Picked up 453 American 22LR today!

[firstshot]

Picked up my 453 American .22LR today. It's a beautiful gun.

The stock is a lot nicer than I was expecting. It has some character to it and the checkering is prety good. Fit & finish is great. The bluing is really nice. The barrel is free floated, but not much clearance. I was able to get a piece of typing paper to slide all the way to the receiver, but no way a business card would fit. It came with a steel magazine, but the magazine well is plastic. I'm ordering a steel single shot magazine and magazine well for it. The standard trigger came with a 4LB pull and the set trigger was a little over 1 Lb. The trigger was real easy to adjust. I adjusted the standard trigger to 3 Lbs and adjusted the set triger down to 12 Oz. The set trigger might be a little light. I'll just have to see how it does at the range and will adjust if I need to. There is absolutely no creep with either standard or set modes, and the trigger has no side to side play in either mode.

I mounted a Burris 3-9x32 Compact scope w/AO & target knobs on it using Millet rings.

I cleaned it up real well and polished the bore with JB compound. Plan to break in the barrel tomorrow morning with the 3 shot clean, 3 shot clean process. Then I'll see how she groups. I've had some RWS subsonics on hand, and picked up some Wolf Match Target, RWS Target and Federal Gold Medal today.

Can't wait to see how she shoots!

firstshot
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Make your first shot count!

[ajj]

If you want to know how it shoots forget cleaning every three shots. The barrel needs to be seasoned with the particular lube you're testing. Frequent cleaning for "break in" is a dubious practice with centerfires using jacketed bullets. I don't believe there is any reason to think it accomplishes anything at all in .22 LR.

[longgun]

Firstshot,  You need to clean your new 22 as it comes out of the box to get factory preservatives from the barrel, trigger, etc.

But 22 L.R. barrels need no break in since you are shooting lubricated lead bullets.   In fact the barrel needs a coating of the bullet lube to make it shoot well.  I believe you will find that your rimfire rifle only needs to be cleaned about every 500 rounds ( many people hardly every clean their 22 barrels).   However my  particular barrel requires cleaning after 300 shots if I am going to continue to get small groups.   After cleaning it probably will take 10 to 20 shots for the gun to start shooting small groups again.

In addition if you change from one brand of ammo to the next it probably will take a few shots for new ammo to start preforming to its capability.  This is because each different mfg. uses different components in their lube and when you change from one to another there is a mixed lube in your barrel and it takes a few shots to get the barrel coated with the new lube.  If all you are going to do is shoot pop cans  it will not make much difference,  but if you are shooting for accuracy you will need to be aware of this.  From my experience.    Don

[firstshot]

Here are some Pics of my new rifle.







Made it to the range for the first time and the Wolf Match Target and the RWS Target shot the best.  Here is a set of 5 shot groups shot with Wolf Match Target.



By the way, I didn't go the "3 shot clean" thing.  I just took it out and shot it!   I think it's going to make one heck of a squirrel gun.

firstshot
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Make your first shot count!

[Keith L]

Nice groups.  What is the range?

[firstshot]

Nice groups.  What is the range?

Keith

Range for these groups was 25 Yds.  This was the first trip to the range.  Will be shooting more @ 50Yds once I get gun broken in.

firstshot
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Make your first shot count!

[Keith L]

Cool.  I bet the 50 yard groups are good too!

[hobbyist]

congratulations firstshot.  It looks good and seems to be shooting good as well.  Thanks for sharing.

[firstshot]

Thanks guys!!  I'm thinking the groups will tighten up once I get her broken in a bit better and get used to the trigger.

So far I'm extremely pleased with the gun.

firstshot
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Make your first shot count!