My good friend MTLEADFARMER has always had an eye for a bargain so when he found these rifles
on sale at the Ranch Supply store for $190 he send me a picture of his new purchase... which prompted me to drive the 50 miles into town to buy one of my own. The rifle is German-made ISSC Mk22 copy of a SKAR in 22LR. These rifles, until the recent downturn in the US gun market, have retailed for $345 to $499. In this case the Ranch Supply store had been selling them for $299. Accordingly, this $190 price was a bargain from any aspect provided it worked, of course. The Internet reviews were good so it was with not too much trepidation that I completed the sale and took my new gun home. I mounted the folding stock and the sights. What a strange rifle! Still, it has some nice features like cheekpiece you can elevate for scope work, an adjustable buttstock, and six mounting positions for the cocking handle: three on each side. If is shot reasonably well it would make a good truck rifle. The next day I headed for the range.
The Net Commandos were saying that CCI Mini Mag was the best ammo to run through this rifle but I used Aguila HV 40 grain. I went to the range the next morning with my bag of factory supplied accessory tools tucked into the grip. It was rainy and wet. My first two rounds off hand at 25 yards were cutting each other, four inched low and two inches right. I fired three more into inch and a quarter. The trigger was like a slushy 2-stage but controllable. I made some sight adjustments and fired a few, another set of adjustments and fired a few more. The bullets seemed to be going right where they were aimed -or at least to where the front sight was when the trigger broke. In 20 rounds there had been no malfunctions or stoppages.
Finally I was pretty much zeroed so I touched a small diamond from a Leupold sight-in target to the top of the front sight and fired 5 off hand. Three touching and the whole group under 1 inch. Huh! I moved to 50 yards and loaded 20 rounds into the magazine, and emptied them into a target at a fairly brisk rate, standing. Three and three-quarter inches with fourteen in a roughly two inch cluster. I was out of ammo and starting to feel better about this purchase.
Today MTLEADFARMER and I went out so he could zero his rifle. Once the combat sights were zeroed he mounted a Vortex 4-12 on top with an AR mount. He walked the rounds into the bull with the turrets and then drove 5 rounds atop each other off an Atlas bipod. Then he did it again on a different bull: maybe quarter inch CTC? Suddenly these rifles went from 'throw away' class weapons to a serious bit of shooting gear. I got on line and ordered 8 extra magazines to divide between us.
Anyhow, these rifles were an unexpected bright spot on my rainy weekend. I don't know if they have kits for sub sonic rounds but for a quasi military auto loader, you could do worse.~Muir
on sale at the Ranch Supply store for $190 he send me a picture of his new purchase... which prompted me to drive the 50 miles into town to buy one of my own. The rifle is German-made ISSC Mk22 copy of a SKAR in 22LR. These rifles, until the recent downturn in the US gun market, have retailed for $345 to $499. In this case the Ranch Supply store had been selling them for $299. Accordingly, this $190 price was a bargain from any aspect provided it worked, of course. The Internet reviews were good so it was with not too much trepidation that I completed the sale and took my new gun home. I mounted the folding stock and the sights. What a strange rifle! Still, it has some nice features like cheekpiece you can elevate for scope work, an adjustable buttstock, and six mounting positions for the cocking handle: three on each side. If is shot reasonably well it would make a good truck rifle. The next day I headed for the range.
The Net Commandos were saying that CCI Mini Mag was the best ammo to run through this rifle but I used Aguila HV 40 grain. I went to the range the next morning with my bag of factory supplied accessory tools tucked into the grip. It was rainy and wet. My first two rounds off hand at 25 yards were cutting each other, four inched low and two inches right. I fired three more into inch and a quarter. The trigger was like a slushy 2-stage but controllable. I made some sight adjustments and fired a few, another set of adjustments and fired a few more. The bullets seemed to be going right where they were aimed -or at least to where the front sight was when the trigger broke. In 20 rounds there had been no malfunctions or stoppages.
Finally I was pretty much zeroed so I touched a small diamond from a Leupold sight-in target to the top of the front sight and fired 5 off hand. Three touching and the whole group under 1 inch. Huh! I moved to 50 yards and loaded 20 rounds into the magazine, and emptied them into a target at a fairly brisk rate, standing. Three and three-quarter inches with fourteen in a roughly two inch cluster. I was out of ammo and starting to feel better about this purchase.
Today MTLEADFARMER and I went out so he could zero his rifle. Once the combat sights were zeroed he mounted a Vortex 4-12 on top with an AR mount. He walked the rounds into the bull with the turrets and then drove 5 rounds atop each other off an Atlas bipod. Then he did it again on a different bull: maybe quarter inch CTC? Suddenly these rifles went from 'throw away' class weapons to a serious bit of shooting gear. I got on line and ordered 8 extra magazines to divide between us.
Anyhow, these rifles were an unexpected bright spot on my rainy weekend. I don't know if they have kits for sub sonic rounds but for a quasi military auto loader, you could do worse.~Muir
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~Muir
