Punched holes today...

Today I borrowed a .22 and ran about a hundred rounds through it. I haven't shot a rifle in more than five years, although I shot regularly from the time I was about 9 until I was 55-or-so.

I wanted to give this one a try because I thought it looked cool and was fairly practical.

It's made by Taurus in Brazil, but sold by Rossi in the USA. I don't quite understand if one of those companies owns the other or what, but Taurus has built good firearms for a long time and generally sold them cheaper than Remington, Ruger, Winchester, et. al.

The rifle above is a revolver with an 18" barrel and a buttstock. Only one screw holds the buttstock on, so I imagine it would be a simple matter to replace it with a pistol grip and have a .22 pistol with an 18" barrel. While a .22 is certainly lethal, it doesn't have much stopping power. You don't want to be shooting stuff bigger than rabbits with it unless you are really, really good.

I like this rifle because: 1) its cylinder holds nine shots, 2) it has an interchangeable .22 magnum cylinder which also holds nine, 3) it's accurate; I created three 1.5" 5-shot groups at 100' with open sights (that amazed me, since I can barely see), 4) it'll take a beating; composite stock and forearm, and 5) it looks cool.

A .22 magnum is a very useful cartridge. Probably about double the range and power of a .22, you can carry 500 rounds pretty easily, and it's capable of knocking down almost anything you might want to shoot for food or self-defense. Really nice to have the ability to use the same base firearm to interchange .22 and .22 magnum cylinders.

A 2.5x10-power scope was in the bag, so I mounted the scope. I'd never used a 10x scope before; the 8x11 target more than filled the frame at 100'. Even so, I still couldn't make less than a 1.5" group. Old man's shaky hands.

After that, I looked up Rossi and Taurus.

Same gun, but with a five-shot cylinder that takes either .45 long colt or .410 ga. shotgun shells. Respectable home-invasion repelling piece.

 

20-gauge single-shot

 

The .454 Casull is the most powerful round for which a pistol is currently made. It's plenty big for any big game on earth. Nice to have a round that fits both your six-gun and your rifle.

 

"Ranch Hand," .45 long colt, a la Steve McQueen ("Wanted: Dead or Alive;" Little Joe Cartwright had his misdeeds before they trimmed him up for "Bonanza"). Nice addition to a collection, but not a very good crossover weapon, given what's available out there.

 

The Rossi Judge; .45 long colt or .410 shotgun/slug, interchangeably in the same cylinder. Real serious slapdown whack in a revolver, if you don't mind wearing suspenders to keep your pants up when you have it on your belt.

These are just some of the thousands of weapons available for you to arm yourself during the current War on Drugs, brought to you by people like So. Dak.'s attorney-general, Marty "marijuana makes your eyes bleed" Jackley. Yes, the same War that props up profits for the most vicious people on Earth, while jailing people who use a God-given herb to alleviate the miserable symptoms of the most vicious diseases Man can suffer.

 You want to minimize gun violence? Tell your legislators to quit popping pot users.