Question for you all

M

mrpike

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How many of you grew up with a single shot .22 and because of it figure you became a better shot today?? back then we were lucky if we had a bx of shells and we had to make them count.

We then graduated to a marlin, mosberg repeater etc that we could scope and we had the world by the tail.


The Question is would we be as good shots today if we'd have had semi's to spray lead out of instead of taking the time to place each shot knowing by the time we got another rd loaded that grouse, rabbit etc would be gone.

just a thought :D
 
I bought my first gun (henry lever action 22) almost a year ago. I think that if I had gotten a semi auto I would have had a harder time getting my aim down better.
 
when i was growing up and i went ot my uncles, me and my cousin would go out gopher shooting. He had a .22 with a clip and a scope. I had a single shot 22 with open sights. When you have only one shot you make it count. He would always outshoot me, but not by much. When i did this alot when i was young i was really good shot (for a 13 year old). regretably I have been shooting with a scope for far to long now and have lost anything that would resemble accuracy using open sights. Now i wouldn't be able to hit the ground with my uncles old single shot 22
 
The action of a firearm has nothing to do with marksmanship.
stance/ posture, grip, sight alignment, trigger control and breathing control are much more crucial than the action of a firearm.
Secondly, practice is what will make a person shoot better. Its not how fast or slow they have a round chambered, nor is it how fast they can pull the trigger...
Calculating the distance to the target, knowing the trajectory of your rounds and being able to account for wind deflection is what will make a person shoot better.
If we look at this as a "cause and effect" situation, I would say that practicing proper fundamentals is what makes a marksman. The action is just a preference and has nothing to do with the outcome of being a good marksman or not.

If we were to talk about patience... well I would have to say that anyone who can practice all morning with a bolt action .22 is a far more patient person than I am.:)
 
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My dad started me with a Cooey, but a 64B. He had so many magazine problems that we used it as a single shot. It took some doing to pull back the bolt and lock the bolt knob into the slot, then gingerly drop a round into the chamber. A regular bolt action would've been like a machine gun to me then. Got all the basics down though. I cut my teeth on bluing and stock refinishing on that same rifle. I miss my dad, my old farm and the times we shared. I used to pedal my bike 6 miles into town collecting bottles on the way. If I had enough to purchase a box of shells from the local C. Tire from the bottles - that was a perfect weekend. Legally I wasn't able to buy them, but my dad's "friend" at the store knew I wasn't going to cause problems. Now we have X-box and texting and the like - wow ain't technology grand.
 
first single shot

mine was a cooey model 750 deluxe that i traded a car battery for,dont ask where i got the battery when the guy hooked it up wrong and then wanted his gun back i said no (very strongly) again dont ask.but to answer the question yes a single makes you a better shot without a doubt imho.back then it was all i needed for a day of hogging a or plinking.now we carry 1000s of dollars worth of gear to shoot groundhogs and still seem to need more.my deer gun is a is a single shot ultra slug and it is all i need.
 
"AR-7 with the wrong ammo" = "non-cycling action" = "straight-pull bolt-action".

Still, cut my teeth on it, so by the time I got it functioning as a semi-automatic, all was well in the fire-discipline dept....
 
I would have to argue the action having nothing to do with accuracy. Semis are not usually as accurate as a bolt or lever action because the bolt is moving backwards while the bullet is still in the barrel. That said, stance, trigger pull, and a variety of other things can improve accuracy. Single shot or reg bolt action would be the same pretty much given same ammo and quality of workmanship. Still my first 22 was a Cooey 64 that cleaned up nice and would rattle off ammo like nothing and I managed to get accuracy out of it. Shot at about 60yd a fast moving groundhog and hit him with 8 of the 9 rounds with a Weaver 4x scope but the best shooting I saw was a buddy shooting a bolt and hitting a crow up in a dead tree that had to be at least 100yds away. I now shoot a CZ452 leftie bolt and no longer own a semi. They are a lot more fun to shoot though IMHO.:)
 
Only to show it is possible-not necessarily repeatable. Keep in mind it was an old wary groundhog that weighed in at probably 40lbs. Now if someone told me the same story with a chuck it well I just might question that. I would be willing to bet that just about everyone on this site has that shot or two they didnt really expect to get-I know I was surprised:)
 
Got my old model 39 layin on the bench doin' a "make over" right now. I got that rifle when I was about 8 years old.. Had it for close to 35 years now. :)

Dad and I used to go to the dump with our .22's and shoot rats when I was a kid. Could pick off a movin' rat in the sh!t pile at about 75-100 yards with that thing on iron sites, no problem... :cool:

He had a model 64, which I have now as well.... Wish I could find a mag for it...

