The Stirling 14 .22LR

[colin.rac]

Hello all,

I am just acquiring my first gun, and of course the license. I've bought a Stirling 14 with a 3-9x40 scope on it, feels nice in the hand, very excited. For those over east, in WA you buy the gun first then get the license, very strange but it is what it is. Is there any way to know how old it is? Some brands like Colt or Remington have websites with serial number look ups, but it appears Stirling does not. I'm not sure if sharing your gun's serial number online is a good idea, I'm very new so any tips or advice would be very much appreciated, but yeah, is there a way to find out how old this gun is?

[bladeracer]

Hello all,

I am just acquiring my first gun, and of course the license. I've bought a Stirling 14 with a 3-9x40 scope on it, feels nice in the hand, very excited. For those over east, in WA you buy the gun first then get the license, very strange but it is what it is. Is there any way to know how old it is? Some brands like Colt or Remington have websites with serial number look ups, but it appears Stirling does not. I'm not sure if sharing your gun's serial number online is a good idea, I'm very new so any tips or advice would be very much appreciated, but yeah, is there a way to find out how old this gun is?

Stirlings were made in the Philippines by Armscor so I think records in English are a bit scarce.
Wiki has a little bit of history about the company.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armscor_(Philippines)
I had a Model 1500 and a pair of Model 20's back in the eighties.

[colin.rac]

Hello all,

I am just acquiring my first gun, and of course the license. I've bought a Stirling 14 with a 3-9x40 scope on it, feels nice in the hand, very excited. For those over east, in WA you buy the gun first then get the license, very strange but it is what it is. Is there any way to know how old it is? Some brands like Colt or Remington have websites with serial number look ups, but it appears Stirling does not. I'm not sure if sharing your gun's serial number online is a good idea, I'm very new so any tips or advice would be very much appreciated, but yeah, is there a way to find out how old this gun is?

Stirlings were made in the Philippines by Armscor so I think records in English are a bit scarce.
Wiki has a little bit of history about the company.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armscor_(Philippines)
I had a Model 1500 and a pair of Model 20's back in the eighties.

Thanks for that, how did you find them? Accurate enough for what they are?

[bladeracer]

Hello all,

I am just acquiring my first gun, and of course the license. I've bought a Stirling 14 with a 3-9x40 scope on it, feels nice in the hand, very excited. For those over east, in WA you buy the gun first then get the license, very strange but it is what it is. Is there any way to know how old it is? Some brands like Colt or Remington have websites with serial number look ups, but it appears Stirling does not. I'm not sure if sharing your gun's serial number online is a good idea, I'm very new so any tips or advice would be very much appreciated, but yeah, is there a way to find out how old this gun is?

Stirlings were made in the Philippines by Armscor so I think records in English are a bit scarce.
Wiki has a little bit of history about the company.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armscor_(Philippines)
I had a Model 1500 and a pair of Model 20's back in the eighties.

Thanks for that, how did you find them? Accurate enough for what they are?

They were okay for my uses, basically as toys The M20's were both bought secondhand, the M1500 was new. One of the M20's I spotted in a shop in Perth while on holiday for $20 and had it sent across to SA. They were not as nice as my Ruger 10-22 or Winchester 190 but they did what I asked of them just fine with no complaints.

The WMR got used very little as reduced loads in my .222Rem with the same bullet were more accurate and a lot cheaper than buying WMR ammo. It was probably a 3-minute rifle on a very good day, which I think was common for WMR back then, nowadays a lot of WMR's with modern ammo can hold 1MoA at 100m. The M1500 was a "deluxe" version of the M15, basically the stock was checkered and stained, and wasn't very pretty. I think the checkering was pressed into the wood and the stain was essentially a paint job on the surface.

The M20's I never scoped, the M1500 used a standard 4x32 scope of the era, probably Tasco or Nikko-Stirling.

