Are cooeys worth what people are asking?

Gnome75

Gnome75

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I have been trying to decide which 22lr rifle has the best bang for the buck. All I will use it for is plinking on crown land and maybe shooting at gophers or crows.

The requirements:
Bolt action
useable iron sights
200ish dollars
will last a life time
wood stock
decent accuracy. As in can hit a clay pigeon at 100 meters if I do my part
repeating. I have been leaning towards tube fed but have not ruled out magazines

Looks like most cooey 60s will meet what I want but most seem to be 250 at best (for decent and not rusty). It feels silly buying a 60 year old budget rifle for that much. Are they really worth this much?

The other option I have looked at is the Norinco Jw15. The compact one seems like a fantastic size and hear good things about them except I hear the sights suck

Any suggestions or opinions? Minus the savage mkII because I hate the trigger blade safety thing.
 
My last cooey in 410 was red with rust and had a duct taped forearm.
My brother-in-law gave it to me gratis when he upgraded to a 870.
So yah it was worth what I paid for it.
It's my official lend out gun for guests.
It still shoots partridge great.
 
I once had a Cooey 60 and no, I would not pay anywhere near $250 for one. It would have to be a mint shape "closet-classic," as they say in the world of musical instruments.

Mine shot well, had a good bore, functional magazine tube (fixed at my loss), polyurethane type refinish (ok) but had a home re-blue performed by the previous owner. I let it go for $110 locally and it turned out that the buyer wasn't happy with it for his money spent. I thought the price was very fair for a fully functional, reasonably accurate rifle. Replacing the magazine tube cost me a fair bit of time and money as Canada Post destroyed one in the mail.

For that kind of money ($250), I'd be looking for a Lakefield or Savage Mark II (might even get a brand new one for around $250).

*edit* I will add that I recently attended a gun-show. At the show, prices for Cooeys were all over the place. Anything with a reasonable price sold right away while other vendors were happy to sit on their inflated prices and reduce them for the second day. There is a certain amount of "let's see how much I can get" that goes on, as opposed to "realistically this rifle is worth $###." YMMV.
 
thenerdboy said:
I once had a Cooey 60 and no, I would not pay anywhere near $250 for one. It would have to be a mint shape "closet-classic," as they say in the world of musical instruments.

Mine shot well, had a good bore, functional magazine tube (fixed at my loss), polyurethane type refinish (ok) but had a home re-blue performed by the previous owner. I let it go for $110 locally and it turned out that the buyer wasn't happy with it for his money spent. I thought the price was very fair for a fully functional, reasonably accurate rifle. Replacing the magazine tube cost me a fair bit of time and money as Canada Post destroyed one in the mail.

For that kind of money ($250), I'd be looking for a Lakefield or Savage Mark II (might even get a brand new one for around $250).

*edit* I will add that I recently attended a gun-show. At the show, prices for Cooeys were all over the place. Anything with a reasonable price sold right away while other vendors were happy to sit on their inflated prices and reduce them for the second day. There is a certain amount of "let's see how much I can get" that goes on, as opposed to "realistically this rifle is worth $###." YMMV.
Click to expand...

thanks, this is the kind of input I was hoping for. Replacing a tube is also a worry since they have not been made in probably 40 years
 
I have to agree with Gnome 75 to an extent. I dont see them worth anything near that price unless it is mint. I had a late model Winchester Cooey 600 with a dovetailed receiver, and with a 4-12 scope it would shoot cloverleafs at 50 yrds. It was an excellent rifle and when i purchased it the rifle looked like it came right out of the box. A tube mag is nice for plinking since you just pull it out and add the rounds quickly and there is no mag hanging down.
Most are in fair condition and have seen a lot of use and as Gnome pointed out may need parts. FYI - Wortner Gun works in Chatham ont. has a bunch of Cooey parts but other then that they are drying up.

I regret having sold mine for sure but i have other modern rifles Im just as happy with.

Have a question for you, if your worried about spare parts what happens when a Norinco breaks?

My advice buy a mint cooey if you really want one or like me pick up a CZ and/or a 10/22 you will be happy.
 
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To me they are not worth 250 and up.
I had a model 60 in very good shape with realy nice bluing but did not like the tube and the small bolt handle.
For a wood stock you might need to stretch your budget a tiny bit. You can likely get a new savage mark II around the $250 using the current savage rebate promotion (runs until Dec. 31 2017). Pretty sure that it will be more accurate than an old mod. 60.
Good luck with deciding.

