Winchester's New Rimfire Trifecta: The Wildcat, Xpert, and Ranger

When I grew up, my family wasn’t particularly aligned with any professional sports team, but we were Winchester fans. My grandfather hunted deer with a Model 94 in .32-20 and pheasants with a Model 12. My dad favored the Model 120 shotgun, and I own three Model 70s and two Winchester 1300s. When we went shopping for a new shotgun or centerfire rifle, odds were we’d come home with a new Winchester in tow.

Winchester still makes outstanding centerfire rifles and shotguns, but it’s impossible to ignore how much energy Winchester has devoted to rounding out their lineup of affordable rimfire rifles. Back in 2019 the company launched their Wildcat semi-auto blowback .22 LR rifle, and in 2022 Winchester re-entered the bolt-action rimfire market with the launch of the Xpert rifle. Most recently, the company has added a new lever-action .22 LR—the Ranger—to their ranks.

All of this has helped Winchester rise to the top of the rimfire market, and their lineup of .22 rifles includes a gun for every shooter and every budget. Let’s take a closer look at each of the company’s new rimfire offerings and all they offer to shooters.

Winchester Wildcat: Clawing its Way to the Top

There are plenty of options for shooters searching for an affordable .22 LR rifle, and Winchester understood for the Wildcat to challenge established guns like the venerable 10/22 it would have to be reliable and very accurate. The Wildcat is both. It utilizes a rotary magazine system like the 10/22 (and accepts Ruger magazines). The Winchester magazine design is outstanding, fitting securely into the rifle with minimal fuss and feeding one .22 round after another into the chamber.

One of my favorite features of the Wildcat is its removable lower assembly. Press the red button on the rear of the receiver on the Wildcat rifle and the bolt, trigger group, and other lower receiver parts fall into your hand. This makes the Wildcat extraordinarily easy to clean, and the lower assembly contains Allen wrenches for adjusting the rear sight and removing the stock. It’s an ingenious setup and the easiest .22 autoloader to maintain. Plus, you can remove the bolt assembly and that allows you to run a cleaning rod from the rear of the receiver through the muzzle in one stroke.

The Wildcat comes with a Picatinny rail with ghost ring rear sight and a ramp front sight. The crossbolt safety is reversible, and there’s a slide lock button in front of the trigger guard and a bolt release on the left side of the rifle. The bolt and slide lock and magazine release are Winchester red which makes them easy to locate even in low light.

A robust blowback action makes the Wildcat one of the most reliable .22 autoloader available today, and the button rifled chromoly steel barrel is threaded ½ x 28 for adding a suppressor. There are front and rear sling studs molded into the lightweight polymer stock and there’s also a rail on the front of the rifle for adding accessories like lights or bipods.

The Wildcat is available in a variety of configurations with polymer stocks, and there’s even a wood-stocked Sporter version for a more classic look. All of these rifles shoot well, including the test gun that I had. I topped with a Leupold DeltaPoint Pro red dot and immediately began spinning plates and punching targets to 50 yards. The Wildcat ran flawlessly, and that setup would be great for small game hunting since the rifle weighs just four pounds without the scope. I also love that the Wildcat is light enough for small statured shooters or those who can’t support a heavy rifle.

With MSRPs starting at $279.99 and scope combo guns available for as little as $329.99 the Wildcat is an exceptional value. Light, reliable, and easy to operate, this gun is loads of family and having one in your gun collections means hours of low-cast fun. But the Wildcat is more than just a fun gun: load it with hunting ammunition and add a suppressor and this is a deadly accurate and extremely quiet small-game rifle that won’t fail you.

Winchester Xpert: Keeping Shots on the X

As with the Wildcat, the Xpert rifle is named for one of Winchester’s most successful ammunition lines, in this case their Xpert line of shotshells. The Xpert .22 rifle is worthy of the name. It’s an affordable, accurate, and extremely reliable rifle that’s perfect for target shooting and small game hunting. It’s also light enough (just 4.5 pounds) that it’s easy for anyone to shoot.

Winchester outfitted the Xpert with a Bentz-style chamber which is designed to produce optimal accuracy in .22s. The chamber and precision button-rifled barrel make this one of the most accurate bolt-action .22s available today, so if you hunt squirrel or other small game with a turnbolt rimfire rifle it’s a great option. Xpert rifles come with a three-lever adjustable MOA rimfire trigger, and they utilize the same rotary style magazines (compatible with 10/22 mags) as the Wildcat. Also like the Wildcat, the Xpert offers serrated magazine release rails on both sides of the stock that allow you to quickly drop the mag in any shooting position.

The sights are basic but functional and the grip, which is more vertical than many competing .22s, is quite comfortable. There’s a two-position rocker safety on the left side of the grey polymer stock and dual sling studs molded into the polymer. Like the Wildcat, it comes with a rail section on the forearm for mounting accessories as well as a cover to protect the rail when not in use.

I grew up shooting a Winchester 75 so the Xpert quickly became one of my favorite. It comes with a drilled and tapped receiver for optic mounting, though I shot it for accuracy and at spinners and cans with the included iron sights. Reliability was excellent and the rifle was loads of fun to shoot. MSRP for these rifles is $329, but if you’re in the market for a .22 bolt gun that’s money well spent. The light, durable, and accurate Xpert is winning over shooters every year, and after a day on the range with this rifle it’s easy to understand why.

Winchester Ranger: Winchester .22 Lever Rifles Ride Again

What would any Winchester family of rifles be without at least one lever-action in the lineup? This is, after all, the historic brand that brought us the 1866, the 1873 (“Gun that Won the West”), the 1886, 1892, and Model 94. The Ranger’s family tree, then, includes some of the most influential lever guns of all time, so this gun has big shoes to fill.

The Winchester line of rifles just hasn’t felt right in the years since the company dropped their last rimfire lever gun, but all is right again with the arrival of the Ranger. I really enjoyed shooting both the Wildcat and the Xpert, but admittedly the Ranger was my favorite of the bunch. It’s beautifully balanced and there’s something that’s extremely fulfilling about running through 15 rounds of .22 ammo in short order while shucking the lever and watching the empty brass fly. If you can’t get excited about range time with the Ranger you’d better check your pulse.

Winchester knows what a classy lever gun should look like, and they gave the ranger the right aesthetics. The satin oil walnut stock looks great with the matte black on the receiver and 20.5-inch button rifled barrel. The receiver is made from aluminum which helps keep weight to just 5.25 pounds. There are no sling studs on the stock, but the Ranger is easy to carry and quick to the shoulder. The ramp adjustable rear sight and hooded front sight offer plenty of accuracy potential for shooting small game and with a magazine tube holding 15-rounds you can hunt all day without reloading.

I shot the Ranger on paper and reactive targets and have taken it cottontail hunting with hounds once with no luck. But I love spending time in the field with the rifle and I firmly believe that there is enough space in every gun safe for one of these rifles. The Ranger is a very affordable .22 lever gun that’s loads of fun to shoot and you’ll never be sorry you bought it. This may be the most what-are-you-waiting-for Winchester gun of all time.

For more information visit: winchesterguns.com