New (to me) 10/22, and a dilemma

What would you do?

  • Scope

    Votes: 57 82.6%

  • Red Dot

    Votes: 7 10.1%

  • Leave the darn thing alone!

    Votes: 5 7.2%
  • Total voters
    69
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Thanks everyone for your responses. After careful consideration, I think that I'll follow @BigBore44's advice:

BigBore44 said:
Put the Bushnell Sportview on it. I heard once that their batteries never die.
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That little Sportview is awfully nice, and still pretty clear as well. Maybe the best part, it's about the same age as the gun, so would be "period correct". And as you said, the batteries never die.... lol.

dredd said:
My apologies to the OP if I have derailed your thread.
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No worries! I keep my "bs boots" on a lot these days.

chicharrones said:
So, I voted Red Dot for a standup plinker and close range squirrel shooter.
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Not a bad plan Chich, and if I'm not satisfied with the scope I'll likely find a dot for it. I do like the Bushnell TRS-25 you mentioned, and would go for that if I decide to go that route.

Barbaroja said:
If this gun will be used for dropping raccoons out of trees then i would definitely go with low power scope. Pretty easy to see the crosshairs when also holding a flashlight hahah
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Ah, yes... so very true and it would likely be in the rotation. Though these days, since I got the dog, I haven't had half the critter problems I was having. Still, I'm leaning toward the scope.

I have to say, that it's threads like this that make THR so enjoyable to me. My sincerest thanks to all that participated!

Mac
 
My 10/22 has had a cheap 3-9x scope with see-thru mounts on it since 1976. It works so well that I've never had a reason to change it.
 
I see the 10-22 as a rifle that is a KIT to make a really nice rifle from. That light barrel and barrel-band stock have to go and a nice heavy fluted barrel and after-market free-floated stock...pillar & glass-bedded to the barreled action. Nice trigger groups for it are everywhere.

Then, after it is made to shoot 1/2" groups at 50 yards...go out and have a BLAST with it...because only accurate and cool rifles are interesting.
 
MacAR said:
Though these days, since I got the dog, I haven't had half the critter problems I was having
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My old dog died of old ago a few years back. When she was alive I would lose a chicken every now and then. Maybe bobcat. Maybe hawk. Maybe owl. Rarely a fox and i never actually confirmed a loss to a coyote. But no huge losses. Within 2 weeks of her dying I lost 70+ chickens one morning. When I left at 6 for work Everything was OK. At 8 my wife called and said she saw a coyote in the yard and it ran when she left for work. By 9 when my brother in law got there, all but 5 or 6 were dead. I didn't have chickens for a year or three after that.

Predators are cautious of a dog no doubt.
 
crestoncowboy said:
My old dog died of old ago a few years back. When she was alive I would lose a chicken every now and then. Maybe bobcat. Maybe hawk. Maybe owl. Rarely a fox and i never actually confirmed a loss to a coyote. But no huge losses. Within 2 weeks of her dying I lost 70+ chickens one morning. When I left at 6 for work Everything was OK. At 8 my wife called and said she saw a coyote in the yard and it ran when she left for work. By 9 when my brother in law got there, all but 5 or 6 were dead. I didn't have chickens for a year or three after that.

Predators are cautious of a dog no doubt.
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You got me beat. Highest number of birds lost in one encounter was 17. Coyote by the tracks I found. Ate half of one killed the others for the fun of it.
 
Picher said:
I see the 10-22 as a rifle that is a KIT to make a really nice rifle from. That light barrel and barrel-band stock have to go and a nice heavy fluted barrel and after-market free-floated stock...pillar & glass-bedded to the barreled action. Nice trigger groups for it are everywhere.

Then, after it is made to shoot 1/2" groups at 50 yards...go out and have a BLAST with it...because only accurate and cool rifles are interesting.
Click to expand...

I guess that leaves only the receiver and bolt . . . might as well just buy a different 10/22 with all that other stuff already on it, I would think.
 
