How many of you have come full circle?

A

AL45

New member
Like most of you, I started with a .22 LR and over the years have owned and shot a wide range of guns and calibers. Lately, I have yearned to return to my first love, the .22LR. I have reached a point where, as of today, if I could only own one caliber, it would be a .22LR........Of course, I might have a relapse tomorrow and buy a big ol' magnum something or other. Gunowners are a fickle bunch.
 
My last three purchases have been .22 rifles. I've come to like them more and more although I continue to shoot other calibers in handguns and rifles. I think reading Bill Wards "Walnut and Steel - Vintage .23 Rifles" kindled the spark.
 
I love shooting 22lr, what other cartridge can you shoot hundreds of shots of and not once worry about the cost of it, or how long it will take to reload more.

Not to mention very easy to shoot, and never have to worry about upsetting anyone with noise.
 
I love shooting .22lr especially since I've still got A LOT to learn, and it's an affordable way to train (or at least it used to be).

My problem is I got into the sport extremely late (being a young brat and all), so it's difficult to find .22LR at the moment. I don't foresee things getting better any time soon, at least in regards to .22LR coming back into stock here locally on any regular basis.

At least 9mm and some of the other more common calibers seem to be recovering, slowly.
 
I've closed the circle even more.
Most of my shooting, these days, is with airguns.
Second childhood?
Especially since the .22 ammo shortages.
Before that, a typical range day was about 2/3 rimfire and 1/3 centerfire.
With .22 now costing about the same as reloading, my rimfires are just collecting dust, sad to say.
If there's ever a shortage of pellets and airsoft bbs, I'm going back to archery.
No ammo problems there.
 
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I've always wanted a really good rifle, and am about to pull the trigger (pun intended) on a custom build. Since I can only justify the cost on something I'll be shooting a lot, it's gotta be versatile, accurate, have a long bore life, and be chambered in something that won't tie me to the reloading bench and/or break the bank when I do shoot it as often as I plan. My choice is an obvious one, then; a .22LR. :D
 
If this idea of concentrating on .22s catches on around here, we may need a rimfire section or risk losing folks to the rimfire forums.
Hint, hint?
 
The shortage has pretty much made me give up on 22. I still have my M&P 22 but it has been over a year since I fired it. Sadly 9mm has become my plinking round.
 
AL45 said:
Lately, I have yearned to return to my first love, the .22LR. I have reached a point where, as of today, if I could only own one caliber, it would be a .22LR........Of course, I might have a relapse tomorrow and buy a big ol' magnum something or other. Gunowners are a fickle bunch.
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I suppose it's possible that I'll come around, but I doubt it.

First, it would be "come around" and not "BACK around" because I've never had any love for .22LR. Yes, I started there but I never wanted to stay there, never loved (nor particularly even cared for) the cartridge and always wanted something better, faster, flatter, longer ranged.

Shooting a .22 bores me to tears. If it was my only choice, I would own one rifle for varmints when necessary and one handgun for defense and I'd most likely never shoot them "for fun" because I don't consider .22 to BE fun.

As it is now, I have one 525 round box of Federal .22 ammo that I've had for probably 3 years and it's still more than 1/2 full. The portion that's missing was shot 90% by my son. In that time, I have fired many hundreds of center-fire rifle and handgun rounds
 
My first firearm was a Mosin-Nagant M91/30 rifle. Throughout the years, I've run the gamet form interests of all types of weapons and forgot about the Mosin.

Now, several years later, I've returned to old Mosey and love it so much!

mosinjpeg.jpg
 
I love shooting 22lr, what other cartridge can you shoot hundreds of shots of and not once worry about the cost of it, or how long it will take to reload more.

Not to mention very easy to shoot, and never have to worry about upsetting anyone with noise.
Click to expand...

Try shooting a .22 air rifle, the ammo is even cheaper AND readily available.
 
I've never went away from the .22 rimfire, I've always liked shooting them all along.

What I have come "full circle" to is in regards to old Milsurp rifles. In my teens I really liked military rifles from the past and my earliest purchases centered on them. Then I began to get into more modern guns and the milsurps began to stay in the safe more and more.

But in the past few years, it is the oldies that go to the range more often than the modern stuff.
 
I never really had a love for rimfires. I have owned, and still do, several. I have been a reloader for several years though and the 38 special is my favorite to shoot.
 
Brian, send me those nasty .22's you have left over and I will dispose of them for you. I won't even charge you to do it.
 
Can anyone really have enough .22 firearms?
Shooting a .22 is simply fun & how many shooters started with the .22?
In my opinion the .22 r.f. is one of the very most usefull calibers.
If I were forced to survive -not fight a battle- I'd want a reliable
.22 r.f and a brick of ammo.
 
I second that. Many, maybe most, of us started with .22s and I must tell you that you can't escape your boyhood (or girlhood). Also, the older you get, the more it comes back to you. It is the key to a happy old age.

When I was a boy, in addition to a .22, I had a ball shooting dad's single barrel .410. Now, when I see an old single barrel on a gun shelf, I want to buy it. Recently, got a mint H&R Topper Model 48 .410 for $100. Happy as a pig in a mud hole. Of course, I still also enjoy the bigger boomers in the collection.
 
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