RedBeard’s Curious Life

After using my .22 rifle and AR-15 for a while, I got the itch for long-range precision shooting. The .22 cartridge is only accurate to 100 yards, and .223 is accurate to about 600 yards, although my AR-15 isn’t super-accurate. Drawing inspiration from movies and games, I wanted a rifle that could reach out to 1000 yards or more; for a bullet to remain accurate at long range, it must maintain supersonic speed because the transition to subsonic randomly and significantly destabilizes a bullet. Military snipers have used the M21, M24, and M110 to great success, and all of those rifles fire the .308 cartridge which is known to maintain supersonic speed beyond 1000 yards. The M24 is a bolt-action rifle, which is a design well regarded for its accuracy, whereas semi-auto actions like the M21 and M110 are typically regarded as good but not great. I wanted to have an M24 of my own, capable of hitting a dinner plate at 1000 yards.

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Prior to my shotgun acquisition, I was also looking at handguns, as they are far more compact and suitable to carry on the street or in a car. I visited the local indoor range and tried a variety of rentals: 3 different calibers (9mm, .40, and .45), 5 handguns in each caliber, firing 10 rounds per handgun. My experience was that there was a ton of variety in the feel & performance of the available options, so it was tough trying to decide what I liked best. While not exactly scientific, my investigative exercise helped me pare down the selection to examine more thoroughly.

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After enjoying my two rifles (the .22 and AR-15) for a couple of months, I felt compelled to own a shotgun. The selection of shotguns is quite broad, with different calibers, barrel lengths, and action types, all with somewhat specific purposes in mind. Longer barrels are appropriate for longer-range shooting, and semi-auto actions are good for rapid fire while pump action is meant to be utterly reliable. My intention was to own a shotgun with a primary purpose of home defense, and a secondary purpose of fun at the range.

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Continuation of series. Previous post.

The .22 rifle is a nice gun, but I wanted something with more reach, more punch, and more reliability – something capable of taking large magazines and spending them at a relatively high rate of fire and with good accuracy. At the time, there was much rumor of the political powers reinstating an assault-weapons ban, and the rumor was strengthened by the attorney general outright proclaiming that goal. That rumor has since faded, but at the time I wanted to hedge that bet by buying something that could be banned, despite the price markup that dealers were enjoying. I simply had to get an AR-15 of reputable manufacture and features.

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I tried target shooting earlier this year, and discovered how exhilirating it can be to send some hot lead flying down-range. After taking an outing with some friends and trying various pistols and rifles at the local range, I decided I had to buy some of my own that were even better than the ones available for rental. Little did I know how much money I’d end up spending on this hobby in the course of 9 months.

I started with a .22 rifle, the Remington 597 in synthetic/stainless. The actual rifle I received was old stock sold as new, and I discovered it was 10 years old by searching for the serial number. This meant it came with the original-design plastic magazine, which has a tendency to jam up; a quick call to Remington had them sending me a new-design aluminum magazine for free that has been much more reliable. There are also a few rust spots on the barrel and magazine.

The rifle shoots nicely up to about 100 yards and can be taken to indoor pistol ranges without difficulty. I tried using it to complete a marksmanship evaluation, but wasn’t able to do the prone portion of the test due to backstop and target placement. Extrapolating the standing and sitting portions placed me into the top tier of performance, Expert, which made me feel pretty good about both myself and my equipment. My girlfriend also likes shooting this rifle because it has almost no recoil, is relatively quiet, and it has a very simple blowback recoil action. It does jam up once in a while, the most common being a bolt hold-open failure when the magazine is empty, and the occasional failure-to-feed. I wouldn’t trust my life to this rifle, but it’s fine for short-range target practice with cheap ammo.

Decent .22 ammo has been difficult to find since I bought the rifle, and I recently used up the last of the 525-round Federal value pack I bought along with the rifle back in March. I like this particular ammo because it comes in a hefty value pack, it has copper-plated hollow-point bullets, and the price is right around 4 cents per round. Thankfully, Cabela’s had a bulk offering at a decent price with free shipping, so I now have over 4000 rounds of .22 sitting around, begging to be used. I added a cheap Bushnell scope which makes it relatively easy to get nice tight groups at 50-100 yards off a bench rest. The most affordable piece of my arsenal, this .22 rifle has only cost me about $500 in total, including freight, ammo, and cleaning supplies.

Here’s a picture of me shooting the Remington 597 at the local indoor range, Wade’s.