My First K22
(Edited for grammar.)
I wanted one for at least 20 years before I finally wised up and got this one back in the early Nineties.
It's worn a dot scope almost since Day One, here the long-discontinued Tasco 'ProPoint 4' with a 10" dot. That might seem large, but it isn't really, inside that 45-mm (!) tube.
IIRC, the base is a Weigand, and while the scope does sit rather high, this presents no difficulties in actual practice.
If the cans are that close, you just point-shoot them.
As seen here, the 'BIG DOT' does not preclude accuracy. On the contrary, I have always found it a significant aid in that department.
At the time this group was fired (5/10/96), the best I could hold with iron sights at 50' were five-shot groups right around 1⅛". This one is less than half that, and it was not a fluke. (It was fired from a sandbag rest, though.)
The only strange thing was the ammo the gun liked: PMC 'Zapper', which was as cheap as it sounds. In addition, it shot about as well with the similarly discontinued CCI 'Mini Mag +V', a hyper-velocity round.
A dot-sighted K22 might not seem very 'practical', but you can be sure of one thing: It is a heck of a lot of fun!
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'Bird's Eye View'
The dot appears sharper in 'real life', but this shot gives a pretty fair perspective of the overall picture.
Here, the 11-position rheostat is set on '3', and the batteries are fresh.
The revolver is lightly clamped in a vise (the blue rag is padding), and the camera is on a small tripod.
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I can testify....
...that that group is no fluke. That 617 is a superbly accurate revolver. How many ground squirrels does that gun have on its tally now Dave?
My First K22
My first K-22 was bought when I was 14. I spent most of that summer scraping peeled paint off the outside of my parents house to get it ready for painting, in order to earn the money for it.
I still have it more than a half-century later.
Only a few...
I took the dot-sighted 617 ground squirrel hunting, but only once, and as I recall, that was mainly another Mountain Gun Day. I was using CCI 'Stingers' (in the 617, not the 629 - LOL), and I was kind of underwhelmed at the results.
A few years ago, I revisited the .22 rimfire in a 'rifle' (16-inch barrel), and the outcome wasn't much better. Sometimes it worked, and sometimes it didn't.
By 'work', I mean dead right now: No wigglin', no nuthin'.
When it comes to varmints, I figure that's the least (most?) I can do for 'em.
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I remember one time...
I was out at Ye Olde Gravel Pit with the dot-sighted 617 and a carton of Zappers. As usual, I was running the gun DA and burning through my ammo supply at a steady clip.
Targets that day were the ever-present aluminum cans, only these were WAY UP THERE on the rocks. I had 'em dancin' like they was made for it, often hitting them on the move, in mid-air.
Right about then a carload of tyros pulled up, and as they shut off the engine to watch me trigger off another 5-shot string, a collective *GASP* eminated from the passenger compartment.
Then, one of the youngin's got out of the car and shouted,
"HOW DO YOU DO THAT WITH A PISTOL?!?"
I looked down at the 617, then over at the boys and said with the best Cheshire Cat grin I could muster,
"It has a scope."
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I'd love to see that one!
If you have a picture, that is.
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I'd love to see that one!
Sorry. No pictures, but it is a stock-standard early 1960's K-22 in blued steel, 6" barrel, and 6-shots. Nothing fancy. The only thing I have on it that did not come from the factory is a grip filler between the back of the trigger-guard and the front of the handgrip.