Browning SA-22

[Doc_Glock]

I got to shoot my Father in Law’s 60s vintage Belgium built Browning SA-22 yesterday.

How is it I have never heard of these before? What a delightful .22 rifle.

Took a while to figure out how to load the tube buttstock magazine and charge the thing. Took a little while longer to figure out the takedown function. But it shot right to the cute bead front sight at 25 yards. Totally reliable with 50
yo ammo.

I hesitate to call it cute, but it is honesty an adorable firearm. Post some photos of yours if you have them please I didn’t take any decent photos.





It has been in production over a hundred years. Surely some folks here have some good memories of them they can post.

[OlongJohnson]

I collected mine when Academy put a yellow tag on their display unit a few years back. It's way too small for me (6'4") to use well, but I'm hoping my cousin's little girl will think it's pretty and learn to love shooting with it in a few years.

[farscott]

Mine is maple-stocked as shown in the Browning marketing picture below. The difference is mine is from an older run and chambered in .22 Short. Before the 10/22, the SA-22 was THE small-game rifle due to its light weight (less than 5.5 pounds loaded), good balance, downward ejection, and accuracy. The fact that the rifle is a take-down adds to the charm. As it is a JMB design, the rifles are well designed, durable, and good looking.

Mine has primarily been used for plinking and small-game hunting. A frequent companion to another Browning design, the Colt Woodsman/Challenger/Huntsman, it is at home in the woods as it carries easily and has great balance for snap shots on small game. Now that my eyes are older, I cannot shoot to the iron sights as I once could. Rather than scope it and ruin what makes it great, it has been passed down to my daughter with a 2nd Generation Woodsman. The modern version of the SA-22 is the Tactical Solutions X-Ring Takedown, which is lighter even with a scope. But it lacks the charm of the SA-22.

If you can use iron sights, the SA-22 is highly recommended. It is from an era where nice wood and polished metal was the norm in higher-end firearms. It can be a bit finicky. Too much lube will stop the weak springs from doing their work, and keep an eye on the cartridge guide and spring. If the rifle double feeds, that is the usual suspect. If you shoot an Long Rifle version, I suggest using standard velocity ammo.

[O4L]

I have owned a couple of them over the years and they are great little rifles. I sold the last one to a guy for his eleven year old daughter that wanted to start shooting.

I am a big guy with long arms so they are a bit too small for me and my old eyes can't really see the iron sights very well and I just couldn't make myself put a prism scope on it it so I was glad to find a good home for it.

[JRB]

My very first firearm was a Norinco ATD-22, the Chinese made copy of one of these. I believe I was 5 or 6 years old when my Dad brought it home for me. We enjoyed many Sunday afternoons together at the range, he'd fuss about with handloads for one or two of his rifles as I gleefully plinked away at diet coke cans using $7-8 550rnd bricks of Federal .22LR. My Dad joked that I was just trying to shoot out all the rifling in the barrel. I took that as a challenge, but the rifling is still very much intact.

Later he found a proper Browning SA22 in outstanding shape, with a lovely deep blue and nicer wood and much nicer fit and finish, but somehow I'm still partial to that Norinco.

[Duelist]

My grandfather had one of these that he taught all ten of his kids to shoot with. One of my cousins ended up with it when the guns got removed from the house as Alzheimer’s took his mind away, and all of them were later stolen in a break-in and burglary of my cousin’s home. I never actually got to shoot it, but it sure was cute.