Plenty of people prefer bolt action rifles. Hunters, snipers, traditionalists of all denominations. Lever action rifles, as personified by the smooth as Barry White Henry Repeating Arms Company’s products, have their fans. But it’s increasingly clear that so-called “assault rifles”—what the industry refers to as “modern sporting rifles” and TTAG tags “home defense guns”—are the way it’s gonna be. Our pals at Armalite gave us the heads-up on the .22 trend back when we knew even less than we do now: guns that can fire cheaper ammo AND gi-normous bullets. Buy any ArmaLite firearm while supplies last and get a .22 LR conversion kit and magazine for $60.05 off! And here’s one someone else prepared earlier: American Tactical Imports’ imported, Chiappa Arms-built, VK-22. Description of the $500 weapon after the jump. Suffice it to say, this gun represents the increasing “normalization” of assault—I mean modern sporting hobby shooting home defense rifles.
The VK-22 has a multicaliber mil-spec lower receiver paired with a Chiappa Firearms .22LR dedicated upper receiver. The Chiappa upper has a picatinny rail, a 16” barrel with six grooves and a 1×16 rate of twist. It has a collapsible stock and includes one 28 round magazine or one 10 round magazine, per state restrictions. Also, the lower used for the VK-22 will receive any manufactured mil-spec 556 upper, just in case the shooter should desire some variety. The VK-22 is suitable for all types of varmint hunting, plinking or hobby shooting.
