This probably should have been posted over on rimfirecentral.com and I may do that later, but I thought I'd share it with all my friends here on Taurus Armed.
Now, there are a number of good .22LR survival type rifles out there that are ready made, but how would you like to build one yourself that's very light (3 pounds or less), quite accurate (under 1" at 25 yards) and easy to create with minimal tools? It will easily strap to a back pack or bug-out bag and not overly increase the carry weight. It will serve well as a small game getter for the camp and back-up to whatever centerfire rifle you have planned for your kit.
Enter the Crickett youth rifle with the black synthetic stock. The reason I selected this one is I was able to obtain one on the used market for under $100 that was in excellent condition. The "out of the box" trigger pull is around 2.5 lbs and pretty clean with minimal creep and a nice break. The original sights are adjustable though by no means precision. The receiver is drilled and tapped 6/48 so a scope can be mounted if desired and for a cheap little single shot rifle, the accuracy is quite good as it comes out of the box.
The butt of the synthetic stock is hollow and there is plenty of room in there to carry a reasonably extensive kit of survival essentials, such as a zip-loc baggie containing a small roll of 8 lb test monofilament, some snap swivels, fishhooks, a 20' hank of para-cord, some band-aids and a small bottle of iodine plus one of those Harbor Freight miniature box knives with a 10 pack of replacement blades and a magnesium fire starter. Also (external to the baggie) there's room for 50 rounds of ammo and one of those individual sized Mylar "space blankets" which should be used to wrap everything in and will keep it from rattling. All you have to do is carry a small pocket knife with a phillips screwdriver blade to easily remove the plastic butt plate to get at this stuff.
Mine is still somewhat of a work in progress but is very close to completion. I'm still waiting on the space blanket to arrive so I can finish the project.
The Crickett, surprisingly is an extremely accurate little single-shot .22. Even with my poor eyesight, I was able to hold at least 1" groups st 25 yards using the iron sights (peep rear and triangular point front).
With my 70 year old eyesight, I need a little help so I chose to mount a light scope. I modified the normal Crickett mounting rail by shortening it even with the chamber so I wouldn't have to remove the rear sight (scopes do break) and first mounted a Vortex StrikeFire red/green dot for the initial tests. Since the Vortex cost twice what I paid for the rifle, I removed it and mounted an inexpensive BSA "Tactical" 4X scope ($60 from Optics Planet with free shipping and half the weight of the Vortex) on it using just the front ring.
The ring I selected was one out of a Weaver set of "see through" rings available for less than $10 at Walmart. That way I can use the scope and still be able to use the iron sights through the open portion of the ring. Turns out this works quite well. Make sure the crosshairs are level and tighten all hardware as tight as possible without damaging anything. Probably a good idea to put a drop of blue loc-tite on each of the screws and let it set overnight.
While getting the rings at Walmart, pick up an inexpensive sling and a mounting kit as the synthetic stock is drilled for them. Use the short, coarse threaded stud in the front and the longer one in the rear. If you use the long one on the front, it will protrude and contact the barrel which is actually already free-floated and you don't want to mess that up.
The initial range tests were with the Vortex and it performed well, but the 4 MOA dot made the 2" bullseye on the target difficult to judge properly even at 25 yards. I did manage to keep the groups under 1", but decided that a red-dot might not be the way to go for harvesting small game so the BSA scope was mounted and zeroed. The attached target shows the final 5 shots as I was walking it toward center at 25 yards. Ammo used was, admittedly, Aguila Golden Eagle match ammo and I haven't tried the cheap Federal bulk pack hollow points in it yet.
First picture is with the Vortex StrikeFire mounted and the second one is with the BSA 4X30 Tactical mounted. Both are mounted with one ring and this arrangement is amazingly quite stable. Hope this gives you guys some good ideas to work with. The project is easy to duplicate or customize to your own preferences. Good luck.
Now, there are a number of good .22LR survival type rifles out there that are ready made, but how would you like to build one yourself that's very light (3 pounds or less), quite accurate (under 1" at 25 yards) and easy to create with minimal tools? It will easily strap to a back pack or bug-out bag and not overly increase the carry weight. It will serve well as a small game getter for the camp and back-up to whatever centerfire rifle you have planned for your kit.
Enter the Crickett youth rifle with the black synthetic stock. The reason I selected this one is I was able to obtain one on the used market for under $100 that was in excellent condition. The "out of the box" trigger pull is around 2.5 lbs and pretty clean with minimal creep and a nice break. The original sights are adjustable though by no means precision. The receiver is drilled and tapped 6/48 so a scope can be mounted if desired and for a cheap little single shot rifle, the accuracy is quite good as it comes out of the box.
The butt of the synthetic stock is hollow and there is plenty of room in there to carry a reasonably extensive kit of survival essentials, such as a zip-loc baggie containing a small roll of 8 lb test monofilament, some snap swivels, fishhooks, a 20' hank of para-cord, some band-aids and a small bottle of iodine plus one of those Harbor Freight miniature box knives with a 10 pack of replacement blades and a magnesium fire starter. Also (external to the baggie) there's room for 50 rounds of ammo and one of those individual sized Mylar "space blankets" which should be used to wrap everything in and will keep it from rattling. All you have to do is carry a small pocket knife with a phillips screwdriver blade to easily remove the plastic butt plate to get at this stuff.
Mine is still somewhat of a work in progress but is very close to completion. I'm still waiting on the space blanket to arrive so I can finish the project.
The Crickett, surprisingly is an extremely accurate little single-shot .22. Even with my poor eyesight, I was able to hold at least 1" groups st 25 yards using the iron sights (peep rear and triangular point front).
With my 70 year old eyesight, I need a little help so I chose to mount a light scope. I modified the normal Crickett mounting rail by shortening it even with the chamber so I wouldn't have to remove the rear sight (scopes do break) and first mounted a Vortex StrikeFire red/green dot for the initial tests. Since the Vortex cost twice what I paid for the rifle, I removed it and mounted an inexpensive BSA "Tactical" 4X scope ($60 from Optics Planet with free shipping and half the weight of the Vortex) on it using just the front ring.
The ring I selected was one out of a Weaver set of "see through" rings available for less than $10 at Walmart. That way I can use the scope and still be able to use the iron sights through the open portion of the ring. Turns out this works quite well. Make sure the crosshairs are level and tighten all hardware as tight as possible without damaging anything. Probably a good idea to put a drop of blue loc-tite on each of the screws and let it set overnight.
While getting the rings at Walmart, pick up an inexpensive sling and a mounting kit as the synthetic stock is drilled for them. Use the short, coarse threaded stud in the front and the longer one in the rear. If you use the long one on the front, it will protrude and contact the barrel which is actually already free-floated and you don't want to mess that up.
The initial range tests were with the Vortex and it performed well, but the 4 MOA dot made the 2" bullseye on the target difficult to judge properly even at 25 yards. I did manage to keep the groups under 1", but decided that a red-dot might not be the way to go for harvesting small game so the BSA scope was mounted and zeroed. The attached target shows the final 5 shots as I was walking it toward center at 25 yards. Ammo used was, admittedly, Aguila Golden Eagle match ammo and I haven't tried the cheap Federal bulk pack hollow points in it yet.
First picture is with the Vortex StrikeFire mounted and the second one is with the BSA 4X30 Tactical mounted. Both are mounted with one ring and this arrangement is amazingly quite stable. Hope this gives you guys some good ideas to work with. The project is easy to duplicate or customize to your own preferences. Good luck.