Ruger 10/22 problems

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TimH

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My son took his new Ruger 10/22 out plinking yesterday. He had some problems with it jamming. Is this because it is a new rifle? He is using Federal brand ammo. Also the stock has loosened up from the barrel. I assume that isn't normal either. Needless to say he is a little disappointed. Any advise? Thanks Tim

Edit: I just tightened the screw on the bottom the holds the stock to the barrel. That seems to have fixed the "Looseness" Is that OK?
 
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Tim.

To the stock: yes, you did right just tightening that up. You'll need to remove the stock when you strip the gun to clean the bolt and chamber. Do you need help doing this?

Regarding the jams: 10/22s can be picky when it comes to ammo. This is especially the case when new. I've found that shooting a brick or two of high-powered ammo during break in is the best way to get around this. For this, I prefer PowerPoints.

Did you clean and oil the gun before shooting?

Once broken in, 10/22s generally shoot very well. Sometimes you'll encounter a brand of ammo that doesn't function properly in your gun. Don't fight it, switch to another brand and things will probably work well.
 
Thanks larryw, We'll try different ammo. My son and his friend cleaned the gun before shooting. His friend is pretty knowlegeable when it comes to guns. Maybe we'll "break it down" tonight and clean it real good. Thanks Again....Tim
 
I would not be too concerned about your 10/22 being a little unreliable for the first 200 to 500 rounds.

My first one settled down at about 200 or 300 rounds and now it just never misses a beat. Now it will shoot about any kind of ammo I run through it although I just stick to Federal now and buy 500 round bricks.

One of the interesting and unique things about the 10/22 is that a single bolt mounts the entire receiver and barrel assembly to the stock. This allows you to very easily "float" the barrel without a lot of exotic bedding and hassle.
 
Thanks for the input.
Coltdriver How would you go about floating the barrel?
Just curious. Thanks Tim
 
I'm waiting to shoot my new 10/22. I'll keep this in mind and post back how my 1st shoot goes.
 
The rifle may not like the particular ammo your son shot in it. E.g., my 10/22 functions well with Winchester Power Points but does not with Winchester XPert .22s.

Also, make sure the magazine is clean. Per the instruction manual which came with the rifle, you can swish it around in hot, soapy water, rinse out, and let it dry. Ruger recommends that you don't take the mag apart, though.
 
Suggest you try a different magazine and see if it solves the problem.The magazines are easily disassembled for cleaning if they need it.This site will tell you everything about the 10/22 there is to know.There is a tips and tricks section which should have a little write-up about magazine disassembly,cleaning and proper torque to use for re-assembling.
http://rimfirecentral.com/forums/
:)
 
Floating the barrel means removing all stock material that touches the barrel. For the 10/22, this is from the receiver forward. This can be done on the factory stock with a file and sandpaper. Remove enough material so you can slip a dollar bill between the full length of the stock and barrel.

I have no experience floating a sportster barreled model with the front stock/barrel clamp/swivel mount. At the very least you'll need to remove the clamp.

I put a Hogue stock on my 10/22 (bull barrel) and it was already floated.
 
"Jammed" is a very general description. Could you clarify exactly what the problem was (feeding failure or ejection failure)? This will allow us to better help you.

My 10/22 functioned perfectly out of the box. The one problem I did have with it occurred after a couple of thousand rounds. The bolt wouldn't go all the way into battery. I replaced the stock recoil spring with one from Wolff and that solved my problem.
 
My 10/22

happily eats Federal in the 550 round bricks from Wal-Mart. The uncoated Remington stuff works too but jams in my 22/45.
 
The bulk pack Federal .22 lr ammo is notorious for not functioning in some semi autos. I don't think it's loaded quite as hot as other brands, Remington or Winchester for example.
Try several different brands to see which brand it prefers. You'll probably notice a difference in accuracy going from one brand to another as well.
I would avoid using the Winchester Expert ammo in the grey bulk package. The cartridge length is just a tad shorter than normal and it won't work in any of my semi autos.
All my guns do very well with Winchester Power Point and Super X, CCI, and Remington ammo.
Have fun and shoot safely.
 
Ditto what the others said.

Don't worry about it until you have a few hundred more rounds through the rifle.

Stinger
 
TimH

I have installed my 10/22 in a stock made by Faejan (pistol grip thumb hole laminated).

