Do You Have A .22?
I
was ten years old. I tried to stay up all night on Christmas Eve but fell asleep early. On
Christmas morning, I raced to the living room to find a long cardboard box which had a big
picture of an Indian chief, along with SAVAGE ARMS written on the side. Inside that box was
a Stevens Favorite Model 30, a single-shot .22 LR, with falling block action. Over the next
few years, many cans, squirrels, pine cones, and the occasional rabbit fell to that little rifle, I
still have it. I also still have many memories attached to it, which I will treasure forever. That
by Ian-Bradley M. Johnson
is how I got started in shooting.
Arms Merchant
Walk into any local gun store and strike up a conversation about first guns. Odds are
many will be about .22 LR rifles with many stories to follow and for good reason. Most shooters get their start with a rifle chambered in .22 LR. It is the perfect platform on which to
teach a young shooter.
From a training standpoint, the .22 LR is perfect because of its low recoil, affordable
price, and generally speaking, low in noise and muzzle flash so it’s not very flinch inducing.
The guns themselves aren’t terribly expensive and neither is the ammo. Whenever I’m having a bad day at the range and my grouping isn’t very consistent, I put all the guns away and
break out my CZ 452 to work on proper trigger press. When working up for an African safari
last year where most of the shooting is done off of sticks, I practiced with the CZ 452 in be-
38
May 2016 www.marshandbayou.com