I have a 10/22 that has been around since I was a kid. It's an ok shooter. It's been abused over the years as a .22LR usually is. Aside from a small stint where it wouldn't fire (corrected with some heavy cleaning), it has been perfectly reliable with all ammo types. My daughter finally being of age to shoot .22s and rabbit hunt has gotten me interested in this old rifle again. I looked at all the various options available for a 10/22. There are literally a kabillion. Everything I saw seemed to center around bench accuracy with heavy barrels and all sorts of larger stocks. Not very handy for a field rifle. Instead, I decided to work around the existing factory barrel and receiver. First, I had to relieve some pressure on the barrel. I didn't want to to bother with bedding, although you could for just the price of a kit form Brownells. I decided the remove the barrel band which is a known killer of accuracy. Why anyone would produce a modern rifle with one is beyond me. Before you guys that will cry about weakening the stock-action, realize that Ruger has been producing fancier models without barrel bands and pretty much every after market barrel requires removal of the barrel band as well. It's perfectly ok to ditch one on a Ruger 10/22. The second part of relieving pressure was to open the barrel channel and deepen it a bit to allow the barrel to float as much as possible. Since I already needed to touch up the stock, I decided that I would go ahead and put a better finish on it. After fooling around with some Birchwood-Casey stock finish, I ended up sanding to a about 600 grit wet with stain and finished it off with some boiled linseed oil. the result was a walnut mil-spec look. While I was at it, I took out the step in the stock where the barrel band used to sit for a better look. With the factory barrel "improved" I decided to look at the various sighting systems available. The problem with the factory sights are the short sight radius and notch-type system. A longer radius results in a clearer sight picture. The notch type sight is worthless for anyone over 25 years of age which is why most modern militaries have moved to a peep type sight. The benefit is that the eye is forced to focus more through the peep bringing a clearer picture. I also wanted the sight to be field use rugged. There are many match sights available, but they are largely made of plastic parts and meant only for range use. What I found was the tech-sight: Tech-SIGHTS Precision Shooting Accessories They are made from steel and aluminum. They utilize the military sight picture that we are all used to. They came highly recommended from the folks that shoot in the Appleseed competitions: Appleseed Project Home They are available for Marlins, Rugers, and other weapons. They are easy to install with minimum tools. The results... I wish I had a pic. This Ruger will shoot dime sized groups with CCI Mini-mags are 25 yds. A zero at 25 gives a good crossover at 75 yds with only about 1-1.5" of play in the arch. I did notice as the barrel heats up, it will shoot a hair low. It's very predictable, though. This is due to the lightweight factory profile. A necessary trade off for lighter weight which is more important afield. Field results: If you want to improve the accuracy of your standard 10/22 to near match capability, it is possible with a bit of work and about $75. I think I will use one of the new coated 10/22s, tech sights, and folding stock to make a nice truck survival rifle that's packable.
Good read. I think that it's a very good idea to not go overboard and maintain mods for accuracy instead of aesthetics.
Except for the barrel band, my old 10/22 is set up just like yours. Great idea to take that off, but I'll have to get something for my sling that's currently attached there. Question: Did you notice any improvement in accuracy? I'll be getting some replacement trigger parts to bring the pull from ~8 lbs to ~4 lbs (so the advertisements say :^) -- That's about all; no sense of investing too much in a $200 rifle. Great reading! I like reading your writeups!
Answer: Yes. It was about a 5" group with bulk ammo at 50 yds. After relieving the bit of stress, it would really put them in there. You still will get a POI shift when he little barrel heats up, but as long as you anticipate that and understand it, you can adjust for it. I would recommend removing the barrel band IMHO. ETA: in theory you should get better groups when your sling no longer applies tension to your barrel. Drill and mount a stud in the wood and you should get even better groups. Barrel bands are terrible things. A sling mounted to band only makes things worse.