Volquartsen makes a "kit" to float the barrel in a 10/22. It is a really overpriced ($12!) aluminum washer with a flange on it, a drill bit with a stop welded to it and about a one inch square piece of foam rubber with a tape backing to it.

All you do is drill into the stock from the inside where the screw that secures the receiver to the stock goes through. Then you insert this washer. You place the foam rubber piece about an inch from the end of the stock. When you secure your receiver to the stock it now sits about 1/16th above the stock and the barrel rests on the foam rubber.

You could do more to "bed" the receiver but this isolates the entire barrel from the stock.

I am not a guru on how a target barrel actually works when fired but I understand that there is a "wave" or a "pulse" that goes down the barrel when the gun is fired. Interrupting the wave by securing the barrel too snugly to the stock can cause the shot to be less accurate.

When I was in the process of tinkering with this 10/22 my smith gave me an old wooden 10/22 stock that had been routed out for a bull barrel. It had the regular reciever screw mount with a washer built in to provide some stand off and then there were two other places down the stock where a nutsert and been installed and there were nylon bolts there. The idea was that you could adjust the pressure on the barrel at two points along the barrel and tweak the pulse or wave.

I am not that good to know what to tweak and even if I did I am not sure I would know the difference!

But, fully floating the barrel on the 10/22 did change it from really accurate to a fairly excellent tack driver. But I also find that to get the very best results you have to use a slightly higher grade of ammo. It will shoot in a one inch square at 50 yards with regular federal ammo with an occasional "flyer", but with some of the match ammo it will shoot inside a dime at the same distance and it will do it consistently.
 
Coltdriver. You can eliminate many of the flyers by truing up the bolt of your 10/22. You want to machine the bolt face so the case head relief is .043" and parallel to the barrel face. I did it on one gun with emery cloth, calipers and lots of time. The other I sent to Randy and CPC Machine (http://www.ct-precision.com/) so he could true up all surfaces and jewel.

Results are very satisying.
 
There is no way to eliminate flyers totally.The bolt headspaced to .043 will improve accuracy.But restaking the firing pin a little deeper can help reduce flyers as can wiggling the bolt handle after the first round from a fresh magazine has been chambered.Randy is one of the paying sponsors on my home site. He is very good with 10/22's.
 
Thanks everyone for the input.

Shawn Dodson: I'm not sure where or when it jammed. I just know he came home a little bummed about the problems. I haven't seen him to talk to ( he spent the night at GF's place ;) )
I gonna show him this thread I know it'll make him feel better....Tim
 
10/22 Problem

Maybe someone out there can help me. I just cleaned my 10/22 which I bought in '83. Still shoots great although I have been getting some duds lately with Remington 22's. When I re-assembled, everything seemed to function Ok. Something must have slipped out of place though. I have doine this hundreds? of times. I tried to chamber and extract a cartridge just to make sure it was function ing OK as I always do with the gun pointed towards a mattress. The round chambered but the bolt will not retract far enough to extract the round. After removing the magazine I can see the extractor has the round. I am afraiid to dis assemble the gn with the live round and the range will not permit entrance with "loaded" guns. I am not even comfortable taking the gun to the gunsmith as is. It is in my safe with the safety on and the magazine removed.
 
Dont take it to a gunsmith.

1 change ammo.

2nd. keep it clean. i found after owning 2 of them. when they are new they need to be clean really clean. The powder build up after a hundred rounds or so will slow down the action.

Once the gun is broken down it usually works a lot better. Stick to jacketed. i used to have a lot of problems with cast lead wax coated.
 
Why would you not take it to a smith? He's got a live round in the rifle and can't extract it. Something is not working right. It would be much better to have an expert work on the gun. Not to mention a helluva lot safer than just pointing it at a mattress. BTW...unless that mattress is made of ballistics gel it's not gonna do a damn thing to stop the bullet.
 
Thanks everyone;

Since I don't have a place to fire the round, I guess I will have to take it to the gunsmith and warn him of its condition. While there, I might as well get a mag extender and bolt hold open modification. She's a good gun. I put 30 shots in a half dollar at 25 yards today. Also, I realize the mattress won't stop the bullet (hopefully slow it), but it seemed safer than pointing it into the air while I cycled the ammo. I like to carefully cycle guns after reassembly, even with pistols. This is the 1st problem where I haven't been able to extract the bullet. Most of my pistols have decockers.
 
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