good semiauto varmint rifle?

[mooseslayer71]

i have a marlin bolt .22mag w/ a 4x bushnell scope. i can consistantly hit a 3in. target at 200yrds from a bench. i sighted it at 50yrds and i hold at the top of the target at 200 and its right in the pickle barrel. havent tried it on dogs but got a rabbit at 160 yrds off the hood of my truck before. paid like $90 for it . $25 for the scope and rings. very short bolt throw so its quick w/ a follow up shot. its cheap and fun to shoot at the range. if you hunt in real cold conditions semis tend to jam if not kept real clean w/ minimum oil on the bolt. for that reason a bolt, lever, or pump actions are better and rarely if ever jam.

[johndeere540]

I would not recomend a .17 for yotes. I bought one a few years ago and am pretty sure unless shooting the full metal jackets in it I would have to take up a blood trail to recover a red squirrel! A .22 would probably do the job if the dog was close and hit right! Your best option may be to stick with the.243 and just start reloading to save a few dollars!

[jlaclair]

Think I'm going 22 mag bolt with a decent scope

[jlaclair]

How much those ruger mini run?

[mooseslayer71]

about $400 more than my marlin!

[jlaclair]

Ya I am a fan of my marlin lr prob stick with that

[aquaassassin]

They are $881 and up.

I love my Ruger's

[jlaclair]

Ya ruger is great, just don't have the means to get one now, in the future I'll prob get a .204 or .220, I think I saw a .216 or something some  where to.

[aquaassassin]

Ruger's bring back great memories from my childhood, in all my memories I can picture the old Ruger 77 rifles with the metal bracket around the end of the stock to barrel, with the top tang safety , the red recoil pads and the god awful heavy pulling triggers, left handed bolts, parts made in NH  man I love them things.

Now they have a nice breaking LC6 trigger and no metal bracket but I hate the new Safety's on some of mine 3 point system now . Oh well I will never lose loyalty to them.

[mooseslayer71]

Ya ruger is great, just don't have the means to get one now, in the future I'll prob get a .204 or .220, I think I saw a .216 or something some  where to.

     my buddies a big dog hunter. hes got a m77 ruger ultra light stainless synthetic in 22-250. man is that a flat shooting gun! hes got a 6-24x nikon on there. hes taken dogs at 600+ yrds. w/ that thing. not cheap money wise and a little overkill i find but i dont think they make a flatter shooting round than that 22-250 and would be worth it if you got into it in a big way.