Thread: .22LR rifle suggestions to upgrade from my marlin

I love the CZ range. We have a mini 452 in22Lr and a 455 in 17hmr.
Both are great rifles.
My 455 is a work horse and is just a great varmint rifle.
I don't shoot groups but accuracy from both is great.
Saying that I have a bog stock Ruger 10/22 and it's bloody awesome, some minor tweaks done but I love it too carry and shoot.

Originally Posted by cambo

I really like my 925 marlin. Midweight micro grooved barrel. Shoots very well!
Trigger is the biggest issue I agree.
I have done the BIC pen spring trick and that dropped the trigger pull to about 2lbs.
What I really want for it though is a Rifle Basix trigger.

Yeah I was contemplating this, but the rifle is really a budget model and wanting to move it on anyway. Great beginners rifle or a kids first bunny bopper or something.

Originally Posted by Friwi

I had the new bergara bolt action rimfire in my hands today. ( h anf Napier)And for 1000$ you get a 5 round and 10 rounds mag, and 30 Moa base. It is factory threaded at 1/2-28. I looks like a serious contender.

Just as side note, the tikka t3 centerfire rings do not fit the tikka T1x as it has a standard 22 rifle rail (11m or 3/8" I believe )

oh that's good to know!

Don't forget that with the CZ range you can buy a new barrel and just change barrels.
So you buy a CZ .22 rifle and then (at a later date) you might want a .17 as well.
Just buy the new barrel, remove 2 grub screws that hold the old barrel, take that barrel out, insert new .17 barrel, tighten the 2 grub screws and the job is done.
Go out and sight it in.
Works OK if you don't have space to store 'more' rifles, as a spare barrel takes up little room.
It was designed apparently because of gun rules in some European regions that only allow you to own 1 gun.
This way you can own only 1 gun, but have a choice of calibre.
I think there is a 22M version too.

Originally Posted by Tentman

I like CZs and it was smoother than the Tikka. But the Ruger had a short heavy barrel in a beaut lami ated stock, its balance is way better than any of the others . . . Feels bloody good in your hands, a rifle not a toy!

Could have been a lot worse. Could have been the missus sending you back with the CZ and instructions for a return with a JW-15...

bergara bmr have some pretty good reviews from overseas
https://www.reloaders.co.nz/shop/Fir...teel+22LR.html

https://www.guncity.com/22lr-bergara...rbon-18-380954

Originally Posted by outlander

Could have been a lot worse. Could have been the missus sending you back with the CZ and instructions for a return with a JW-15...

Haha, jeezus I'd be lucky if it was a jw-15 .
.

Surprised at your unhappiness with the Marlin 925 bolt action. Have had several, benched tested them thoroughly with 12-20 types of ammos, and they are an accurate little unit capable of 0.3" and 0.4" five shot groups at 50m. They have matched the CZ452s on the range for me. Also durable little hunters in the field.

By all means move it on - but make sure you've given it chance to shine first. You can pay a great deal more and gain little. 925s are certainly not a crapper 22LR.

The nicest 22 I have handled was a flash Mauser. And the best shooter was the Annie, but both are $1500 + second hand

Went bunny shooting with 3 mates last night. Tools at hand: CZ455 (mine), a Tikka T1x, a Ruger American Target and an old Voere 2017.

In terms of field accuracy, take your pick. Nothing to split them.

For me? The Ruger was bloody nice. I liked that. I doubt it would outshoot my CZ, but who cares? We’re not paper shooters anyway. The Tikka is nice enough, all good, the old Voere shoots bloody well. I guess the message is, handle them all, pick the one you like the most. .22s are very fickle when it comes to ammo, which varies greatly from batch to batch anyway. And of course very fickle when it comes to the shooter. Most guys will just tell you “get what I’ve got”, I think it’s 100% up to you to go and work it out for yourself, just because our preferences vary so much.

Originally Posted by Synthetic

Don't forget the Weihrauch HW60 series

Definitely or an Anshultz

^^^ Anshultz make good quality 22 rifles.

