I don't need a .22 rifle but I'd like one for shooting up north on my own land. Currently, I have a shotgun and a handgun, but I think I'd like a .22 as well, just for shooting, and a .22 won't set me back as far as some of the others, although they (and the ammunition) are a lot more expensive than they were not so long ago.
.22 rifles are darned accurate. You probably know to get jacketed ammo. For some reason, unjacketed is a lot more prevalent in that caliber than in any other, and it will foul the barrel. It's easy to buy an inexpensive box of .22 ammo and not realize what it is...at least, that's what happened to me. What were you thinking of getting? Bolt action? Semi-auto? Tube feed? Mag feed?
To be honest, I'll probably only be looking at the lower end of the scale, and I am not looking at fending off an attack with my .22 or anything, so it will depend on what I find for a price I like. Maybe a Henry, but I'm just at the thinking about it stage right now, although I often progress from that stage to the buying stage in the amount of time it takes me to check my bank account.
Had a Winchester 30-30 and a Remington Express Shotgun, but sold both of them to a gun store/shop. They can only be shot outdoors and all of the outdoor ranges here are extremely expensive, whether Day Use or Yearly Membership. The Winchester 30-30 had more recoil to it than we thought. What we done is bought, and I installed, a red laser sight on the 9mm. Quite good at hitting the target, with a laser sight.
A few years back, I got a couple reasonably at auctions we have near here. Used to get a lot of stuff at auction, at a good auction barn. But that was back when you could just turn around and sell a gun again because it was not what hubby wanted or something. Maine might have those auctions too.
Might think about a .22 revolver as well, as they are easier to carry all the time when on your land up north. We had a terrible upswing in snowshoe hares here a while ago, and i picked up a cheap single action revolver called Heritage. I think it was made in Florida and is a recreation of an old colt. It has a changeable cylinder to allow you to use either .22 or .22 Win Mag. I think it was $165 or something like that when I bought it, but it may be more now. Just a handy carry gun around the property to defend the garden.
We have gun shows here, which usually include an auction as well as people selling private firearms. The only time I went, it didn't seem that the prices were worth the chances that come with buying a used gun. When I buy something new, I can generally make it last forever, but when I buy something used, I don't know what there might be that I don't see. When the snowshoe hares get thick up north, the population of Canadian Lynx grows to thin the herd.
My .380 kind of serves that purpose. Except for lately, when the ammunition for it seems to be scarce, the prices weren't bad.
I have only bought two guns at gun shows--a .22 semi-auto and a .45 hand gun. Both were successful purchases and everyone who shoots the .22 loves the gun.
Have you tried buying online? We in Alaska and Hawaii can't do it, but I understand it is done in the lower 48 all the time. Midway USA and Brownell's both sell online, as does Cabela's/Bass Pro Shops
I've looked into it. Buying online, I'd have to get a gunshop to agree to accept it because they won't ship to a home address. If I were a gunshop owner, I don't think I'd like people who did that so, unless the price difference was significant, I'd rather buy from a local gun shop.
I thought you could have ammo shipped to a home address but not guns. I can't do it, so I don't know, but I understand the local gun shops charge a processing fee for gun purchases online, so they still get a bit of money, but if you are buying stuff they don't carry, I don't see why they would mind.
Oh yeah, I get it. I do believe that we can buy ammo online. I was thinking of the gun. Looking online, I can see that several of the places selling ammo are out of stock on the .380 ammo but I do see some that have it, unless they don't tell me that they're out of stock until I put it in my shopping cart.