Every gun cabinet should contain at least one rifle chambered in .22LR. The .22LR rimfire ammo is available in a wide variety of loads at reasonable prices. There is minimal recoil, minimal noise, and .22LR is a whole lot of fun to shoot. For training, for pest control, and for an all-around good time, there are few chamberings to match .22LR.
Weighing in at just 5.1 pounds, the Christensen Arms Ranger in .22LR is an amazingly light and well-balanced bolt-action tack-driver with an excellent trigger.
The threaded, 18-inch, hand-lapped, carbon-fiber-tension-over-stainless-steel-core barrel is well matched with a carbon-fiber stock with a black-with-gray-webbing finish. The muzzle is threaded with the ubiquitous ½×28 — the same that is used on most small-bore ARs — so it can accommodate a suppressor, a linear muzzle brake, or a wide range of other muzzle devices.
It comes standard with a Ruger BX-1 magazine, which opens the possibility of using the compatible, higher-capacity BX-15, BX-25, or clone magazines, as well.
The rifle was a pleasure to shoot.
With a manufacturer-suggested retail price of $849.99 at the time of this writing, the Ranger is more expensive than budget .22s and less expensive than most high-end .22s, while offering premium performance. If you are looking for a mid-range-priced .22 rimfire that gives high-end results, you would be hard-pressed to find a better choice than the Ranger.
Background
By combining carbon-fiber-wrapped barrels with carbon-fiber stocks, Christensen Arms is able to produce extremely light and accurate rifles. If you plan to carry a rifle all day while moving on foot over rough terrain at high altitude, you would be well served by a rifle from Christensen Arms. One fine example is the MHR in 6.5 Creedmoor that I reviewed on SurvivalBlog back in April of 2024.
Although weight is less of an issue for things like pest-control around the homestead, accuracy is not. Most pests are pretty small targets, and they tend to not hang around for follow-up shots. As a result, it is important to make the first shot count.
With that in mind, I asked Christensen Arms if I could try out their Ranger in .22LR. They were kind enough to agree. Not too much later, I received a call from the gun store that processes my firearms transactions for me. The Ranger had arrived.
First Impressions
The box that I picked up at the gun store was remarkably light. If I had not already seen the rifle in the box, I might have thought that the box was empty.
The rifle box also contained a smaller box containing the bolt, a registration card, a Christensen Arms decal, the manual, a Lucas Oil brochure, a sample of Lucas Extreme Duty Gun Oil, and some foam earplugs.
As I removed the rifle from the box, I noted that it was equipped with a Ruger BX-1 magazine. Cut-outs on the sides of the mag well made the magazine easier to remove than was the case with a 10/22. An oversized mag release lever made the process even easier.
The excellent trigger breaks crisply after short travel. There is a thread protector over the muzzle of the ½ X 28 threaded barrel.
There is a thin recoil pad on the butt of the stock. That pad is not at all necessary to absorb the negligible recoil produced by the .22LR cartridge.
The carbon-fiber stock had a black finish with gray webbing and came equipped with sling studs. The overall length of the rifle is 36.25 inches.
I mounted a Leupold VX-Freedom 3-9X40 Huntplex scope on the preinstalled Picatinny rail. I then established the proper eye relief, leveled the scope, and tightened the rings evenly.
I also tested trigger pull weight using a Ready Up Gear Digital Trigger Pull Weight Gauge. I used a snap cap to prevent damage to the rim of the chamber or the tip of the firing pin during the course of my testing. My five readings ranged from a low of 2.15 pounds to a high of 3.44 pounds, with an average of 2.99 and a mean of 3.15 pounds.
Reading the Manual
The manual was 24 pages long including the front and back covers. It contains a number of items of interest:
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Guidelines for safe gun handling come appropriately early on page 2.
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They discourage the use of hand-loaded ammunition. In fact, the use of such ammunition voids the warranty. Since so few people reload .22LR, that is unlikely to become an issue for most.
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The safety instructions include warnings against disassembling the trigger group.
