Looking for a .22 for the girlfriend. Help me find 'the one'

If your GF is of smaller stature, I suggest the CZ 455 Scout.
Around $400 from Ellwood, pretty good irons, light, 18" barrel, youth LOP.

My GF is 5' 3" and she loves the short stock because she can hold the gun closer and not get tired as fast.

Another thing to consider is if she likes how it looks. Girls seem to put more weight on how a gun looks compared to how it functions. My girl loves a nice wooden stock and clean, simple design - not the tacticool black, plastic and angular stocks which I like.

Agree on the CZ scout, except I am pretty sure the barrel is 16.5”.
 
Thanks for all the replies fellas!

The criteria was picked by me, but silently implied by a girl who knows nothing about guns and is surprisingly practical. Fortunately looks took a distant second place to actually liking how the gun feels.

Last week I bought the midget in our house a Savage Rascal (he’s 9) and he barely got to shoot it cause the girl who has never shown much interest in guns all the sudden couldn’t get enough .22 plinking. She liked the fact that it was small, but obviously the length of pull was far too short for her. I wanted to get her something that wasn’t going to be heavy and would be easy to swing around for a small girl. I wasn’t married to the idea of a short barrel length, but it was definitely appealing.

Ended up going with the Ruger American compact. She preferred the stock of the American to the savage B22 compact we looked at. Said it was “comfier” and the gun felt lighter. A bit over what I was hoping to spend but the more she spends the more I can spend. Chess, not checkers.

Thanks for the suggestions everybody. If I get pictures of her doing anything embarrassing I’ll be sure to post them for your entertainment.
 
I always suggest a bolt action for a first gun, but ladies also like to have fun and get bored super easy.

That said, I have found the ladies in our family enjoyed plinking and reactive targets, over bench shooting paper.

They also do not like heavy guns, reloading, or working a bolt action and re-establishing a sight picture, they just want to have easy fun shooting.

So a semi is what gets used, while my bolt actions sit in the vault.

My teenage daughter and wife enjoy using my SBR 10/22 and GSG16 both with red dots (scopes seem to stress them) because the are light and fun. My son who is over six foot, likes the GSG STG44, the girls say it is too heavy.

But hey, my ladies could just be spoiled. :)
 
We made a Costco run, dipped into cabelas just to get our hands on some and luckily they had a few of the recommend rifles in store.
I’d much rather her be able to actually hold something rather than rolling the dice on an online purchase and end up buying two guns when the first one ends of not being pink enough.

I tricked her and the kid into shooting by getting them to shoot at skeet’s. Not nearly as testosterone driven as reactive targets, but instant gratification goes a long way when your target audience has a short attention span. I find bolt action also helps with this phenomenon.
 
The last time I went out shooting, there were some other folks shooting skeets. When they left i swung my .22s onto the hood of the truck and started finishing off the skeets that either didnt get shot or somehow landed intact. Was satisfying hitting targets anywhere from 85 to 135 yds. There was no trace of them when I was done, even small pieces are fair game lol.

My wife says she likes semi autos. The remington is "hers", but she doesnt like shooting suddenly. So, i get both still lol.
 
I have a lil rossi pump with octagon barrel and straight english style stock. Even girls who hate guns want to try it. If i wanted a girl to shoot id bring my rossi pump
 
Isnt it a rule that you double your budget when shopping for the wife/girlfriend?

That's what I thought...
1st - A GF interested in firearms/shooting/motorcycles/archery/hunting ought to be promoted to wife-material
2nd - Most women shooters I've know were accuracy freaks...
3rd - I'd let her pick what she wants and deal with it.... Heck, in a worst-case scenario, you'll end-up with a Cooper/Anschutz in the safe.
 
That's what I thought...
1st - A GF interested in firearms/shooting/motorcycles/archery/hunting ought to be promoted to wife-material
2nd - Most women shooters I've know were accuracy freaks...
3rd - I'd let her pick what she wants and deal with it.... Heck, in a worst-case scenario, you'll end-up with a Cooper/Anschutz in the safe.

Look around for an Anschutz... my wife has a collection and just loves these rifles over all others. It might be in her head or it might be the fit and sights but she seems to shoot better with them. Occasionally you can find an CIL or an older Savage made by Anschutz but if you look hard enough, you might be able to find something like a repeating Anschutz Hunter for next to nothing. That is how we got my wife's most recent purchase... went on line at 3am in the morning and an Anschutz 64 action repeater popped up on SFRC's website for $200 so needless to say... I love gun stores with real time updates and where you could just buy something with one click. When it arrived, it came with a globe front and a mil ajustable rear peep sight and was in very good condition except it only came with one magazine and there was an 1 inch "H" carved into where the stock cap would normally go at the base of the stock. No one with the intial "H" here which reminds me, I should just look for a stock cap. Or if "H" is regretting trading in the rifle, I would like to sell it back to them at $650.lol I am not that insensitive so I will lower it to $649.
 
Looking for a 22 for the girlfriend, then putting requirements in the mix then adding a "kid" in the picture left me with a vision of what the rest of the picture looks like.

5'2" - 6', 110 - 220 pounds, 30 - 50 years . . . where does your picture compare.

Is this a rifle you would use or do you have your own at this time and if you have your own already what is the fit and what changes would be required it the two are not compatible?

Until she has tried out ten different rifles in various configurations you will not know and everyone else is guessing.

"Looking for girlfriend who likes fishing, cooking and camping . . . has a boat suitable for lake fishing . . . send picture of yourself and boat"!
 
Aloha friends.

To cut to the chase, I’m trying to find a .22 for the girlfriend and have a few criteria I’d like to stick to but am having issues finding options

In a perfect world I’d like to hover around the $400 region.
Bolt action.
Iron sights
Shorter barrel. 16” or 18” would be ideal.

If anyone owns anything that fits the bill and feels like sharing it would be greatly appreciated.
Comments about how replacing the girlfriend would be easier than finding this unicorn of a rifle are also encouraged.


Cheers.

I've got a couple real nice looking .22's , what does your girl friend look like ..?
 
Commenting one someone's GF... that's not very nice nor classy... :rey2

It was meant as a question.

In the simplest terms, will a Rascal work because it does have fixed sights.
$400 will put a number of Savages and Mossbergs in the picture and if required the stock can be reduced.
Cabela's has a sale on this week with a scope in the subscriber's price range.
I like my bolt guns, and I have two 10/22's and have had marlin 39's but nothing in the price range suggested.

IF my wife was interested in shooting the CZ would be a starting point but if she really wanted the Cooper she would fit the bill too.

The original post still brings back memories of previous similar posts but all of the "requirements" suggests HE is really buying a gun for himself.

It also brings back a picture of a guy, all 5'4" of him, teaching his 5'10 wife how to shoot.
The rifle was a full size model that was too big for him and he crawled up the stock like a six year old.
Her? She handled the rifle like a man would . . . get the picture . . . or we supposed to guess?
 
I know you said bolt action .22 buuuuutttt... Have you considered a .22 lever action, I find them to be alot more fun to shoot with beginners. If you are concerned about safety, you can just load 1 round in the tube at a time in the beginning, and then go from there. Of course, if your only location to shoot is a range, maybe a bolt action would be better off the bench. Henry makes a nice lever action that would fit your budget, they also have a youth model, if she is small in stature.

Anyways.. just a thought :)
 
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