Stock 10/22.....Where do you go from here?

All of the above. My walking around .22 rifle is an old Marlin bolt action my dad gave me, so my 10-22-ish rifle builds went in different directions from stock: offhand target, heavy-weight precision and ultra lightweight, respectively:



Interestingly, none of these have Ruger-branded receivers. The stainless is an AMT, and the other two are from Brownells. Both Brownells have Ruger bolts and BX trigger assemblies. Barrels are by Green Mountain, ER Shaw and Kidd, in that order.

Dave DeLaurant said:

All of the above. My walking around .22 rifle is an old Marlin bolt action my dad gave me, so my 10-22-ish rifle builds went in different directions from stock: offhand target, heavy-weight precision and ultra lightweight, respectively:

View attachment 1032664 View attachment 1032665 View attachment 1032666

Interestingly, none of these have Ruger-branded receivers. The stainless is an AMT, and the other two are from Brownells. Both Brownells have Ruger bolts and BX trigger assemblies. Barrels are by Green Mountain, ER Shaw and Kidd, in that order.

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Dave What stock do you have on your lightweight build? It looks great!

ECVMatt said:

Dave What stock do you have on your lightweight build? It looks great!

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Thanks -- it's actually TCR-22's factory Magpul stock. Someone on either eBay or GB had some for sale a couple years ago and I thought it looked pretty rad.

With a factory 10/22 I drill a 1/4inch hole in the receivers back side for cleaning.
Then I replace the Williams folding rear with a fixed solid 3/8ths dovetailed rear sight and replace the bead front sight with a smaller blade. Often I just file down the factory bead and use the metal below to form a blade.
I get a nice Finn M-39 slide adjustable sling on it for carry.
I toss the junky 10 rounders they come with into a 'parts for later box' and buy some 15 round BX15's and its set to go.

I bought one in the eighties. It shot pretty good but I bought a Butler Creek barrel and stock at Cabela's sometime after that. Early 90's maybe. It shoots even better and is just behind my CZ 452"s in accuracy. Sometimes I think I would like to return it to stock for my grandson. But I have other projects higher on my list. I had my left shoulder and elbow repaired from last years motorcycle accident and rhad cataract surgery on my right eye. Next month I get my other eye done and in early December I will surgery on my messed up right shoulder. So I have a narrow window for projects until into next year.

All I’ve done with my two is add the BX trigger, slings and scope them with Simmons rimfire scopes. Maybe someday I’ll do the heavy barrel treatment with my standard, but it’s been a good gun so maybe I won’t fiddle with it.

When you find the ammo it likes, and if the stock fits you, IMHO they can be fun to pretty much keep as-is.

My standard is from 1985/86 and my International is from 2020.

Stay safe.

I want a redux. Best friend bought a Ruger Target tonight https://ruger.com/products/1022Target/specSheets/21186.html and I think I love that configuration. Threaded 16” barrel, lighter than a standard Carbine model, BX trigger standard, thumbhole laminate stock that’s actually pretty svelt. I could live with it in stock form and auto bolt release. Best part was, it was clearanced at $490 which is pretty close to a basic model plus BX.

I’d probably stick to my original suggestion but this I felt was one worth mentioning.

I'm not looking to buy any more firearms, but I would have paid $490 for that.

I mounted a 4x scope on mine. It will hit 1" pasters at 50 yards. Then I stopped.

I generally find whenever someone gets “bored” shooting anything, they simply need to pick one or multiple of the following to spice up their life:

1) Shoot smaller
2) Shoot farther
3) Shoot faster
4) Shoot with less support

It was mentioned before, but if you are going to change a bunch of parts out, it would be cheaper to start with a Brownell's receiver or barreled action. Brand new 10/22 rifles are not as cheap as they used to be.

I would probably start with optics then go to trigger. After that, I think the bolt is the better upgrade before barrel.

Optics: Iron sights are fine, but red dots are better and easier. A low power scope is nice if you just want to shoot groups or longer targets.
Trigger: There are a number of people who make drop in triggers. That is the easiest way to go. I tried to upgrade the trigger parts. That is a mess I won't try again. Not that hard, but not worth just buying a better trigger pack to me.
Bolt: I have had reliability issues with the factory bolt. I feel upgrading to a KIDD complete bolt and recoil spring helped my rifles run better and a little more reliable. Others make good parts also.

