My 11 year old daughter is getting into 4H shooting in Burleson County. She's shooting air pistol, air rifle, .22 pistol, and .22 rifle. She's a left handed shooter. The club has an air pistol and air rifle that we can take home, which is awesome. Looking at buying a .22 that she can use at competitions and at the ranch. Anybody have any insight on what to get her? I've got a lot to learn about competitive shooting…TIA!

CZ 457 Lux
Savage Mark II
Ruger 77/22

Different comps have different rules on equipment.

Find out exactly what competitions the club is shooting, what division they want her shooting in and check the rules before buying anything.

4H Shooting Sports Shotgun coach here. Bender's advice is great. Shotgun does not have same restrictions/specifications BUT the sport definitely has more expensive/specialized guns available, haha!

Shooting Sports is a great way to be involved with 4H. There's also a bunch of additional activities being involved with the club opens up.

Budget?

Tikka T1X is a great shooter, but so are a lot of the CZ457's and some of those can be found for less money.

Football and girls have finally trumped my son's 4H shooting career. He got a lot out of it and your kids will too. We started with a Mossberg and transitioned to an Anschutz. He is wanting to sell the Anschutz, but it may be out of your price range. PM me if you want to talk.

Edit: He is left handed,but has always shot right-handed guns. It never slowed him down or affected his shooting.

Another learning edit: Bender has great advice on club rules etc, for small bore the sights cost as much as the gun. So, add some additional $$ to the base gun you are looking at for sights.

Thanks

If shooting 3 position 22 rifle, buy the Anschutz for sale above.

regularjoe said:

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Looking at buying a .22 that she can use at competitions and at the ranch. Anybody have any insight on what to get her?

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It would really help the readership here if you let us know what type of competition she is doing. There are many different types of rimfire competitions, and they all have differing rules about what you can and cannot use.

C

EFE said:

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If shooting 3 position 22 rifle, buy the Anschutz for sale above.

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Totally agree. If she is indeed shooting 3p, then there is nothing from CZ or Tikka or Ruger that would be suitable. Other suitable brands are Walther, Hammerli, Feinwerkbau, and Weihrauch, although I don't think the last one is available in the US in rimfire form.

You can look at the Champion's Choice Inc. website to see these types of rifles. If she is not shooting 3p, then just disregard.

C

For clarity, my son was shooting 3p, although as a Jr shooter he only shot prone. I don't think he transitioned to 3p until he was 14 or whatever they classify a Sr shooter as.

JB!98 said:

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For clarity, my son was shooting 3p, although as a Jr shooter he only shot prone. I don't think he transitioned to 3p until he was 14 or whatever they classify a Sr shooter as.

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I've always wondered -- does 4H shoot rimfire at 50m, or at reduced targets at shorter ranges?

C

Caladan said:

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JB!98 said:

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For clarity, my son was shooting 3p, although as a Jr shooter he only shot prone. I don't think he transitioned to 3p until he was 14 or whatever they classify a Sr shooter as.

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I've always wondered -- does 4H shoot rimfire at 50m, or at reduced targets at shorter ranges?

C

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I believe that 3p is shot at 50 feet, but the targets are small. Give me a second and I will post a target sheet. The bull on those targets is tiny. I initially didn't understand what was so hard about it because it was so close. When I went and shot it myself, I realized how hard it is to shoot high scores.

We are doing the same thing With daughter. She is starting with air pistol. We bought her a crosman 1701 but we cannot find the Williams open sight for it.

She has really take to it.

JB!98 said:

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Caladan said:

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JB!98 said:

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For clarity, my son was shooting 3p, although as a Jr shooter he only shot prone. I don't think he transitioned to 3p until he was 14 or whatever they classify a Sr shooter as.

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I've always wondered -- does 4H shoot rimfire at 50m, or at reduced targets at shorter ranges?

C

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I believe that 3p is shot at 50 feet, but the targets are small. Give me a second and I will post a target sheet. The bull on those targets is tiny. I initially didn't understand what was so hard about it because it was so close. When I went and shot it myself, I realized how hard it is to shoot high scores.

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Thanks for taking the time! I've encountered so many Americans over the years who make fun of ISSF/Olympic shooting, and especially the airgun competitions, because of the short distances involved. They have no idea how small the 10-rings are and how hard it is to hit them from an unsupported standing position, even just one or two times out of ten.

C

aggie0959 said:

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We are doing the same thing With daughter. She is starting with air pistol. We bought her a crosman 1701 but we cannot find the Williams open sight for it.

She has really take to it.

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If you think she will continue with it, then you might eventually consider getting her a Hammerli AP20. Since you have a 1701, you must already have a way to compress air. The AP20 is the lowest-priced "serious" entry-level AP (unless the Russians still make the IZH-46 single-stroke pneumatic). The AP20 has one trick that most other AP's don't have and that is the ability to change the orientation of the air tank, which changes the balance. Several places carry them. If interested, I would recommend Airguns of Arizona. They are good people there.

If she *really* gets serious, then you could try to find the "junior" pre-charged AP model made by Feinwerkbau. It is shorter and lighter and has a smaller grip diameter than most competition-grade AP's. I believe that this model is discontinued, but they can occasionally be found on the used market. If interested, you might call Scott Pilkington at Pilkington Competition in TN and see if he might have a lead on one.

C

I'll look into those. The club has a few 1701 and that is the one she is learning in so I order the pistol to practice at home. But the sight was on back order. Then After the estimated date the they said they did continued it. But I'll check those out

Thanks for all the replies. Lots of good info. We haven't done much .22 shooting just yet, but she's really enjoying it and I have a feeling she's going to stick with it for the long haul.