Last issue, I rambled on incoherently about the importance of taking a newbie shooting and in this one, we take a close look at things with a .22-inch bore diameter, which I’m guessing for most of us were the gateway drug to this firearms lifestyle.
There’s truth to the adage that no one outgrows a good 22. If you happen to wander by the used gun rack at your local shooting emporium, take note of how many Ruger 10/22s there are on offer. With over 5 million in circulation, you’d expect them to take up way more space, but I’d be willing to put up a Benjamin that the majority of those available on the secondary market are from estate sales, rather than from people trading up to the next “must-have.” Owners are far more likely to customize, rather than dump them.
As a training tool, the humble 22LR is without peer. Every one of the fundamentals of marksmanship can be mastered at a nickel per round, and the only aspect of training with centerfires that can’t be duplicated is recoil management. As a means of introducing new shooters to this thing we do, rimfires excel. All animals, including we bipedal apes, are hardwired with a startle response, triggered by fast movement, loud noise, bright light, and unexpected pressure or pain. Which is why setting off a small explosion right in front of your face is a pretty hard thing to get used to, and why sticking a 44 Mag snubby in a new shooter’s hand isn’t such a great idea. A .22, on the other hand, will make transitioning from non-shooter status, to aspiring Grand Master that much easier.
Sometimes we get so wrapped up in serious training with serious guns that we forget about the 12-year-old us; you know, the one who treated every chance to get to the range with the same joyous expectation as Christmas Eve. So bust out your .22, go burn a brick of cheap, bulk pack ammo, and if you infect a newbie with the same enthusiasm, so much the better.
Check out RECOIL Issue 48
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