[Noisydad]

I bought a new one in 1991 (as a cheap ute gun on the farm) and It cost $125 if memory serves. It’s very accurate for its price. I’ve definitely had my moneys worth out of it.

[colin.rac]

I bought a new one in 1991 (as a cheap ute gun on the farm) and It cost $125 if memory serves. It’s very accurate for its price. I’ve definitely had my moneys worth out of it.

Got mine for 150, its not rooted or nothing, from the looks of it, a pretty damn good bargain.

Probably should've paid a little more and got a Marlin though.

[colin.rac]

Hello all,

I am just acquiring my first gun, and of course the license. I've bought a Stirling 14 with a 3-9x40 scope on it, feels nice in the hand, very excited. For those over east, in WA you buy the gun first then get the license, very strange but it is what it is. Is there any way to know how old it is? Some brands like Colt or Remington have websites with serial number look ups, but it appears Stirling does not. I'm not sure if sharing your gun's serial number online is a good idea, I'm very new so any tips or advice would be very much appreciated, but yeah, is there a way to find out how old this gun is?

Stirlings were made in the Philippines by Armscor so I think records in English are a bit scarce.
Wiki has a little bit of history about the company.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armscor_(Philippines)
I had a Model 1500 and a pair of Model 20's back in the eighties.

Thanks for that, how did you find them? Accurate enough for what they are?

They were okay for my uses, basically as toys The M20's were both bought secondhand, the M1500 was new. One of the M20's I spotted in a shop in Perth while on holiday for $20 and had it sent across to SA. They were not as nice as my Ruger 10-22 or Winchester 190 but they did what I asked of them just fine with no complaints.

The WMR got used very little as reduced loads in my .222Rem with the same bullet were more accurate and a lot cheaper than buying WMR ammo. It was probably a 3-minute rifle on a very good day, which I think was common for WMR back then, nowadays a lot of WMR's with modern ammo can hold 1MoA at 100m. The M1500 was a "deluxe" version of the M15, basically the stock was checkered and stained, and wasn't very pretty. I think the checkering was pressed into the wood and the stain was essentially a paint job on the surface.

The M20's I never scoped, the M1500 used a standard 4x32 scope of the era, probably Tasco or Nikko-Stirling.

To be quite honest, mine is also more or less a toy Got it for $150 at my kind of local gun shop here in Perth.

Mostly using it to go to my local range and see how good a shot I am, maybe pluck off a rat or rabbit here and there. It's my first gun so don't want to go too crazy just yet, maybe one day I'll own something with some power, I love those lever-action Henrys, especially if it shoots a 45-70

WAPOL probably won't let me have it though, I really do not need something to shoot those behemoth rounds

I have give the stock a bit of a birthday one day when my license comes in, has some chips here and there.

[bladeracer]

To be quite honest, mine is also more or less a toy Got it for $150 at my kind of local gun shop here in Perth.

Mostly using it to go to my local range and see how good a shot I am, maybe pluck off a rat or rabbit here and there. It's my first gun so don't want to go too crazy just yet, maybe one day I'll own something with some power, I love those lever-action Henrys, especially if it shoots a 45-70

WAPOL probably won't let me have it though, I really do not need something to shoot those behemoth rounds

I have give the stock a bit of a birthday one day when my license comes in, has some chips here and there.

Do you have a property letter already so you can shoot somewhere? If you have it on a club licence in WA you can't use it anywhere except at approved clubs - no rats or rabbits. All you need is a property letter for a large enough property and you can get more potent firearms, gun shops should sell them. Even if you can't actually shoot on the property you can always travel interstate to shoot. If you're happy to just shoot at clubs look for somewhere that does lever-action Metallic Silhouette, that's good fun. Have a look at IPSC pistol shooting as well.

[northdude]

Had a semi stirling for a while. Must of got a good one as it was the most accurate semi Ive owned and it wasnt fussy about what ammo you fed it either

[colin.rac]

To be quite honest, mine is also more or less a toy Got it for $150 at my kind of local gun shop here in Perth.

