Yesterday was nice; temps around -10c, little to no wind, clear skies, and the house all to myself. So, naturally, I decided to spend the afternoon shooting. I didn't feel like donning my snowshoes to go out to my shooting bench, but I have a number of reactive targets set up for easy rimfire use off the porch, so that was an easy choice.
I decided to concentrate on a couple of rifles that needed some love. First up was my beloved Brno 2E bolt gun; my father gifted me this back around 1980. It's a high-mileage gun, probably one of my two or three highest round count guns. I don't keep records of shots fired, but I do keep casual records of bricks and cases of rimfire ammo used, and this single gun is responsible for at least 140,000 rounds over the years. It's likely my most-frequently-fired gun as well; I very much doubt that it has gone more than a week without being used for the past 40-ish years, and it's often a daily shooter for continuous weeks on end. Its wood has been refinished at least twice, maybe 3x, and it has had a couple springs replaced over the years. It was a favourite rabbit hunter back when I did that a lot, but lately it's been a back-porch plinker and targeteer and has dispatched an assortment of backyard pests as well. It's worn a bunch of scopes throughout its life, but a year or two back I took off the optics and it has been my one single solitary open-iron-sights rimfire. It's smooth as silk, has an amazing trigger, and provides exceptional accuracy. It's such a terrific shooter that its accuracy was what kept me from taking off the scopes for so long; it just seemed silly to cripple such a wonderful shooter with iron sights. I have 14 or 15 magazines for this rifle, so this is one of the few guns that I use in the bitterly cold depths of winter. I load all the mags up indoors, and when I have shot all of that...I'm usually done for that day!
It's nothing special to look at, but it has a sleek, sophisticated Euro charm all its own. It's slim and petite and light, and yet still manages to feel like a quality adult-sized rifle. It handles like a dream. I absolutely love this gun.
I burned about a half box of leftover ammo in this, and followed that up with one entire brick of Federal Champion, one of my current favourite budget ammo choices. Most of this was directed at a little orange plastic spinner-type target at 50 yards, but about 100 rounds were much slower and more deliberate, fired offhand or off standing shooting sticks at a 2-inch metal gong at 100 yards. The nice long barrel keeps this a quiet shooter, and the gratifying little clinks from the gong were easy to hear. No ear pro required...what a joy!
I occasionally took a break from this relaxing routine with the other gun I had out...the new acquaintance. This is one of those nice little mare's leg style leverguns brought in recently by SFRC, the Chiappa LA 332. I think they called it the Bandito or Desperado or Incognito or some stupid name. There was an ongoing thread on here about them for awhile. It looked cool, it was cheap, it shot cheap ammo...I had to have one. Shortly after receiving it, I mounted an ancient One V red dot sight, which I've owned for 40 or 45 years. It's been in more or less continuous use all that time on a succession of .22's, and it still works like a charm. It mounts with a set of 1-inch rings, and in the case of the Chiappa I used a set of old Millett .22-dovetail rings because they fit nicely over the silly arched receiver top of the Chiappa. This receiver profile makes most rimfire rings unusable; somebody posted on CGN about filing down the top of the receiver to allow the use of any rings desired. I considered doing this, but instead just spent a few minutes clawing through my stash of gun junk and came up with the Milletts. They work perfectly, as does the One V sight.
This gun is so cheap that it's an almost ridiculous contrast to the lovely little Brno. But for the money...well under $400 all in to my door...and by today's standards, it is a steal. It's not silky smooth, but it hasn't had hundreds of thousands of rounds through it. It has a surprisingly light crisp trigger, provides better accuracy than I have any right to expect, and it functions 100%, no failures of any kind. I like it, well enough in fact that I may put some effort into mounting a more compact, more modern red dot on it at some point. The One V has a profile that is closer to a short scope than to a typical compact red dot.
The Chiappa has allowed...actually, it more or less insisted...that I play around with various grips and positions to get the most out of it. After owning and playing with a couple of .44mag mare's hands, I eventually sold them, keeping one that was modified with a full-length rifle stock. But with a nice cheap-to-shoot .22, I re-visited this experiment. Shot with the fore-end rested on a sandbag, and my elbows on the shooting table...i.e. like a handgun...it allowed hitting a 2-inch spinner every time at 25 yards. Better still, shooting it offhand, gripped in both hands like a rifle and with my jawbone resting on the heel of my shooting hand, I was still able to keep the spinner spinning with almost every shot.
Hmmm...I wonder if I should replace the short grip on my .44 mare's leg and try that grip? Naahhhhh.....!
