Heavy bolt gun, or ultra light auto?

[troy_mclure]

I've been looking for a savage mk2 fp, but it's nearly impossible to find them.
So my attention has been wandering. I got to play with an ultralight 10/22 the other day and really enjoyed it.

So should I get a heavy bolt gun, or ultralight auto?

The 10/22 I would likely build from the ground up, so that "could" be fun. Lol

But the tack driver bolt gun would also be great for hitting the spinners at 100m.

[fatnhappy]

get both
I think you'd be amazed at how well a 10/22 with a good trigger can shoot.

[PacMan]

Here is an example.

[10 ga]

A built 10-22 can be fun and take a bunch of $ to do. They can be accurate and fast too. If you want the single hole 50 yard target deal ya gotta go bolt but the 10-22 is only a quarter size group behind, smaller group if ya got enough $. LOL, shootin is fun, 10 ga

[troy_mclure]

well i got an amazing deal on a bull barrel savage 64btv, so ill use it as my heavy hole puncher, and turn my marlin 60 into a lighter gun.

[NoZombies]

The mentality that I love around this place could be summed up about like this; "Well, you can't go wrong if you buy both of them, and as a matter of fact, here's a third option. Buy that one too"

[troy_mclure]

The mentality that I love around this place could be summed up about like this; "Well, you can't go wrong if you buy both of them, and as a matter of fact, here's a third option. Buy that one too"

I know! Many on this site cast to save money because they can't afford to shoot otherwise, then about 1/3 the recommendations are to buy buy buy! Lol

I just sold, and am selling lots of stuff to afford this gun. Lol

[Crusty Deary Ol'Coot]

Troy,

I have a Clark Custom 77/22 with a .920 barrel and it is heavy!

In fact, the rifle was ordered from Clark new by a fellow North of Spokane Washington, and he traded it in -- because of the weight -- as nearly as I could tell, without shooting it. All $785.00 worth w/shipping.

The rings were still in the package when I bought it from the dealer that did the trade, so figure it was new when I bought it. $600.00

Oh does that heavy Walther barrel ever shoot well!!!!!!!!!!!!

But the gun is heavy and I believe that if the proper research was done before the $$$ were laid out a person could get a sporter weight .22 barrel that would shoot VERY well and be more fun in the field.

Maybe not quite as good if you are after bench rest groups to bring home the winning hardware, but so good that no ground or tree critter will ever know the difference!!!

Kimber makes them. Clark Custom may. Cooper makes them. For sure the CZ 452 falls into that catigory.

Can't fault the shooting of my CRUGER, but light it is not.

Go to Rimfire Central forum and the folks there have a huge amount of hands on knowledge about what works and what doesn't.

CDOC

[Larry in MT]

My Ground Squirrel gun is a 10-22 with a 16" Volquartsen Carbon Fiber Tensioned barrel, a Volquartsen target hammer, a Hogue over-molded stock, modified trigger return spring, an over-travel stop, a plastic buffer and oversized safety button.

It's very light, handy and accurate.

To me, it's perfect for its intended work; which is shooting Richardson's Ground Squirrels (1000s of them) out of a pickup window.

[fatnhappy]

The mentality that I love around this place could be summed up about like this; "Well, you can't go wrong if you buy both of them, and as a matter of fact, here's a third option. Buy that one too"

By God Toe Knee, I think you may be on to something!

[Crusty Deary Ol'Coot]

Sounds like a boat load of fun Larry!!!!! Let me at em!

That sounds like a great critter getter!

Have thought about a 10/22 build, but I can only shoot one rifle at a time, and would likely need to sell the CRUGER if I built up a 10/22.

Lots of the areas around here were almost squirrel less, but see signs of them coming back in a few places.

CDOC

[Larry in MT]

Crusty ---

Interesting hearing about your Squirrels.

Our area got hit by a Plague in 2008 and there were almost NO Ground Squirrels at all in 2009 and 2010, where the pasture ground had been alive with them in the years before.

Then in 2011, they started coming back, but not in the same places they had been.

In 2011, I shot maybe 60, this year I shot around 1100.

It's the same with the Prairie Dogs. There are 100 acre towns East of here without a living thing in them. Spooky!

[Crusty Deary Ol'Coot]

Larry,

I at one time hunted Rock Chucks in the scab rock country South of Spokane, and there was miles an miles of scab rock and chucks.

You could go to one spot, lay down and shoot chucks from 25 - 50 yds to as far as you could see.

Went back some years later, and could find not one chuck. I even began to doubt myself as to location, until I found a huge rock under which the chucks had dug waaaay back and I was clearly in a spot I'd hunted before.

Zip, zero, nothing! Not one chuck! I figured there was no way that the population could have been shot out to that degree, so it had to be a bug of some kind that wiped them out!

Once in awhile on my few trips West towards the coast, I'll see a chuck laying on some of the scab rock. However, having not made a trip to hunt the critters, have no idea is the population has started to come back.

CDOC

[Larry in MT]

Crusty---

I didn't realize that RCs got the Plague, but sounds like some sickness wiped them out.

When I lived in Central Oregon, we hunted Rock Chucks in the lava rock piles. It was a lot of fun. I had a 2X scope on my S&W 22 revolver, and would try to sneak up on 'em for head shots.

We also got some with center fire varmint rifles, mine was a 22-250.

Even in the 70s, civilization was taking over in Central OR, but finding a place now (close-in) to hunt Rock Chucks would be really tough. The farms are pretty small with too much exposure to neighbors and roads to really enjoy yourself.

I've heard of people shooting them in Idaho, near the SW Montana border, but haven't personally known anyone who has done so.

Prairie Dogs rank as the the chosen target around here and are great for center fire fun; but I have to travel over 100 miles to shoot any decent-sized towns. I can shoot Ground Squirrels, when they aren't Plague-struck, right here on the place.

[corvette8n]

I have a Savage MKII heavy bbl in .17MK2 very boring gun everything goes thru the same hole

[Kestrel4k]

So should I get a heavy bolt gun, or ultralight auto?

Yes.

Happy to help.

I have a Savage MKII heavy bbl in .17MK2 very boring gun everything goes thru the same hole

All of my guns do this; I just need to make the hole large enough before I start shooting.