Sticky Bolt on a 10/22

[Yowza]

So my brother has had a non-functional 10/22 for quite some time now. The problem was that the bolt was locked to the rear and no amount of pulling or coaxing was helping. I'm not really sure how the rifle got to this state, but I asked if I could give it a shot on fixing it.

Anyway, I stripped it down and was of course able to get the bolt to go forward once the trigger assembly was removed. But putting the trigger assembly back causes the same problem. The bolt is extremely difficult to move, and if it gets locked back you can give up getting it forward again. I even took the trigger assembly apart to make sure there were no issues there, but as far as I can tell everything is in the right place.

Oddly though, as long as I don't fully seat the forward pin holding the trigger assembly in, the bolt seems to move freely and the bolt stop seems to work correctly. If I snap that pin in though, it's screwed again.

I've been working on it for a little while now and I think it's time to take a break as my fingers are killing me from all that pushing and pulling. Has anyone out there got any ideas as to what this could be? Silly me, I just figured "ahh, it's a 10/22. I'll have that working in no time..."

Rick

 

[dfariswheel]

Is the ejector in it's slot and not bent out of line?

From here, I'd strip the trigger group down to component parts, and put the bare trigger group in.

If it doesn't jam the bolt, replace one part at a time until you find the culprit.

 

[Yowza]

Yeah, the ejector was in the right place.

Thanks for the thought on putting the trigger group in incrementally, I'll give that a try tonight. I probably should have thought of that myself, but I guess it's been a while since I've had to debug anything.

Rick

 

[kimbernut]

Ruger 10/22

I know this sounds too simple to be right but it sounds to me as if your bolt release may be damaged. Whether it is or is not if you are going to have this rifle repaired regardless I would replace the original bolt release with the Volquartsen or Clark speed bolt release. It's much better than the old two handed operation of the original.
Edit:
$10.50 & $10.00 respectively from Brownells- page7 catalog#55

800-741-0015 phone www.brownells.com

 

[ksnecktieman]

Does it have a scope base? Are the screws too long? If you push the bolt to the top of the reciever does it bind? Maybe the operating handle and spring are not seated properly in the bolt?

 

[Yowza]

ksnecktieman is the winner! I feel so stupid now for not remembering that my brother had a scope on this rifle at one time. I think it was damaged somehow and he took it off including the bases. Of course he put the screws for the bases back in instead of the originals, so they were too long.

Such a simple problem, but I was just looking in the wrong place. Thanks everyone for all the replies.

I did go ahead and order the volquartsen bolt release as well as their replacement hammer. Now that I know the inner workings of the rifle it will be child's play to install them so at least something good came of all that aggravation.

Rick

 

[ksnecktieman]

Yowza, you will be impressed with the vq hammer, it is as good as they say.

You could have saved your money on the bolt release, it is simple to modify the one you have. check rimfire central for tips and tricks section on the 10/22. I also suggest the bell and carlson extended magazine release for less than five bucks, it is great too. the one from vq is fifteen bucks, I think.

http://rimfirecentral.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=11

BEWARE,,,,,,, you are on a slippery slope with no bottom

 

[Yowza]

Well, my brother had previously tried to get the bolt to come forward without taking the rifle apart and had chewed up the bolt release pretty good with a pair of pliers. He did this way back before he really got into guns, so I guess it's kind of forgiveable. I figured it was worth replacing for cosmetics alone, and I don't know where my old dremel is these days so I just went ahead and ordered the new one. Really looking forward to having some fun with this rifle again. It's been quite a while since it's been fired.

Rick