10/22 Bedding/free float

[MPB]

I have a beautiful old Ruger 1022 sporter (1976) but its not as accurate as I would like it to be. Santa brought a bedding kit so my question concerns freefloating the barrel. It seems that there are as many opinions as posts. Any input would be appreciated. I don't mind the work if I can show some results. Thanks in advance.

 

[Magoo]

As a sporter model, you don't have a barrel band, right? Off to a good start there. I don't see any harm in free floating as long as you don't screw anything up cosmetically.

If you are going to bed it, I'd recommend going ahead and pillaring it while you're at it. It's not much more work and makes for a much more solid and repeatable assembly.

All that said, floating-bedding-pillaring are not the places most would recommend to start for tweaking accuracy out of a 10-22. Most place the order somewhat like:
-trigger work
-bolt work (headspacing for accuracy, pinning firing pin and radiusing rear for reliability)
-barrel (either new or rechamber and recrown the factory stick)

I'm in Greenville too and have a few you could look at if you'd like.

If you haven't been there, rimfirecentral.com is a goldmine of info on 10-22s.

 

[anothernewb]

If you wish to keep the original sporter configuration, ER Shaw makes a fantastic barrel for it that has a better chamber than the factory barrel came with. That alone, with a trigger job converted my 10/22 to a tack driver. Not sure of price now, but a year ago it was $70 to my door

IMO - that's a worthy addition before you bed it.

As far as bedding instructions, the folks over at RimfireCentral have a wealth of information available.

 

[MPB]

Thanks for the great feedback. I would like to keep the rifle as close to stock as possible so I won't be changing the barrel but the other info is great. Magoo as I get further into this I mat contact you and try to get together, you seem to have already been through most of this. I do have a specific question concerning the stock. There is a distict lip fight at the bore end of the stock. Does this mean that I want to maintain barrel contact there. Thanks.

 

[Magoo]

Some folks seem to have good results with various contact points between the stock and on an otherwise fully floated barrel. Most of those folks, though, seem to find that sweet spot at the first inch or so of the barrel- not the last. It's generally accomplished with movable/tunable shims out of materials like bicycle inner tubes and harder rubbers. You have to play with various setups to see what your rifle likes best. It's something I've never messed with.

You have already tried bunches of different types of ammo in this gun, right?

 

[anothernewb]

^ I use the inner tube shims on mine. no bedding though. never got up the courage to do it.

 

[MPB]

I've tried 6 different ammo brands everything from valu-pak to Remington match. Seems to like Federal Premium the best. 1 1/2 inch at 50 yds. I helped in a gunsmith shop for several years, 40 years ago while in school. I'm just trying my hand again now that I'm retired. I'd like to see how accurate I can make it without a lot of expense. If I'm successful I'll try my hand at my new MINI-14 while I can still get parts. Thanks again your input is greatly appreciated. I want to make sure that I have good data before starting. I've done enough forum research to know that I don't want to be the guy who says I wish I would have known that before I started.

 

[rehorne]

Probably the first thing I would do is to check the 2 allen head screws that hold the bbl to the receiver . If they aren't tight there's no telling where it will print. Keep in mind these are stell screws going into an aluminum receiver so don't try to tighten them down gorilla tight