Got my squirrel rifle tuned up and ready.

[5.56×250]

We sold a lot of CZ rimfire rifles back when I was in the business. Every single customer came back bragging about the out of the box accuracy . The test groups in the box are a joke. I think they just clamp the gun in a vice and make sure it will cycle a clip of ammo.
I bought my ruger 77/17 , 1) because it is built like a real rifle instead of a series of tubes like most rimfires and 2) because the CZ had ugly test groups. Several hundred dollars and lots of tinkering has finally netted a 77/17 that truly shoots world class rimfire groupings . But out of the box, the CZ is a more accurate rifle on average. The new ruger American? Looks nice, but the jury is still out on accuracy. My son bought one last year in 17hmr. We haven't had a chance to do any real testing with it yet
I just ordered a Lilja sporter weight barrel for my 77/17 . The volquartsen barrel has shot a couple groups in the .2s at 100yds, but its only 16.5 inches long and I want to get my velocity back. I've never witnessed a better rimfire barrel that a Lilja , so I'm expecting as good , or better out of the 23 inch Lilja than I got out of the 16.5 inch volquarsen . I will post up results when I get some good data,velocity and accuracy.

 

[Ohlongarm]

We sold a lot of CZ rimfire rifles back when I was in the business. Every single customer came back bragging about the out of the box accuracy . The test groups in the box are a joke. I think they just clamp the gun in a vice and make sure it will cycle a clip of ammo.
I bought my ruger 77/17 , 1) because it is built like a real rifle instead of a series of tubes like most rimfires and 2) because the CZ had ugly test groups. Several hundred dollars and lots of tinkering has finally netted a 77/17 that truly shoots world class rimfire groupings . But out of the box, the CZ is a more accurate rifle on average. The new ruger American? Looks nice, but the jury is still out on accuracy. My son bought one last year in 17hmr. We haven't had a chance to do any real testing with it yet
I just ordered a Lilja sporter weight barrel for my 77/17 . The volquartsen barrel has shot a couple groups in the .2s at 100yds, but its only 16.5 inches long and I want to get my velocity back. I've never witnessed a better rimfire barrel that a Lilja , so I'm expecting as good , or better out of the 23 inch Lilja than I got out of the 16.5 inch volquarsen . I will post up results when I get some good data,velocity and accuracy.

Never had a CZ that didn't shoot satisfactorily right out the box, 22 hornet, 17 hornet , 452, but my Tikkas 22, and 223 shoot as well. My Ruger 77/ 22 can compete with them all but money had to be spent to make them do so, not so with the aforementioned.

 

[Jon Bischof]

Test targets from CZ are function tests not accuracy tests. Ruger factory rifle does not stack up well with CZ out of the box.

 

[5.56×250]

We sold a couple switch barrel Tikkas as well. Always got great accuracy reports back on those as well. Ghere was a good many br50 shooters in my area and a couple ranges that held rimfire comps. I dove head first into rimfire accuracy for a while. I found my ultimate bench 22 in a Sako finfire I built. Lilja barrel, jewel 2 oz trigger, and a factory stock I modified extensively. With eley 10x , I forget the lot #, it would shoot in the 0s and .10s for 5 shots , as long as I did my part. Best group at 50 ? .007 for 5 shots. Took several minutes to find the oval in the hole, lol.
EDIT......On more thought or recall, it was not tikka that made the switch barrel rimfires we sold. It was Sako. Same parent company, but different branding.

 

[5.56×250]

Mr Wayne, the local hot shoe on br50, said the hmr completely changed the game in rimfire br . Before the necked down 22 mag hit the scene, the was just a small handful of 50x perfect rounds on record locally. Overnight, people were shooting 50x targets in every match using marlin , savage, and CZ factory rifles with well sorted ammo lots in 17 hmr. A true game changer . Wayne built custom br rimfires. Turbo actions and hart barrels , custom chambered and tweaked with 30 years of rimfire knowhow . 300 dollar marlins started kicking his guns butt, lol. With rimfire, ammo is the deciding factor. Those waxed lead 22 bullets just couldn't compete with the quality jacketed bullets of the 17hmr. The 17 even gave up diameter and should cost x ring count , but still dominated. I say all this in past tense. Been away from the game for nearly 20 years now.

 

[JungleShooter]

I will pay for squirrl hunting.

Jim,

I'm with you on that!

Come to think of it. I AM paying for hunting (not counting the ammo for this).

I drive about 50 miles on highway and dirt roads there and back. So, there's the gas and the tolls.
And than who knows how much in wear & tear as I screech & crash over about 20 speed bumps.

And about two hours of my time, at least part of which I'll rather frustratedly follow some car whose driver has forgotten where the gas pedal is located.


Yupp, I AM paying for hunting.
And I gladly do!



And now I'm trying to figure out where to get rabbits and viscachas.
This is going to get a bit more expensive as they are way down South: min. 3 hours drive one way.
Or way up in the mountains at 10,000ft (and I don't trust GoogleMaps' estimation to drive the 60 miles from sea level to 10,000ft(!) in just 3 hours.... ).

