Starting off a gun collection with a .22LR is a smart idea for many reasons. I bought my first firearm, a Marlin model 60 with the help of my parents from walmart for $89 30 years ago. The main selling point for me was the 15 shot tube fed magazine, as even at 10 years old I was interested in delivering the most firepower on target as possible. I used the next birthday and Christmas to get a speed loader and a scope. My father seemed to think the speed loader was a little much, and even commented, "So you will need this if you are ever in a fire fight with a few dozen attackers?"
It took this gun out after not shooting it in a very long time. The benchmark for rimfire accuracy is 50 yards. Using this very cheap rifle with the most budget ammo available (Remington Thunderbolts) I was only able to manage at 1.7 inch group at that distance. In the time since I last shot it, I went on to enjoy competing in Olympic style shooting with finely tuned Anschutz and Feinwerkbau rifles for several years. As fun as it was to play with again, the lack of accuracy and the nine pound trigger was more than I could bear, and I set out to find a suitable replacement.
I wanted to find a semi auto .22 LR that could stack bullets. I found myself searching rimfirecentral.com, the internet home of rimfire experts and a wealth of knowledge on the topic. One name that kept coming up was KIDD. Tony Kidd builds a high end copy of the ruger 10/22, improving on every single aspect of the rifle. To my knowledge, the only parts shared with a standard 10/22 are the safety and magazine. Tony will custom build one to your exact specifications. I chose and Ansuchutz style stock, a threaded 18 inch match grade Lothar/Walther barrel, and a two stage trigger set to 6 oz. The detail and tight tolerances he puts into his rifle builds make it among the most accurate semi auto .22's money can buy. I added a 6.5-20x Vortex scope and fed it Lapua Midas + ammo.
The cost of this rifle is substantial, but shooting an extremely accurate .22 is something you do not grow out of or get tired of doing. Everyone I have let shoot it will go straight through the 25 round magazine and start looking for another one like a heroin addict the moment it goes click instead of bang.
The .22 has a wide variety of ammo available from CCI Quiets at 710 fps to CCI Velocitors going 1435 fps. Below is a test I did of each showing differences in sound.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4tyUy2tlWM
Personally I have settled on CCI SV as my go to ammo as it offers the best balance of cost and accuracy. It also runs just subsonic at 1080 fps for suppressor use.
Starting a firearms collection with a .22 rifle gives you a tool that works as a low cost trainer, a lightweight rifle to hike with, a gun that could be pressed into a defensive roll, a survival rifle capable of quietly dispatching small to medium game, and a fun plinking rifle.
The .22's fatal flaw is that they shoot very dirty. I have found with most semi autos, cleaning every 200 rounds is needed for reliable function. A ring of carbon develops just forward of the chamber and a simple bore snake will only get one part of the way to keeping it clean. Lubrication is another paradox of the rimfire world. No lube results in poor function, while over lubing causes powder fouling to pile up everywhere in the action. I have the best luck spraying the internals with RemOil, then wiping away any excess.
In the future I plan on doing a video comparison between the Marlin and KIDD, as well as a showdown between a Ruger Single Six, and a Volquartsen Scorpion. Testing each with cheap as well as top of the line ammo should make for a fun experiment.
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