POTD: The Tippmanns - 22LR Rimfire At Its Best
A statement that can be said over and over again: Shooting rimfire is great fun, and there are many good suppliers. Tippman Arms Co. LLC, from Fort Wayne, IN, is one of them, and in this Photo Of The Day, we get a look at some of their guns, with barrel lengths from 7” to 18”.
How short is too short? Two Tippman M4-22s in 11” and 7”. I would prefer a 16” or an 18” with a suppressor any time.
This 7” Tippmann is begging for the new stock from Magpul. Yes, I mean the Magpul USC, built for the M1913 Picatinny rail stock mounting interface.
The 11” is made for a more traditional stock.
Tippmann’s Speed Loader is the best I’ve tried so far, and really makes it easy and clean to transfer those greasy 22LRs to the magazines.
With some modifications, the 18” would make a great DMR 22LR rifle, but it’s also legal for hunting in many countries.
Thanks to Kruttunnan (The Powder Keg) for helping out with these images, and I also think for turning the 18” hunting edition into a reality. Tippmann Arms can be found here: https://tippmannarms.com/
Their new M4-22 in WMR Magnum looks pretty awesome, too, but it only takes 10 rounds.
All images by the author.
Ex-Arctic Ranger. Competitive practical shooter and hunter with a European focus. Always ready to increase my collection of modern semi-automatics, optics, thermals and suppressors. TCCC Certified. Occasionaly seen in a 6x6 Bug Out Vehicle, always with a big smile.
More by Eric B
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If you check the "Ballistics by the Inch" website it really looks like 11" barrels are just about ideal for 22LR.
There is no one best because of the wide variety of 22lr shooting. Tippman's are excellent steel challenge (extremely short range) 22lr but for longer distances they're crap. I've bought, and/or designed, assemble (built as lots of folks say) numerous 22lr's. I've recently narrowed my personal usage to two rifles. My short distance 200 yards and less) is a 10-22 built on a CST Centrix ELR action, Kidd 20" match barrel and a Kidd single stage 1.5 # trigger, shooting CCI SV Red Taarget in a Mikropul Hunter stock and an Athlon Ares ETR 15-60x56 scope. My long range (zeroed at 100 yards) rifle is a MPA Elite Rimfire with a 12-twist barrel, a Bix & Andy Trigger set at 10 ounces, in a MPA ESR chassis with an Athlon Ares ETR 4.5-30x56 scope that shoots Lapua LR or SLR 336 or 337 m/s factory rated ammo.
The first 50 shots with the short-range rifle shooting off hand made a hole at 50 yards that was smaller than a quarter. The Long Range rifle weighs over 20 pounds with optic that is shot from the bench. It regularly shoots 10 shot groups hitting a 70mm (2.75") target at 300 yards which ballistically translates to a 10 fps velocity spread.
Both were specifically designed for the ammunition they fire, removing the ammo guessing and testing that most highly accurate 22lr's require.