I have fired a lot of weapons in a lot of calibers, and this one has caught my attention like no other. This is a Marlin 783 in .22 WMR. It has a tubular magazine, and a micro groove barrel. It's topped with the only Marlin scope I have ever seen. The scope is a 3x to 9x by20 with a 3/4 inch tube. The scope was originally put on my .22 over 40 years ago. Most things just don't last that long or work so well.
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I think the .22 WMR needs a little more scope, but we'll see.
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I was so impressed with the power of this little rifle that I decided to own one after one hunting trip, and some one else was using it! Three of us were hunting squirrels down on the river, and one of the guys had one of these rifles. The rest of us used shotguns for conservation of meat and running shots that were the norm. We split up and stalked separately for a while. Each of us got several shots with varying success. At the end of the day I was the only one that cared to clean the kill, we would not waste them, so I took them home.
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The rifle was devastating to small game. The 37 grain bullet leaves the muzzle at 2120 fps, and at 100 yards still moves faster than a standard .22 at the muzzle. The 154 ft/lbs of energy is unimpressive compared to a lot of calibers, but this is a .22 for goodness sakes.
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The shot that clenched the deal, entered the skin over the shoulder of the squirrel, and never penetrated the flesh, it did break the spine from the shock. I cleaned it, and I still couldn't believe it.
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If I could only own one caliber of weapon, it would be a .22 WMR. No recoil, effectively, light weight, chambered in rifles and pistols. The ammo is not as widely available as it once was, but what is? The round from a six inch barrel equals the .38 special in energy. I'm thinking a combo of rifle and pistol chambered for the same calibre would be worth having. If they were in stainless they would last forever.
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