sorta new BE shooter. advice on .22 for 14 YO son

I used to shoot BE..only the .22. Shot a 41. Stopped 13 years ago. fast forward to now.

Thinking about getting back to it. My 14 year old son is interested. Was thinking about getting him a .22. Was thinking about one of the new Rugers. I would love advice. He has a Ruger GP 100 and shoots the revolver with 38s pretty nice. Just want to get into the .22 to reduce the cost of shooting/training.

Thanks in advance,
Todd P

A Ruger 22/45 Mk.III Target semi-auto pistol would be fine - they're not too heavy and ought to be plenty accurate. The "RP" (Replaceable [grip] Panel) version would allow for different grips as he grows. The "Lite" version are even lighter.

I'm currently shooting a Beretta 87 Target - it's got a fairly small grip (smaller than the S&W Model 41) and is pretty light-weight, but is well-balanced and good enough that I regularly pull in High Master-level scores with it on league nights.

Having "cut my teeth" by shooting revolvers until I made Master, both indoor and outdoor, I would also endorse the S&W Model 617 .22 revolver, which can be had with either a 6" or 4" barrel. My 617 started off with a 6" barrel, but I had S&W put a 4" barrel on it after a few years of use because I felt like I liked the balance of the 4" barrel better. Since you mention your son shoots .38s out of the Ruger GP100 well, this might be a good way to go, though the S&W and Ruger revolvers feel completely different to me. I'll admit that I might have made Master sooner if I had stuck to semi-autos, but I like revolvers and didn't mind being the only person on the line shooting wheelguns (and outshooting most of the local guys in the Expert class for years before I could finally shoot Master-level scores to be upgraded).

Edit: Also, an air pistol could be considered for at-home practice/training. Pellets are cheap ($6 for 500), air is free (for single-stroke or multi-stroke or even pre-charged pneumatic guns), and range-time would also be free. Would be good training/practice, particularly for Slow Fire and for the fundamentals of marksmanship in general.

As for feeding your son's interest, perhaps you could find a local match or a league somewhere? Whereabouts do you live? Get in touch with the match/league director and see if you can get other local shooters to lend you/your son their pistols in a match; I'd bet most Bullseye shooters have at least an extra pistol or two and wouldn't mind letting you try them out.

I used to recommend Ruger 22/45s for new shooters, but of late the quality of the ones I've been seeing is TERRIBLE, and the triggers are TERRIBLE.  To be more specific, one of the junior shooters that shoots at the club was trying it out and the "slide" was more of a "pull it out, and punch it back in".  The gun wouldn't fire.
The others all needed a trigger job in a big way.
The 22/45 Lite is very hard to shoot well.  The lack of weight makes it easier to move the gun a lot more if the new shooter has any movement during trigger control.

Another junior shooter bought a new Browning Buckmark and I thought the trigger was great right out of the box.  Much better bullseye gun.

I've been recommending a Springfield RO with a Nelson .22 conversion if you are able to justify the extra expense.

I have a 22/45 without the RP for my wife and son.   I'll echo Rob, the trigger is garbage, I ended up with metal splinters field stripping it because of the lack of quality control.  I'll end up re-lining it as well.  So between a trigger job and a liner I could have just bought a used M41 or some other variation of a quality pistol.  I like how Ruger tries to save money by not putting direction arrows on the sights, just to make sure you do a mental exercise to recall which way to turn them....lol.  Function wise, its been very good, but not great.  My Nelson has been more reliable with various ammunition than the Ruger.

All of the Browning Buckmarks I've seen appear to be very accurate, about the same as the Ruger, but the fit/finish looks better.  An option I may look at is an aluminum frame 1911 with a Nelson conversion and slim grips/bushings.  I can't imagine that would be very heavy as the entire pistol would be aluminum at that point.  Unfortunately the price is getting steep.

One positive thing about the Ruger, if you have very small hands, you can get the 22/45 without RPs and the grip is very thin.  You can get bushings installed later by a gunsmith when needed.

Regardless I'm hopeful, my 14 year old was shooting a 25 yard rapid fire target with a bullseye stance.  He said shooting with 2 hands is too easy.  He's coming to the league shoots when I get back.

One other pistol to consider is the S&W 22A.  Being mostly aluminum it is decent for weight.  Decent triggers on the ones I shot.  May be out of production now but you might still be able to get one.  I never liked the Ruger 22 pistols much.