I put a over molded stock on my 10/22 that did away with the barrel band. Also did some internal mods to it, but I scoped mine, (old eyes) and am very satisfied with the otherwise ordinary rifle. I have Tech-sights on my SKS, it did help that as much as could be expected. Thought I'd like to pick up another 10/22 just for a truck gun and put Tech-sights on it. Have never done it.
Here's my 10/22 showing the rear Tech-Sight (and a mighty trophy sage rat :^) Looking forward to removing the barrel band, but need to get before and after target groupings from a bench rest -- maybe by next month...
Nice shooting! Choose some nice ammo for that bench test. I look forward to seeing your paper groups. If I get to the range this weekend, got a lot of reloading to do, I will get some groups with mine too. Those tech sights are really something. I sent an email to them to ask if anyone has tried them on a .22WMR. I am on the verge of dropping some dough into one and if tech sights will work on a Marlin, that is likely what I would buy. I will let everyone know when I get a reply- probably need to send a reminder as it's been awhile since I sent that one.
I am close to doing this as well. One thought I've come to is that the newer Rugers would be a bit better in a truck gun role. Instead of blueing the barrels, they are using some kind of spray and bake. It should resist rust a lot better inside a humid truck environment. My old Ruger is losing some blueing to rust. It got a bit wet on a trailer in one of our moves and rust got to it. Most came off with a bronze brush leaving some light pitting. I may eventually take it here: GENERAL INFO I have an AR there right now being finished. It should take care of the rust issues. I just hate to loose that nice blue to something else. It occurred to me last week rabbit hunting in a down pour that blueing just isn't as versatile, or tough of a finish as we are now capable of
I took the optics off my 10/22 as well, also put on an extended mag release and bolt release so it'll be ready for an appleseed shoot one of these days.
I was finally able to take the Ruger 10/22 out again and do some shooting to compare performance between "with barrel band" and "without barrel band". The setup, although good enough for me, can't really claim any "statistical significance". It was all I had time and patience for. Some of the pertinent items of interest include: There were 2 main groups: Main Group 1 was with the barrel band (5 subgroups), and Main Group 2 was w/o barrel band (6 subgroups). I was unable to use the sling for the 2nd Main Group because the sling was attached to the barrel band that was removed. 5-shots were taken for each sub-group; some shots were almost within the same hole and may be difficult to see. I wish I had sandbags or a real bench rest (I could feel my heartbeat shaking the rifle and had to keep adjusting my position:^). It was about 34 degrees F when target shooting started, and ended at about 28 degrees and a small breeze. If I had thought about it, I could have brought sandpaper and smoothed out the stock underneath the barrel for the 2nd Main Grouping w/o band. As it is, the stock is abutted next to the barrel, but not constrained by the barrel band. The first few Sub-Groups were a little hard to see, but I found a big felt-marker that really helped. Here is the Range: A couple pictures of the target (note the felt-tip marker really helped being able to see the target): Start of 1st Main Group w/ 5 sub-groups all using Barrel Band [NOTE: 1st sub-group was to site-in the rifle!!]: Start of 2nd Main Group w/ 6 sub-groups w/o Barrel band: Comments: The average group sizes are about 1.05 and 0.90 inches respectively (each sample Std Dev about 0.33 in). No significant statistical difference could be assumed, but you can draw your own conclusions by the groupings if you like :^)... Rifle: Local attractions:
Very good write up NVBear. Thanks for posting your results. Now the question.... did you leave the barrel band off or not? That looks COLD!
The barrel band will stay off - already got some replacement parts that will attach to the wood Even though there's not significant difference between "with" or "without" the band, I think there could have been if I'd been able to re-mount the sling and file out some of the wood away from the barrel. In the past, the sling has improved my accuracy considerably. That's the Klamath area of southern Oregon, and it gets gets fairly cold. It's usually tolerable above 25 deg, at least until the wind starts blowing :^)
thanks for the write up. I've been wanting to upgrade the stock on my 10/22 for some time now, maybe Santa can bring me a new one
