Someone asked to be "bored" by reading my Ruger 10-22 Accuracy Tips

Status
Not open for further replies.
Picher

Picher

Member
Joined
Nov 27, 2003
Messages
3,173
Location
Maine
I can't readily find the person who asked about my Ruger Accurizing Tips, but they're available on:

https://www.rimfirecentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=251035. I don't know if it's against the rules here to suggest looking at another board and I can probably copy them and paste them here, but please try it this way first.

There are more than one of my Tips at that site. Check out other peoples' tips posted there also.

J. Picher
 
Last edited:
Picher said:
I can't readily find the person who asked about my Ruger Accurizing Tips, but they're available on:

https://www.rimfirecentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=251035. I don't know if it's against the rules here to suggest looking at another board and I can probably copy them and paste them here, but please try it this way first.

There are more than one of my Tips at that site. Check out other peoples' tips posted there also.

J. Picher
Click to expand...
Awesome tips. I would love to be an annoying watcher looking on as you do these mods.
 
55 to 42 thousands in the head space? That's a lot of factory slop.
would you say the improvement is liner or all or nothing?
For example is 50 more accurate than the factory 55? And is 45 more accurate than 50 thousands?
Or does nothing really change until you get within a few thousands of 42?
 
Last edited:
DustyGmt said:
Awesome tips. I would love to be an annoying watcher looking on as you do these mods.
Click to expand...
I haven't done any 10-22 accurizing for a while, since I'm retired from both my "real" job and accurizing. One of the best things I discovered about the 10-22 is the bolt improvements. I was the first to discover that the operating handles were pinching the firing pin and were the cause of "first-shot flyers", due to reduction of rim impact force. Calfee gave us considerable information about firing pin shape/impact improvements.

Another innovation that I discovered is that the one-bedding screw is made more accurate by introducing considerable forend pad pressure against the barrel. It forces the rear of the receiver downward and more stable.

The improvements listed weren't all my idea, but several of us contributed to finding what worked well to overcome design deficiencies and "accentuate the positives".

Good luck with your endeavors to make the 10-22 the best it can be!
 
748 said:
55 to 42 thousands in the head space? That's a lot of factory slop.
would you say the improvement is liner or all or nothing?
For example is 50 more accurate than the factory 55? And is 45 more accurate than 50 thousands?
Or does nothing really change until you get within a few thousands of 42?
Click to expand...

Rifles vary, especially relatively inexpensive rifles. Each one's accuracy potential may be reached by a few mods, but the best places to start may be in the bolt/firing pin/extractor area and action/barrel bedding mods. Today, I'd use after-market trigger assembly and firing pin, but carefully assure that the firing pin strikes just below the rim-fold and is narrow enough to spread the primer flame. There's no priming compound in the rim-fold and the firing mechanism is not as robust as that of bolt-actions, so needs all the help it can get to provide perfect powder ignition.

Enjoy the accurizing "ride"!

JP
 
748 said:
55 to 42 thousands in the head space? That's a lot of factory slop.
would you say the improvement is liner or all or nothing?
For example is 50 more accurate than the factory 55? And is 45 more accurate than 50 thousands?
Or does nothing really change until you get within a few thousands of 42?
Click to expand...
Some rims are a bit thicker than others, but .042" is a safe measure. I didn't notice much improvement until I got within a few thousanths of .042". For safety's sake, don't go less than .042", but if you consistently use ammo that has slightly less rim thickness, it's probably not going to hurt to go to that thickness, but not go beyond. I can't recommend going less than .042", for safety's sake.

If you go thinner than that, it could machine-gun. It's also best to keep the bolt face recess clean after headspace is reduced. It will work well without cleaning for several boxes of ammo, however.

In reducing the headspace, be sure to keep the bolt face square with the body, so it hits flat on the barrel every time.

Barrel quality is paramount. My BIL's rifle had a lousy factory barrel and I couldn't get it to shoot well until we replaced it with a bull barrel I got at Cabelas. It was expensive, being a stainless-fluted, but it shot lights-out, matching my Shilen.
 
Last edited:
My good shooting-buddy, who has now passed, bought a Ruger Heavy-Barreled blued "T" model that had a fantastic factory barrel. After I finished working on his, it would shoot every bit as well as mine. He reveled in out-shooting many very fancy after-market, jazzed-up 10-22s at the Daytona-area public range. He'd go praise the beauty of the guys rifles and them go on and on bragging about their accuracy, then put his target near theirs and shoot 3/8" or better groups, while the other guy might shoot 3/4" or worse.
 
Picher said:
Some rims are a bit thicker than others, but .042" is a safe measure. I didn't notice much improvement until I got within a few thousanths of 0.42". For safety's sake, don't go less than .042", but if you consistently use ammo that has slightly less rim thickness, it's probably not going to hurt to go to that thickness, but not go beyond. I can't recommend going less than .0.42", for safety's sake.

