Cooey 39 22LR Ammo Test

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littlehughey

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Hey Fellers,

After being inspired by another thread shooting an old Cooey, I decided to post the results of today's ammo test in my old Model 39 single shot Cooey with factory iron sights. This rifle was handed down to me by my grandparents - it was originally my grandma's uncle's rifle. To test, I was shooting five round groups off front and rear sandbags at 50 yards on 3 inch black squares.

I warmed up with two groups of Federal Bulk 36gr for a disappointing two group average of 2.62 inches. I've shot some excellent groups with this ammo - and some very disappointing ones. These were disappointing to say the least. I won't bother posting the target.

Up next was two groups of CCI Standard Velocity 40gr. These shot an average of 1.48"

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Next was the Federal Gold Medal Target 40gr. These shot an average of 1.03"

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Finally, thanks to a fellow at the range who donated 10 rounds of Lapua Center X 40gr, I was able to achieve my best two group average of 0.93"

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I am very pleased with these results, as I've seen a large improvement in my iron sight technique practising with bulk ammo in between load development strings with my centerfire rifles. Judging by the targets, I believe my technique still has a long ways to go though. The next step is to bed the rifle and refinish the stock - if anyone has a spare swivel for a model 39, please let me know! The receiver is also tapped - I believe to fit a Weaver #2 sidemount base and I am considering cleaning up the chowdered threads and temporarily mounting a scope just to see what accuracy I can wring out of this old girl. I'd much prefer to mount a rear peep, but am not sure how to go about that.

If anyone else wants to share some iron sight groups with an old hand-me-down rifle, be my guest! And a big thanks to Ganderite and Bearhunter for sharing wisdom and advice regarding these old Cooey's.
 
IIRC, one of our Silhouette shooters tuned up a Cooey single shot of unknown vintage and with a 10 power scope was shooting 1" groups at 100 yards.

Had a 50 cent coin over 60 years ago that I balanced on a post with two nails. I know I hit it at 25 yards with my dad's Cooey Repeater but never found the coin.
 
I am shocked at your results.

First, I did not think that kind of accuracy was possible with open iron sights. Peep sights - yes. But not with open sights.

Second, the accuracy of the rifle is outstanding. Yes, put a scope on it and see what it can really do.

I have been shooting a Ruger 10/22 with a 16X scope with different ammos, and groups have been in the 1 to 2" range.

I have some more Cooey single shots in the locker. I will look t o see if any of them are set up to take a scope.

By the way, if a group is not a single ragged hole, the easy and fast way to measure group size is to measure edge to edge. That is, top edge to top edge. (or bottom to bottom, or left edge to left edge, etc.)
 
Thanks! And I dont know why i was measuring outside to outside on the larger groups, couldve saved a good bit of time.

I bit the bullet and bought the weaver no 2 sidemount and the matching high ring set. I am going to try and get a baseline accuracy with the scope, compare it to my iron sight shooting, bed the rifle, and see if there was any improvement. Id also like to shrink my target size down to two inches and see if I can be a bit more consistent as well.

I had my ruger 10/22 out with irons and it does not shoot anywhere near as nicely as this old Cooey.
 
I have several 39's and love em all. They shoot well enough, shot shell hulls at 25 and 50 Yards can be done with ease. A very much overlooked little rifle. I have 10/22's as well but nothing comes close to plinking heaven than a 39!. Also way more economical on ammo than a 10/22.......Important feature today.
 
I might be slow today (or, as the wife might say, always) but why subtract 0.219" from the groups? According to Wikipedia the 22 LR has a bullet diameter of 0.223" so I assume that is not it. Or is it?
 
wasa said:
I might be slow today (or, as the wife might say, always) but why subtract 0.219" from the groups? According to Wikipedia the 22 LR has a bullet diameter of 0.223" so I assume that is not it. Or is it?
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You had me second guessing myself, so I measured a CCI SV bullet 0.225 at the widest part. Then I measured a hole in the target and it measured 0.219 from outside edge to outside edge (black lead smudge - not the hole diameter.)
 
vern130 said:
I have several 39's and love em all. They shoot well enough, shot shell hulls at 25 and 50 Yards can be done with ease. A very much overlooked little rifle. I have 10/22's as well but nothing comes close to plinking heaven than a 39!. Also way more economical on ammo than a 10/22.......Important feature today.
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They weren't overlooked back in the day. In 1960 I would have sold my soul for one, which I almost ended up doing. I used to take that little single shot on the school bus, to school, then to the truck farm beside the school, along with 20-30 other youngsters to clear his gardens of Richardson Ground Squirrels. He seriously disliked using poison, bless his soul.

