Google to ruger.com and look for model 1159 (sorry, I tried to link the page but my luck there is erratic at best) -- that's the new Ruger 10/22 Autoloading Rimfire Rifle, .22LR.
Bought one today, fired a couple hundred rounds through it, and it is truly sweet. It's the size that fits me best, shoots great, looks gorgeous, and I guess that's what favorite guns are all about.
Suggested retail price only $275, got it for $220, life is good. Where else can you have so much fun for years at the least cost than with a good .22 plinker?
My model has a totally smooth and comfortable beech stock and the jazzy open sights. I was thinking about a nicer walnut stock, but that comes with three things I don't want: stock checkering, more traditional sights, and sling rings -- and for about $60 more.
As I mentioned, I gave my Browning Semi-Automatic to my son along with a Ruger 10/22 carbine. I really liked both guns, although I thought the earlier 10/22 carbine was too chunky, too fat in the stock.
The Browning Semi-Auto, a classic since WWI, is about the most perfect plinker imaginable, flawless. But somehow I wanted a little more ooomph to it.
Enter the new Ruger 10/22 Rifle. It has a wonderfully new proportioned stock, excellent fiber optic front and rear sights with contrasting colors (red on front framed by green in back), and at 38.5 inches and five pounds suits me just fine.
I prefer the loading ease of a tubular like the Browning Semi-Auto or Marlin 60DL, but the Ruger's rotary 10-round magazine has its advantages, e.g., bought a couple extras so easy to have 30 rounds in case I'm attacked by a herd of Monty Python super rabbits.
In Virginia, can even buy 25- or 50-round magazines for the Ruger if you want (no, they're not rotary inside the stock). But 10 rounds already fly through the Ruger too quickly for frugality, so I'll stick with the rotaries.
What first caught my eye was the Compact version (Model 1168) at only 34 inches long and four pounds. It is not advertised as a youth gun, but maybe it should be. The stock was just too short for me -- no fun shooting all hunched up.
Reminds me of the early M-16s that felt like some weird metal toy gun compared to the comfortable M-1 carbine.
I wish the Ruger 10/22 Rifle had bolt-open after the last shot, and I wish its bolt lock were more intuitive instead of being back to lock bolt open and up to close bolt. This reminds me of the Sig pistol challenges trying to figure out some of its mechanism.
Also, the manual should include all specifications. Don't know why some manufacturers don't put those in when all owners want to have the max info available about their guns, including the basics like length and weight, all the stuff that is on the inside pages of the internet site.
The Ruger 22 is one of the world's most adaptable guns with all sorts of options offered through after market sources. I'll leave mine mostly as it is, although I did buy two Ruger transparent 10-round magazines. Cool to see how the shells look in the rotary cylinder.
Oh, and another thing: manufacturers should admit any serious extra requirement up front in all ads, even in the fine print, instead of surprising purchasers in the manual after they bought the gun. For example, this manual includes the 10/22 Carbine, 10/22 Rifle, and 10/17 Rifle.
The 10/22 includes the 10/22 Magnum. On page 14 is a warning not to use "some types of .22 Magnum cartridges that have blunt-nose or sharp-shoulder bullets which can interfere with smooth and reliable feeding ...."
On page 15 is a warning not to use Stinger ammo that "can stick in the tighter chambers of target rifles, including the Ruger 10/22 Target Rifle (I don't know what this is, but it apparently is not the regular 10/22 Rifle I bought)...."
On page 18 is a warning for the Magnum rifle that on page 26 is extended to the 10/17 as well: "Never fire more than 50 shots without scrupulously cleaning the chamber....An excess of dirt, powder residue, or oil in the chamber will cause malfunctions and may result in potentially dangerous cartridge case ruptures and release of hot gasses and case fragments when firing."
I don't know about you, but I'm not buying any gun whose chamber has to be scrupulously cleaned every 50 rounds.
Presumably potential buyers of 10/22 Magnum or 10/17 are somehow informed of this serious requirement BEFORE purchase.
This is a lot of information, but I think it's the kind of stuff all gun owners need to be aware of.
Still haven't found a plinking handgun I like better than my Browning Buck Mark. The store owner explained to me today that .22 double-action revolvers are particularly difficult to manufacture because of something about the delicacy of the way the .22 rimfire mechanism works.
Thanks again for the excellent inputs about your favorite .22 plinkers. Keep the thread going from time to time as you develop more thoughts about plinkers to share. .22 plinkers is one of those rare fun activities available to most everyone at reasonable cost and effort.