Originally Posted by mudgripz

Surprised at your unhappiness with the Marlin 925 bolt action. Have had several, benched tested them thoroughly with 12-20 types of ammos, and they are an accurate little unit capable of 0.3" and 0.4" five shot groups at 50m. They have matched the CZ452s on the range for me. Also durable little hunters in the field.

By all means move it on - but make sure you've given it chance to shine first. You can pay a great deal more and gain little. 925s are certainly not a crapper 22LR.

I think my main disagreement with it is the crappy trigger, I'm jerking and flinching.

That's not a hard fix - for the rifle or the shooter. First show 925 to your gunsmith. Component polishing, change of spring and/or sear tweak and trigger will be good. Cost is a great deal less than a new rifle. That model 925 should have Marlin T900 trigger which precedes the later Savage style adjustable Pro-fire.

Then try CCI minimag, subs, and standard velocity through it on the range in windless conditions. And ask if there's a past/present champ shooter at the range to help you with flinch/correct posture/positional pressures/accuracy etc. Won't be too hard to get it and you shooting down to 0.5s - which is its capability. Have known many many basic 22LR sporters (including JW15s and Marlins) to shoot with extreme accuracy - right up with modern PRS shooting rifles. One Marlin I had shot an average of 0.29" for four consecutive 5 shot groups at 50m.

Try these few things and it'll help you find out what you and the 925 can do. Then you'll know what in fact you need to buy.

Found this that you might find interesting...


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Marlin T-900 Trigger re-work (917v and similar rifles)
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bscman
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Discussion Starter · #1 · Jan 12, 2007

Okay, I've been requested to post this info on cleaning up and reducing trigger pull weight on the newer generation Marlin rimfires (With the T-900 trigger group)

Please bare in mind I am not a gunsmith. This is information I've learned and tried from various other posts on different forums. I won't be held responsible for any injuries/damages that my occur from these modifications. Again, these have worked very well for myself and many other rimfires enthusiasts. My rifles passes every test I can put it through (safety test, various bump tests, etc).

Here is a pic of the T-900 trigger group, with circles around the elements we're going to concentrate on:

The red cirlce is surrounding the firm Sear spring. The upper part of the spring rests against the reciever, the lower part fits well inside a hole drilled into the sear.

The blue cirlce is around the trigger spring. It's responsible for resetting the trigger.

The first, and easiest (non-intrusive) modification is to replace the stock trigger spring with a lighter spring. For reference, in this step you are replacing the BLUE circled spring with a lighter spring.
The cheapest way to do this is to remove a spring from a Bic clickable ball-point pen. A spring from any clickable ink pen should work, however. It can be pretty light, as the main job of this spring is just to re-set the trigger. I advise against going "super" light, however...especially if this is anything more than a benchrest rifle.
Play around until you get the desired tension.

The second step requires STIFFENING the sear spring. For reference this is the spring circled in RED.
The easiest method to do this is to shim the spring slightly. Upon dis-assembly you will see the sear spring seats deeply into a hole in the sear. The shim you will make should fit into this hole, filling it about half-way.
In other words, make a shim to put extra preload on the spring--but keep the shim small enough so the spring can still be held in place by the hole in the sear.
I achieved this by taking a small brass screw, turning down the threads to the correct diameter, and cutting off approximately 1/16" and using this small 1/16" piece of brass as the shim. Since the spring does yield a lot of tension, I recommend you use a HARD nylon or metal for this shim. Brittle plastic can easily break, and wood could easily compress.
Graybeard Outdoors
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Marlin T-900 Trigger re-work (917v and similar rifles)
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bscman
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Discussion Starter · #1 · Jan 12, 2007

Okay, I've been requested to post this info on cleaning up and reducing trigger pull weight on the newer generation Marlin rimfires (With the T-900 trigger group)

Please bare in mind I am not a gunsmith. This is information I've learned and tried from various other posts on different forums. I won't be held responsible for any injuries/damages that my occur from these modifications. Again, these have worked very well for myself and many other rimfires enthusiasts. My rifles passes every test I can put it through (safety test, various bump tests, etc).