One other thing, every once in a while, one would appear on the shelves with incredibly figured wood. There was no premium price for it and it didn't shoot any better than the others beside it but it was luck of the draw, if you were lucky enough to have enough cash horded to purchase one when it showed up. They usually lasted less than a day. There was a fellow in our community that had a deal with every store in the area, to give him a call when one of those rifles, with figured stock wood showed up. He would give the store a $5 premium for them and he had over a hundred such rifles the last time I saw them. That was close to 50 years ago. I have no idea where those rifles are now.

Lots of folks back then bought those rifles for pest control or just to plink with. When the semi auto rifles became the rage, the old Cooeys were relegated to the dark corners of closets. Not many people had safes back then.

Every once in a while one will show up hanging off a nail in an old barn or even an old outhouse. Most show a lot of "patina" from such storage abuse, but they still function well, after a good cleaning

A couple of years ago, I came across such a find in the remains of a fallen down range cabin. It had a coating of rust on every bit of outer surface and the butt was rotted from exposure to the elements. The bore wasn't rusty, other than an inch or so at the muzzle, which was removed by counterboring far enough to reach the clean area. The cartridge that was left in the chamber seemed to have acted as a plug and stopped any moisture from getting in. The brass case wasn't bright and shiny, but it wasn't corroded either. I don't know if it would have fired or not.

I had a take off stock for the rifle mixed in with of other take off stocks (I don't throw that stuff away)

I also know a young fellow down the lane who loves to shoot and hunt with his Dad. I spoke to his Dad and he brought the 12 year old boy over to look at the rifle.

I told the lad, that "if you come over after school, for at least an evening each week, until the rifle and stock are refurbished to new, it will be your rifle. That young man came over at every opportunity to work on that little Cooey 39. We chucked it up in the lathe for the counterbore and then to clean up the surface rust with strips of carborundum cloth to get finish he wanted and applied Oxpho Blue until he got the color he wanted. He sanded the original finish off the stock and applied a BLO/Varnish mix. The bolt was a different story, he wanted it to be bright and shiny, like the original. The exposed area of the bolt was pitted but we managed to get the rust off and it didn't look to bad. The young fellow was super proud of his work and deservedly so. He's taken several grouse and a few bunnies with it this fall.

Yes, they were common back then. Every grocery store/gas station/hardware store etc in small towns had a half dozen or so on their racks. Back then, all small community stores had to diversify in the products they carried. Single shot Cooey, 22 rimfire rifles and ammo were considered to be essential staples.

Looking back at rural history, like this makes me feel my age. I felt pretty good walking through the snow and fog yesterday. Saw a couple of Mule Deer does, and a bunch of eagles on a gut patch. Baldies and Goldens together. Incredible birds, worth the effort, just to see them.
 
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bearhunter said:
I also know a young fellow down the lane who loves to shoot and hunt with his Dad. I spoke to his Dad and he brought the 12 year old boy over to look at the rifle.

I told the lad, that "if you come over after school, for at least an evening each week, until the rifle and stock are refurbished to new, it will be your rifle. That young man came over at every opportunity to work on that little Cooey 39. We chucked it up in the lathe for the counterbore and then to clean up the surface rust with strips of carborundum cloth to get finish he wanted and applied Oxpho Blue until he got the color he wanted. He sanded the original finish off the stock and applied a BLO/Varnish mix. The bolt was a different story, he wanted it to be bright and shiny, like the original. The exposed area of the bolt was pitted but we managed to get the rust off and it didn't look to bad. The young fellow was super proud of his work and deservedly so. He's taken several grouse and a few bunnies with it this fall.
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Sounds like you made that young fellers day (or year!) There's nothing like a single shot 22LR to teach a young man how to shoot. Good on you.
 
