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UNK
02-18-2012, 06:45 PM
I have been introducing my kids 8 and 12 to shooting for several years, primarily off the bench. Last week we went to a Steel Challenge type match and some of the competitors let them shoot their .22 Rugers. They absolutely loved it and want to shoot more.
They got a Ruger 22/45 for Xmas. However it is too heavy for the 8 year old.
I want to put a Tac Sol pac lite barrel on the Zytel Ruger lower.
My first question is what length barrel would best grow with them as they mature in this type shooting? 4 or 6 ".
Why if you are running a red dot would someone choose the longer barrel?
I will run a red dot on this, an article I read that Caleb had written suggested the Burris FastFire II. This runs about 200.00. I was looking at the mueller reflex sight that runs about a hundred. Does anybody have any other suggestions? Please explain in detail your choices. I don't mind spending the money if there is justification. What Mil red dot is typical for this type of shooting?
If a person is running the Tac Sol upper do they usually use the Zytel or steel lower.
Thanks a bunch :)

Al T.
02-18-2012, 07:35 PM
Brian, if you have any thoughts about running a suppressor on that platform, get the Tac-Sol with the barrel already threaded. If you get the threaded barrel, the 4 inch seems to be the way to go.

As to the rest, I'm a Luddite for RDS. Strongly suggest you follow DocGKR's recommendations. :)

UNK
02-19-2012, 02:33 PM
Brian, if you have any thoughts about running a suppressor on that platform, get the Tac-Sol with the barrel already threaded. If you get the threaded barrel, the 4 inch seems to be the way to go.

As to the rest, I'm a Luddite for RDS. Strongly suggest you follow DocGKR's recommendations. :)

I'll never run a suppressor but the 6" barrels have the threaded barrel option too. I think I will go with the C more the plastic version with railway mount is going for around 200.

My main thing now is 6" or 4". I cant find anything that list the benefits of one over the other when running an optic.

SecondsCount
02-19-2012, 03:35 PM
I would go with the 6". It looks better cosmetically and provides a longer sight radius.

jetfire
02-19-2012, 04:57 PM
If you're going to run a dot, I'd go run a 4 inch barrel because it's lighter and drives quicker in transitions. A 4 inch Ruger with a lightweight barrel will just get faster as your kids get stronger and older, so they'll be able to "grow up" as shooters driving a gun that's almost set up the same as what a lot of the top Steel Challenge guys are shooting.

For a .22, the FastFire II is pretty awesome. It doesn't hold up as well on centerfire guns because it's not as tough as RMR or Deltapoint, but for the money it's pretty rad.

UNK
02-19-2012, 06:41 PM
If you're going to run a dot, I'd go run a 4 inch barrel because it's lighter and drives quicker in transitions. A 4 inch Ruger with a lightweight barrel will just get faster as your kids get stronger and older, so they'll be able to "grow up" as shooters driving a gun that's almost set up the same as what a lot of the top Steel Challenge guys are shooting.

For a .22, the FastFire II is pretty awesome. It doesn't hold up as well on centerfire guns because it's not as tough as RMR or Deltapoint, but for the money it's pretty rad.

Cool Thanks That is the info I was looking for. Thats the same red dot you recommended in the article I read. Did you see that the Fastfire III is out?
For Iron Sights would you recommend the 6" barrel?

jetfire
02-19-2012, 06:57 PM
I go back and forth on the issue of really long barrels for Steel Challenge because I feel like unless they're extremely light, they make the gun tougher to drive well from plate to plate. On the flip side, the longer sight radius is friendly to new shooters than the 4 inch barrel, so it's kind of a toss up to me.

The FastFire III is out now, but I don't know anything about it and don't have any good data on it one way or the other.

UNK
02-19-2012, 07:12 PM
I go back and forth on the issue of really long barrels for Steel Challenge because I feel like unless they're extremely light, they make the gun tougher to drive well from plate to plate. On the flip side, the longer sight radius is friendly to new shooters than the 4 inch barrel, so it's kind of a toss up to me.

The FastFire III is out now, but I don't know anything about it and don't have any good data on it one way or the other.

Thanks for the input. I like this site more and more every day.