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Wednesday, December 08, 2004


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Taurus Mod 62 (.22 LR)

Kim du Toit
December 8, 2004
1:00 AM CDT

Last year, my wonderful wife bought me this rifle for my birthday.

This year, she did something a little different: she paid off the balance of my layaway amount on a handgun.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t shoot it worth a damn (and no, I’m not going to say what it was, either, because it’s irrelevant—the gun shot just fine when other people shot it, but I couldn’t get decent groups myself). So I sold it to a man who appreciates fine gun-metal, paid off a couple of small debts, and was left with just over $200.

(I should add at this point that The Mrs. understood my actions perfectly, and okayed them all along the way. I am not just lucky, I am truly blessed.)

So… there was a couple hundred in the kitty. What to do?

I came to the sudden realization that I’ve actually reached the point where I have enough handguns for my liking (I lack only a Colt Python, and I don’t mind waiting for that one).

As a shooter, I’m a pretty lousy handgunner—possibly because I look on handguns as something you use to buy time while you get to your real guns. I’m competent with a handgun, and I could probably be better, but shooting handguns for practice just takes away time from shooting what I really love: rifles.

Some time ago, I stated that a pump-action .22 rifle was a desirable thing for any household: major fun to shoot, wonderfully reliant, and pretty much your basic household staple.

And I didn’t own one.

But the venerable Winchester 62 commands a steep price (mostly over $500 for one in any kind of decent shape), and this thinking led me, inevitably, to the little Taurus Model 62 carbine—and this time, in stainless steel:

image

The Taurus 62 comes in quite a wide variety of choices: long-barrel rifle vs. short-barrel carbine, and blue- vs. stainless steel finish, regular sights vs. “target” tang peep sights, three different calibers (.17 HMR, .22 LR, and .22 Mag) and all the combinations and permutations thereof.

So, to make a long story short, I decided on:

  • .22 LR
  • short barrel
  • stainless steel (it’s the only stainless rifle I own)
  • and regular sights (the complete Taurus nomenclature is Model 62C-SS)
Why? I wanted a knockaround, handy and rugged little rifle—one that I could just toss in the back of the truck and forget about.

Now I understand that all the above comes with one serious compromise: accuracy. Let’s be honest, that loose pump forearm, plain buckhorn sight and short barrel are not normally on your average keen target shooter’s list of desirable features.

So I took the little Taurus 62 onto the range with low expectations. The first few shots were consistently left of the aiming point (about 1.5” or so), but a couple of firm taps with a mallet drifted the front sight into the right direction.

Then I settled down for some serious shooting, using the three different kinds of .22 I always carry in my range bag: Remington Viper, Remington “Gold” (from the 525-round box), and CCI Mini-Mags.

Here are the results at 40 feet, 2.5” targets shot from the bench (no sandbag, just my left hand for support).

Remington Viper:

image

The right-hand target, by the way, was my very first series of shots with the new gun. As you can see, it was shooting left, and I hadn’t yet mastered the trigger. The left-hand target was the best five-shot group I could get with the Vipers.

Remington Gold:

image

This time, the left-hand target was the first group fired with this ammo, and the right-hand one was the best I could manage; both ten-round groups.

Then it was time for the CCI Mini-Mags:

image

The left-hand target was a five-shot group, mainly because I had run out of Mini-Mags at the end. The right-hand target was the first ten-shot group I got with the Mini-Mags.

If this looks like it was fun, let me tell you something: I fired about thirty rounds in total to sight the rifle in, adjust the front sight, get used to the trigger, etc.

I then fired, at a rough guess, about another three hundred (300) rounds—at circle targets, varmint targets, silhouette targets, you name it. I even shot at the expended shotgun shells lying on the floor of the range, skipping them towards the backstop. In short, I emptied my range bag of .22 LR, which I’ve never done before.

I could not put this little rifle down.

Now, I’m not saying that you’ll have as much fun as I did when you get to shooting your pump-action .22 rifle.

I bet you’ll have even more fun than I did. My advice to you: take twice as much ammo to the range than you normally take, then you won’t be as disappointed as I was when I finally had to quit. Set aside some extra ammo for other guys to shoot too, just like I had to.

I have only two small criticisms. The first is that the pump takes some getting used to: it’s a little stiff, and you have to slam the breech all the way back, or else it won’t chamber the next round. The second “problem” is that the grooves in the front slide were cut a little sharp—my left hand felt quite tender towards the end of the session. But I bet that time and another 50,000 rounds will smoothe both these problems out. Because that’s about how many rounds I intend to shoot through this rifle, at minimum.

Oh, and here’s my final effort, aimed rapid-fire, standing offhand, six rounds of Remington Gold (all I had left):

image

Hmmm… looks like I need a little more practice.

Oh, goody.




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