Shooting Galleries using Live Ammo

[Richard Flanders]

The 63's seem to be very popular these days and are crazy expensive. They sure are nice rifles though. Classic vintage Winchester quality and from what I hear from a friend who has bought each of his grandsons one, they shoot straight. My favorite .22's these days are 1) a vintage Marlin mod 1892, I think it is, lever gun with a replacement eary mod 39 hex barrel and a Marbles tang sight, and 2) a vintage Savage mod. 29 pump gun with a long hex bbl and a target grade receiver sight. Both shoot v straight and get used regularly to educate my resident marauding red squirrels. I also have a 70's vintage Marlin mod 39A Mountie that I put a Bushnell AR .22 scope on and which shoots crazy accurate at 100yds. That one would be a great gun to try on prairie dogs out to 200yds, something I wouldn't try with any other .22 I have. I have a very nice Winchester mod 62A that I have beheaded a lot of spruce grouse with and really like but haven't shot it in a long time. Here's a pic of the old Marlin levergun. It's the perfect .22 in size and heft and works smooth as butter as old Marlins do. Interestingly, the tang was already drilled when I got it and the Marbles sight bolted right up. Due to a machining feature in the bolt, these will only handle standard velocity ammo.