Premium 22LR Rifles

Well I found a stainless 77/22. Took apart the bolt and trued it up. Shimmed it to make up what I shaved off during the truing of the bolt. Installed new trigger shear and spring. Put on a lilja light varmint contour barrel. Put pillars in the stock. Currently the action is sitting in the shop deying in a new bed of devcon. Will see how it shoots this weekend!

If you are going to put on a new barrel, get a chamber where the bullet is slightly engraved by the Lands, and get ready for the shock of your life when it comes to accuracy. Chamber design is where the keys to the Kingdom lie!

The guy that built the Olympic rifles used the reamer on a new 40x take-off Rim fire barrel, installed on my Ruger 10/22 with custom stock. The barrel would put 10 shots in a ragged hole at 80 yards using a Leupold 36x in an underground tunnel.

Some master craftsmen know about this chamber design, so seek them out for a mind-blowing experience in rim fire accuracy.

If you just want to go factory, start with Anschutz.

Longtine88 said:

Well I found a stainless 77/22. Took apart the bolt and trued it up. Shimmed it to make up what I shaved off during the truing of the bolt. Installed new trigger shear and spring. Put on a lilja light varmint contour barrel. Put pillars in the stock. Currently the action is sitting in the shop deying in a new bed of devcon. Will see how it shoots this weekend!

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Outside of the fact that really isn't a Ruger 77 anymore , it should be one good shooting rifle. Good luck.

The original 77/22 barrels were crap. Bill Ruger bought the cheapest barrels he could find. Once he started making his own barrels, accuracy was vastly improved. It's still a Ruger as long as the receiver is a Ruger. Ask anyone that owns a Remington 700. Most have changed the trigger and the barrel if they owned one long enough.

Chokoloskee Joe said:

The original 77/22 barrels were crap. Bill Ruger bought the cheapest barrels he could find. Once he started making his own barrels, accuracy was vastly improved. It's still a Ruger as long as the receiver is a Ruger. Ask anyone that owns a Remington 700. Most have changed the trigger and the barrel if they owned one long enough.

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You are taking this WAY too seriously, but to play along, just like the 10/22, bad trigger, bad barrels that are now better but kind of like being the best looking Oakridge boy, still doesn't make you pretty. On top of that, bad barrel attachment system that needs work to be consistent, bad bolt design that needs shimming, and crappy bedding of the stock. Like most Ruger rimfire products, it costs lots of money to make them shoot well and even then, they won't shoot with a factory Anschutz.

My bergara shoots crap bulk hollow points into groups smaller than a squirrel head at 50 yards. It took about 10 or 15 rounds to start grouping, but its a shooter. Nice and light, easy to hunt with. I'm a fan.

I don't see what seriousness has to do with it, but ok! As to the conversation at hand, sure a Ruger out of the box is not as good as an Anschutz! I think everybody knows that, but fixing the problems on a lesser quality rifle does not obviate doing so even if you could buy a MUCH better quality rifle. Most guys I know, bought the Ruger 77/22 because they like how it looked and that it was a full sized hunting style rifle, something not common when it first made an appearance. Same thing as the Ruger Mini-14, it just looked great and people loved them even though they didn't shoot so well. Bill Ruger was a marketing genius and knew what people would like in terms of style.

AS to other rimfire rifle options that shoot well and don't cost two grand plus like an Anschutz or a Vudoo, my vote would be a CZ 457 MTR or a Tikka T1X. All the ones I have actually shot or shot against punch WAY higher than their cost. Coincidentally, I have a CZ455 with a Match barrel off an MTR that shoots better than my Anschutz.

VinceMule said:

If you are going to put on a new barrel, get a chamber where the bullet is slightly engraved by the Lands, and get ready for the shock of your life when it comes to accuracy. Chamber design is where the keys to the Kingdom lie!

The guy that built the Olympic rifles used the reamer on a new 40x take-off Rim fire barrel, installed on my Ruger 10/22 with custom stock. The barrel would put 10 shots in a ragged hole at 80 yards using a Leupold 36x in an underground tunnel.

Some master craftsmen know about this chamber design, so seek them out for a mind-blowing experience in rim fire accuracy.

If you just want to go factory, start with Anschutz.