MacAR said:
Worst I ever had was 21 in one night, by a mink.
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We don't have many mink. If any. I found a dead one when I was a kid and thats all I've seen. I wouldn't have thought they were that good at killing or that ambitious. That sucks. I have killed many an opossum but I have no evidence that they ever bothered a chicken. Ive caught them with an egg before. Hawk, and owl are by far the worst here.. and as you say they don't even eat the dang chicken. Fox and bobcat are problems and ive shot both with chicken in their mouth. During covid I watched a fox try to take down a massive Pekin duck. He failed pretty miserably but would have eventually got him. I shot him with a 17 hmr. Coyote don't come in that close often but wiped out a 70+ chicken flock. Many were Rhode island and barred rock too. They are better at eluding than a stupid leg horn which I keep too . Lol
 
Picher said:
I see the 10-22 as a rifle that is a KIT to make a really nice rifle from. That light barrel and barrel-band stock have to go and a nice heavy fluted barrel and after-market free-floated stock...pillar & glass-bedded to the barreled action. Nice trigger groups for it are everywhere.

Then, after it is made to shoot 1/2" groups at 50 yards...go out and have a BLAST with it...because only accurate and cool rifles are interesting.
Click to expand...
I don't agree with this at all. I used to think that too, until I put together a 9lb brick of a rifle that was no fun to carry or hunt with. Does a centerfire need a 1" bull barrel to shoot MOA? No. Why should a rimfire?

Steel bull barrels are great, on a bench gun. On a rifle that's going to be carried and hunted with, there are far better solutions. Mid and sporter weight barrels of comparable construction are going to shoot just as accurately as a bull barrel, without the atrocious weight. There are also lightweight bull barrels that shoot just as well. Very good reason why I have nine 10/22's and not a single steel bull barrel among them.


toivo said:
What stock is that? Is it Ruger?
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Factory carbine stock. Very lightweight.
 
crestoncowboy said:
My old dog died of old ago a few years back. When she was alive I would lose a chicken every now and then. Maybe bobcat. Maybe hawk. Maybe owl. Rarely a fox and i never actually confirmed a loss to a coyote. But no huge losses. Within 2 weeks of her dying I lost 70+ chickens one morning. When I left at 6 for work Everything was OK. At 8 my wife called and said she saw a coyote in the yard and it ran when she left for work. By 9 when my brother in law got there, all but 5 or 6 were dead. I didn't have chickens for a year or three after that.

Predators are cautious of a dog no doubt.
Click to expand...
That's why I built this rifle. I was losing chickens weekly, no matter what I did to keep predators out. Mostly to coons and possums. It wasn't until I started thinning them out that the chickens had any peace.

Green%20Machine%202020.jpg
 
CraigC said:
I don't agree with this at all. I used to think that too, until I put together a 9lb brick of a rifle that was no fun to carry or hunt with. Does a centerfire need a 1" bull barrel to shoot MOA? No. Why should a rimfire?

Steel bull barrels are great, on a bench gun. On a rifle that's going to be carried and hunted with, there are far better solutions. Mid and sporter weight barrels of comparable construction are going to shoot just as accurately as a bull barrel, without the atrocious weight. There are also lightweight bull barrels that shoot just as well. Very good reason why I have nine 10/22's and not a single steel bull barrel among them.


A bull barrel just makes the rifle hang better for us big guys, making rapid fire much easier to stay on target. A fluted heavy barrel is cool-looking anyway. I just "throw the iron sights away" and use a scope...but that's me. When a semi-auto .22LR can keep all shots under a half-inch at 50 yards, it's good to have fun, shoot varmints, and plink like crazy!
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CraigC said:
That's why I built this rifle. I was losing chickens weekly, no matter what I did to keep predators out. Mostly to coons and possums.
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Have you ever actually seen a possum kill one. Some say they do and some don't. I've caught hundreds in our feed barns and silo. But never actually had any evidence they will bother one. They will crack eggs for sure. Ive seen it. (Seen grey squirrel and rats do it too) And nothing is much more exhilarating than reaching down into a dark 50 gallon drum of feed and learning there is a possum trapped inside that can't get out. Lol. My daddy was a tough man. He and his brother were a 2 man logging crew. Pulled cable, felled, bucked. All by themselves up until nearly 70 years old. The only things in the world I've seen him scream like a girl over was a possum or a snake. We walked out on bear many times. Never bothered him. Even rattle snake didn't bother him as much as possum. Lol he had an irrational fear of possum.

