Varmit Rifle

[Hoosier_Daddy]

Doc,

I looked at the .17.... pretty cool.

They even have a lot of hand guns with it now. Don't understand that unless you can constantly do a head shot.

I went back to the 22 MAG. Old standby. Good varmit knockdown and you can find the "VERY VERY VERY CHEAP" Ammo just about anywhere.

The latest I bought was a Henry 22 Mag lever for me and a Marlin 22 Stainless/wood for my grandkid to use when he visits.

Love the Henry Golden Boy.

Tom

 

[Docsknotinn]

The the .17 is interesting but I am leaning towards the 22 mag. I am reading a bit of bad press about fouling the bore from those ploycarbinate tips. I have always wanted a 22 mag anyhow. Are you referring to the Henry goldon Boy ? or the Winchester '9422 Goldon Boy ? I have to have a scope. Even though I still have better than 20/20 vision, at 42 its getting a little blury around the edges /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

 

[Dozernut]

Doc
My experience has been that the fouling of the bore on the .17 is due to the small diameter of the bore, not the polymer bullet. This is really a non issue, just clean the gun after shooting and don't let the burned powder build up. Build up or fouling is not unique to the .17, on my black powder I have to run a jag down the barrel after a few shots. I have a high quality, English made air rifle in which the bore gets "fouled" . Now if your scratching your head and wondering how an airgun gets fouled or you think I have simply lost my mind (highly probable) heres how it occurs. The airgun shoots a soft lead pellet and after hundreds or thousands of rounds, lead builds up in the rifling. This will affect the accuracy of the gun and must be cleaned out. You want to clean an airgun as little as possible because the rifling is so shallow you can wear out the barrel. I use JB Bore Paste to remove the leading and restore accuracy.
The airgun, an Air Arms S 410 E in .22 caliber, is an extremely accurate gun. At 40 yards, with a rest, you shoot the numbers on the target that tell your score, the bullseye is simply too easy to hit. Until you experience one of these and see how accurate and powerful they are, you are missing out on a really fine shooter. These are not your old BB gun!

 

[Docsknotinn]

What kind of .17 do you have ? The one I see on paper I like is a Winchester 1885 Low wall, single shot with a case colored receivor. I cant find one to look at though. Dont be tellin every one about the magical powers of JB's polish ! Its a secret /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif I use it on my antique winchesters. In fact I use it on all my guns. The air gun is something I will most certainly need if we stay in this house. we have been here 7 years and they are getting ready to put a sub in our backyard. we new it would happen one day but I doubt we are going to like it much. If we stay I wont be able to use the 22 any more. Can I ask how much that one cost ? Its really supriseing what a big range of quality there is in air guns. Dave

 

[Dozernut]

I have a Marlin bolt action, model .17V, with a bull barrel. Not the most expensive or highest quality gun, but a good little knock around varmint gun.
Here is good a site that has information and pricing on airguns. They are not the cheapest, but do provide a quality service. http://www.straightshooters.com/
The AA 410 E I have has a moderator built into the barrel shroud. It is really odd to shoot such a powerful airgun and have the loudest thing be the striker for the air release and the impact on the target. This gun will build up your muscles and endurance. You use a high pressure hand pump to pump the guns air reservoir to 2 bars or 3,000 psi.
I find the airgun fascinating. It has been around longer than firearms and was built for kings to hunt big game.

 

[Docsknotinn]

Thats a great web site. I will be spending some time looking at all that fun stuff soon. That air rifle of yours sure looks like a dandy. A LOT nicer than I ever think when some one says " air gun" . Looks like fun. Dave

 

[RanchMan]

<font color="blue">I am reading a bit of bad press about fouling the bore from those ploycarbinate tips </font>

Huh??? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif Please explain what you mean as either I'm misunderstanding what you wrote or there is some really bad information floating around.

 

[cisco]

Yeah, my dad could, at least with a 30-30, but I was lousy, and the horses (those that my dad had broken) seemed to sense it. He had an old leather scabbard for the 30-30, that attached to a western type saddle, from his 1930's time in rural Utah and Nevada. He noted that it didn't seem worth the effort to get off a "perfectly good horse" to shoot - me, I needed something solid for the longer shots to rest the gun on, even if it was my own legs in a tripod-type sitting position.
Such was NOT like the "run and gun" stuff that is currently spicing up small town rodeos (see Google, type in horseback and shooting, or similar - heck, they've even got training camps and tournament rules). Kind of a disappearing art, like lots of things - requires a well trained horse confident in its boss (the rider) - mounted cavalry in the Boer Wars, the 1918 Ottoman war (Turkey, famous per movie about Gallipoli) and similar probably were the peak of good horseback shooting, from galloping to stationary, by folks who spent a great deal of one-on-one time with their horses - the North African Berbers in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia perform routinely on horseback for tourists (they're just shooting black powder "blanks" at those shows, so who knows if they could hit anything).

 

[Docsknotinn]

I have read several articles about this caliber and they all make reference to some type of bore fouling from the bullet. I assumed it was from the plastic in the ballistic tip. I dont pay a lot more attention than that because I read the same thing in several articles. I had the same problem in the Weatherby with some coated bullets deseigned to reduce friction in the throat of the belted magnums. You just wind up tradeing one problem for another. I cant imagine its a real problem on the little .17 unless you dont clean your gun much. I dont know how many used clays guns I have looked at that excessive plastic build up around the choke due to poor or no cleaning. Sort of like clays shooting with a turkey choke /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[RanchMan]

Hmmm.

I can see how the copper jacket could foul the lands and how the powder can foul the groves, but I don't see how the plastic tip of the bullet could cause any fouling since it never makes any type of physical contact with the barrel when fired. (unlike a shotgun where the plastic wad does make physical contact with the barrel as the round is discharged.)

I have also heard complaints about fouling from moly coated bullets even though the moly is supposed to help reduce fouling. (I've shot molly coated bullets and haven't noticed a difference in fouling, positive or negative, in comparison to regular jacketed bullets.) Were you shooting molys in your Weatherby?

Certain barrels will foul more based on a number of characteristics, and some bullets will as well based on their jacket makeup, but the tip shouldn't have anything to do with it. I suspect that the articles you reference were talking about how the jacket of those particular bullets may be more prone to foul the barrel and they simply used the "ballistic tip" as identifier in passing.

If I'm lucky and get a .17HMR for Christmas, I'll let you know more about the fouling. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif