Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.
The Tech-Sights I ordered for my 10/22 (well, one of them anyway) arrived today. They seem pretty nice, not exactly the pinnacle of precision casting and machining, but very nice nonetheless. My only qualm thus far, and it’s a niggling one, is that the darn things are made in Taiwan. On one hand I suppose that made in Taiwan is better than made in Red China but, seriously, there was no one in the US who could make these things? Well, I suppose there are plenty of outfits that could but then theyd wind up being twice the money. These sights are highly recommended by the Project Appleseed guys and I would have thought that an outfit as ….sensitive…to American values would have recommended something made in the US. On the other hand, perhaps they are of the mind that the ends justifies the means and if it takes Chinese-made sights to get people fired up about learning rifle skills, so be it.
Installing the sights was pretty easy although anytime you have to drift out/in something it seems there is always a complication. Usually something along the lines of the sight not wanting to fit into the dovetail, but a couple of taps from a plastic mallet and we were on the right track. They do indeed give a sight picture similar to what you find on an AR or Garand. Did it make shooting more accurate than the original sights? Mmmmm…tough call. Certainly all the indicators would point to an improvement in accuracy…longer sight radius, peep vs. notch, etc, etc. The rifle doesn’t seem any less accurate so that means things are same or better than they were. Worth sixty bucks? Tough call. If youre after accurate sights for shooting (as opposed to sights that replicate the military sight picture) than youd probably be better served with a quality aperature sight from someone like Redfield or Lyman. On the other hand, if yorue looking for something to help you with target acquisition and sight picture using a military-style rifle, then these are just the ticket.
Speaking of .22 rifles, I took delivery today of a CZ 452 American for an LMI. Sometimes I forget just how freaking awesome CZ products are and then, like today, I am reminded. What a gorgeous rifle. There was a time in this country when manufacturers would offer a .22 rifle that was built to the same specs (and dimensions, even) as a centerfire hunting rifle. Sadly it seems .22 rifles have been relegated to ‘non serious’ guns and we get slightly scaled down guns that bear no resemblance to anything youd go shoot a deer with.
Although I have a few 10/22’s around as a sort of ‘standard issue’ survivalist’s .22, I actually prefer the Marlin products. I have long been a fan of the ‘81’ series of tube-fed bolt rifles. I had them when they were called the 781, when they were upgraded to the 881, and I think they are now called the 981. On the other hand, I’ve been reading some very good things about the Savage .22 bolt guns with their AccuTrigger these days…and believe me when I say that a decent trigger on a .22 rifle is a hard thing to find.
I’m actually in the market for a nice, high quality .22 bolt rifle and I’ve been leaning towards the CZ since they are now offering it with their single-set trigger. For years the CZ guns have been kind of a ‘sleeper’ in the gun world…and their prices reflected that. In the last few years they’ve kind of been ‘discovered’ and prices have edged up, but I still think they are outstanding values considering the quality of the product. One of my local dealers here in MT is , apparently, one of the largest sellers of CZ rifles in the US. Wouldn’t surprise me…fella handles one of these boomsticks and takes an objective examination of the gun they usually wind up favorably impressed.
However, as much as I’d like to, I have other priorities for those scarce dollars.