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The manual indicates that the trigger is set to approximately three pounds. This was borne out by my testing as detailed above.
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The manual recommended following the barrel break-in procedure outlined at the Christensen Arms website.
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The warranty applies to the original purchaser only, and only covers defects in material and workmanship, not abuse or even normal wear and tear.
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The rifle has a sub-MOA accuracy guarantee. In this case, that means that it will shoot smaller than 0.5-inch groups at 50 yards with the proper ammunition.
At the Range
It was a beautiful, sunny evening in early summer. The temperature was 80 degrees Fahrenheit, and there was virtually no wind.
I made my way out to the improvised range behind my pole barn to begin my testing. The local mosquitoes were out in force, so I put on a bug jacket to keep them from interfering with my concentration.
I set up a target stand in front of the backstop on the range, and set up a table 25 yards away.
In accord with the break-in procedure which I had printed from the Christensen Arms website, I began by running solvent patches through the bore from breach to muzzle until a patch came through clean. I then ran a dry patch through the bore.
The break-in procedure recommended using an ammonia-based solvent. Since my bore guide was not small enough to fit into the throat of a 22, I substituted OGRE Manufacturing Enviroclean FA Gun Cleaner instead. Enviroclean FA is more gentle than ammonia-based solvents, so it would not damage the rifle if I was unable to keep it isolated in the bore.
Next, I bore-sighted the rifle, and then loaded a single round of Federal 38-grain copper-plated hollow point. The windage on that first shot was pretty good, but it struck about 5.5 inches low.
I adjusted the scope and loaded three rounds into the magazine. I found that the magazine practically fell into my hand when the release lever was pressed. That made mag changes extremely easy. I wondered if it might be too easy while imagining what might happen if the release lever was accidentally bumped in the field.
I then proceeded to fire a series of three-shot groups. After every six shots, I cleaned and scrubbed the bore in accordance with the break-in procedure.
I fired a total of nine groups of three shots each using the Federal ammo. The groups ranged in size from 0.09 to 0.53 inches with an average of 0.45 inches and a median of 0.47 inches.
I then moved the table back to 50 yards. There, I fired one group of three shots using the Federal ammo, two groups of three shots using Remington 36 grain copper-plated hollow point, two groups of three shots using Browning 40 grain LRN, two groups of three shots using Federal AutoMatch 40 grain LRN, and two groups of three shots using MaxxTech 40 grain LRN. The Remington groups averaged 2.38 inches in size, the Browning groups averaged 0.69 inches in size, the AutoMatch groups averaged 0.54 inches in size, and the MaxxTech groups averaged 2.78 inches in size.
By the time I got to the Browning groups, I was racing the onset of darkness. In spite of reduced visibility and haste, I was impressed with the size of the Browning and AutoMatch groups. I also should note that the rifle definitely did not like the Remington and MaxxTech ammo.
The double extractors on the Ranger bolt do an outstanding job of removing the spent cartridge from the chamber. They held the cartridge so well that it seemed that the ejector sometimes had difficulty freeing the spent case from their grasp at the rear end of the bolt throw.
After I cased the rifle at the end of the range session, the rifle case was so light that it felt like it was empty.
Due to all of the cleaning a scrubbing involved in the break-in procedure, I was thoroughly sick of cleaning the rifle by the time I completed the break-in process. I immediately did the final cleaning anyway. The Ranger is too nice a rifle to neglect.
Conclusions
The Christensen Arms Ranger in .22LR is a dandy little rifle. It is light, accurate, and fun to shoot. If you can afford to pay a little more for a better-than-budget-class rifle, this one will repay your investment.
Disclaimers
Christensen Arms loaned me a sample of their Ranger rifle in .22LR for testing and evaluation. They had also loaned me a sample of their MHR in 6.5 Creedmoor for an earlier review. Ready Up Gear provided me with a sample of their Digital Trigger Pull Weight Gauge for an earlier review. OGRE Manufacturing provided me with a sample of their Enviroclean FA Gun Cleaner for a previous review. I did not receive any other financial or other inducement to mention any vendor, product, or service in this article.
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