Just wondering if anyone had any personal experience with the Simmons 22 Mag Rimfire scope line. The pistol range here allows .22 rifles indoor so to keep things up over the winter, I'm looking at either a Ruger 10/22 or a Savage Model 64F.

Bren R.

"Smallbore". heh heh heh.

What "things" are you trying to "keep up" over the winter?

I wouldn't put a Simmons on a BB gun. They fog up, plus they're just junk. I put a Bushnell 4X on my son's 22. (Marlin SS auto). It's been a good little riffle / scope combination so far, and accurate as hell. I need SS where I'm at, so the 10/22 wasn't an option when I was on the market, but the 10/22 is very highly regarded and what I always recommend.

I can't bring myself to buy the high dollar German scopes (too much money), so I generally settle for Leopold VX III for my magums, but I just put a Pentax 3X9X40 Gamemaster on my son's 30-06 and so far, I'm pretty impressed. It passed the sink dunk test anyway. I also really like the range adjust lines on this scope (similar to tactical scopes).

Bren, I don't have any personal experience with the Simmons scope and I'd be inclined to give Mike's comment(and he undoubtedly is able to get in a lot more shooting than I do)a lot of weight. Pretty good 4X scopes suitable for .22 rimfires are available in a similar price class from Bushnell and Swift.

As to the rifle, definitely the Ruger rather than the Savage. For a bit lower price you might consider the regular blued Marlin 60(I assume that Mike was referring to the 60SS stainless steel model)since your use wouldn't seem to require stainless. It should be at least as accurate as the 10/22.

I remember growing up my dad had a Marlin auto 22LR rifle. It was one heck of a good shooting piece of equipment. I don't recall the brand name of the scope he had on it though. I would really take a hard look at the Marlin if I were in the market for a 22 rifle.

I'm definately leaning towards the Ruger... and I think for the month between buying the rifle and Christmas, I'll just use the iron sights and put a 4x32mm on my Christmas list since I'm hard to buy for.

Never really had much to do with smallbore rifles before... not much use for them here in the city... and not worth taking them out to the farm to plink with, but with a few pistol-range buddies now, I figure it might be fun to join in.

Bren R.

Have you thought about getting a high power air rifle? Ammo is cheaper and you can get a pretty powerful rifle nowdays. Plus you get to work out at the same time by cocking the barrel. They arent as much fun as a .22 though. Dont do as much damage. Although I have found by purposly dieseling my air rifle i can get some pretty good penetration. Went through about 700 pages of my digikey catalog with a .177 hollow point when I put a drop of oil in the back side of the pellet. vs only about 350 pages without the oil.

I've got a few "regular power" air rifles (under 500 fps) - 3 of them - two .177s and one .22 plus a revolver in .177 that may have been a wee bit modified when I was working as an airsmith. It's just not the same.

Airguns are for the garage... smallbore for the range... .308 for the field.

Bren R.

I’m not positive John, but I think my boy’s 22 is the Marlin 60SS that you noted. It’s a great 22, but can be somewhat finicky with the brand of shells used. Winchester Wildcat’s will jam about ever tenth round (still trying to burn through a brick of them). Remington Yellow-jackets shoot just fine and it’ll go all day long without jamming. The 10/22 however will shoot anything, anytime, no matter how fouled the barrel is. The 10/22 is undoubtedly the most resilient 22 on the market. The downside is the funky cylinder clip it uses. I don’t much care for loading it as it will try my patience. The Remington nylon 66 was an outstanding little 22 as well, but I don’t think you can find them anymore. I must have shot over 100K shells through mine that I had when I was a teenager and probably dropped it on rocks dozens of times without ever knocking it out of whack.

I don’t shoot much anymore, sadly. Shells are too darn expensive and all my long range rifles are quite a chore to shoot, meaning they either hurt my shoulder or my ears. Those with breaks installed are easy on my shoulder, but painful to anyone else on the range so I’m hesitant to shoot them. Plus, I like to practice shoot at 500 yards or better and the range is only 200 yards. I have a custom mountain rifle that weighs 6.25 pounds, loaded, with scope chambered for the Weatherby 30-378. At five bucks a round, it doesn’t leave the house very often.

The 10/22 I was shooting a couple months ago jammed alot. Although that could have been because it needed cleaning. I know it is supposed to be a very good rifle though.

I have a pump action .22 at my grandparents place (not many places to shoot around here) I cant remember who makes it but its pump action, hold 15 or 16 rounds in a below barrel tube and has a hammer firing mechanism. I shout about 500 rounds through it the last time and didnt have any problems. Very reliable. Accurate too with just the metal sights.

Cleaning or a different choice of ammunition... not much gas out of a .22 to blow back the bolt, so ammunition choice in autoloaders is a bit of an art. CCI Stingers are supposed to be really good. From experience, I can say Remington subsonic all-lead HPs aren't.

Bren R.

And reading through the Ruger 1022 manual - Stinger ammunition is verboten.

Bren R.

Ditto what Bren said. I used to sell the 1022 at my old job and they are somewhat finicky about ammunition. CCI Blazers seemed to be horrible for the Ruger--not enough oomph to load properly. One customer tried to bring one back. I looked at it and saw so much lead build-up around the chamber that new rounds weren't fitting. I sold him a cleaning kit.

Reading AGAIN... the CCI Stingers are only verboten in the 10/22 Target rifle... can be used in the standard, carbine and compact.

Bren R.

After hearing about the 10/22 jamming problems mentioned, I followed up with some of my avid shooting/gun freak co-workers who have a 10/22 (pretty much any male Alaskan resident fits that description). All of them told me they have not ever had a problem with theirs, but one did tell me that stingers suck.

I've heard of one complaint about a 10/22 sticking... and the guy was adamant how crappy he thought their autoloader system was... later on I was talking about how I was a little leery about it because part of the field stripping requires you to drift out the trigger guard pins... and he said "oh, I never do that"... so I'll chalk his experience up to lack of maintenance.

I've decided on it as my .22 rifle, and I'll be able to give first-hand feedback on it in a month or so.

Bren R.