I have a 10/22 set up for target shooting, but I find the one with the light weight barrel for plinking is more likely to be taken out to shoot.

@DustyGmt https://www.samson-mfg.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=10-00037-00

BTW I’m crying at that price but Samson makes excellent mounts etc. so I’m betting it beats the pants off of all other folders available.

DustyGmt said:

Oh yeah, I meant to ask about this. I know fooling with the action screw torque can have pretty big implications on accuracy. What is the best way to do this? Start @ 10lbs shoot a couple 5 shot groups, let the gun cool for a while and just go up incrementally over the course of a few range trips or can you get the proper torque setting configured pretty quickly in one trip?

Also curious about the barrel band, does the torque on the barrel band screw have anything to do with accuracy? I'd imagine it does because I took my barrel band off for a lil while because I saw others who had but my shots opened right up. But the barrel band back on and it was back to normal. I'm guessing you have to bed the action if you ditch the barrel band?

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On the barrel ban I just tighten it like it should be, you could mess with it any may help but if it's not tighten properly it's not doing it's job. Some will take it right off as well.
For the action screw, start the lowest in-lb your wrench will go, shoot a magazine. Keep going up 5 in-lbs untold the max ruger recommends.

I think a bx trigger, a sling, 2-7 scope (plus rings), kidd bolt buffer and kidd auto bolt release should be the minimum. Depending on the scope that would be a total of 300 or 400 bucks probably. Of course you can spend a fortune just on a trigger, scope, and rings if you want to, but you don't need to for a basic 10/22.

Personally, all I'd do with another one is pretty much leave it alone. Sling swivels and a scope would be about it, I learned to handle the trigger on those long ago. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Here's what I did. Bought a new 10/22 with heavy barrel. Shot 4-5 different ammo types/brands and said, "meh". Along comes a friend who loves 10/22s and sold it to him. Took the money and bought a Bergara BXR, which is an upgraded 10/22. For $600 I now have the 18" carbon barrel, light and accurate, and saved all that time and tinkering. And, most important, I love the Bergara and it has become my favorite semi-auto squirrel rifle. Heads shots every time (well almost).

I wouldn’t start with a Ruger 10/22. I would go straight to an aftermarket receiver with a rear receiver tang for an additional point of bedding, and aftermarket parts thereafter.

Totally depends on where you want to go with it. The sky is the limit.

Does anyone buy any model of 10/22 and shoot it stock or is that sacrilege ?
If one is going to eventually replace all the Ruger parts why not just start with an aftermarket receiver?
My list of aftermarket additions to my 10/22;
- Extra magazines.

A buffer and spring is all I use for most. $15 in “aftermarket”.

twarr1 said:

Does anyone buy any model of 10/22 and shoot it stock or is that sacrilege ?
If one is going to eventually replace all the Ruger parts why not just start with an aftermarket receiver?
My list of aftermarket additions to my 10/22;
- Extra magazines.

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The only thing original on mine is the receiver, lower, and bolt (the firing pin and extractor in the bolt are aftermarket) and magazine release parts, I have changed out nearly all the rest of the parts in the 40 years I have owned mine. That said I still use the original magazine it came with, along with a few extras.

twarr1 said:

Does anyone buy any model of 10/22 and shoot it stock or is that sacrilege ?
If one is going to eventually replace all the Ruger parts why not just start with an aftermarket receiver?
My list of aftermarket additions to my 10/22;
- Extra magazines.

Click to expand...

Sometimes, it depends. I have 10/22's that are nearly stock, with the addition of things like optics and/or sights.

A lot of folks build them over time, incrementally. If you 're going to do it all at once and know exactly what you want, sometimes it makes sense to build off an aftermarket receiver. I've done a couple. However, if you're happy with using the factory bolt and trigger housing, you don't save any money going all aftermarket. So it still makes a lot of sense to build off a Ruger, especially if you get a cheap used one.