Hello and welcome back to another edition of The Rimfire Report! This ongoing series is all about the rimfire firearm world! A few weeks ago we had fellow TFB Writer Rusty S show us the Owyhee Takedown Bolt Action rifle in 22LR. For a lot of people, having a small, bolt-action rimfire rifle is more than enough for backpacking or perhaps even some quiet pest control on the homestead. The 22LR version of the rifle proved to be accurate enough, but there might have been some potential reliability issues with specific ammunition. Overall, I think you could do worse, but you could also do a lot better. And TacSol I think has done a lot better with their newest takedown rifle in the Owyhee lineup, the new Owyhee Takedown in 22 Magnum. Today we’ll take a look at this magnum edition of the Owyhee Takedown to see if it might be worth picking up to help you take care of some slightly larger critters.
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The Rimfire Report: The TacSol Owyhee Takedown in 22MAG
TacSol Owyhee Takedown 22 Magnum
RIFLE SPECS:
- WEIGHT: 4.1 LBS
- BARREL LENGTH: 16.5”
- BARREL DIAMETER: 0.920”
- RATE of TWIST: 1:14”
- THREADS: 1/2” x 28
- CROWN: 11-Degree
- RECEIVER FEATURES:
- Extended Magazine Release
- Durable Aluminum Receiver
- Stainless Steel Bolt
- Lightweight Barrel
- 9 Round Rotary Magazine
- Chromoly steel bore
Features
• Lightweight: At 4.1 lbs., one of the lightest takedowns rifles available
• Versatile Use: Perfect for backpacking, hunting, plinking, and target shooting
• Threaded Barrel for Easy Silencer or Compensator Attachment: Threaded muzzle for thread-on silencer
• Quick and easy collapsible engineering: Push of a button and twist mechanism for easy takedown and re-assembly
• Open Sight System: Fiber Optic Front & Rear adjustable sights
• Shoot with Accuracy: The barrel’s chromoly steel bore and target crown provide pinpoint accuracy
• Behind-the-trigger safety: Ergonomic and safe; safety location behind the trigger
• Noticeable Craftsmanship: Unique design & quality above all others
• Easy Optics Attachment: Scope Rail available for easy scope attachment
• The only .22 WMR bolt action takedown rifle available: This is a one-of-a-kind product with no replicas.
• Quick and Easy Magazine Removal: Extended magazine release allows quick and easy magazine removal
• Modified Magpul X-22 Backpacker Stock: Innovative stock design attaches the barrel assembly to the
stock body for compact storage and packabilityMSRP: $1,350
Initial Impressions
The TacSol Owyhee Takedown in 22 Magnum is nearly identical to the 22LR version right down to the stock it uses. While I had originally wished that the rifle came with a pre-installed Picatinny rail, I later found the stock fiber optic sights to be more than serviceable but this wasn’t apparent right out of the box. Installation of a TacSol scope base, which is about $50, is effortless if you’ve ever installed one on a 10/22 style receiver – literally, plug and play.
The threaded barrel is a nice touch for a 22 Magnum rifle, I don’t own a 22 Magnum-rated suppressor and I think my 45 Caliber Dragoon 450B isn’t really optimized for the job so I decided to run the Owyhee entirely unsuppressed for the review. The barrel comes standard with a thread protector that blends seamlessly onto the barrel for a nice sleek look.
Running the action at home, without an optic on it felt pretty decent. The Owyhee uses a small roller to aid in the cycling process and aside from a pretty short bolt handle, the action was pretty good right out of the box. The bolt handle is threaded on so there is potential down the road for aftermarket options if the bolt handle isn’t to your liking. A sleeker bolt handle would have made the Owyhee Magnum even more compact and would have also solved one of my biggest complaints about it – aside from the price which may be entirely justified. Mounting an optic to the rifle meant you had to adapt the grip you have on the bolt handle since you’d inevitably squish your thumb into the optic when cycling it.
