Ranger 22: Who made it? When? And what is it worth?

N

nitro-express

CGN Regular
Rating - 100%
61   0   0
Location
R0G 0M0
I recently bought a small collection and in it was a Ranger 22, I affectionately called it the "pigeon poop special". The owner said some relative or ??? gave it to him, and he never used it. My son saw it, and because it was the ugly duckling of the lot, he laid claim to it.

The only markings on it are Ranger .22 Cal.

UMFO2Hx.jpg


It was ugly and neglected. I inspected the bore, absolutely mint, like new. My son refinished the stock with Tru-Oil, I helped with the cleanup of the metal and the cold blue. I also performed some dint removal on the butt plate. Trigger pull is a bit over 1 pound, with only a bit of take up. Not like the Cooey's I'm familiar with!

It's an easy carry, about 4 pounds. I date it a pre war and as near as I can figure it could be a Sears or Eatons gun, and it looks almost like a Cooey Ace, except for the dovetailed sights. The dovetails are 1/2 inch, so we are stuck with what it came with. I've been told some European or ??? air gun manuf. uses 1/2 dovetail.

vntNsMC.jpg


I guess it at being pre war manuf and probably worth "je ne sais quoi".
 
Old little .22 marketed by Sears & Roebuck some where around 1940
and manufactured by Savage or Marlin. For value check Armslist .
 
I think it was made by Cooey for Eatons . Weight 4 3/4 pounds, 24" barrel, over all length of around 41 inches. There is a pic of one just like it in John Belton's Cooey book. If memory serves me correctly, I have one like it in one of my gun safes.
 
Last edited:
I really think it's a cool gun. Looks much better now that the stock isn't yellow.
All fixed up I guess it wouldn't sell for more than $150. You can't even buy a modern day replacement for that much.
I associate ranger .22 with a Cooey catalog brand as well but I have no real basis for it other than something in my memory.
 
I don't believe they dropped the Eatonia name actually but probably added the Ranger branding. I have both guns and they are identical in every aspect.
 
Utilitarian, affordable, and robust. As a kid almost every home had one tucked away to keep gardens free of critters. As mentioned Ranger was the brand for mail order/catalog guns. Stock looks more like Ace/Canuck flavour to me. Value? About $3 new, priceless Canadiana now due Cooey-fever being so rampant

PM sent...
 
My bad: When someone mentioned the Cooey book by Belton, I realized that I just may have a copy. A quick scour turned up my copy and a hurried skim confirmed Ranger was an "early pre-WWII transition type from Eatonia marked brands"

iwPFc8q.jpg


Ditto above on the Cooey fever. My sons last Cooey, a later model Rabbit stocked that he reworked sold for $225 at a gun show. My nearly mint Remington 550-1, was the same price and didn't sell.

Tk6xLu9.jpg


We have better pictures, can't seem to find them. It started out as a having been won at a Junior Rifle competition in Miami, Mb. It was never fired much, stored rather poorly and before we got it it was part of a RCMP confiscation. My son shortened the barrel, stripped and re-finished the stock, I made a new trigger guard (aluminum) to replace the broken plastic one.

Nitro.
 
Last edited:
I have a Ranger .22 also, was my Dad's , He teached my Aunt & Uncle how to shoot . Got be at least 80 yrs old. Rear site has a wood wedge replacing mising ramp! Shoots real good. I going teach my 2 grandsons ( 8 & 6 now) how to shoot with this . To me, it's priceless!
 
My first gun was a Ranger branded .410 side by side shotgun, made by Savage/Stevens, 315 model. It was passed down to me by a relative and I have now passed it on to my grandchildren.
 
I had a Cooey 39 as my first .22 , and a 84 as my first shotgun. I traded them away many years ago for repeaters. Now , many years later , I again have 2 cooey's in the stable. A model 60 .22 and a 840 12 gauge. I don't shoot them hardly at all.
I just wanted them now , because they'r Canadian gun history, and I'm proud to have them.
I guess as we get older , we appreciate companies like Cooey more. They were great guns. I may even pick up a few more examples.
We need another Great Canadian gun maker nowadays ! I miss the days of cooey , and Imperial ammunition , which was excellent ammo back in the day. Imperial made everything from .22ammo , to .303 British , to .577 Snider , and pretty much everything in between ,and kept our hunters going for many years with a HUGE selection that catered to everyone's needs.
Adopt an old Cooey . Get one now , in your later years. Not because it is the only gun you can afford , like when you were a kid.
Get one because it makes you smile.
 
I believe that is why Cooeys sell well, in a lot of cases, it was the first gun people shot. I know the first gun I shot was a Cooey. My brother found one at the dump, glued the stock back together, cleaned it up and to this day it is the "Dump gun". I'm hoping this one can beat it for accuracy. We used to have Cooey day at our range, lots of fun, "Dump gun" won the honors most of the time.

Nitro
 
My two Cooeys are hand me downs. My mother and her sisters gave them to my grandfather for Father’s Day in the ‘60s. He has since passed away. One is a M39 and the other is a single shot 20g. My kids now shoot them and they are known as their guns. The oldest likes the .22 and the younger shoots the 20g. Hopefully they stay in the family for a long time to come. I know I will never part with them unless to give them to the boys.
 
In th'good book of Cooeys the stock is very AceIII, but your pics clearly show no peep(aperture), nor provision for them... Doesn't mean too much though. ISO standardization wasn't a real thing at th'ol Cooey plant(s), and a few decades of ownership since. "Ranger" is a transitional marking from anything "Eatonia" pre WWII, and a standardized model line post WWII.

The age-old debate of #### on open or #### on close means nuthin'...
 
I should have added, that the barrel is 20 inches, like the ACE 3, same stock as the Ace 3 but it does not have the peep or any provision for a peep. It was a hardware gun for Eatons. Thanks to all for the helpful info. I am satisfied. I'll call it "Ranger".
 
nitro-express said:
I should have added, that the barrel is 20 inches, like the ACE 3, same stock as the Ace 3 but it does not have the peep or any provision for a peep. It was a hardware gun for Eatons. Thanks to all for the helpful info. I am satisfied. I'll call it "Ranger".
Click to expand...

Then yes, with the 20" barrel it would be like the ACE 3. There were variations so not surprising that yours does not have the peep sight.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom