My father, who is a fairly Older expericned rifle guy, and myslef got into a discussion about shooting an Encore with a .22 barrell for practice, while swithcing out a to a 30-06 for some practice and main hunting gun.
He said, in his words, was a "recipe for disaster".
I think that he doesnt understand.
It seems to make the most sense to me is, shoot the 3006 for practice a bunch, than go shoot a ton of .22 around the farm and at the range for practice, thank maybe do a couple of final shoots wiht the 30-06.
You would get the feel of the gun, the trigger pull, but not the recoil.
I just cant see the problem. Maybe its his old school ways. i dont know.
Am I missing something.
W.

Pulling the same trigger that is a rim fire can,t hurt. Most military trainers were .22

Francis Sell once wrote a nice article about "understudy" rifles. Besides matching the action (which the Encore would do perfectly) he recommended the trajectories be close. Then you could practice the whole aspect of shooting, not just rifle manipulation.

Maybe this is what your dad was thinking about.

Bruce

Actualy the 22lr is about twice as hard to shoot as a 30-06. What makes it harder to shoot is the muzzel velocity or lack of it. The 30-06 has a muzzel velocity of about 2600-2700fps, the 22lr has a muzzel velocity of about 1250fps. Because it is going only half the velocity it takes twice as long for the bullet to get out the barrel, which means that you have to hold the gun still twice as long on follow through. Also remember that most scopes are focused at 100yds so it is important to get a scope that has a AO or side focus to focus at say 50 yds or the distance that you are shooting at. In my opinion shoot the 22lr a lot more then the big bore, it's CHEAPER and forces you to follow through and not teach you to FLINCH.