If you go thinner than that, it could machine-gun. It's also best to keep the bolt face recess clean after headspace is reduced. It will work well without cleaning for several boxes of ammo, however.

In reducing the headspace, be sure to keep the bolt face square with the body, so it hits flat on the barrel every time.

Barrel quality is paramount. My BIL's rifle had a lousy factory barrel and I couldn't get it to shoot well until we replaced it with a bull barrel I got at Cabelas. It was expensive, being a stainless-fluted, but it shot lights-out, matching my Shilen.
Click to expand...
That's what I was wondering, gain accuracy with out going all the way down to 42 without harming reliability until it gets real dirty.

I have a real nice after market 10/22 bull bbl I haven't done anything with too.
1/2 inches at 50 yards for a 10/22 is very impressive. Hell 2 inches at 50 yards would impress me with one of those.
 
Im going to try a few of these tricks on the 597 and 597 heavy barrel laminate I just picked up, If either will shoot under 1" at 50yds ill be happy.
 
748 said:
That's what I was wondering, gain accuracy with out going all the way down to .042 without harming reliability until it gets real dirty.

I have a real nice after market 10/22 bull bbl I haven't done anything with too.
1/2 inches at 50 yards for a 10/22 is very impressive. Hell 2 inches at 50 yards would impress me with one of those.
Click to expand...
 
748 said:
That's what I was wondering, gain accuracy with out going all the way down to .042 without harming reliability until it gets real dirty.

I have a real nice after market 10/22 bull bbl I haven't done anything with too.
1/2 inches at 50 yards for a 10/22 is very impressive. Hell 2 inches at 50 yards would impress me with one of those.
Click to expand...

Please note that I erred when typing 42, when I meant .042". I corrected the original message, but some copies are still incorrect. JP
 
Yeah I figured you meant 42 thousands.
If a more correct head space bold could reduce the numbers and the severity of flyers that would be huge.
Mine will shoot an OK group of say 10 shots but I will get at least 1 or 2 flyers.
 
I don't have any proof, but it seems that when headspace is .042" on the Ruger 10-22, the bolt face doesn't accumulate as much blow-back gunk as it does on the original headspace distance. It's just an unproven observation, and perhaps from shooting better ammo than plinker stuff.
 
lg&m said:
Thanks for the tips. You mentioned 1/2" groups. I assume for 5 shots @ 50 yards?
Click to expand...
Yes. I never shoot .22LR at farther distances, especially with expensive ammo because our high-power range has wind and mirage problems most of the time. The rimfire range is more protected and because it's used for Rimfire Benchrest, the results I got there were similar to what I could expect on a BR match day.
 
I picked up a 10/22 about a month ago. Shot it at 100y yesterday & thought it/I did well. I was using CCI ammo, blazer & mini mag. I am going to get some different ammo & try at 50y. Judge my results against your benchmark before I try and tune it.
 
Shooting expensive match ammo in a factory-fresh 10-22 is kind of a waste. Sometimes cheaper target ammo works almost as well as the match ammo. When bedding is improved, headspace reduced, and first-shot flyers are eliminated by tuning the bolt parts, the difference in accuracy between some factory sporter barrels and match barrels can be quite impressive.
 
Picher said:
Shooting expensive match ammo in a factory-fresh 10-22 is kind of a waste. Sometimes cheaper target ammo works almost as well as the match ammo. When bedding is improved, headspace reduced, and first-shot flyers are eliminated by tuning the bolt parts, the difference in accuracy between some factory sporter barrels and match barrels can be quite impressive.
Click to expand...
I am not going to spend a lot on ammo ,I want to try a few more and see what it likes. Then I can see how much any mods( if any ) I do help. Need a base line.
 
748 said:
Yeah I figured you meant 42 thousands.
If a more correct head space bold could reduce the numbers and the severity of flyers that would be huge.
Mine will shoot an OK group of say 10 shots but I will get at least 1 or 2 flyers.
Click to expand...
Flyers can be due to a lot of things, especially ammo. Have you bedded the rifle like I suggested, with a pressure pad? Have you re-shaped the firing pin nose to hit below the rim, and spread the flame to each side? Have you relieved the operating handle, so it moves easily in the bolt slot and not bind the firing pin, especially on the first shot after a new magazine load? Have you tried different kinds of better target ammo? (Ruger 10-22s often react more than many bolt-actions to changes in ammo. Un-accurized ones often don't shoot well enough to tell the difference.)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

A
  • Locked
Ruger 10/22
Replies
3
Views
551
Aendiile
A
S
  • Locked
10/22 upgrades for Appleseed
Replies
15
Views
4K
MechAg94
M
M
  • Locked
My New Ruger 10/22
Replies
15
Views
1K
SturmTrooper
S
ECVMatt
  • Locked
New Ruger Mini-30 Accuracy Question
Replies
1
Views
635
rhinoh
R
GunnyUSMC
  • Locked
Early model Ruger 10/22
Replies
11
Views
2K
Owen Sparks
O
Back
Top