Another major gripe I had is that I couldn’t fit the slightly larger 22 Magnum 10-round rotary magazines into the stock. The stock is modified to fit the larger magnum action but I don’t think there was any conceivable way to make room for them outside of perhaps 3D printing or injection molding a custom comb/storage cover. The Owyhee comes with two of them, one of which is for use with the iron sights, and the other which is raised, to use with scopes and red dots that sit a bit higher off the top of the receiver.
Even with the taller comb piece, you could not fit the 10-round 22 Magnum magazines into the stock meant to fit 22LR rotary magazines.
Range Time
Reliability
I tested the Owyhee out with some of your most common candidates for 22 Magnum ammunition ranging from inexpensive Armscor 40-grain Hollow Points to some of the more expensive 30-grain Hornady V-Max ammunition. Aside from a few errant extraction issues with some of the Armscor ammunition, they experienced no other types of malfunctions through about 200 rounds of magnum rimfire that myself and fellow TFB Writer Lucas D dumped through it.
The extraction issues, which you can see below, could have likely been induced by Lucas attempting to run the rifle quickly, however, I can’t confidently say whether or not this is actually the case. The rifle’s trigger is another thing that is quite predictable if not a bit heavy. The trigger on the Magnum Owyhee breaks at about 3-4 lbs and is quite gritty. TacSol makes a very respectable high-end 10/22 trigger so it’s curious to me why they didn’t pour the same time and attention into the Magnum Owyhee. That being said, the trigger wasn’t bad by any means and it certainly didn’t affect accuracy.
Accuracy
There really isn’t any “match grade” 22 Magnum ammunition with which to test the Owyhee. However, 22 magnum is somewhat of a niche round, to begin with, and as a side effect of this rather small batch of ammo, the ammunition quality tends to be much higher across the board. This means that virtually all of your 22 Magnum ammo is “good” and it’s really just a matter of finding out which type (and specific lot) works well with your rifle. In this particular instance, I found that CCI 40-grain Maxi-Mags worked the best which is great because it’s also one of the most commonly available and most affordable types out there.
All that being said, the 22 Magnum version of the Owyhee Takedown is just as accurate as its 22LR counterpart. At a distance of 50 yards with a Vortex Venom 5-25x56mm riflescope (an unwieldy option for a takedown rifle), I was able to repeatedly produce 10-round groups a little less than an inch in size using virtually every ammunition I had on hand. Obviously, when I removed the optic, the groups got much larger but I found the included fiber optic sights to be really good. They’re bright, easy to pick up, and accurate enough about 35 yards or so to confidently hit about a grapefruit-sized target when running the rifle “fast.” Given the choice I’d probably just run this rife with the iron sights only given how good they are.
Final Thoughts
After having put a lot of rounds through the Owyhee Takedown in 22 Magnum I have to say it’s just about everything I’d want in a lightweight backpacking rifle. The bolt-action makes for a combination of simple design for reliability, and less noise when being shot suppressed. The takedown nature is something I didn’t really use all that often aside from transporting the gun to and from the range, While the storage compartment doesn’t fit magazines, you could obviously modify yours or store other things in there that could be of use to you either on the range or in the field.
The asking price of $1,350 is kind of steep for a rimfire rifle. However, the Owyhee is throwing a lot at you in terms of both value and novelty. It is of course the only 22 Magnum takeown currently on the market. Many of you in the comments have expressed wanting something exactly like this, myself included. Given that the rifle is both reliable and very accurate even with its stock fiber optic iron sights, I would say that for the avid small game hunter, this rifle would be a solid choice. With the addition of a suitable suppressor, you’d probably have the coolest 22 Magnum bolt-action currently available.
As always I’d like to hear your thoughts on this new 22 Magnum rifle. Is this something that you could find yourself having a practical use for? Would you have preferred that TacSol chambered their new rifle in a different cartridge like .17 HMR? Let me know your thoughts and comments below and thanks as always for stopping by to read The Rimfire Report!
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