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Thread: Accurizing the Ruger 10/22

  1. #1
    Boolit Master fourarmed's Avatar
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    Accurizing the Ruger 10/22

    I bought a new 10/22 last week, and spent a couple of days playing with it and with my old one. These are the basic carbines with the barrel band. So far I have limited my ministrations to putting various thicknesses of shims under the rear end of the barrel/front end of the receiver. With no modification other than this, I produced point-of-impact shifts of at least a foot vertically at 70 yards. Group sizes varied almost as much. I was using Winchester Power Point ammo, as I have a lot of it, and it is accurate and powerful. Five-shot groups varied from 1" to at least 6". Often either one of the rifles would consistently produce four-shot groups of an inch with one opening the group to several inches.

    After a couple of days of meddling and shooting, I finally settled on shim thicknesses that produced the best groups from the two rifles. They were not the same. Now I am wanting to transform this into a permanent modification using glass bedding. However, before I do, I want to elicit the wisdom of this board. I am sure many on here have been down this path before.

    I know that I could throw away everything but the receiver and bolt, and build a completely new gun around that, but that is not what I want to do. I have been there and done that.

  2. #2
    Boolit Master corvette8n's Avatar
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    I only have one 10/22 and have converted it to .17 PMC/Aguila, now this thing is a tack driver.
    Of course I can only get ammo at a few places but it is fun to play with.

  3. #3
    Boolit Master

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    I am watching and listening too.

    A couple of items

    1) is changing the bolt release to an automatic release easy to do and you can save some change. I may have this somewhere but I know you can find pictures of the easy change. If not let me know and I will take a picture of the stock one and the one I bought before I had a chance to look at the parts.

    2) drill and tap the magazine release and put a cutoff bolt in for an extended magazine release. Just use whatever you like; brass, stainless, blue, etc. easy to do if you use a bolt with a non threaded protion. also save you some cash and will be just as useful.

    3) drill and tap the rear of receiver for a cleaning rod hole. You can do this by running a cleaning rod to back of action and make a center mark. measure where that mark is and mark on outside of receiver. Drill hole and tap for a set screw. 5/16 seems to be a good size as it give a little wiggle room. make sure the plug or set screw doe snot protrude into the area where the bolt stop pin is.

    4) If it is a carbine as expressed in the original post buy the extended recoil pad for the factory stock. It will extend the stock about 1 1/2 inches. it makes it easier to shoot.

  4. #4
    Boolit Master

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    Before you make any permanent changes would you shoot groups with the barrel band taken off completely?
    Amendments
    The Second there to protect the First!

  5. #5
    Boolit Master fourarmed's Avatar
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    TCLouis, I did shoot them with the band off. In general, accuracy was consistently better with it on.

  6. #6
    Boolit Grand Master leftiye's Avatar
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    The barrels fit into the recievers quite loosely. On one of mine I put a shim around the barrel shank that was tight enough a fit that it necessitated driving the barrel into place with a plastic hammer. Or, you could get a cantilevered scope mount base that screws on to the barrel. I've got a project that I've never finished with a screw in barrel (make a new reciever) and rear action bolt.
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    Boolit Buddy readr1's Avatar
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  8. #8
    Boolit Mold
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    I'm a little late here - but - before going through a lot of trial and error w/ making adustments, I would try several different boxes of ammo 1st.

    I sat down w/ about 8 different boxes of "non-expensive" ammo 1 day (basically the stuff Walmart sells), and for mine, I found that CCI Mini-mag's was the most accurate. At 30yds, it would put 3 shots in about a .280 size hole.

    It got to be where it was no fun taking it squirrel hunting, so I bought a Ruger MKII to give them a fighting chance!

    Have talked w/ a guy that said to re-crown the barrel, true up the bolt face and w/ Eley ammo (not sure which one) - his will shoot sub to 1" on a calm day - at a 100yds.

  9. #9
    Boolit Grand Master


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    The biggest problem I see with basic .22 ammo is rim thickness. It is irregular and sometimes slanted ( .0005-.001) on the same round. This helps explain to me why you can get 4 shots touching and that 1 shot out be itself.
    ELY is well made. Very little variance in rim thickness. When I want exact precision in my Walther P22 I grab one one my Ely rounds. Other Match Grade cartriges are ussually very good.
    Sinclair and others make neat little .22 rim gauges so you can cull out those irregular rim cartriges..(plink with them) . Use the verified rims for serious shooting. Surprisingly even the CHEEP stuff will shoot nicely when you remove the Culls.

