Not Exactly Reloadable......

Several years ago my shooting buddy got himself a can for his .22's short and long. It makes it possible for him to shoot a lot more often without causing waves with his wife's retail customers at the shop on their property. Frankly I have not been overly impressed with the whole project for a couple of reasons. First off, unless subsonic ammo is used the supersonic crack is still there, loud and obnoxious. At the current cost of .22lr's it's often cheaper to shoot centerfires. Then there's the permit fees and storage requirements. Finally, the damned things are DIRTY. they can gag up a semi auto with fouling faster than anything I have ever seen. He spends as much time cleaning his semi autos as I did when I was shooting my muzzle loaders all the time.

So I did an end run. I bought a Rem (made in feckin CHINA) .22cal break action pellet rifle for under $100. It came with a 4x unlabeled Tasco scope which is good because it has the worst cheap plastic open sights with those obnoxious light pipes in them. Elevation would not adjust enough to shoot 50yds so I removed them and put the glass on it.

The rifle, while not silent, is much quieter that anything but a suppressed single shot .22lr with subsonic ammo. (It's amusing how loud the mechanical working of a 10/22 action actually is.) Basically I fart louder than this rifle. No permits, no fees, no BATFE. My shooting buddy was disgusted. Maybe I should have been standing downwind for that comparison. :mrgreen:

I have three different weights of pellets and will be trying all of them at different distances to see what works and what doesn't. It seems to like both the heaviest and lightest but the jury is still out on what we'll end up going with. At 25yds it keeps most everything in 2" and I'll be happy if I can get a good working load at comparable accuracy for 50yds to take care of minor pest control issues and the occasional turkey wandering through the yard.

I'm looking into moulds for it........

My neighbor has a semi in 22 (based on Ruger 22) that he put a can on. He uses expensive subsonic 22 that is recommended for the can. He still has to clean it every 200 rounds or so. Accuracy is only so so. I will NOT tell him about this post as he is a very good friend who allows me to hunt on his ranch.