Edit; never mind, i forgot you don't like the accu trigger.
 
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When I started shooting maybe 6 years ago, common Cooeys were $100. Cooey 82's were a few hundred, especially if they had broad arrow marks. Common Cooeys now seem to be about $125.

I think they are still worth that as long as they are complete and functional. But I admit that an increasing amount of that value is based in nostalgia more that functional value.

$200+ can only be justified for mint examples.

For the $250 you want to spend, I'd look at a modern Savage Mark II, or a Marlin 60 or 795.

If you want a vintage semiauto, looks for a Savage 6 or Stevens 87. Very cool and accurate vintage guns for $100 to $150.
 
Ive had a couple cooeys over the years. My cooey 82 is a great trainer trainer gun for the young’ins. The 28 inch barrel is nice too, cuz cb ammo is nearly silent to shoot. My air rifle is louder. But I’d never pay $200-$250 for it.

For that price I’d consider something like this Rossi... I like that it comes with a .410 conversion too. Kinda fun.

https://www.nasgunsandammo.com/prod...-single-shot-22-lr-410-gauge-bbl-combination/
 
Marlin XT .22 is the best bang for the buck IMO. 7 or 10 round magazines, laminated stock, heavy barrel, micro grove rifling and under $300 new. As for the Cooey model 60, it is worth $250 in near mint condition because of nostalgia, its connection to Canada (some believe that every Canadian gun owner should own at least one Cooey), and its build quality was pretty top notch at the time for a budget rifle. Americans are always commenting how accurate Cooeys are.

The machining was good and Cooey did not skimp out on the walnut also which begs the question, where else can you find an all steel reciever with a walnut stock bolt action repeater for under $250?

I have a soft spot for Cooeys. I have recently bought a 60 in good condition (not quite very good) for $170 from a local store (taxes in). During the same week I also bought 2 82s, one from a local store for $230 and one off a site sponsor for $350 after taxes and delivery. One even had the original paper work and factory equipt Weaver scope and they were both in pretty good condition. The paper work was a bit yellowed though. This is what I was willing to pay as a novist collector because I feel that after taxes, I am still about $40 to $60 below market value, perhaps more for the 82s. It is difficult for me to believe that I over paid when they just look so sharp when they are sitting beside my Lee Enfields.
 
I paid 80$ for my Easton Ranger AKA Cooey 78 last year. It had a target trigger, wood stock, factory rear peep sight with both apertures. Wasn't rusty. I can do 3" with junk wildcat ammo at 100Y. It was better condition than my Cooey 75.
 
Yeah, if you're going to spend $250, get a brand new Savage .22 with a plain wood stock, and get a few boxes of ammo with it. If you spend as much as $100 on an ancient Cooey (nice, though the rifles are), you're spending too much, IMO.
 
I went through my Cooey phase. Of the four .22's that I had, three of them eventually needed new extractors. Some were more accurate than others, but none of them were super impressive. I re-did the stocks on a couple, they looked sweet and were very nostalgic, but in the end I got rid of them all. That extractor problem was the main pain in the arse for me though.
 
Got a soft spot for old single shot Cooeys ...shot my first gopher with one down in Maple Creek when our family was visiting a farm...Never really noticed the farmers daughter...oh well...

I think a Norinco JW15 fills the same niche as a Cooey today...
 
I delivered newspapers, mowed yards, loaded hay bails, shoveled snow, split wood to get the money for my first Cooey bolt 22LR and a $100K Westley-Richards couldn't have looked any better to a kid.
That gun filled the pot many times with grouse & rabbits.
A box of whiz-bang 22LRs would last me a while.
A dead animal or bird for just about every shot.
 
For not a whole lot more than $250 you could get a decent Winchester 69A I'd imagine, with a peep sight even if you so desired probably. Having both a Cooey 60 and a 69A I would say the latter is definitely more bang for your buck if the prices really are that close now.
 
Any object, whether it be a gun, house, car etc. is worth what someone will pay. There are many reasons why someone will pay whatever for an old Cooey. Collector grade examples will bring more. Notice the word collector grade, meaning likely it will not see any shooting. Some examples might be the early models that are rare today, which again are likely to be bought by collectors. Someone might be looking for a gun because of sentimental reasons so will pay a bit more. But if you are just looking for a run of the mill Cooey model 60 as a shooter, then yes you can find better, modern examples for around the same price if the seller has the Cooey priced above $200.00. But there are many model 60"s out there for well under $200.00.
 
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