Walnut stock 10/22s

When did Ruger stop putting walnut stocks on standard 10/22 carbines? (Not including deluxe sporters, just standard carbines).

My 70's era 10-22 has a birch stock. Not sure is standard 10-22's ever came with walnut.

I don't know for sure if they were ever standard, but I think so. I know for sure I have seen some that were walnut.

-not relevant-

The original 10/22 carbine came with walnut stock - catalog 10/22R, they started using the birch stocks in the 117- prefix range and changed the catalog number to 10/22RB. Late 70's as I recall….they also used maple stocks for a while using the same 10/22RB catalog designation.

According to Workman's book, 1981 was "officially" when the Walnut stock material was dropped. There was an overlap of the Walnut and Birch stocks during a transition period. Lowest Birch "recorded" was 119-70067 and highest Walnut was 121-50355.

I have seen lower numbered serials with a Birch stock, I just don't know if they were swapped out for Walnut by previous owner/s or not.

arcticruger said:

According to Workman's book, 1981 was "officially" when the Walnut stock material was dropped. There was an overlap of the Walnut and Birch stocks during a transition period. Lowest Birch "recorded" was 119-70067 and highest Walnut was 121-50355.

I have seen lower numbered serials with a Birch stock, I just don't know if they were swapped out for Walnut by previous owner/s or not.

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Wasn't the last year of the 1022 carbine walnut stocks 1977.

I got a 1022 carbine back in 1966 that had a nice walnut stock. Regretted selling it to buy something else. I bought my current 1022 about 5 years ago. It has a birch stock which is ok but not as pretty as the walnut one.

My 1966 and 1968 10/22's have walnut stocks, bought a beautiful one from a member on this forum for $55 a few years ago. Have a another spare that is in the process of being refinished.

My 1980 vintage 10-22 has a walnut stock and my 1980 Ruger road map catalog lists them as walnut.

CHEVYINLINE6.

Thanks for the replies. I have a deluxe sporter which is a pre-warning gun, but want a walnut stock standard carbine to go with it. FWIW, I recently bought one of the Talo 10/22 light varmint/target guns, and it has a better grade of wood than many I've seen in recent years (but not walnut). Also better overall fit and finish compared to many I've seen. A real shooter too.

My "field gun" 10-22 is an older pre-warning Deluxe Sporter---trigger was WAY too heavy so I had my gunsmith (Dean Wilkerson) do a trigger job on it (this was before all the drop-trigger parts were available) and I later added a Volquartsen auto bolt release and a extended magazine release (can't remember who made it) along with a green canvas sling (UZI Model A)---it runs with the factory open sights and shoots just fine---been using it for decades...