Mostly using it to go to my local range and see how good a shot I am, maybe pluck off a rat or rabbit here and there. It's my first gun so don't want to go too crazy just yet, maybe one day I'll own something with some power, I love those lever-action Henrys, especially if it shoots a 45-70

WAPOL probably won't let me have it though, I really do not need something to shoot those behemoth rounds

I have give the stock a bit of a birthday one day when my license comes in, has some chips here and there.

Do you have a property letter already so you can shoot somewhere? If you have it on a club licence in WA you can't use it anywhere except at approved clubs - no rats or rabbits. All you need is a property letter for a large enough property and you can get more potent firearms, gun shops should sell them. Even if you can't actually shoot on the property you can always travel interstate to shoot. If you're happy to just shoot at clubs look for somewhere that does lever-action Metallic Silhouette, that's good fun. Have a look at IPSC pistol shooting as well.

Yeah I have a property letter from a gun shop for an open license. The property letter I have is for a 401251 acre property in Meekatharra.

[colin.rac]

Had a semi stirling for a while. Must of got a good one as it was the most accurate semi Ive owned and it wasnt fussy about what ammo you fed it either

From what I've seen on this forum, as well as some reviews on youtube, seems like its a pretty neat little rifle (well, a 1.1m little rifle), want to give it decent ammo instead of the cheap stuff, looking at Aguila SP ammo, and perhaps the CCI .22LR, read some positive stuff about those.

[snag]

I was gifted one a couple of years ago, surprised at how big it is for a .22! Full sized rifle and really accurate for a basic rimfire. I initially scoped it but ended up going back to the iron sights as a house paddock gun. Definitely a keeper.

[Shootermick]

I got a model 14P for Christmas when I was about 12. 33 years later and it looks as rough as guts, it’s had a pretty hard life, but it’s still on the farm and still shoots pretty well. Cheap Tasco 4x32 on top. Have had trouble finding magazines though, bought a couple, but they haven’t quite fitted.
Rifle for Christmas as a kid, doesn’t get any better than that.

[colin.rac]

I was gifted one a couple of years ago, surprised at how big it is for a .22! Full sized rifle and really accurate for a basic rimfire. I initially scoped it but ended up going back to the iron sights as a house paddock gun. Definitely a keeper.

Yeah I too was quite surprised about how big that rifle is for the calibre, go big or go home I guess! (Too bad the calibre didn't follow suit )

[colin.rac]

I got a model 14P for Christmas when I was about 12. 33 years later and it looks as rough as guts, it’s had a pretty hard life, but it’s still on the farm and still shoots pretty well. Cheap Tasco 4x32 on top. Have had trouble finding magazines though, bought a couple, but they haven’t quite fitted.
Rifle for Christmas as a kid, doesn’t get any better than that.

I'm trying to find a bigger mag for mine, just has a 10 round at the moment, however I've seen photos of other model 14s with banana mags, pretty funny to look at I won't lie

[ob1]

Had the semi-auto model. Bought for $15. Picked it off the unlocked rack in the supermarket, paid at the till then drove over to the police station and got a licence for it. No property or any other requirements. Different days.

[on_one_wheel]

Some of my earliest boyhood shooting memories involve a Stirling .22

Boy did we get our hides tanned for plinking away at the homestead windmill.

[Elmer]

I had a Mod 20 semi, cost me 30 bucks second hand and it loved Win lasers.
It was pretty rough but nicely accurate for bunnies, I used to call it the Club, cos if I wounded one , I could club it to death with the stock.
15 round mag and a brick of ammo, and rocks were reduced to gravel...those were the days

[Mattraff]

Stirling have been around for a very long time and have recently (maybe 10 years if that) changed name to Rock Island Armoury. They are and always have been a budget rifle. I had a heavy barrel M1400 a few years ago and although it had what would have to be the worst trigger ever it could shoot a raged 1 hole 5 shot group at 50m using CCI subs. They are imported by OSA.