I have a bunch of .22s, and over the course of the gopher season, most of them will get used at least once or twice, but the general pattern is...
Early spring: An old Cooey with and old, I dunno, 3x??? ish scope. Kind of a beater gun, don't mind if it gets muddy. Pretty accurate, and not really shooting in high volume. No mags to worry about losing in the mud or a hollow where the snow is still hanging around. Not shooting past 50 yards. Either that, or a CIL-Anschutz from about the same era (mid 60s) with about the same power of scope.
Late spring to early summer: It's all about the Marlin. They're up and active and it's all about volume of fire. I take 8 of the 25 round mags with me, and a lot of days I'm reloading them earlier than you'd think - and not missing much. I'll also take a short 12 gauge with me in the spring, which works a charm when you catch 3-6 of the little buggers all sticking their head out of the same hole. Later, I switch to a short .410 for the curious/dumb ones that pop up too close to easily put a scope on. Shooting out to about 75 yards, but still most at the 50 yard or under range.
(the short .410)
Mid-summer to end of summer: A CZ-452 with hyper-velocity segmented hollow point .22 ammo. The numbers are down, and the dumb ones are dead, so shooting is usually past 50 yards and out to 100. The CCI High Velocity Segmented Hollow Point is a weird round. 32 grain frangible bullet, cooking along above 1600FPS. Hits like the Hammer of Thor, but my CZ is my only .22 that can shoot them accurately - and it shoots them like a laser. The high speed and flat trajectory is great for reaching out and touching things late in the year when the shooting volume is down, and you're shooting further away.
Honorable Mention:
Sometimes I just want to shoot with irons. Hard to beat a mid-70's Browing SA-22. Funny(ish) story behind this pic. Was walking up a fenceline, picked off a few gophers along the way. On the way back, picked off a maggie that was feeding on one of the gophers I'd shot earlier (the maggies are a noisy pest that mess up the garden and chase off the songbirds). Usually I have the short .410 with me to harry the maggies, but the Browning worked just fine.
So...
Anyone else starting to dream the dream? What are the favourites in your arsenal?
Sometime in the next week or so, I'll gather up all my .22s for a group photo (lots more than just what's pictured here).
Early spring: An old Cooey with and old, I dunno, 3x??? ish scope. Kind of a beater gun, don't mind if it gets muddy. Pretty accurate, and not really shooting in high volume. No mags to worry about losing in the mud or a hollow where the snow is still hanging around. Not shooting past 50 yards. Either that, or a CIL-Anschutz from about the same era (mid 60s) with about the same power of scope.
Late spring to early summer: It's all about the Marlin. They're up and active and it's all about volume of fire. I take 8 of the 25 round mags with me, and a lot of days I'm reloading them earlier than you'd think - and not missing much. I'll also take a short 12 gauge with me in the spring, which works a charm when you catch 3-6 of the little buggers all sticking their head out of the same hole. Later, I switch to a short .410 for the curious/dumb ones that pop up too close to easily put a scope on. Shooting out to about 75 yards, but still most at the 50 yard or under range.
(the short .410)
Mid-summer to end of summer: A CZ-452 with hyper-velocity segmented hollow point .22 ammo. The numbers are down, and the dumb ones are dead, so shooting is usually past 50 yards and out to 100. The CCI High Velocity Segmented Hollow Point is a weird round. 32 grain frangible bullet, cooking along above 1600FPS. Hits like the Hammer of Thor, but my CZ is my only .22 that can shoot them accurately - and it shoots them like a laser. The high speed and flat trajectory is great for reaching out and touching things late in the year when the shooting volume is down, and you're shooting further away.
Honorable Mention:
Sometimes I just want to shoot with irons. Hard to beat a mid-70's Browing SA-22. Funny(ish) story behind this pic. Was walking up a fenceline, picked off a few gophers along the way. On the way back, picked off a maggie that was feeding on one of the gophers I'd shot earlier (the maggies are a noisy pest that mess up the garden and chase off the songbirds). Usually I have the short .410 with me to harry the maggies, but the Browning worked just fine.
So...
Anyone else starting to dream the dream? What are the favourites in your arsenal?
Sometime in the next week or so, I'll gather up all my .22s for a group photo (lots more than just what's pictured here).
