Ranger .22 bolt action - opinions?

lord-humungous

lord-humungous

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It's about the fifth one down in this post on EE, for sale by fellow board member.
http://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php?t=211590

I'm looking to track down a good deal on a bolt action .22 while I wait for my PAL, and can't seem to track down any opinions or reviews on this rifle. Anyone have any experience with these rifle who might be able to highlight it's strengths and weaknesses?

This will be my first powder burner, but I have many air guns. So I prize accuracy. Thanks in advance!
 
.22

My dad got one on his 15 birthday(almost 50 years ago). It had a total of 50 shells fired through it and got stored until i took an interest in hunting. 40 years later i passed my test to hunt and we got to take our dads to the range for some introductory firearm training. We had a friend look the gun over and clean it up. We took it to the range the next day and at 50 yards open sight it shot the targets every time.

A couple years later i bought a Remington 597 and we went down to the range and it outshot my new gun. To make a long story short, guys have tried to buy it from us countless times because they claim the older guns are better built and will last. I sold my P.O.S. Remington 597 a year ago and would never buy another newer .22 again. The gun has only fired a couple hundred rounds now but i thing i know for sure is my Grandpa bought a great gun for my dad and it will never ever be for sale. I personally would not hesitate buying that gun especially at that price. If it was well cared for and i needed one i would buy it. Not to do any bashing but my dads gun is 50 years old and worked better and went bang(every time) and shot more accurate than the new gun. Just my opinion.
 
"Ranger" is a pretty common name in the world of vintage .22 rifles. It was used by several stores such as Wards as their store brand name for rifles made by several Mfg'ers. Plus I believe Cooey made a Ranger and there was a company out of Texas that made .22 rifles under the "Ranger" name. I know I've seen .22 store brand rifles marked Ranger that were made by Steven's and Marlin. And possibly Mossberg.
Generally, most Ranger store brand rifles, such as the Models 34 & 36 which I believe are made by Marlin, were simple utilitarian field grade guns. Not intended for match grade accurracy. But still made by "old world" standards and if in good condition capable of VG accurracy. But the model made by Stevens (A Stevens Model 416 I believe) was considered a target grade rifle in it's day. And has an excellent rep for match grade accuracy.
The moral of the story is that when you say "I have a Ranger .22", it could be any one of a 1/2 dozen models of rifles made by any one of 1/2 dozen MFG'ers. More info is needed to accurrately know which one you have.
 
You could not ask for a better starter rifle. They were built to last and so many are still shooting very well. I shoot an old Cooey 750 single with a 3x9x scope and out to 200 yards, it knocks things over. the barrel has seen many better days and the with rust removed, it looks odd but at the range, it sure attracts attention by the way it shoots. Never put down the old stuff.
 
I don't want to sound neg. but, Rangers were the low priced guns of the time, serviceable, yes, but if you are interested in accuracy it's not gonna do it for you. There are some old .22s that are very accurate, like Win.52s, Martinis, Anschutz and others. Don't discount all the new .22s when it comes to accuracy, the CZ452, TC, and some 10/22s are plenty accurate.
 
The rifle pictured is most definitely a Cooey 60. Eaton's carried Ranger marked .22's for a while, as did a lot of the smaller hardware chains in Western Canada. I have one of the Ranger marked guns in the vault. A bit of an oddity in what Cooey normally offered, this one had a very highly polished, deeply blued barrel. Barrel contour is a bit beefier than the 750 I have. The magazine is an interesting design- the outer tube slides back and forth as the bolt is opened and closed. The magazine rattle-clinks a fair amount- not my first choice for a hunting rifle. The Savage style sights on it are not all that bad, if your eyes are up to it. If you want to scope it, it will need to be d&t for a Weaver #2 side mount. The bolt handle slot makes top mounts a bit of an iffy proposition. I was able to wring 1" at 50 yds out of mine with the irons- probly would shoot a lot tighter with a scope and trigger work. For a first rifle, this would be a bit of a questionable choice- if you wanna scope, look at the current Savage rimfire line...
Good luck with the choices.

Regards,

Doc Sharptail
 
Good luck finding parts without having to buy a whole new (used) rifle. I've got a Ranger single shot which is missing the bolt. I've given up trying to get a bolt as I would just have to purchase a complete set up, I would give the thing away if given the chance.
 
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