  10. #10
    Boolit Master at Heavens Range

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    Quote Originally Posted by flhshvlhed View Post
    I'm a little late here - but - before going through a lot of trial and error w/ making adustments, I would try several different boxes of ammo 1st.
    That's good advice. I tested my Remington 541S with probably six different brands of ammo including the high dollar Eley. It showed a definite preference for one. I don't remember which one as it was years ago, but it wasn't the Eley. The "one" put 5 shots in a ragged hole @ 50 yards.

  11. #11
    Boolit Master Scrounger's Avatar
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    Paco Kelly sells an accurizer tool that may be of interest to you. Here is a write-up on using the tool
    ( http://www.gunblast.com/Paco.htm )
    and here is the link to buy it.
    (http://www.leverguns.com/store/acurizer.htm )

  12. #12
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    I would agree that different ammo can make a huge difference in a .22. In the reasonably priced category, Wolf Target seems to shoot about the best in all my rifles. The group at 50 yds is usually 1/2 or less than any other ammo.

    I haven't shot much of the high dollar target ammo as I am unwilling to pay $8+ for a box of 50 rimfire cartridges for the shooting I do.

    BTW, my 10-22 doesn't shoot very well! I need to figure out how to make it shoot better also. I did have the trigger pull lightened, which helped some.

    John

  13. #13
    Boolit Master
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    I have one of the Paco tools that I haven't used for a long time. $30 shipped to the first "I'll take it" CONUS/APO/FPO.

    SOLD pending funds.
    Last edited by Poygan; 11-06-2008 at 12:09 PM.

  14. #14
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    My experience with several 10/22's is that if you bed the forward part of the action and rear part of the barrel, and then bed the rear of the action, they'll generally shoot REALLY well. One exception made me try a "trick" that a buddy of mine showed me. I thought he was crazy when he showed me this, and I SWORE I'd never do it to one of my guns, but ... well, seein' is believin', and there was just no arguing with the before and after results.

    Polish the crown on the barrel if it's still not shooting as well as you think it ought to. To do this, take your electric VSR drill and chuck one of those med. grit bullet shaped grinding points in it. Then get some new 400 and 600 grit wet or dry sandpaper, plus some worn of the same grits. If you have a belt sander, take your drill with the grinding point to it and spin the point against the belt to get everything concentric. Now, cut a 1" square of the new 400 grit and fold it in half, and then crosswise in half again, and open up one side like you were making filters for the old style coffe makers that used flat filters and a cone shaped holder for the coffee. Lay that cone-shaped paper over the now concentric bit, and hold it there pretty well centered as you lay it onto the muzzle. Then, holding the drill as straight and concentric with the bore as your eye will allow, bump the trigger 3 short times. Bzrrrr Bzrrr Bzrrr. Take that off and put on a 1" square of the worn 400, then the new 600 and then the worn 600. Don't put any pressure on the muzzle - just let the wt. of the drill do the light polishing you're after.

    Any burrs or irregularities will be gone.

    Like I said, this wasn't something I took to at first, and I actually had to see it make some really substantial differences before I'd try it myself. It took that Ruger of my son's from shooting 1 3/8" groups at 25 yds. to 3/8" at 25.

    Wait until you've bedded the gun and crowned the muzzle to do your shooting, though. Any tests pre-bedding are just not relevant after the bedding is done. If you want to check out whether the polishing of the crown makes a difference, shoot a few groups before, and then after. I've never seen this hurt a barrel, and have seen some dang near miraculous improvements in groups after polishing the crown.

    Just remember to use a LIGHT TOUCH on the drill, and work carefully and deliberately. This ain't the kind'a job you do when you're in a hurry. Sunday afternoons are good for such work.

  15. #15
    Boolit Master

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    Glass bedding seems to help quite a bit. I've got a semi-custom 10/22 with a "cryro'd" heavy barrel and action job by ol' Chief AJ, himself. When I first got it, using RWS ammo, gun would shoot 3/8" groups at 25 yds. After glass-bedding the action and floating the barrel, the gun now shoots sub 1/2" groups at 50 yds using the same ammo.

    Bill
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    Boolit Master pdawg_shooter's Avatar
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    Never have understood why a person would buy a firearm that needed rebuilding first thing to be a shooter.

