Cooey Interest???

First gun I ever fired was a Cooey model 39. Single shot, bolt action .22. I was probably 5 years old, with my dad. I still have that rifle, almost 40 years later. I'm in the middle of doing an amateur restoration on it. Soon, it will be the first gun that my sons shoot, and, as soon as my soon to be born grandchild is old enough.... :) .... Yeah, it's all about the nostalgia!
 
My old man taught me to shoot when I was 6 using a Cooey .22 bolt action Ranger. I later found one at a gun show and bought it for the lofty sum of $60! I love it. Brings back some fond memories. I also own a 12, 20, and .410 single shot Cooey shot gun. I love the old Cooeys. They always seem to work, I can beat em up and not care, and stain em pink for the wife and not cry about it for too long... :D

My .410 that I refinished, and the 20ga I redid for the wife
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The bottom shot gun is beautiful. What did you use on it. I might try it on mine, mine is the stock chocolate color LOL. But the grain in the wood is really nice.
 
In the 1960s I bought my son, who was about six, a Cooey, single shot 22, to learn to shoot on. It was a youths, or boys model, short butt stock and shorter barrel. Since I shot peep sights since the age he was then, I got a good apperature sight for it.
After he was a married and living on their own place, a mature black bear was messing around the buildings. That little 22 was the only rifle he had in the house at the time, so he put a long rifle cartridge in it, shot the bear in the eye and killed it with one shot!
 
There inexpensive, work well, and are great to practice on when learning how to refinish a firearm.

I was given this one in which both the metal and wood were in real rough shape, was fun to fix up.

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Was also given a nice semi Cooey 64b which I was able to refinish and make new again.
 
IMagius said:
I'm only 40, but grew up with a Cooey - my grandfathers to be exact.

They are dirt simple, as reliable as the dawn and more accurate than most kids. Quite simply, they are the perfect 22 for the average person.

But that's just my opinion.
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Ditto, except I'm FAR younger than you old man :p - my dad taught me to shoot using my grandfather's cooey. My both of my grandpas died before I was ever born, so it's my only connection to him, and a gun that will NEVER be sold.
 
As if I don't have enough .22 rifles.

Now I've got a hankerin' for a simple, single shot Cooey.

Never did have one, as a kid.:)
 
leeaspell said:
The bottom shot gun is beautiful. What did you use on it. I might try it on mine, mine is the stock chocolate color LOL. But the grain in the wood is really nice.
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Some sanding to remove the original brown chocolate colour, and lots and lots of hand rubbed tru oil from a kit. I rubbed in a coat every night for about a month... Turned out nicely I thought!
 
I've owned several Cooeys over the years and am now down to one broken in pieces 22. It is broken because it was defective from the factory. I was surprised that it ever made it out the door. I had the pleasure of touring the factory in Ontario in the early 70s. These things were made very cheap and you got what you paid for. And they were great for what they were.
 
trebor2880 said:
As if I don't have enough .22 rifles.

Now I've got a hankerin' for a simple, single shot Cooey.

Never did have one, as a kid.:)
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See, I knew we would make a believer out of ya if the thread went long enough. :D See if you can find yourself one of the target version Cooeys with the peep sight, such as the model 62 , 78 or full wood model 82. Aside from the rear peep, some had a hooded front target sight. You will be pleasantly surprised.:ar15:
 
H4831 said:
In the 1960s I bought my son, who was about six, a Cooey, single shot 22, to learn to shoot on. It was a youths, or boys model, short butt stock and shorter barrel. Since I shot peep sights since the age he was then, I got a good apperature sight for it.
After he was a married and living on their own place, a mature black bear was messing around the buildings. That little 22 was the only rifle he had in the house at the time, so he put a long rifle cartridge in it, shot the bear in the eye and killed it with one shot!
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And you can post the first comment that you did? I'd think that this lowly Cooey would have a rather postive spot in the H4831 family at this point.

Infantry-Soldier said:
Some sanding to remove the original brown chocolate colour, and lots and lots of hand rubbed tru oil from a kit. I rubbed in a coat every night for about a month... Turned out nicely I thought!
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You and everyone that has seen the picture now. For a basic piece of wood it's got some very nice grain flow variations in it that the TruOil brought out nicely.

