LAZY EYED SNIPER

Picked up a Remington 597 AAC-SD in .22lr a while back. I'd been looking for a .22lr plinker for a while but I wanted one with factory threading to accept my suppressor. Granted most .22lr rifles can be threaded, but the process most often requires removing and re-staking the front sight. I just didn't feel like going through the process, so when I found the 597 AAC-SD it was love at first sight...





When it comes to my long guns I've never been one to leave anything stock, so I added a few personal touches to dress the rifle up a bit...

Dropped it into a KSA Trailblazer Rimfire Riflestock in 'fire and ice'...



...added a DNZ Game Reaper mount...



...then topped it off with a Simmons 22 MAG 3-9x32 scope...

LAZY EYED SNIPER

... and here's the finished rifle...





Bore sighted her and headed out to the range for sight-in. The first three shots of the day at 50yds yielded a .5" spread...



...and here is the worst 50yd grouping of the day. It was a full ten round mag shooting fairly quickly that yielded a 1" spread...



All other ten round groups averaged around .75" (1.5 MOA). I didn't take the suppressor out for the first run so I could get a base-line for the rifle's performance. Started out with 50rds of the 36gr CCI Mini Mags and then switched to 40 grain Federal Target AutoMatch bulk. All rounds performed well with not a single mis-fire or jam. The only ammo that gave me any difficulty was the Remington .22lr Golden Bullets. The bullets wouldn't even stack properly in the mag and I couldn't get through a single mag because the second round wouldn't feed. I have no issues with the ammo in my pistols, but I won't be using it in my 597 anymore. Go figure, the only rounds that gave me problems in my Remington rifle was Remington ammo.

I was VERY pleased with the rifle's performance.

LAZY EYED SNIPER

Got back out to the range a week later and took the .22 Mite suppressor to get some comparative results on target with and without the can. Put a couple hundred rounds down range at 50yds and most of the targets ended up looking like this one...



This was the best 3 shot group of the day, measuring 1/8" center to center...



From what I could see, there was no perceptible difference in POI whether the rifle was suppressed or not. However, the 38gr Reminton subsonic HP rounds grouped about 1.5" lower than the standard 40 grain Federal Target AutoMatch ammo. I re-zeroed the scope for the Remy subsonic and the targets pictured above were the result. The subsonic did seem to yield much more consistent results on target. I did have several FTE issues with the Remy stuff, but it still performed much better that the Remy 'Golden Bullets' I tried last week. I couldn't even get that stuff to load into the mag properly. Ammo issues aside, I'm extremely pleased and it looks like I ended up with a very solid plinker for some inexpensive range fun.

scooter

Thats sweet... ive been SLOWLY accumulating parts to build myself a 10/22 comepletely from scratch... im really hoping its all worth it in the end... it has become a rather expensive project.

LAZY EYED SNIPER

Thank you Sir,

Yeah it always starts out with an idea to build a "cheap" rifle, but it can quickly snowball into an expensive project if you're not careful. I've been guilty of that on several occasions.

scooter

For sure, with my original plan was going to cost about as much as an ar15, but for a .22lr. Its a very addictive hobby.

sigp229r 

Outstanding!!! That stock is a nice touch...

LAZY EYED SNIPER

Thank you Sir.