I decided to build a bench rest and flat out fun paper puncher from scratch. I bought a cheap stainless 10/22 from big 5 and gutted it down to the receiver. I got all the parts from Tony Kidd, polished the inside of the receiver as the original action was absolutely gritty.
Parts:
20" target crown bull barrel .920" diameter that went in without a hitch (froze barrel overnight and heated receiver at 250 drg f for an hour before assembling and leveling.
Kidd Charging handle, rod and spring. (Made mistake of putting on light spring and had some stovepipes, which went away when I switched to the standard tension spring)
Kidd 2 stage trigger with 1# pull (8 oz on takeup, and another 8oz to get the trigger break)
Scope is the Nikon BDC 150 rimfire 4-12 power
Stock, Boyd's ss Evolution
The accuracy at 50 yards is excellent. It took 1 magazine to sight in for a 50 yard zero with CCI standard velocity 40 grain round nose. The first 10 shot group was about .40" center to center.... then the wind kicked up, lol.
The only problem I had after the spring tension issue was dealt with were problems with failure to feed, with the bolt sliding over the rim and bashing the middle of the brass. The factory 10 round mags were actually hanging down on the front end by 1/16th of an inch.
When I took the stock off, I noticed the trigger group is not parallel to the bottom of the receiver like it is on my old 1976 ruger. The rear holes were drilled a bit too high so the face of the trigger group allows the mags to droop. To solve this (as there is no way in hell I'm going to bother sending an otherwise accurate shooter back to ruger with all these mods on it) I employed the 10 cent solution of shimming things up with Gaffer's tape (like duct tape but leaves no residue when removed. Several hundred rounds fired with no more malfunctions.
I do not know if this issue of poor adherence to tolerance has caused this mag issue for anyone else, but if your 10/22 is malfunctioning in this manner, this is worth a try.
Parts:
20" target crown bull barrel .920" diameter that went in without a hitch (froze barrel overnight and heated receiver at 250 drg f for an hour before assembling and leveling.
Kidd Charging handle, rod and spring. (Made mistake of putting on light spring and had some stovepipes, which went away when I switched to the standard tension spring)
Kidd 2 stage trigger with 1# pull (8 oz on takeup, and another 8oz to get the trigger break)
Scope is the Nikon BDC 150 rimfire 4-12 power
Stock, Boyd's ss Evolution
The accuracy at 50 yards is excellent. It took 1 magazine to sight in for a 50 yard zero with CCI standard velocity 40 grain round nose. The first 10 shot group was about .40" center to center.... then the wind kicked up, lol.
The only problem I had after the spring tension issue was dealt with were problems with failure to feed, with the bolt sliding over the rim and bashing the middle of the brass. The factory 10 round mags were actually hanging down on the front end by 1/16th of an inch.
When I took the stock off, I noticed the trigger group is not parallel to the bottom of the receiver like it is on my old 1976 ruger. The rear holes were drilled a bit too high so the face of the trigger group allows the mags to droop. To solve this (as there is no way in hell I'm going to bother sending an otherwise accurate shooter back to ruger with all these mods on it) I employed the 10 cent solution of shimming things up with Gaffer's tape (like duct tape but leaves no residue when removed. Several hundred rounds fired with no more malfunctions.
I do not know if this issue of poor adherence to tolerance has caused this mag issue for anyone else, but if your 10/22 is malfunctioning in this manner, this is worth a try.