Quote Originally Posted by wasa View Post
I might be slow today (or, as the wife might say, always) but why subtract 0.219" from the groups? According to Wikipedia the 22 LR has a bullet diameter of 0.223" so I assume that is not it. Or is it?

littlehughey said:
You had me second guessing myself, so I measured a CCI SV bullet 0.225 at the widest part. Then I measured a hole in the target and it measured 0.219 from outside edge to outside edge (black lead smudge - not the hole diameter.)
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Just to add a note - Last Summer I slugged my S-64 and Marlin 60 and got these figures with a $20 DigiCaliper. I just got a
B22 and plan to check it and do all these again. I ran 3 slugs thru each gun back then, still difficult to measure soft lead with the caliper blades. And I measured 7 diff ammo for 'pre-fired' diameter and as Wasa noted, I found they were measuring around 0.2225(CCI-SV) - 0.2250(FedGM). (the more expensive seemed more consistent) (I found it too hard to get Excel table into this post) ymmv

MY BARREL SLUG SIZES (muzzle thru to chamber )

LAND #1 RIFLE #1
MARLIN 60 0.2215 0.2235
SAVAGE 64 0.2175 0.2220

LAND #2 RIFLE #2
MARLIN 60 0.2215 0.2240
SAVAGE 64 0.2195 0.2230

LAND #3 RIFLE #3
MARLIN 60 0.2215 0.2240
SAVAGE 64 0.2185 0.2225
 
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kamlooky said:
Now I'm tempted to get Thing One's Cooey drilled and tapped for bases...............hm....hmm....hm.....hmmmmmmmm
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I did a "home done" version - probably pretty crude, but it works. Turns out a Weaver 92A base has about the right diameter on it's bottom to fit to a Cooey 39 receiver. 3 x 6-48 holes drilled and tapped - the front one may have been a "home created" hole. Then hacksaw and file to cut out the area for loading. Seems to work okay - a lot easier for me than trying to figure out the location for the Weaver #2 side mount holes!!! That 92A base accepts the standard size .850" ring clamps - so lots of choices available.
 

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You know you have a good one when you get done with a 1200.oo gun+1000.oo scope and than shoot about the same group with 150.oo gun off a home made bean bag.
BTW in the parts bin is a side mount, could ne Moosy? Will check, if any one needs it.
 
My Dad has the same thing with one of his rifles but it's not a Cooey it is a Grizzly single shot. I looked it up, they were made in Canada between 57-62 (can't remember the manufacturer) The gun was given to him in the late 60's but it was only the action, no stock or rear sight. It sat in his garage for a few years and the he finally decided to clean it up. It functioned well so he put it in a cooey stock that he had laying around along with a cooey rear sight. This gun is a deadly offhand gun, it has probably won 200 turkeys over the years at turkey shoots. the trigger breaks very clean at around 2lbs. At 25 yards it groups as good as my CZ,s and BRNO, He has sandbagged it a few times and all 5 shots are touching. To look at this gun you wouldn't pay 50 bucks for it as it only has about 25% blueing left and it is retro fitted in a cooey stock.
 
Am I the odd man out to not be surprised at the accuracy? I cut my teeth on a 39 and never have been a fan of optics. Maybe because I learned early on what can be done with a bare bones rifle..?
 
B said:
Am I the odd man out to not be surprised at the accuracy? I cut my teeth on a 39 and never have been a fan of optics. Maybe because I learned early on what can be done with a bare bones rifle..?
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I started on optics and have been learning irons. I was curious to see what this rifle is capable of with optics, so I just ordered the mounts for it - hoping to eventually be ALMOST as good with irons as I am with a scope.

Yesterday at the range there was another fellow there with a Cooey. We started chatting - he told me that ALL of his Cooeys can put 10-15 shots inside of a dime at 50 yards with nothing but iron sights. I said I'd love to see that - so he said he would come over when he was done shooting at the other range. Wouldn't you know it, he showed up - but his Cooey wasn't shooting that day. So, being the gentleman that I am, I offered to let him use mine, along with my sandbag rest. He went on to shoot a 4.5" five round group at 50 yards off the rest - which looked extra big next to the 1.25" - 1.5" groups I already had on the paper from warming up. For some strange reason, he left right after without saying goodbye.

I did hope he could live up to his bragging - I would love to have a shooting coach.
 
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