Daily plinking this week with a couple of favorites

[North Country Gal]

With some more seasonable February winter, Ive been stepping out on the deck for some short daily plinking sessions. So far, it's been with a couple of favorite rifles, one being my Marlin 39 and the other being my HW50 air rifle.

The Marlin has become my go to plinker when I want to burn some powder. It's a 1953 vintage, actually a very rare version of the 39A, but too early to be drilled and tapped for a scope mount, so I just added a vintage 3/4" tube Burris 3x scout scope.


This Marlin 39 is such a sweet shooter. Oh, I shoot many fine 22 rifles, but shooting a Marlin 39 gives me a shooting experience I can't get from any other 22. It's just that kind of gun. Given the need for quiet shooting, I load it with either CB 22 Shorts or CCI Quiets. Not the most accurate ammo for the 39, not even close, but at the 25 yards I shoot, accurate enough for shooting steel spinners.


When I want a gun for some backyard plinking with its accuracy best ammo, I turn to one of my air guns. My HW50 in 20 caL with an add on HW moderator is plenty quiet. No need to use special quiet ammo with this one. Shots are just a dull "tank".


Accuracy is where this HW springer shines. With the JSB Exact 20 cal pellets, I can stack pellets right on top of each other at 25 yards. Great choice for shooting my reactive air gun targets with tiny half inch paddles.

Hope everyone can get out for some daily plinking. It's such a great way to unwind.

[Ernie]

The 39 has been my favorite for decades. Have one from the 50s with an old Weaver scope on it. Now I suppose I will have to dig it out.
Thanks

[North Country Gal]

You are very welcome.

[Sir Henry]

That is one of my favorite rifles you have Joanie. I actually did the same thing this morning. I plinked at the gongs with my Henry and then got out the trusty Red Ryder and shot at the nearby spinners.

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[The Wiz]

I shot my Henry .22 on Sunday for about an hour at a unheated indoor range run by the county. Other than shooting ( not well) the best part is that it is free.

[North Country Gal]

I never take for granted being able to just step out on the deck for some backyard plinking. Another warm day today, so more plinking. Not sure what I'll shoot, yet.

I recently managed to snag several boxes of Aguila Colibri, which are 22 LR shooting a 20 grain bullet at only 429 fps. Got these to shoot in my pistols (they should NOT be shot in rifles. You will get squibs). They are very quiet in a 10" Contender pistol, but accuracy at 25 yards is bleak and that's being generous. I may go out in the yard and try at 10 yards or so.

Meanwhile, UPS delivered a brick of CCI Quiets, yesterday, so I'm set for some rifle shooting. These are quiet enough in 24" barrel 22 rifles like the Marlin not to be noticed by neighbors and accuracy at 25 yards, though not match grade, is good enough for shooting spinners.

[North Country Gal]

I loaded up a couple more rifles with CCI Quiets, now that my stock of Quiets has been replenished.

I mounted a Vortex 2-7 Scout scope on hubby's old Remington 550-1 autoloader 22. Got it sighted in with the Quiets. The long and springy trigger pull of this old 22 isn't too user friendly, but it's okay. This one shoots anything you feed it, CB 22 Shorts all the way up to HV 22 LRs. so that makes up for a lot.



And then there's my Low Wall Hunter 1885 in 22 LR. This is another favorite. Actually, I would stop shooting if I couldn't have these Winchester Low Walls. Guess that makes these Low Walls my favoritest favorites or something. And this one is actually a one hole at 25 yards shooter with the Quiets. No excuse for missing with this one, so I don't. Perfect score today.

[rickhem]

Interesting use of the dovetail for a single ring scope mount. I've been trying to buy one of those dovetail mounts but Skinner is out and they told me it'll be a few months before they run them again. I wanted to try a dot, but seeing you use a scope, that's an interesting option.
Since you have at least two rifles set up that way, I have to assume you don't have any issues with that way of holding the scope.
Aside from using a LER scope, any tips or advice for doing this kind of mount?

[Hatchdog]

I’m getting an itchy trigger finger seeing all these fine rifles posted. Might have to make a trip up to my range next week and see if the snow has melted. Our place faces east and gets full morning sun on the field but the range is up in the trees and doesn’t get nearly as much sun. Plus the area the range is located gets a lot more snow than I do here at home.

[North Country Gal]

Glad to help.

The Skinner dovetail mount was never designed to be used with a scope, just a red dot and a small micro size red dot at that. I just experimented using a scope with one ring for my rimfires and it works just fine for that.

When you step up to centerfire, though, scope or red dot weight becomes more and more of an issue as recoil increases. Intuitively, you might think that more weight would be more secure and better able to stay put, but just the opposite is true. Heavier optics develop more torque under recoil and are actually much more prone to shaking loose. My Ruger No. 3 in 45-70 is a good example. I used the same Skinner dovetail mount with a Burris fast fire red dot and despite the nasty recoil, everything stayed put. Okay, I then tried a 2x Leupold scout scope with one ring and it didn't take long for everything to shake loose, not to mention that only using one ring to mount a scope on a 45-70 is not exactly confidence inspiring.

The Marlin 39 uses an old Bushnell Phantom dovetail scope mount for a Winchester Model 94 and other rifles in its day (60s through 80s). The Phantom was a pistol scope, but this specific mount can use 3/8th 22 rings with just enough space in between the rings to take an old 3/4" tube scope. These old 3/4" tube scopes were used on both rimfires and centerfires back in the 40s into the 60s before the scope industry went to 1" tunes as standard.



Yeah, a lot of those old 3/4" 22 scopes weren't that great, but Burris, Redfield and Leupold made some 3/4" scopes, too, both rimfire and centerfire and these have excellent optics and construction. These high grade 3/4" scopes are now hard to find and sometimes very pricey when you do find one. They weigh next to nothing, though, and are very slim and trim.