Matthias

 

[MIBirdhunter]

Bought a CZ457 varmint this summer and put a Mueller 4×16 scope on it that I had laying around. Squirrel season opened yesterday here in MI, took wife out after work and she smacked a Grey in the head at 50 yards!! She had a little trouble holding up the front heavy gun for long without some support, so I taught her to use trees. Should be a fun fall.

 

[Old Hickory 45]

Of my harem of squirrel rifles is an old model Marlin Model 60 .22 LR. It is very accurate but with a very heavy trigger pull of 5 1/2 pounds to 6 pounds.

Yesterday I took it to a gunsmith pal that tore the rifle down. We discovered the trigger spring is not a coiled spring, is a dang Y shaped spring. Yeah, it shot down my expectations of an easy fix.

I recently tricked out my Savage BMAG .17 WSM here at home and bought a new Burris 3X-9X and medium scope rings for the rifle. Alas, the added Glades Armory bolt handle would not clear the adjustment ring of the scope. This was an attempt to use medium rings instead of high rings.

So, I mounted my old Bushnell Banner 3X-9X 40mm on the BMAG and it works with just enough scope clearance.

The Burris fits nicely on the Marlin 60 with medium rings. The whole intention was to get away from high rings on both rifles and now it works.

This is some info as for switching out high rings for mediums.

 

[GRG]

Of my harem of squirrel rifles is an old model Marlin Model 60 .22 LR. It is very accurate but with a very heavy trigger pull of 5 1/2 pounds to 6 pounds.

Yesterday I took it to a gunsmith pal that tore the rifle down. We discovered the trigger spring is not a coiled spring, is a dang Y shaped spring. Yeah, it shot down my expectations of an easy fix.

I recently tricked out my Savage BMAG .17 WSM here at home and bought a new Burris 3X-9X and medium scope rings for the rifle. Alas, the added Glades Armory bolt handle would not clear the adjustment ring of the scope. This was an attempt to use medium rings instead of high rings.

So, I mounted my old Bushnell Banner 3X-9X 40mm on the BMAG and it works with just enough scope clearance.

The Burris fits nicely on the Marlin 60 with medium rings. The whole intention was to get away from high rings on both rifles and now it works.

This is some info as for switching out high rings for mediums.

You can do a McCarbo spring kit and Kat trigger for the model 60. They will get that trigger down to a pretty niceand clean hunting weight.

 

[Jon Bischof]

Kat trigger is no longer offered for Marlin 60 unless I am mistaken.

 

[5.56×250]

Of my harem of squirrel rifles is an old model Marlin Model 60 .22 LR. It is very accurate but with a very heavy trigger pull of 5 1/2 pounds to 6 pounds.

Yesterday I took it to a gunsmith pal that tore the rifle down. We discovered the trigger spring is not a coiled spring, is a dang Y shaped spring. Yeah, it shot down my expectations of an easy fix.

I recently tricked out my Savage BMAG .17 WSM here at home and bought a new Burris 3X-9X and medium scope rings for the rifle. Alas, the added Glades Armory bolt handle would not clear the adjustment ring of the scope. This was an attempt to use medium rings instead of high rings.

So, I mounted my old Bushnell Banner 3X-9X 40mm on the BMAG and it works with just enough scope clearance.

The Burris fits nicely on the Marlin 60 with medium rings. The whole intention was to get away from high rings on both rifles and now it works.

This is some info as for switching out high rings for mediums.

I stuck a Hawke 4-16 scope on my 77/17 . It has an etched reticle for the 17hmr that goes to 300yds. Illuminated too. It goes in 25 yd increments from 100-300 with the polymer tipped 17gr bullet at 2550fps as the ballistic model.
My Lilja 23 inch barrel showed up today and i spent 4 hrs swapping shims between the 2 pc bolt and barrel to receiver interface till I got zero gap at the barrel to bolt surface without any extra bolt closing effort. I had already cut the rim headspacing for a .0475 rim thickness on the bolt previously. I ordered a Boyd's barracuda stock too. That should be here Friday. I have everything sitting here to pillar/glass bed the stock when it gets here.
Gun shot in the .75 range consistently at 100 and .2-.3 at 50 with the last barrel and the ruger plastic stock. Has managed .2s at 100 when the planets aligned and I held my mouth just right, but I couldn't find that lot number after I burned up the one box I had. It shot sub moa with anything in a 17gr bullet though.
I'm hoping for half moa average once I'm done with this rebuild. Squirrels are on notice that death may come from a distance that they never hear the pop from the little round, lol.

 

[remingtonman]

I've only ever hunted squirrels with a 22, or a Benjamin pellet gun. Never a shotgun or anything else, that hornet in my opinion, would devastate a squirrel. I shot a barn pigeon yesterday at a solid 100 yards and , I couldn't find a piece of meat larger than a dime within a 10 foot circle. I realize it's only a pigeon but it was totally vaporized. Hopefully a Gh soon, saw 2 yesterday but they made me on the atv, and never showed again. Squirrel pictures soon will be posted.

Just shoot them in the head and then it also makes skinning them much easier. I would use my 22-250 with a 50gr v max on squirrels when I was out coyote hunting at the end of my trip and it worked great. Anything else but a head shot will be strawberry jam

 

[Old Hickory 45]

Kat trigger is no longer offered for Marlin 60 unless I am mistaken.

Thanks for the info!