Which .22 semi auto?

Boarboy

Well-Known Member
Looking for a semi auto .22 to shoot rabbits from quad bike. Something that's not top end but reliable on the jamming front. A bit out of touch with rimfires so just want to know what's out there and worth looking at. Thankyou.
 
Looking for a semi auto .22 to shoot rabbits from quad bike. Something that's not top end but reliable on the jamming front. A bit out of touch with rimfires so just want to know what's out there and worth looking at. Thankyou.

Could not recommend a semi for anything other than a plinking toy , get a CZ bolt action for consistent accuracy.
 
I'm with Johno on this one. Unless you spend a good wedge on basically starting from scratch and building one, semi rimmy and accurate dont normally live in the same Sentance.

Spent a lot of money on my 10/22and basically the only original parts were the receiver and action slide (and even they were modified) and it was still not a patch on either of the Sakos.

They are good plinking toys and probably accurate enough to cull rabbits up to shotgun range but I wouldn't use one against animals beyond those ranges.
 
Looking for a semi auto .22 to shoot rabbits from quad bike. Something that's not top end but reliable on the jamming front. A bit out of touch with rimfires so just want to know what's out there and worth looking at. Thankyou.

All rimfire autos will jam at some point. Save yourself the grief and pick up a CZ bolt gun. It will last several lifetimes and deliver pin point accuracy.~Muir
 
All rimfire autos will jam at some point. Save yourself the grief and pick up a CZ bolt gun. It will last several lifetimes and deliver pin point accuracy.~Muir

To true Andy :thumb:, the humble Brno/CZ is hard to beat.

Rgds, Billy,
 
Browning Buckmark I've had mine ages & put thousands of rounds through it without 1 jam unlike 10-22's mines cut down to 12" for vehicle work but still cloverleafs & likes Subs without any problems, 8x57 has one like new on here real cheap if your looking.
 
I like .22 autos. (I like the 10/22 but unlike SO many of my internet colleagues, I keep my magazines squeaky clean and don't ask it to perform reliably with subs.) This past weekend I took my 70's vintage Brno 581 semi auto out to the range and fired only the second, single bullet diameter group I have fired in my life with a .22. Granted, this was a statistical happenstance considering the number of groups I fire a week, but the rifle is more then capable of tacking five shots into a very small ragged hole on most occasions. If it was going to happen, this rifle would have been up to the task.

Unfortunately, this Brno has only a field grade trigger despite it's bench rest accuracy. And there's the down fall of most .22 autos. The Ruger has many aftermarket triggers available that give it a decent pull, and a gunsmith can do wonders with the stock sear and trigger. Not so with some others. In short, many auto's possess the accuracy, but not the goods to deliver it. For that reason, I tend to chose a bolt gun when I want serious accuracy.~Muir
 
FWIW I think the occasional jam with a semi-auto matters less than the ability to keep shooting most of the time without any kind of manual or visual distraction.

Some will reply that they can work the bolt smoothly every time, just as quickly as a semi can cycle, and with no change in cheek-weld or hold. Well, if you can, good for you, but I suggest that for most of us, that isn't true.

Moreover, what a semi may give away in accuracy to a bolt gun, and not all of them do, and most don't give away much, it gains in its ability instantly to correct for a miss and turn the next round into a hit. The hardest part to get right when rabbiting with a rimfire is range estimation, which is more usually over-estimated than underestimated. The result is that the first round often goes high and a quick adjustment has to be made. Meanwhile the rabbit is probably moving. In this context I'd rather have to do nothing more than adjust my sight picture and press the trigger again.

But this is just one style. You can get very clinical and accept nothing but a head-shot, and sometimes it's simply a choice between keeping the landowner happy with volume or the butcher happy with clean carcases.

Anyway, I wouldn't write off a semi-auto for the job. A 10/22 with a trigger job would be my S/H choice, as there are a lot to choose from (though my best .22 semi was a Marlin 7000), but if buying new I'd go for a S&W 15-22, which I've found to be accurate, very quiet (the polymer dampens vibration and resonance) and comfortable (polymer contact areas don't chill like metal ones). It also has the virtue of a straight-line layout and a collapsible stock, making it particularly suitable for use wih NV.
 
Looking for a semi auto .22 to shoot rabbits from quad bike. Something that's not top end but reliable on the jamming front. A bit out of touch with rimfires so just want to know what's out there and worth looking at. Thankyou.

Thompson Centre benchmark. Very accurate and well made.
 
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