Rimfire for Training

SportingRifles.co earns a commission on some purchases made through links on this page, at no extra cost to you. Firearm: ships to a licensed FFL. Buyer must meet federal, state and local law.

Why a .22 is the best shooting coach you can buy

Nearly every miss with a hunting rifle comes down to a handful of fundamentals: a jerked trigger, a position that fights the rifle, a head lifted to watch the shot, a wind call nobody made. None of those require centerfire ammunition to fix. They require repetition, and repetition is exactly what a .22 is good at.

Cost. A round of .22 LR costs a fraction of a centerfire round, so a 200-round practice session is realistic instead of a luxury. No recoil, no flinch. Recoil and muzzle blast teach shooters to anticipate the shot, and a .22 lets you unlearn that. Access. Many ranges, and a lot of private land, that cannot host a centerfire rifle are fine with a .22 at 25 to 100 yards. Honest feedback. A light, slow rimfire bullet drifts noticeably in wind and punishes sloppy follow-through, so errors show up on paper where you can see them.

What transfers to your centerfire, and what does not

Match the trainer to the rifle you hunt with

A .22 teaches the fundamentals either way, but it teaches habits best when it feels and operates like your main rifle. Match these, in order: the action type, the controls (safety, magazine release, bolt handle), the length of pull, and the optic.

Bolt-action hunters

Shoot a bolt-action .22 so every shot also rehearses the bolt cycle. Tikka says of its T1x rimfire and T3x centerfire rifles that you "won't have a problem switching between" them "because the shooting feel remains the same," which is exactly what you want from a trainer.

AR and modern sporting rifle owners

Look for an AR-pattern .22 that shares your rifle's manual of arms: the same safety selector, magazine release and bolt catch in the same places, so reloads and malfunction drills are practiced correctly. Several makers build them; confirm the control layout matches before you buy. If your AR wears an LPVO or red dot, put a similar optic on the trainer.

Lever-gun shooters

A lever .22 lets you practice working the lever without breaking your cheek weld, which is the single most useful lever-gun skill.

Everyone else

A dependable semi-automatic .22 still teaches trigger, position and wind, and it is the easiest way to shoot a lot of rounds efficiently.

Whatever you choose, set its length of pull and scope height to match your centerfire as closely as you can. Our rifle fit guide explains what to measure, and the rimfire rifle buyer's guide covers more options.

Six drills worth the ammunition

1. Ten-dot card, 25 yards. Print ten 1-inch dots. Fire one careful shot per dot from a rest, then prone. A shot outside a dot is a fundamentals error, not a rifle problem. Keep the cards and watch the misses shrink.
2. Cold first shot. Start every session with a single shot on a fresh target from your usual hunting position, before any warm-up. Log where it went. Over a season, that log tells you more about your real-world accuracy than any group.
3. Positional ladder. Five shots each from prone, sitting, kneeling and standing on the same size target. The results tell you which positions you can trust at which distances, which is exactly the decision you make when an animal appears.
4. Wind calls at 50 and 100 yards. Shoot on breezy days on purpose. Before each string, write down your wind call and hold, then compare with the hits. You are training your eyes to read grass, flags and mirage, and that skill carries straight over.
5. Cycle without breaking position. Fire, work the bolt or lever while keeping your cheek on the stock and your eye in the scope, and fire a second aimed shot. Set a par time you can meet cleanly and tighten it slowly.
6. Field-position par time. From standing, get into a supported sitting or kneeling position on sticks or a pack and fire one shot at a scaled target. Geometry helps here: a 2-inch circle at 50 yards covers the same angle as an 8-inch circle at 200 yards. Scaled targets match size, not ballistics, but they make the drill honest.

Ammunition: consistency beats cheap

Test a few loads from a rest, pick the one your rifle groups best, and then buy that load in quantity so your practice is not changing under you. Semi-automatics generally need high-velocity ammunition to cycle reliably. Bolt and lever trainers can use standard-velocity or target-grade loads, which are often more accurate and quieter.

A simple off-season plan

In the months before hunting season, run two rimfire sessions for every centerfire session. Use the rimfire days for the drills above. Use the centerfire days to confirm zero with the exact load you will hunt with, verify your holds at the distances you expect, and fire a few shots from real field positions so recoil is not a stranger. The rimfire builds the habits; the centerfire confirms them.

Safety notes

A .22 is quiet, but it is not a toy. Many .22 LR boxes warn that the bullet can be dangerous at up to about a mile and a half, so shoot only into a safe backstop. Rimfire misfires are more common than centerfire; if a round fails to fire, keep the muzzle pointed safely and wait at least 30 seconds before opening the action. And avoid dry-firing most rimfires without a snap cap, because the firing pin can damage the chamber edge.

New to rimfire? Start with what is a rimfire rifle. Training for a hunt with a bolt gun? What is a bolt-action rifle explains the action you are rehearsing.