By the time my wife returned from shopping, I had swept up all the .22 brass and was relaxing with a post-shooting beer. I feel bad for those shooters who claim to have out-grown rimfires, or who find them boring. In actuality, they are way too much fun not to use...a lot...
I decided to concentrate on a couple of rifles that needed some love. First up was my beloved Brno 2E bolt gun; my father gifted me this back around 1980. It's a high-mileage gun, probably one of my two or three highest round count guns. I don't keep records of shots fired, but I do keep casual records of bricks and cases of rimfire ammo used, and this single gun is responsible for at least 140,000 rounds over the years. It's likely my most-frequently-fired gun as well; I very much doubt that it has gone more than a week without being used for the past 40-ish years, and it's often a daily shooter for continuous weeks on end. Its wood has been refinished at least twice, maybe 3x, and it has had a couple springs replaced over the years. It was a favourite rabbit hunter back when I did that a lot, but lately it's been a back-porch plinker and targeteer and has dispatched an assortment of backyard pests as well. It's worn a bunch of scopes throughout its life, but a year or two back I took off the optics and it has been my one single solitary open-iron-sights rimfire. It's smooth as silk, has an amazing trigger, and provides exceptional accuracy. It's such a terrific shooter that its accuracy was what kept me from taking off the scopes for so long; it just seemed silly to cripple such a wonderful shooter with iron sights. I have 14 or 15 magazines for this rifle, so this is one of the few guns that I use in the bitterly cold depths of winter. I load all the mags up indoors, and when I have shot all of that...I'm usually done for that day!
It's nothing special to look at, but it has a sleek, sophisticated Euro charm all its own. It's slim and petite and light, and yet still manages to feel like a quality adult-sized rifle. It handles like a dream. I absolutely love this gun.
I burned about a half box of leftover ammo in this, and followed that up with one entire brick of Federal Champion, one of my current favourite budget ammo choices. Most of this was directed at a little orange plastic spinner-type target at 50 yards, but about 100 rounds were much slower and more deliberate, fired offhand or off standing shooting sticks at a 2-inch metal gong at 100 yards. The nice long barrel keeps this a quiet shooter, and the gratifying little clinks from the gong were easy to hear. No ear pro required...what a joy!
I occasionally took a break from this relaxing routine with the other gun I had out...the new acquaintance. This is one of those nice little mare's leg style leverguns brought in recently by SFRC, the Chiappa LA 332. I think they called it the Bandito or Desperado or Incognito or some stupid name. There was an ongoing thread on here about them for awhile. It looked cool, it was cheap, it shot cheap ammo...I had to have one. Shortly after receiving it, I mounted an ancient One V red dot sight, which I've owned for 40 or 45 years. It's been in more or less continuous use all that time on a succession of .22's, and it still works like a charm. It mounts with a set of 1-inch rings, and in the case of the Chiappa I used a set of old Millett .22-dovetail rings because they fit nicely over the silly arched receiver top of the Chiappa. This receiver profile makes most rimfire rings unusable; somebody posted on CGN about filing down the top of the receiver to allow the use of any rings desired. I considered doing this, but instead just spent a few minutes clawing through my stash of gun junk and came up with the Milletts. They work perfectly, as does the One V sight.
This gun is so cheap that it's an almost ridiculous contrast to the lovely little Brno. But for the money...well under $400 all in to my door...and by today's standards, it is a steal. It's not silky smooth, but it hasn't had hundreds of thousands of rounds through it. It has a surprisingly light crisp trigger, provides better accuracy than I have any right to expect, and it functions 100%, no failures of any kind. I like it, well enough in fact that I may put some effort into mounting a more compact, more modern red dot on it at some point. The One V has a profile that is closer to a short scope than to a typical compact red dot.
The Chiappa has allowed...actually, it more or less insisted...that I play around with various grips and positions to get the most out of it. After owning and playing with a couple of .44mag mare's hands, I eventually sold them, keeping one that was modified with a full-length rifle stock. But with a nice cheap-to-shoot .22, I re-visited this experiment. Shot with the fore-end rested on a sandbag, and my elbows on the shooting table...i.e. like a handgun...it allowed hitting a 2-inch spinner every time at 25 yards. Better still, shooting it offhand, gripped in both hands like a rifle and with my jawbone resting on the heel of my shooting hand, I was still able to keep the spinner spinning with almost every shot.
Hmmm...I wonder if I should replace the short grip on my .44 mare's leg and try that grip? Naahhhhh.....!
By the time my wife returned from shopping, I had swept up all the .22 brass and was relaxing with a post-shooting beer. I feel bad for those shooters who claim to have out-grown rimfires, or who find them boring. In actuality, they are way too much fun not to use...a lot...
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