Great little toys they were..................:D
 
My first was a Cooey 39 single shot. You bet you learn to shoot better than with a semi-automatic.
When hunting, there was no second shot, when plinking, you just took your time. No 500 round bulk packs then, you shovelled a lot of cow#### to buy a box of 50.
 
Hoser-eh said:
My first was a Cooey 39 single shot. You bet you learn to shoot better than with a semi-automatic.
When hunting, there was no second shot, when plinking, you just took your time. No 500 round bulk packs then, you shovelled a lot of cows**t to buy a box of 50.
Click to expand...

Oh hell, a box of ammo could be had at the corner store for about a buck if I remember correctly!! LOL :D

I can remember going to the general store and buying 50 rounds of .22 no problem when I was like 10... LOL nowadays, you need more paperwork to buy that little bit of plinking ammo, most kids never get to experience it...

sad reallly..
 
Plink-suggest you try Western Gun Parts for that mag. Got one for my old Savage 99c there and they have a lot of used stuff too. Great people to deal with too. Just google western gun parts and it will come up. Just got a 39 for my wife -she wants to shoot now so something simple for her to play with.
Pretty simple guns eh? Not much to them.
 
My first 22 rimfire was given to me by my dad when i turned 8. It was a Winchester Model 1902 single shot with fixed open sights (no elevation adjustment) You had to #### it after loading it and closing the bolt. How many starlings, crows and ground squirrels that rifle shot, I have no clue, but I became a respectable shot with it. I graduated to a better single shot (M67 Winchester) and then to a Mossberg semi auto, but I still remember that old 1902 fondly. Regards, Eagleye.
 
My first rifle was a Cooey 75 that a fellow renting land from my Uncle gave me. He said every boy should have his own 22. It had a worn out bolt that sometimes didn't fire off the cartridge, and if you just pulled the hammer back and let er rip a second time without turning the cartridge you might just get some brass and powder back at your face. Didn't alway extract the cartridge either, and a pocket knife came in handy.

A 79 cent box of 50 shells lasted a long time with a single shot, and a lot more gophers met their demise per box than if I'd had a repeater.

I still have that old gun. Replaced the bolt and it made all the difference. Didn't need a pocket knife anymore to pull out the spent cartridge.

Back to the question, without a doubt knowing that you had just one shot put in the right frame of mind and you made sure the shot was the best you could make. So if anything, it taught me that concentration and patience pay off. To be honest, its been a long time since I shot a 22. Last time I fired that old gun I won two turkeys at a turkey shoot. Kept the paper target in my wallet for a while because no one would believe the tight little group that gun could shoot if your cooey zen was up to snuff that day.
 
single shot 22

My first cooey was an old military trainer with full wood to the end. It was taller than I was. I then graduated to my dad's Marlin model 81 and I thought I'd died and gone to heaven, he used to chuckle when I had to lean it over to get the tube out so I could load it. Between that and my Aunts browning trombone lord know how many gophers, crows, magpies, and muskrat, jackrabbits even a few skunks and some very mean old badgers bit the dust:D.

That old cooey was something to lug around as a kid but man was it accurate. Finally at about 12 I managed to have a scope put on the Marlin an old weaver 4 power.

Back then we would pick rocks for my uncle to earn enough for a bx of shells at $.45 cents or shorts at .30 cents.. We also used to get .05 cents a tail for all the gopher tails, and if really lucky the mink farmer would give 25 cents a lb for jack rabbit:D

I believe it was those first yrs with the single shot and good coaching from pop and my uncle that helped me become the shot I am today as they stressed accuracy and shot placement made for $$ to buy more shells:D
 
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