Dressing Up the Rimfire

The old rimfires are some of the most fun to own, the most fun to shoot, but mostly, they carry with them the most memories. Why? Because they were the first guns we learned how to shoot. Our hunting mentor probably taught us, and then we carried it in the field alongside that mentor for years. Many times they were handed down to us by the same person. The rimfires, maybe more than any other gun, bring back the most fond memories of our youth, and the hunting mentor that was and is, heroic in our eyes.

But let’s face it, those old rimfires were some of the most homely and simplistic guns ever made, and the mounting systems and scopes didn’t do anything to help that.

The scopes of the day for the old rimfires were 3/4” tubes. May of them poor quality to say the least. That said, if you know the difference, one to another, you can still get an old 3/4” tube that is extremely bright and crisp with a decent field of view and that looks and functions great. We especially like the Weaver J2.5 and J4 series scopes for the best combination of look, performance, reliability and rebuildability. They might not look that great when you pick them up at a garage sale or gun show, but once you have them professionally cleaned and purged, they are a whole new scope.

As far as mounts, we really, really feel bad whenever we see an old .22 with the homely T, N, or S series Weaver side mount. Yes, we feel bad for the rifle. To me that side mount just takes away from an otherwise neat package, so we found a solution. We took original factory Weaver side mounts, stripped and color case hardened them for a look that we think compliments just about any rimfire from back in the day that would otherwise have had a standard blued side mount.

This week we found one of the least expensive, beat up old rimfires we could find in the shop; a Springfield Model 84c bolt action .22 short, long, long rifle and built it with our very own color case hardened Weaver side mounts and a J2.5 scope. As you can see, even with a beat up old gun, the look and feel of the rifle is transformed, and would be inviting for the old and new generation alike to pick up and shoot again.