Right off the bat I will admit to being a 63 year old coot whose better days are probably behind him. But even though I'll confess to being "out of it" when it comes to a lot of things that are considered "cool" today, I have to say that in a lot of areas I feel sorry for the younger generations.

One of those areas is that of semiauto.22 rifles. There are 3 .22 semis in my safe today. I bought my first one at the ripe old age of 13, a Remington Nylon 66 that I bought at a local hardware store. Oh man, was it cool, the coolest thing going back then, and it cost me the grand sum of $49.95, a price that even a 13-year-old could afford after a month's worth of cutting grass -- not only the rifle, but 1000 rounds of Remington hollowpoints, to boot! And the coolest thing -- to buy it, I just walked in to the store, pointed it out, and plunked down my money -- no adult required, no paperwork filled out. Over the next 10 years I shot the snot out of that little rifle. By the end of that first decade and a half, I sent it back to Remington -- not because it was malfunctioning, even though it had been through 15 years of the type of abuse that only a teenager can dish out, but because the guaranteed-for-life Zytel stock had developed a crack along one seam. To my neverending delight it was returned to me within 2 weeks, not only with a new stock but having been totally refurbished and refinished to absolutely-new condition! Now, 35 years and several thousand more rounds later it remains in nearly-new condition and sees action in the woods several times a year. You could probably build a battleship out of the cans it's punctured.

Next acquired was a little Marlin Papoose takedown. Came in a neat zippered case that will float if you drop it in water. If I recall, it set me back about $80. Against all odds, it has a superb trigger and is amazingly accurate, so long as you are careful when installing the barrel to tighten it down juusstt so with the supplied wrench. It's come along with me on many a backpacking small-game-hunting trip, and is one of the few "I'll never sell it" guns I own.

The latest member of the family is a Savage 64. This one came home with me a few years ago when Walmart had made the (since rescinded) decision to remove firearms from their stores. I was browsing through the sporting goods section of the local store and found it clearance priced at $79.95. I surely didn't NEED another .22 semi, but what the heck? These days, when plinking is on the agenda it is usually the one that comes out with me .

Now, why do I feel sorry for youngsters and their M&P-22's? Well, first of all, even if you were to factor in inflation, if all three of these were still available today I doubt buying all three of them at once would set you back as much as the one S&W. Second, I can honestly say I do not recall a single instance when ANY of these rifles has failed to feed, fire and eject with ANY ammo I have put through them. Third, again with ANY ammo, every single one of them is minute-of-squirrel-head accurate at 25 yards, and that is no exaggeration.

So, folks, when your dads or grand-dads finally shuffle off to the great squirrel woods in the sky, don't be too quick to get rid of all those cheap .22 semiautos you find in the closet. They might be your best chance of learning just what a good .22 is all about...

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Pisgah