beginner rifle

[Oakley-wannabe]

I want to attend an Appleseed Project event in the fall. I have never shot a rifle. Does anyone have any suggestions for a first rifle? Where would I go to practice? I am on the east side of Cincinnati.

[sabalo]

A lot of Appleseeders seem to like the Ruger 10/22 for customization, ruggedness and accuracy.
And it's cheap to shoot.

[Hedgelj]

I would also suggest the Ruger 10/22. I would then go to Rimfirecentral.com and look around but be cautioned there are a lot of very experienced customizers on that forum and they spend A LOT of money on their rifles. You do not have to do that though, they have an Appleseed subforum where I'm sure come people can help you out getting the basic 10/22 more than ready for an appleseed. In all honest not much has to be done, you could take one barebones stock and do pretty well as long as it comes with sling swivels. As to where to shoot I duno anything about Cinci.

[dirtdawg]

+1 on the Ruger 10/22, although Mrs. Dawg loves her Marlin model 60. The detachable magazine of the Ruger is a little faster to manipulate during the timed stages of the Appleseed course of fire.

We live in Loveland and shoot at Clinton County Farmers and Sportsmans Association (see my signature ). It is about 40 minutes from our house and very inexpensive to join.

[Mustang380gal]

If you go to the rimfirecentral site, the Appleseed section, you will see something called an LTR. That's Liberty Training Rifle, which is an Appleseed friendly rifle.

Standard Ruger sights are hard to use. Many swap out Tech sights for them. They add sling swivels, and slings. rimfirecentral has several threads on how to modify a 10/22.

One thing to watch with the Rugers is that the stock is longer than a full sized Garand. If you are shorter, you may have trouble in prone with an out of box rifle.

There are Ruger 10/22 compacts that are shorter all around. We bought a regular Ruger, which doesn't work at all for me (I'm 5'3") so we got a compact stock for it. That fits much better.

[curmudgeon3]

For a beginner rifle, I would reommend something with a telescoping buttstock, a 3-9x scope and low recoil. (.22 short or .22LR is too low.)

[Hedgelj]

Mustang380gal,

Which model of a 10/22 has a longer LOP than a garand? The carbine? Deluxe sporter? which one? I had a carbine and upgraded the stock to the Hogue overmolded one for some additional LOP and could use a little bit more though. I had wanted a Garand but if i'm going to have to contort myself maybe I should just hold out for an M1A instead.

Back to the OP,
Mustang380gal gave you a better idea of where to go on Rimfirecentral than I did, my response was hurried. Tech sites on a Ruger 10/22 are much nicer and more user friendly than the stock sites and if you decide to move to a more military styled platform with a peep site you already have lots of practice with it. You will need sling swivels as a very large portion of the Appleseed training deals with the use of a sling. If you have additional time and/or money there are 2 other changes I would do to a stock 10/22 to make it more appleseed friendly. The first is to make sure it has an extended magazine release (the newer ones do, but its a drop in piece for the older ones). I also think that the automatic bolt release is very helpful as well and also another drop in part (or one you can bubba-smith yourself if you are so inclined).

[Mustang380gal]

Hegdelj, the normal one is the carbine, right? It's whatever normally goes on sale at Gander Mountain. Its LOP is about 2 inches longer than my Garand, and an inch longer than an Enfield. Ted is about 6', and has used a Garand at a few Appleseeds. He can manage to shoot it without too much contortion. I don't know what it is about it, but I am almost a foot shorter, and we both can shoot the Garand comfortably.

At my first Appleseed, the instructor had the bolt release part, and a few slings and swivels for the Ruger. They helped get the rifle in shape before we began.

Here's the Appleseed forum on Rimfire Central. The Appleseed forum itself (http://www.rwva.org" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) is more mission specific. You can find info on LTRs and stuff, but the conversations are more related to the actual 'Seeds, and the promotion of them. Rimfire has a broad variety of Appleseed related discussion. Check out the "5 tips ."

Mr.Glock has a very good Appleseed prep thread somewhere around here....

[Oakley-wannabe]

Thanks to everyone for their posts. It seems my enthusiasm has preceded me. I think I had better work on handguns and go back to my original plan of attending an Appleseed to watch and learn. Maybe I can be ready for next year.

[dirtdawg]

Thanks to everyone for their posts. It seems my enthusiasm has preceded me. I think I had better work on handguns and go back to my original plan of attending an Appleseed to watch and learn. Maybe I can be ready for next year.

Oh no you don't! We like to get all geared up for an Appleseed as if it takes top shelf equipment to make the elusive Rifleman score, but it is really a marksmanship clinic that builds skills from the ground up. Also, it is geared towards the philosophy of "run what you Brung".

My advice is to sign up for one (super cheap for women), borrow a semi-automatic rifle, buy about a brick of ammo, and settle into the experience. Don't back out because of gear limitations. I'll bet if you ask nicely, someone will be glad to loan you a LTR for an Appleseed.

[Oakley-wannabe]

Well, thank you dirtdawg for the encouragement, but I don't actually KNOW any gun people!

[BobK]

Well, thank you dirtdawg for the encouragement, but I don't actually KNOW any gun people!

If you were in Columbus instead of Cincinnati, I'd give you my 10/22 to use for a month or so to give you a chance to see how you like one.

[Javelin Man]

Nothing wrong with a Marlin 60. I scored very high with it though it's tough to reload the long tube. But don't let the lack of a Ruger 10/22 or other very nice .22 rifle hold you back. There's no need to aim for a top score, just take anything (maybe not a single shot) and learn a lot!

[Mustang380gal]

Many of the instructors bring extra rifles. If you ask in advance, you may be able to borrow one, as long as you buy the ammo.

Or, go on the Appleseed forum, and ask who is going to the venue when you are going to be there. Another participant may be agreeable to loaners.

[Oakley-wannabe]

Thank you everyone! I just bought a ticket for the Appleseed in Wilmington at the end of October and am hoping someone will be nice enough to loan me a rifle for the event.