and costing more than your average monthly earnings. But fear not, unless you dream of Olympic gold, there are many events which allow you to shoot a basic mass-production .22LR rimfire rifle.
While I’ve given up competitions, I still enjoy shooting as much as ever and generally average 120 .22LR rimfire rounds a week, mostly with pistol but also one of my four rifles. Benchrest shooting with .22LRs teaches you discipline and trigger control like no other form of shooting. Master the trigger and breathing controls on a bench tucked up behind the butt of a .22LR rifle and you’ve won half the battle of proper shooting.
Precision rimfire competitions are extremely popular with the shooting community and it’s something to consider, as in this country more people are taking up the sport. Extreme long-range and animal silhouette shoots are gaining popularity, while plinking has never been more fun with a host of swinging and other cool targets available.
Spoilt for choice
These days you’ve a wide choice of rifles that won’t break the bank and, if you have growing children, it’s a great way to steer them away from screens and into the clean air of a shooting range or in the bush hunting small game. Introducing youngsters to the outdoors and teaching them the responsibility of using firearms is a great way of bonding.
Rimfire events are generally shot at 50m while steel silhouette carries on to 200m, though in the late 1890s and early 1900s most matches were shot at 300m. That may sound a long way for the little pill to travel, yet I’ve head-shot kangaroos at that distance and busted many bunnies that were unaware they were in range of my man-sized Brno Model 2.
We now have .22LR rimfire shooting events ranging to 500m and beyond. Extreme long-range shooting (ELR) is an event that’s taken the .22LR rimfire beyond the realms of what can be done, even with a specialised Olympic firearm. The rifles, scopes and gear used pushes equipment to the forefront of new development in rimfire rifles, and includes new copper spitzer ammo for handloading. ELR is now so popular, rifle and bullet manufacturers are introducing products which cater to it, the best part being we all benefit.
On SSAA ranges the Fly Shoot discipline, which stretches out to 300m, is popular as it pushes the boundaries of the .22LR rimfire. And long-range target scopes, once only seen on centrefire rifles, now sit ungainly looking yet highly effectively on rimfire rifles. Some don’t even resemble rimfires, with the dressing of specialist aluminium chassis and stocks straight out of a sci-fi movie.
The Ruger Precision Rimfire comes to mind, while other makers like Anschutz and CZ have jumped on the wagon with similar-looking rifles. There are a host of custom stocks and skeleton chassis available from several makers to suit popular rimfires if you feel the need to customise your rifle. But do such outfits actually shoot? Of course, that’s what they’re intended for, with most matching the accuracy of purpose of .22 LR match rifles.
Specialist ammunition makers, once intent on wringing the most out of target loads for Olympic-style shooting, are now concentrating on extending the 50m goal ‘way out yonder’ to cater to popular ELR events. Forget the 100m benchmark, today’s rimfire ammo manufacturers are focused on achieving the same results at five times that distance. The long-range match ammo which came from this research rivals the world best we’ve come to expect from Eley, SKS, RWS and Lapua.
When steel targets are boned out to 200, 300 and 500m, its akin to shooting a .300 Winchester Magnum or the popular 6.5 Creedmoor at 800-1000m, without the recoil and ear-splitting blast. Downsizing gear is a fun, challenging and affordable way to hone your skills and learn how to read the wind.
Back to basics
So that takes care of the hi-tech stuff which, for many of us, isn’t much fun as we’re happy with a standard stock .22 and the huge range of ammo which caters to our needs whether hunting, plinking or target shooting. I mostly use CCI standard velocity .22LR rimfire ammunition in my pistols and rifles as its affordable, some say cheap, though nothing is ‘cheap’ these days. For batch control I buy it in 5000 lots, yet most shooters I know are happy with a ‘brick’ (500 rounds) at a time.
I also use it to head-shoot rabbits in late evening or over a spotlight around local farms, as there’s little or no noise from the muzzle blast. It’s noticeably quiet yet lethal on bunnies. Farm people can become a little distressed when gunshots ring out from neighbouring farms, though when using low-velocity ammo most will never know you’re even there.
Some pundits say scopes aren’t necessary on .22LR rimfires but I disagree, especially for seniors like me and I’ve always used them. A good scope will give you an excellent sight picture, important when targeting rabbits in long grass at 60-80m or so, especially in poor light. When they’re partly hidden it’s impossible to pick the target spot, for instance the head, with open sights. Red dot and reflex sights are also popular and ideal for running game.
Away from rural farm areas I use Remington high-velocity ammo which easily drops rabbits out to 200m when conditions are right (and I have a rest to shoot from). There’s a wide choice of ammunition available from all makers including sub-sonic, standard and high-velocity with round-nose, hollow-point, flat-nose and truncated lead bullets ranging from 19-50 grains with velocities up to 1750fps.
Your choice
I shoot rimfires rifles and pistols for fun on the range and in the field. Plinking at cans or dusting termite mounds at various distances keeps me sharp for the bush. I often take a .22 rimfire rifle when I go pig hunting and shoot various targets around camp, totally legal on private land if you’ve permission to shoot, hunt and be there.
Practical plinking is the basis for improving marksmanship and, of course, fun target sessions with mates. Most of our plinking is done offhand and from field positions, as game encountered in the bush is either on the run or about to be. Prone, sitting, kneeling, standing, tree, car bonnet or any natural rest helps sharpen skills for the real thing.
Position practice makes perfection so concentrate on smoothness, rapid sight acquisition and speed and never dwell on the misses. Forget about 25m targets, shoot out to 100m or even 200m if the terrain allows. You’ll learn a lot about windage and drop in such a session, that’ll benefit you later when facing a trophy animal and using a large calibre rifle.
Sharpen your skills with live targets like rabbits, hares, foxes or feral cats and, where possible, maximise the benefits of such training by shooting in the same terrain you hunt in. Hitting a running rabbit offhand with a .22LR rimfire is an art which makes grassing a running boar with your centrefire rifle seem easy as the target’s so much bigger. The .22LR rimfire rifle will provide hours of affordable shooting fun that’ll help you transition to a centrefire with barely a conscious thought.