I have a sickness, a little one. 22 caliber to be exact. I got bit by the 22lr trainer for bolt guns a few years ago. It started with a 40X and it continued with a CZ455 VPT “for my son” and culminated with converting the 40X to a repeater. To be perfectly frank, if you want to keep some money and room in your gun safe, stop reading now.

I am a member of the “40X Mafia” and my ‘Don’ is Hoser. Colorado may have the largest concentration of 40X and conversions and Hoser has been hosting some 22lr comps down at PWSA. My son and I try to make them, but end up at as many 22lr Praire Dog Matches at CRCI as we can.

So what is so great about 22 trainers? They bring a smile to this fat boys face like refrigerator-Jello cake. They are just a hoot to shoot and cheap, once you get a gun. They also are pretty good trainers. I started looking at the relationship between the 22lr ballistics and centerfire cartridges, specifically 308.

What I started to see is that 22lr comes down to about 1/4 scale 308. I posted my findings over at The Hide.

https://forum.snipershide.com/thread...-r700.6395085/

Other people have looked at it to, and come to similar conclusions:

https://finnaccuracy.com/blogs/fa-ne...best-out-of-it

And there is an article about it with some cool graphs, data and discussion.

http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2...iner-get-best/

It’s not perfect. There is a lot of temperature sensativity that isn’t explained by ballistic calculators and air temp. I’m looking to spend a couple of mornings parsing out the 200m performance and trying to nail down the air, ammo and gun temp influences.

But for drop and wind. They are great tools. If you have kids they are fun ways to get them into shooting. If you live in the Denver area, I highly suggest either the PWSA or the CRCI matches to shoot with the kids.

There are great gun options out there. It is tough to beat a CZ455 VPT, or build up from a standard 455. The 40X and Voodo actions are awesome to get into the same stocks as the centerfire guns. The Ruger 22 RPR looks promising. Ruger 10/22 are an addiction that luckily I have been able to avoid.

Welcome to the sickness.