Shooting my Ruger 10/22

[Min]

Hello, I have a question or two I hope some of you can answer.

I took my 10/22 to the range today. I have the factory synthetic stock/stainless steel version.

Every mag I shot had a couple of misfires. I was shooting Remington Thunderbolts (green can), American Federal (red box), and Remington Golden (green box). They were all misfiring, which leads to think it is the gun's fault, not the ammo. I could see the strike mark on the rim, but no discharge. Maybe this is because of light strikes? I did have a gunsmith lighten the trigger, so maybe the firing pin was affected?

Also, the 10/22 does not have a last shot bolt hold open feature? I did not know that.

 

[Sheldon]

If the gunsmith lightened the hammer spring too much it would cause misfires, so that maybe your problem.

Yes, the 10-22's bolt does not stay back on the last shot. I remember reading on the Rimfirecentral.com board that a guy was making a modification to allow this to happen, but don't recall if it is currently available yet. Probably is not going to be a cheap modification.

 

[Pappy John]

Sounds like your first trip with this new gun. Did you clean it before you fired it? Sounds like the chamber might be dirty and not allowing the cartridge to seat all the way into the chamber properly. Then when the firing pin strikes a lot of the impact is absorbed by pressing the cartridge in the rest of the way, so you lose the impact strength to fire off the primer. Lots of guns get shipped with a metal preservative coating that tends to attract dust and dirt......and also makes a lousy lube. Also sometimes still have dirt and shavings from the manufacturing process in the works. Clean it well and lube the bolt properly and try it again. Good shooting.

Sheldon, that mod is available now....requires an added action component AND new modified magazines. I'll just keep counting or waiting for the click.

 

[Nero Steptoe]

Do you have any idea how the gunsmith lightened the trigger? It's pretty easy to drop-in Volquartsen parts, without any spring cutting, etc.

 

[45R]

Clean the gun out really good and use High Velocity Ammo if the rifle is not broken in. Spray the bolt and reciever down with a dry lube and a drop of oil on the trigger group. Wet Lube will gunk up when mixed with the rest of the carbon and powder.

If you installed an aftermarket VQ hammer and spring. Replace the factory spring. There are many reports of light primer strikers after installing the VQ target hammer and spring set.

HTHs

45R

 

[hksw]

There are a few ways to lighten the trigger weight on the 10/22. If the gunsmith snipped off a turn or two off of the hammer spring, more than likely the hammer is not getting enough force (which is transferredto the firing pin) to ignite the rounds.

There is a company that does sell a drop-in replacement for the bolt stop that will activate on an empty mag but I'm not sure if the mag has to be modified for it to work (the ad can be seen in Varmint Hunter Magazine).

 

[G.I.Jew]

I remember that my 10/22 took a while to get "broken in." Until the first thousand or two rounds, I had many stovepipes and misfires.

 

[SodaPop]

I remember that my 10/22 took a while to get "broken in." Until the first thousand or two rounds, I had many stovepipes and misfires.

That's pretty much what happened with my rifle.


I did a good bit of polishing (got advice from PappyJohn) that sped up the break in process.

I've got about 5000rds threw my gun and only see a malfuntion every couple hundred if not thousand rounds.

 

[DFBonnett]

Very possible the smith cut the springs. FWIW, I used the Power Custom hammer/sear kit from Brownells along with stock springs. Trigger is much lighter/smoother and ignition is 100%. Best mod I made to the rifle vis a vis accuracy improvement.

 

[glocksman]

I bought a used trigger housing assembly off of ebay to replace my badly corroded one (it's a long story) when I started to rebuild my 10/22, and I had all kinds of failures to ignite and what I would have sworn were occasional 2 round bursts.

I stripped the housing down and I found this.

As you can see, the dingaling butchered the sear notch.

It was my luck to get one from a kitchen table 'gunsmith' who did a homemade 'action job'.

Luckily for me, the hammer from my original housing was salvageable and now the rifle functions normally.

After stripping the chipped finish off of the receiver, polishing it up along with the bolt and bolt handle, and replacing my rusted blue barrel with a nearly new used stainless one, all that's left now is a stock refinish.