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Having wanted a bolt-action .22 for a while, and having a need for one, I looked around at what is available on the market these days. As it turns out, there wasn't nearly the selection of magazine-fed bolt-action .22LR rifles I'd anticipated. The retail stores I visited tended to carry one adult-sized bolt-action magazine-fed .22 rifle. Some carried none.

I'd pretty much decided on a Marlin 981T, but was offered a Romanian 1969 Trainer for a price I couldn't pass up. I got it out to the range today for the first time to give it a try.



While there is a little bit of take-up on the trigger, it breaks cleanly. I haven't yet looked to see if this is adjustable.The sights are standard post and notch (the front sight is hooded), with flip-up adjustment on the rear sight for set distances. This is a novel approach to elevation adjustment, but it makes sense to me. The sights are set for 25, 50, and 100 meters. I don't have any photos to illustrate the way this works, but I'll try to get some up soon.

Unfortunately, it was a very windy/gusty day at the range. So much so that I couldn't keep the rifle steady enough for a proper representation of its capabilities. Despite this, I got a somewhat diagonal string of groupings on the target at 25y. For size reference, the paper with the notes written on it is 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" (1/4 of a sheet of letter paper).



I'm quite happy with the gun so far. The one downside to the gun is that magazines aren't going to be found in your regular stores. They are available, as I've seen listings for them on gunbroker. I'm interested to see how the gun does with subsonic ammo at 50 and 100 yards, and plan to find out next range trip.

Is it actually from Romania? How old is it? What kind of shape is it in?

- Jim

As far as I know, they were all built in Romania. Mine was produced in 1985.

There's a couple of small dings in the stock, but the bore and mechanics are in great shape. Nearly new, not a lot of rounds through it, I don't think.

I have three of them. They're all good shooters.

I have one and plan on getting a more for the scout classes that I teach.

If you look close, it's basically a baby mauser. It has a good/predictable two stage trigger and has the flip up safety on the rear of the bolt that one sees on any mauser rifle. I also like the fact that when the safety is on, the shooter can't see the sights because the safety lever blocks the shooter's sight. None of this looking foolish nonsense trying to squeeze through the safety because the shooter didn't know it was on.

The sights are pretty limiting for any type of precision shooting because the hooded front post is very thick but even so, it's very accurate with all the ammo I've tried. I'm not sure about that rear flip up sight. It must have be set with sub-sonic ammo because it's not accurate with the regular stuff. It always shoots high at the distances that are stamped in the "pages". I always keep it at the lowest setting and it works fine. At least it works out to any target I can see with those open sights. Aside from the flip ups, the sights aren't adjustable.

Mine has no manufacturer's name on it. It has a serial number etched into the receiver that looks like the importer did it. I have no idea when it was made.

As the name implies, It's a very good trainer.