Agreed, the new friendships have been the best experiences since I started shooting rim fire in 2017. Doing this for a living now is icing on the cake. The conversations with new people I meet at a match or a new build are some of the most rewarding.
Even at $20/box the cost per round is so much easier to swallow.
Dzeke, I have to disagree with your first sentence. It’s not a gateway, it’s a full blown, heroin/fentanyl mix. It’s so much fun, it will all but “KILL” any interest in other shooting sports. Next sentence for sure. Darned addictive.
.For me it was a progression from BB guns to cheap pellet guns to mid grade pellet rifles to rimfire. By then I had mastered working with crap triggers and started immediately trying to get the most accuracy out of my .22s as possible. I would pine for “dream guns” that the scribes in the gun rags claimed were must haves. Some lived up to the hype, but most didn’t. Regardless, I never really progressed to centerfire the way so many have. I guess I just preferred the less ego and more genuine passion of the average rimfire nut, to the magnum centerfire folks who seemed to have something to prove.
You are not alone on this statement. I, along with so many others have sunk that much into.22's.
It's the challenge for me and ARA Unlimited Benchrest is what I chose to drive me crazy!!! LOL!!!
Is the Quad dry fire safe? I would definitely inspect the breech for sign of firing pin strike and probably start using a snap cap if you are not already, if you are using one then forgive me for butting in.
I too remember that first shot. I was maybe 6 years old, visiting one of a zillion aunts/uncles/cousins on my mother's side - no memory at all of which one - "out in the country" in rural NC. An older guy (may have been a teenager) comes out of the house with a .22 rifle. I had no idea what it was, but I wanted to shoot it. So he let me. I could barely hold the thing up, but I pointed it in the general direction of a tree (no memory of whether it had sights; it definitely didn't have a scope) and let fly. I missed, but I was really impressed when the bullet landed a couple hundred yards out in a dry plowed field - big puff of dust - and I remember the long echos of the shot coming back from the trees across that field.See, @LR1845 gets it…
But seriously, my very earliest memory is of the first time I broke a shot. I was too small to hold a rifle up, my dad was holding it for me, he had me wrap my arm around the stock kinda like I was in an offhand position. I clearly remember the feeling, sound, and emotions of that moment. He said I had the biggest shit eating grin as I looked up, I was maybe 3 or so. I have been hooked ever since. Shooting & guns has always been in my family for generations, & for me (like many) it started with rimfire.
Truth be told there has probably been more food put on the table by a .22 than any other caliber. I have to see a practical purpose to do anything fun.