My own Cooey 600 was the subject of a rather fancy bit of shop time to make up a scope rail. I only got out with it one time after the scope was mounted but it still shot a 100 yard group that wasn't much larger than a twoonie. And this from a guy that really doesn't do much precision support bag shooting.

Oh, along with the new rail I also did a trigger job on it to eliminate some of the creep and a lighter return spring to reduce the tension needed to get things moving. At present my 600's trigger has a nice short pull and likely breaks at around 2 to 2.5'ish lbs. I need to play with it a bit more and try some varieties of ammo to see which it shoots best.

Basic guns but good shooters from all that I've seen and heard. And on top of this one of the rare Canadian firearms success stories. Maybe I'm a little too easily swayed but I think there's going to be room in my safe for a Cooey for a long time.
 
My very first gun at the age of 7 was a Cooey 39 with birch stock. It came from a favorite uncle who looked after an small township dump in North Wester Ontario, he fished it out of the pile of garbage, it had a bent and broken front sight, not much bluing left and a rough finish. He also worked for a small gas station, he took that gun over to the garage and peened the sight as straight as possible and brazed it all back together. To a me it was a Winchester Super grade! That gun has not failed me in 33 years of ownership, and it shot alot of beer caps at 25 yards with bent brazed sights,( refinished the stock in grade 12 cabinetmaking class, walked right into the school with it, no problem!) and hit'em almost everytime, nomatter who held that gun in there arms. Anyone who came from a working class family would never say a bad thing about this great economizer called Cooey! Dale Z, in Thunder bay!
 
H4831 said:
I think it's a case of everyone telling each other how good they are.

Reliable? The single shot 22s were no more reliable than any other cheap bolt gun. I think the auto load 22s were a bit iffy.

Accurate? As accurate as any other cheap gun, I suppose. As long as you have strong enough fingers to pull the trigger.

Canadian made? You got me!
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Well, am not approaching the issue with any pretensions, not care if something is stamped Cooey or Cooper.

The several model 60(0)s I've had shot as well as my CZ452 Lux (CZ 453 with set trigger and 6-18x scope does better but that comparison is a bit silly. Similarly the 84(0)s never had an issue (cannot say the same about H&R).

The single shots, 1s, 25s, 39s, 75s, 78s, 82s..., some had an extraction issue, fixable (thing Guntech walked me through that, no issues after that with any). Had similar issues with other single shots. You assert they are as accurate as any other, irrespective of trigger, then represent good value. Most Canadian boys had sufficient strength to pull the trigger based on sales numbers, perhaps more an issue with grumpy seniors :)

The semi-autos, 64s, 6Cs, 8Cs..., are not a true Cooey (not designed by Cooey). That said, are on par with the 10/22, easier to strip, and lower cost - perhaps that accounts for why they continue to be commercially produced (Cooey, Mossberg, Lakefield, now Savage 64).

Similarly the 71(0)s are not a true Cooey, were a blind mag version of the Winchester model 70 so no better / no worse.

No flash about them, some beauty in design and details (i.e. the captive knurled action screw), and simplicity of manufacture (the single shot design was awarded the Certificate of Honour in 1924 at the British Empire Exhibition in Wembley) but after 70+ years still seem to work at least as well (or better) than what is currently available in terms of getting the job done.

As H4831 facetiously illustrated, Cooeys work well enough to educate shooters (even the army agreed with that) and the reliability of which ndb86, gunsaholic, IMagius, Infantry-Soldier, spacesaver et al, speak seems to be appreciated in all sorts of circumstances (though suspect the bear may have been a squirrel).

The Cooper may operate with more panache but at 50 yards wont deal with vermin any differently.
 
I'm 24, got my pal 6 years ago. First gun I ever bought was a cooey model 60 (ranger repeater). It would shoot clover leaf groups at 25y all day. Even ring steel at 200 consistantly if you aimed at the right tree branch.
 
I have 2 Model 82's
There are very accurate and a pleasure to take to the range and let others try them out.

They are an inexpensive rifle, but you dont have enough $$ to buy them.
Laugh2
 
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