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This 22 LR chambering I have learned in the last few days is that there is an art to accuracy. After all my reading I checked the chamber to the lilja barrel I put on and it had a headspace of 0.0415". I checked the barrel I took off and it was 0.059". By my reading that's a lot in the 22LR world. I may have found a new rabbit hole lol. I think I'm going to have a reamer made. But first I'm going to find out what I need into the design of it.

cz 457 varmint mtr with an arken ep5 scope will do anything you want with a 22lr.

Jud96 said:

Hey guys, I've been thinking about getting a really nice 22LR rifle in the future. My budget is preferably $1500 and under. Since building custom rifles for myself, I've had the urge to buy a high quality 22LR. My Uncle has a Kimber 82 with a fluted barrel and beautiful walnut stock and that rifle is what got me wanting a nice rimfire for myself. Having said that, it doesn't seem that Kimber makes their rimfire rifles anymore and the same with Ruger's 77/22, that I also like. I don't know much about rimfires and if the Kimbers and 77/22 Rugers were accurate and reliable. For those with experience owning, shooting, and handling the Kimber 82s and Ruger 77/22s give me your thoughts and opinions on those rifles please. Also, what other premium rimfires would you recommend in my price range? I see that Cooper makes a beautiful 22LR, but the price tag is a little more than I'd like to spend on a rimfire, but other than Cooper, I don't see many classic, higher end rimfires currently available. Thank you!

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Definitely CZ MTR... Bull Barrel with a Athlon FFP Scope. Should putt you at your budget. The 457 In either .17 or HMR you won't go wrong. The Pro Varmint has the Bloyd Stock but the cheek rest is slopy. MTR or the Pro Varmint. I shoot mine out to over 235 yards with accuracy on a 6 x 8 in target. Ammo will also factor in.

Another hand held high vote for the Steyr Zephr II. Under a $1000 and is dead nuts accurate

Jud96 said:

Hey guys, I've been thinking about getting a really nice 22LR rifle in the future. My budget is preferably $1500 and under. Since building custom rifles for myself, I've had the urge to buy a high quality 22LR. My Uncle has a Kimber 82 with a fluted barrel and beautiful walnut stock and that rifle is what got me wanting a nice rimfire for myself. Having said that, it doesn't seem that Kimber makes their rimfire rifles anymore and the same with Ruger's 77/22, that I also like. I don't know much about rimfires and if the Kimbers and 77/22 Rugers were accurate and reliable. For those with experience owning, shooting, and handling the Kimber 82s and Ruger 77/22s give me your thoughts and opinions on those rifles please. Also, what other premium rimfires would you recommend in my price range? I see that Cooper makes a beautiful 22LR, but the price tag is a little more than I'd like to spend on a rimfire, but other than Cooper, I don't see many classic, higher end rimfires currently available. Thank you!

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I have a 77/22 that I've done minimal work to. I haven't had any trigger work done yet, and am simply using a trigger shoe. The 77/22 seems to bring considerable more money than I paid when I bought mine, but there are plenty of them out there on GB. They could definitely use trigger work, but mine shoots surprisingly well as it is.
I'm looking at some targets as I write this that were shot with different brands of ammo, and the two best are Norma TAC-22 and Blazer, and neither of which are high end. I haven't tried any of the 'expensive' stuff because I'm a cheap-skate. Both shot .311 groups which to me are a good starting point showing good "out-of-the-box" accuracy.
My next move will be to install bolt shims followed by some trigger work which will probably cost around $100. Because I have no control over cartridge loading in a .22 other than brand and MV, if I can get to around 1/4" or slightly under I'll be a happy camper.
I'm pretty certain that with a custom barrel I could do better, but again I'm a cheap-skate. Since I don't compete with anyone but myself, flys at 100 yards don't interest me. I'm way under $1500~!!

Styer Zephyr II. For Les money and a most likely more accurate rifle: CZ. The Styer rifles are beautiful and accurate. Very beautiful rifles. Don't overlook Anshutz.

If you can consistently shoot .311 groups (I assume you mean at 50 yards) with Blazer and TAC-22 ammo, you should not touch that rifle! That is accuracy that is comparable to an expensive benchrest rifle.