Long range rimfire rifle...

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marksman13

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I’ve taken a pretty long hiatus from shooting and especially the long range game. My wife asked me what I wanted for my birthday last night and my immediate thought was a heavy barreled bolt action 22 LR to work on the basics every day. I’ll go out to around 300 yards as a max.

I’ve already got the scope decided on and found a 30 MOA base from Area 419. The question I have is what rifle. Rather which version of the rifle. I’ve pretty well narrowed it down to a CZ 455 or 457. What I’m trying to decide is rather I want the At-One stocked rifle, the Varmint Precision Trainer (McMillan stock) or just a simple Tacticool model with the laminate target stock.

I can see the value in the adjustable At-One stock, but they are ugly as sin in my opinion. I’m not sure if there’s enough difference in performance between the other two to justify the extra $350 for the McMillan stock. Anybody have experience with all three of these rifles? I’ve lusted after that McMillan stocked trainer for a long time and I feel like that is clouding my judgement. I guess I need someone with a Tacticool to talk some sense into me.

I’m open to other suggestions besides Savage. I’ll never own another Savage rimfire. Thanks in advance.
 
Voodoo, CZ, long ways back to Ruger Precision, 10/22, Ruger American Rimfire, and Savage. I’m very happy with a couple Savage Mark II and 93’s. I do most of my 300-350yrd shooting with a Ruger Charger pistol.

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Voodoo, CZ, long ways back to Ruger Precision, 10/22, Ruger American Rimfire, and Savage. I’m very happy with a couple Savage Mark II and 93’s. I do most of my 300-350yrd shooting with a Ruger Charger pistol.

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I’m glad you’ve had better luck than me with Savage. I just can’t ever buy another one. That Charger looks like a blast.
 
Charger at 300? AMAZING!

It pumps them out at almost the same speed as a rifle, sitting on the same bipod, and using that eared bag as a wrist support, sporting a 6-18x rifle scope on top. The gap between the Charger and the 10/22 is only in the shooter’s ability to control their trigger, as the Charger IS a lighter firearm, more susceptible to being pushed around by the trigger.

It’s not uncommon to surprise folks with the capabilities of specialty pistols, but especially so with the 22LR Chargers. Centerfire specialty pistols give up a lot of speed to rifles, Chargers don’t. That one pictured runs faster than one of my Marlin 60’s, same speed as one of my Savage Mark II’s, and never more than 50fps slower than any of my rifles. More spread among two rifles than the rifle vs. Charger.
 
It pumps them out at almost the same speed as a rifle, sitting on the same bipod, and using that eared bag as a wrist support, sporting a 6-18x rifle scope on top. The gap between the Charger and the 10/22 is only in the shooter’s ability to control their trigger, as the Charger IS a lighter firearm, more susceptible to being pushed around by the trigger.

It’s not uncommon to surprise folks with the capabilities of specialty pistols, but especially so with the 22LR Chargers. Centerfire specialty pistols give up a lot of speed to rifles, Chargers don’t. That one pictured runs faster than one of my Marlin 60’s, same speed as one of my Savage Mark II’s, and never more than 50fps slower than any of my rifles. More spread among two rifles than the rifle vs. Charger.
I've been learning this with my 10" barreled buckmark, especially the part about trigger control.
My pistols as accurate as my bolt rifle, but takes more consistency to get the same on target results. I think our last rimfire shoot is what convinced me to try get better with it.
 
No direct experience but....I have read where the tacticool boyd’s Stock needs to be bedded to maximize accuracy where the Mcmillan does as good out of the box. It can also be bedded, but it might not be necessary

I don’t think you would regret having a Mcmillan stock, the only other idea I would consider would be to get a cheaper /used gun and drop it into a real chassis (KRG or MDT for example)
 
A friend and I used to do 300 yard .22’s every weekend and even a couple times during the week. The best group ever was with a Walther single shot. I won’t post the group because the first liar never wins but it was good enough he signed it as a witness and I have kept it all these years.

It’s a fun activity, even more so if you have a 300 yard range with no wind.
 
The Boyd’s “tacticool” is now called the ProVarmint. Bedding never hurts, but I’m not sure I would say it is required to make them shoot well. My Mark II practice/NRL-22 Rifle is an inexpensive Savage Mark II dropped into a Tacticool/ProVarmint without bedding, it shoots well enough I haven’t bothered to spend the time bedding it yet.

50yrd THR Prove It thread groups Eley Club:
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Mama Terror practicing a scaled PRS Speed Skills stage at 100yrds (three 3” plates at 100yrds, but still 25 and 75yrds between plates, left to right, right to left, 6 shots, usually takes me about 35 seconds):

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Voodoo, CZ, long ways back to Ruger Precision, 10/22, Ruger American Rimfire, and Savage. I’m very happy with a couple Savage Mark II and 93’s. I do most of my 300-350yrd shooting with a Ruger Charger pistol.

View attachment 837890

If I’m understanding correctly, you are putting the Ruger Precision Rimfire well behind the CZ. Bad personal experience with those Rugers? I’m leaving towards CZ due to many positive experiences with them, but handled a Ruger Precision yesterday and it felt pretty good. I’ve seen mixed reviews on their accuracy though.
 
Very first rifle I started doing this with was my 541T-HB, long before you could buy a 20-30MOA canted base. Then I put together a Savage MKII similar to this one with a canted base. I've been extremely impressed with the Savage rimfires.

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Then I configured my 10/22 LTR to do double duty as my long range rig. I really like the Boyd's tacticool/pro varmint.