Here is a pic of the T-900 trigger group, with circles around the elements we're going to concentrate on:



The red cirlce is surrounding the firm Sear spring. The upper part of the spring rests against the reciever, the lower part fits well inside a hole drilled into the sear.

The blue cirlce is around the trigger spring. It's responsible for resetting the trigger.

The first, and easiest (non-intrusive) modification is to replace the stock trigger spring with a lighter spring. For reference, in this step you are replacing the BLUE circled spring with a lighter spring.
The cheapest way to do this is to remove a spring from a Bic clickable ball-point pen. A spring from any clickable ink pen should work, however. It can be pretty light, as the main job of this spring is just to re-set the trigger. I advise against going "super" light, however...especially if this is anything more than a benchrest rifle.
Play around until you get the desired tension.

The second step requires STIFFENING the sear spring. For reference this is the spring circled in RED.
The easiest method to do this is to shim the spring slightly. Upon dis-assembly you will see the sear spring seats deeply into a hole in the sear. The shim you will make should fit into this hole, filling it about half-way.
In other words, make a shim to put extra preload on the spring--but keep the shim small enough so the spring can still be held in place by the hole in the sear.
I achieved this by taking a small brass screw, turning down the threads to the correct diameter, and cutting off approximately 1/16" and using this small 1/16" piece of brass as the shim. Since the spring does yield a lot of tension, I recommend you use a HARD nylon or metal for this shim. Brittle plastic can easily break, and wood could easily compress.

To take this one step further, you can use a second spring around the outside of the sear spring to increase the tension further. I chose not to do this on my rifle, as I was more than pleased with the 2lb 7oz. (under 2.5#) trigger. You can use the stock trigger spring (cut in half) around the sear spring if you're cheap. You local hardware store (Ace) probably has a spring that will work.

*Note: Shimming the sear spring will put more tension on the sear as rides against the bolt--therefore making the bolt slightly more difficult to operate. Using the shim alone, it is barely noticeable...however, using a stiffer/second surround spring can make a noticeable difference. Also, be aware if the spring is too thick the sear might no be able to be pulled far enough out of the way in order to completely remove the bolt from the receiver. Test and re-test until you get it right.
I'm not quite sure why shimming the sear spring TIGHTER makes the trigger lighter, but it does.

Finally, I noticed there was quite a bit of side-to-side play between the trigger and the trigger housing...I don't like being able to wiggle my trigger! I fabricated a pair of small shims using brass-stock from feeler gauges I found in my tool-box. You could easily use a thin piece of plastic, or brass shim-stock is available at many hardware stores.

The prior three modifications are all non-intrusive and can easily be swapped back to factory should your rifle not function properly, or not give the desired results. The following is not so forgiving.

While you have your trigger group apart to swap springs, take a fine diamond hone (or 600grit or finer wet/dry paper on a flat surface) and polish the contact surfaces of the trigger/sear. DO NOT remove much material, simply LIGHTLY smooth out the machining marks for smooth engagement surfaces. Removing too much metal, or altering any angles can make for an unsafe condition. I wouldn't recommend doing this step unless you have a lot of confidence, and do THOROUGH SAFETY TESTING afterwards. If you screw something up, you'll be forced to buy new parts from marlin. So err to the side of caution.

Finally, test for proper function of the safety and do several bump tests (unloaded rifle!) with and without the safety on to make sure the rifle will not accidently dischardge.

These modifications will easily yield a trigger in the 2-3lb range, that is crisp and consistent every time...combined with the wide trigger itself, the T-900 trigger group can be an excellent trigger with minimal work.
I've hear reports of some users getting their triggers down to the low 1lb mark. Again, I don't recommend this unless the rifle is a full time, dedicated benchrest shooter. For practical hunting and general plinking, a trigger int he 2-3lb range is more than acceptable.

For what it's worth, my stock trigger averaged 7lb 13oz out of the box...I was able to reduce it safely, to nearly 1/3 of that.

Good luck, be cautious, and enjoy your "new" trigger...it's a much cheaper alternative than the $70 for the riflebasix unit--although the RB unit is a great trigger