  17. #17
    Boolit Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by pdawg_shooter View Post
    Never have understood why a person would buy a firearm that needed rebuilding first thing to be a shooter.
    I dunno - mine's absolutely box stock and it shoots pretty good. I had it out to the range several years ago on a dead calm evening without a breath of wind - cigarette smoke went straight up. How often does THAT happen? I shot it at 100 yards with plain ol' CCI Mini-Mags and it put five in 1-1/16 inches with nothing special on top - just a crappy old 4x Weaver Marksman scope.
    <
    I figgered that HAD to be a lucky fluke so I tried it again - and put five in 1-1/16 inches again. I was happy with that. <GRIN>
    <
    When I see those heavy match 10/22 barrels in the catalogs I just smile. I wish the durn thing had a better trigger though - it's just about as good as the trigger on a typical pump shotgun. Yeah - I know precision trigger groups are available but they cost more than I paid for the rifle. Sigh...
    <
    Uncle R.

  18. #18
    Boolit Master
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    Talking

    Another thing you can try is put some strips of rubber under the barrel like they use to do with the Winchester 52. I have a Olympic Arms X-Ring that is a copy of the Ruger 10-22 that I mounted in rubber. Later on when I don't have so many irons in the fire, I am going to do a bedding job that includes a rear screw for the receiver. This is my X-Ring with a Bell and Carlson Odyssey stock. Almost forgot to mention, the receiver is made out of stainless steel and all of the Ruger parts are interchangeable. The top of the receiver has a weaver rail milled into it. I think they only made about 125 of these.
    Last edited by Doc Highwall; 06-23-2009 at 07:41 PM.

  19. #19
    Boolit Master



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    Unless they come with a trigger stop these days, I would think that a trigger stop should help shrink the groups a bit. I always drilled and tapped a hole in the trigger guard and loctited a set screw in it after adjustment. Drilling and tapping the trigger might be easier. Either way, it will help stop overtravel and pulling the shots.

    A trigger job is not simple, but with a bit of instuction, it should be easy enough for most to do. I have done several without any professional instructions, but I'll beat there are plenty of free instructions available on line somewhere. Maybe even in the archives right here. A trigger job and trigger stop helped my rifles a lot.
    Last edited by HamGunner; 12-27-2008 at 03:32 AM.
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  20. #20
    Boolit Grand Master JIMinPHX's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Blackwater View Post
    Polish the crown on the barrel if it's still not shooting as well as you think it ought to. To do this, take your electric VSR drill and chuck one of those med. grit bullet shaped grinding points in it. Then get some new 400 and 600 grit wet or dry sandpaper, plus some worn of the same grits. If you have a belt sander, take your drill with the grinding point to it and spin the point against the belt to get everything concentric. Now, cut a 1" square of the new 400 grit and fold it in half, and then crosswise in half again, and open up one side like you were making filters for the old style coffe makers that used flat filters and a cone shaped holder for the coffee. Lay that cone-shaped paper over the now concentric bit, and hold it there pretty well centered as you lay it onto the muzzle. Then, holding the drill as straight and concentric with the bore as your eye will allow, bump the trigger 3 short times. Bzrrrr Bzrrr Bzrrr. Take that off and put on a 1" square of the worn 400, then the new 600 and then the worn 600. Don't put any pressure on the muzzle - just let the wt. of the drill do the light polishing you're after.

    Any burrs or irregularities will be gone.

    Like I said, this wasn't something I took to at first, and I actually had to see it make some really substantial differences before I'd try it myself. It took that Ruger of my son's from shooting 1 3/8" groups at 25 yds. to 3/8" at 25.
    That sounds like a tinkerer's version of "ball lapping" a crown. Ball lapping can give you a very precise crown finish. the method there is to basically take a ball bearing attached to a rod & spin it against the crown with a little clover paste. most "experts" that I speak to talk of how they grind a flat on a bearing ball & then precision mount a shank to it. Me, I just buy a tool makers ball, all ready to go. My personal favorite is a MSC #64255144. It runs about $15 & is ready to go right out of the box. You should really start with a medium grit clover paste, then use a fine & an extra fine. After that, you may want to go to simichrome or flitz on a cotton rag. A good crown can make a big difference when you are reaching for that last moa.
    Last edited by JIMinPHX; 12-30-2008 at 12:01 AM.
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