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If I’m understanding correctly, you are putting the Ruger Precision Rimfire well behind the CZ. Bad personal experience with those Rugers? I’m leaving towards CZ due to many positive experiences with them, but handled a Ruger Precision yesterday and it felt pretty good. I’ve seen mixed reviews on their accuracy though.

It is not secret I am no fan of Ruger, IMHO you can get a good one, or a total turkey.....if you end up with a steaming pile of ______ after a few trips back and forth to ruger they will.....usually....fix it.

However I have never had a bad CZ.....and am pretty biased.

Everyone has a bias for one reason or another.

All that said anything made by man can get screwed up....all you can do is research then make your choice....I can tell you I love every CZ I own....and have not had one ruger that did not need parts tossed at it so it would get to where I wanted it to be.
 
One other thing....long range is fun, if you like it you might want to try small bore silhouette....a real fun game, but you are not prone or any of that....all on your feet. It is a real fun game if the people you are with are not too crazy.

IMHO we are shooting 22's here this is to be fun......I did my first game with a Marlin 25n, and an old tasco scope.....I have played the game with a single shot Mauser, WZ-48 with irons, and two different CZ rifles it is just real fun....it is real hard for me now with the back and neck issues, but I am going to give it a go again if the weather ever mellows out....no real fun shooting 22's at 100 yards in 30 mph winds.
 
I would look heavily towards the CZ 457 MTR for your application. The MTR's have a "Match" chamber (believe its just closer to the lands). Another to consider strongly would be the new Tikka T1x; or Anschutz if your blood runs rich.

I believe @Grimmy on here has one of the CZ 457 MTR's.

I have a CZ 457 Varmint 17HMR and it has all the improvements I wanted over past CZ's. (60* bolt, forward to fire safety, pillar bedded from factory, nitrided finish). The nitrided finish could be looked at as a downside if one is looking for more of a bench rifle and wants the beauty. I wanted a field rifle so I appreciated it.
 
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If I’m understanding correctly, you are putting the Ruger Precision Rimfire well behind the CZ. Bad personal experience with those Rugers?

Not at all - but rather the contrary. I don’t move the Ruger’s down because they are bad, I move the CZ’s up because they are phenomenal.

The Ruger Precision Rimfire is a good shooting rifle, but it’s really no better than a 10/22 Target or Savage Mark II/93. Using that target I posted above as a reference - that’s a pretty good shooting Savage Mark II, but if I bought 5 of them, I’d expect 2 to shoot that well, and the other 3 to maybe add .1moa to it. Same for any 10/22 Target or Ruger Precision Rimfire Rifle.

Alternatively, on that same 50yrd course of fire, if I bought 5 CZ 452 or 455’s, I would expect 4 of them to shoot perfect scores, and one to slightly beat those groups above by my Savage. Same for a Voodoo, Annie, Ural, or Win52 - they’d all shoot slightly inside those groups posted of my Savage.
 
I flip between my 455 with a 6-24, and my built up Ruger with Jard trigger, Shaw barrel and Ruger bedded laminate stock. 6-24 on it also. Haven't shot more than hundred rounds through the Ruger but it seems to want to shoot. Ten brand test coming up soon. CZ loves Club.
 
Honestly thinking about going with a fairly safe bet and getting the CZ 455 Tacticool rifle and then buying a Ruger 10/22 receiver to start building a semi-auto rifle to go along with it. I’ve got several long range center fire rigs and variety is the spice of life. Might as well start building up a stable of long range rimfires.
 
I'm another Boyd's tacticoolaid drinker.
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Scopes been changed to an Athlon Argos 4-20x50, but the eye relief is allot longer than that pine ridge, or the intensity 4-12x44 that was on it, so I need an extension rail before taking it out again.
 
Nice looking toy, LoonWulf. I have about the same rig except my rifle is dark complected and my scope is a 6x24x50 Bushnell. The stock is currently getting a shave and a haircut to make it fit me a little better. I told my wife to help pick the color when I ordered the stock and she surprised me by picking the coyote as that was my choice also.
 
Nice looking toy, LoonWulf. I have about the same rig except my rifle is dark complected and my scope is a 6x24x50 Bushnell. The stock is currently getting a shave and a haircut to make it fit me a little better. I told my wife to help pick the color when I ordered the stock and she surprised me by picking the coyote as that was my choice also.
Thanks!
I lucked into the coyote color. That stock isn't for that model of rifle, and was in the bargain pages. So I kinda got what was available. I liked it so much I ordered another for my Arisaka build, and if I do a dark color gun it will probably ware a tacticool in coyote.
 
CZ likely my choice, if not an Anschutz. I'm drooling over a 452 heavy barrel threaded 2E KZM at the local pawn right now and trying to resist but weaken a little very day. I agree with the OP; no more of the Savage Mark II's; mine never shot well. And souped up 10/22's are nice, but they'll never touch a CZ452 out of the box. I have no experience with the RPR or other newer tacticool ones.
 
Thanks!
I lucked into the coyote color. That stock isn't for that model of rifle, and was in the bargain pages. So I kinda got what was available. I liked it so much I ordered another for my Arisaka build, and if I do a dark color gun it will probably ware a tacticool in coyote.

When I went to order mine thy had a sale on that day. A free upgrade to any laminate color and a kickeez recoil pad. I intended to order the coyote but a free upgrade was nice and I won't have to worry about the fierce 22LR recoill with that pad. ;)
 
I am very interested. I a couple really good CZ 452's. Won a few matches with the American. The Lux shoots just as well. Have a Heavy barrel 10/22 a little behind the CZ's. I am thinking about a 457 or Tikka.
 
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