Ive also witnessed a buzzard kill one once. People say they won't but one did. Lol. We are littered with deer and have plenty of buzzard after the road kill. Out of thousands I see only one ever bothered my flocks.

My current solution is 8 foot galvanized fencing buried a foot deep. Then another ring outside of that that the dog can walk all the way around the chickens. (Well almost all the way. There is a walkway through.) I still lose some to birds. And occasionally one pisses off the dog and she gets one. I call it her taxing me. Lol. My lot is probably 1-2 acre so a net top doesn't work. Ive tried. Once with chicken wire and once with poly aviary net. Falling leaves and such ruined both. The chicken wire was disaster. Hell of a mess. Lol. I just keep a supermatic hanging over the door ready to shoot the....um, crows, that come near.

Throwing out corn for the crows helps too. Nothing deters hawk like a few crows. Nothing ive found anyway.
 
20200511_163709 (1).jpg

Only picture I had of mine. Lol. Suprised I even found one. Plus a terrible Chinese lever action 12 where the slightly less terrible supermatic now lives and a superb CZ 452
 
Thanks MacAR for starting this thread. I wish you the best with your new rifle and scope. Have fun!

Since this has sort of turned into a saga of 10/22s I'll chime in. I bought mine in the mid 90s. It spent a lot of time behind the seat of my Toyota and travelled with me lots of places. IMG_20210220_084306228.jpg

I shot it for a long time with fair to mid'lin accuracy using the iron sights. An inexpensive scope didn't improve things much. Neither did the Volquartsen trigger and hammer. Nor a more expensive scope. It presently wears a red dot. That seems to be just right. A nice balance between speed and the accuracy this rifle is capable of.

Enjoy your rifle and don't feel bad doing what you've got to do to make it work for you.
 
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Scope, if you shoot small targets at longer ranges.

Red dot, if you want a lighter rig with faster target acquisition.

Irons (rear aperture), if you want the lightest and most compact rig. Or want to practice for target disciplines.

I have 3 10/22-esque rifles (one AMT and two Brownell receivers) and went all three directions for different uses.

AMT1022.jpg BRN22R.jpg BRN22R02.jpg
 
Picher said:
The fun is in knowing how and doing all that stuff yourself, or learning how. Just like making love...it just keeps getting better.
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True, but I sure do hate taking the major parts off a perfectly functional and cosmetically good firearm and never using those parts again. I'd rather find a cosmetically challenged gun to change parts on. This is assuming the OP's 10/22 is functional and looks to be in good shape. :)
 
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When my eyes were younger, I had a Marlin 39A Mountie with a Williams 5-D peep sight that shot lights-out and it took lots of small game and varmints. The weight of the Marlin helped it shoot offhand really well. I tried scoping it, but preferred the 5D Williams and open aperture to anything else, at least for shooting within 25 yards or so.
 
Picher said:
When my eyes were younger, I had a Marlin 39A Mountie with a Williams 5-D peep sight that shot lights-out and it took lots of small game and varmints. The weight of the Marlin helped it shoot offhand really well. I tried scoping it, but preferred the 5D Williams and open aperture to anything else.
Click to expand...

My 39 still has a 5D on it, but it sure is getting hard for my 56 year old eyes to use it no matter the aperture size I choose. Sadly, my 39 will be wearing a red dot soon. If only someone made a small red dot that looked like it was from the Old West . . . or the 1950s. :oops:
 
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