Nothing good comes from starting a kid out in bullseye that young - just look at me for proof.

Next thing you know, he'll be 30 years old, buying .22 ammo out of the trunk of some dude's car at a gun club, then wondering if he has enough cash left over for three tacos.

He might move on to trap!

I browse the local pawn shops pretty frequently, and several of them had the Ruger MK IIs ranging anywhere from $225 on up in varying condition.

ruger mark ll is a great choice over the marklll also a browning buckmark is good, under 400.00 new, too or many good sw 41's out there they just cost double+ of the other two.

I used to shoot a Ruger when I got my BE start. Nice thing about the Ruger is availability of after market parts. I highly recommend a Clark steel trigger and trigger job from a BE gunsmith. I regularly shot high 880's with this pistol. I've been working on the Rugers since 1988 (probably done over 75 trigger jobs) and don't care for 99% of the Volquartzen products. I would avoid their aluminum trigger, it feels spongy and the over travel screw has a tendency to loosen. Their drop in trigger kit isn't much to speak of either. So the investment of a 'real' trigger job can't be beat. If you get a Ruger that is rough around the edges, the BE smith can smooth it up as well.
Jon

john bickar wrote:Nothing good comes from starting a kid out in bullseye that young - just look at me for proof.

Next thing you know, he'll be 30 years old, buying .22 ammo out of the trunk of some dude's car at a gun club, then wondering if he has enough cash left over for three tacos.

I'm thinking this will be the funniest thing I read all day. That is one heck of an image.

jmdavis wrote:

john bickar wrote:Nothing good comes from starting a kid out in bullseye that young - just look at me for proof.

Next thing you know, he'll be 30 years old, buying .22 ammo out of the trunk of some dude's car at a gun club, then wondering if he has enough cash left over for three tacos.

I'm thinking this will be the funniest thing I read all day. That is one heck of an image.

It's funny 'cause it's true!

Wobbley wrote:One other pistol to consider is the S&W 22A.  Being mostly aluminum it is decent for weight.  Decent triggers on the ones I shot.  May be out of production now but you might still be able to get one.  I never liked the Ruger 22 pistols much.

+ 1 on the 22A. They are out of production but they are still out there. I like shooting mine because of the trigger. Feels like a good roll uphill trigger.

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=481873779

Disclaimer: I have no interest/ownership in this pistol. Just posted to show availability. Looks good.

thank you everyone for the help. The advice is needed and appreciated.

any thoughts on a S&W 22S-1 ?

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=484939916

i guess it's just the "a" in stainless.

Yup, that's about right. Many of us found the 22A-1 to be a decent Bullseye gun in another thread. If the shooter doesn't mind the lack of aftermarket grips, the gun ought to perform pretty well.

Jon Eulette wrote:I used to shoot a Ruger when I got my BE start. Nice thing about the Ruger is availability of after market parts. I highly recommend a Clark steel trigger and trigger job from a BE gunsmith. I regularly shot high 880's with this pistol. I've been working on the Rugers since 1988 (probably done over 75 trigger jobs) and don't care for 99% of the Volquartzen products. I would avoid their aluminum trigger, it feels spongy and the over travel screw has a tendency to loosen. Their drop in trigger kit isn't much to speak of either. So the investment of a 'real' trigger job can't be beat. If you get a Ruger that is rough around the edges, the BE smith can smooth it up as well.
Jon

I second Jon's suggestion on a used MKII. I sent my 40 year old MKII to Jon for a Clark trigger job and it feels FANTASTIC! Jon know's Rugers and he knows how to make em smooth as butta!

Marvel precision on any 1911 lower with a cylinder and slide dropn in trigger kit. Nice and light weight and accurate as hell.

I started my son Adam with the S&W 622. Aluminum frame so it was light. Shot good and trigger was good too with a little of my help it was great!
 Yeah I destroyed the Kid like John! His first time at Perry was at 10 years old.
 Poor kid best he can do is 2650 with either hand, Won the National Service Pistol match only 2 times, was 4th overall at Perry 4 times, only shot Mayleigh Cup 10 times and is currently the Pistol coach of the AMU. His Weekend are wasted shooting though the Army pays for everything, all he gets is time off for going to the match on weekends!
 Oh well what do you expect from a dumb pistol shooting father.