Tag Archives: 22lr

Reviews

Tippmann M4-22 RCR Review

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A thing I struggle with is the balance between cost and training. 22lr is really good for some things. Gun handling, transitions practice, ready-ups, long-range-at-short-range, etc. I spend a large part of my year shooting 22lr with the kids on a regular basis. A hundred rounds of 22lr is a bit over five bucks (at current prices). A hundred rounds of 223 is more like $25 (if I reload it).

I shoot a fair bit of outlaw falling steel, and a gun with a reliable high-cap magazine would be terrifically useful for that. Given that I have an M4-22 Elite, being able to use my mags with it would also be great. Enter the Tippmann M4-22 RCR.

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Reviews

Tippmann M4-22 Elite Review

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Something I struggle with is the balance between cost and training. 22lr is really good for some things. Gun handling, transitions practice, ready-ups, long-range-at-short-range, etc. I spend a large part of my year shooting 22lr with the kids on a regular basis. A hundred rounds of 22lr is a bit over five bucks (at current prices). A hundred rounds of 223 is more like $25 (if I reload it). That’s a big price difference!

I really enjoy shooting under night vision during the fall and winter (post-DST), and having a way to do it more cheaply was a priority. Another consideration is that I also shoot a fair bit of outlaw falling steel, and a gun with a reliable high-cap magazine would be terrifically useful for that. Enter the Tippmann M4-22 Elite.

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Thoughts

SASP Equipment Series: Rimfire Rifles

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As I’ve alluded to in other articles, I’m spending an inordinate amount of time these days coaching an SASP team. We did great at Nationals – much better than I expected – but a lot of work went into it to get the team there.

I would say one of the biggest responsibilities for an SASP coach is guiding athletes to what equipment is going to give them the most (legal) advantage at matches. While I don’t think equipment is the end-all, be-all, I do think it will help give athletes a noticeable performance advantage. Good example: one young woman on the team who was already a fantastic shooter swapped to fiber optic sights and a better trigger, and she turned in better times on several stages. Those equipment changes didn’t make her any better or worse, but they sure helped enable faster splits across transitions. (She wound up placing third in women’s iron sight competition at Nationals, which is awesome!!!).

One critique I have of the SASP organization is that there is precious little out there in terms of writing about how to equip athletes… and I am going to try to help fill the gap. While it is tempting to simply go “use what the RFRI/O Steel Challenge folks use!”, not all of those choices work well for young adults who are not fully physically mature quite yet. Read on for some thoughts.

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Reviews

Burris Fastfire IV (4) Review

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I’ve gotten deep into optics on pistols. But this is mostly optics mounted to pistol slides. Now that I’m coaching an SASP team, I’ve started having to familiarize myself with pistol optics mounted to rails. SASP competitors go this route so they can use the same pistols in both irons and optics divisions. In a perfect world, you’d use different guns, but this could mean literally mean thousands of dollars in guns, and youth sports don’t typically support such high costs.

I have a Ruger MkIV 22/45 Lite and a MkIII 22/45, and I needed an optics solution for them. I had an old Docter-style ADM mount lying around, so I decided I would try out the new Burris Fastfire 4 (FF4). I liked the FF3 – I still run it on a Glock slide from time to time – but found that the window was smaller than I preferred. The FF4 has a bigger window, better battery life, and an intriguing selectable reticle. What did I think? Read on…

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Research

FAB Defense KPOS G2 Follow-Up Thoughts

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I’ve been shooting the FAB Defense KPOS G2 a little further on my Glock 17 lately, and I have some follow-up thoughts and findings.

First: it’s not compatible with iron sights that go forward of the rear sight cut, to include many, many of the fiber optic sights out there such as the Tru-Glo TFX. I have not tried it with suppressor sights.

Second: I tried using my Tactical Solutions TSG-22 22lr conversion with it. The conversion sits slide sits low enough that I would be VERY concerned about striking the “compensator shroud”. You could, in theory, remove the shroud to make it work correctly, which might be a viable alternative in some setups. The charging handle mechanism is also a little suspect with it, but it does seem to work. I might experiment with this more later on if I have time.

Third: an extended magazine release helps a lot with this setup. I highly recommend one.

Fourth: it seems like your gun gets very dirty VERY quickly in this enclosure. My front night sight was blacked out after a few magazines of shooting..

Finally: I am still concerned about this gun’s ability to retain a true zero due to the slight up-down movement that you can get with the flexing of the frame. My groups are larger than I would have expected, albeit this is when shooting at 25yds with trash ammo. Now, the truth is, since the front of the gun is latched in pretty good, it might look worse than it is, since the back is going to show a larger flexing due to variance. Still, it’s not what i would call a precision weapon compared to a “real” rifle. It does seem to more-or-less hold zero between taking the gun in and out of the chassis, though.

Research

SR-22 Usage in the IDF

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TheFirearmBlog has a terrific article up on the usage of the Ruger 10/22 to suppress violent riots by Palestinians. Apparently, someone noticed that an unsuppressed Ruger SR-22 had made it over to Israel and was being used. That particular model has not been seen before, so it’s news. We’ve linked other articles on the 10/22’s usage in Israel before. I am personally waiting to see the IDF deploy some 10/22s tricked out with FAB Defense stocks.

The big takeaway from the article is really at the bottom and in the comments section, where’s there’s discussion of the rules of engagement for the 10/22. The rules are stricter than they were back in 2001, but it’s still in play for injuring violent protesters and shooting rock/molotov throwers. Shooters are supposed to go for non-lethal shots unless things get too crazy, but 22lr is still a lethal round.

TFB doubles down on the Israeli goodness with a write-up on the original Tavor 3x magnifier. The current Tavors use a Mepro 3x magnifier, but the first run was apparently reticle-less Trijicon TA33s. It’s a bit surprising that Trijicon never tried to release them in the US – they would have been an option at a $500 price point with a decent QD mount. (Probably too heavy to compete in the market?)

Research

Nice write-up with pictures on IDF 10/22 usage

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I was alerted to a very nice write-up on Rugertalk about the suppressed IDF 10/22 variant. No pictures of any with the new FAB Defense stock, but I’m sure they’re coming as the situation in Israel heats up.

Several of the comments I’ve seen on the IDF 10/22 gripe about the “Maglite suppressor”. My theory is that the rifle used an integral suppression system like the Great Lakes Tactical system (but cruder), and that the knurled part of the suppressor/barrel is actually to give the soldier some grip to unscrew the suppressor covering for cleaning the rifle. The similarity to a Maglite is unfortunate, but makes sense.

I am finally getting to the end of Jewish holidays, but real life continues to be “exciting” (but not bad!). I recently won a rare BUL Storm Compact off Gunbroker for a very reasonable price, so I am eager to see how that turns out.