just got a 10/22, what next?

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Alan

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just picked up my first 10/22, and I already get why people love these things. shoots great right out of the box, but what really sold me is how customizable it is.

I'm trying not to go overboard right away, but I'd like to slowly make it my own. curious what upgrades or small mods you've done that made the biggest difference — or just made it more fun to shoot.

what's worth doing first?
 
Congrats on picking a great rifle. It is a starting point for unlimited modifications and improvements.
I have four that I have modified for specific purposes. The common items on them are: Improved trigger, either improvement kit or replacement such as the Ruger BX or a Kidd. Extended magazine release and bolt release.
 
The two posts above are right on. Exactly the upgrades I did to my 10/22. If you have to choose one to start, go with the trigger kit replacement. Plenty of videos to show you how easy it is to replace.
 
Any updates on your 10/22 experience? I just ordered a set of aperture sights and sight tool from these folks a few minutes ago. I asked a question at lunch expecting it to be seen maybe tomorrow and answered this week. Nope, I got a very complete and detailed and helpful reply about an hour ago. So I gave them my business now.
https://www.tech-sights.com
 
Extended magazine release and bolt release, then shoot the snot out of it.
After a 1000 rounds or so decide what you want to do with the gun and go from there.
I put a target bull barrel on mine and sold the factory barrel. When I got it dialed in, it wasn't as much fun anymore. 😥
Every time PSA runs a sale on them, I think about getting another, and I may yet.
Long story short, don't customize it too much because that may take part of it's charm away.
 
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I have owned many 10/22s and worked on literally dozens of them for friends and students. An extended mag release is useful for the range but you better carry a spare mag when hunting. The spare mag is not for extra firepower but to replace a missing mag that dropped out. A one handed carry puts your fingers on the mag release button. Typical extended mag releases make it feel like your carrying the rifle by the mag release. The 10/22 is somewhat fat at that balance point where we tend to carry a rifle so there is another complaint to complicate hunting. I greatly prefer the slender receiver of a tube mag 22 for rabbit hunting.
An aftermarket extractor is the first mod if your 10/22 does not run reliably. I like Volquartson. Their parts have performed well for me. Most 10/22's will run fine out of the box with no extra fooling around.
The Ruger factory iron sights are very low class and seem to encourage a lack of sight alignment. Techsights are a great low cost peep-sight replacement.

By far the most common accuracy problem has been loose scope mounts. I use Snap-On brand torque meter screw drivers. It is that important. Most of the cheap "gunsmith" torque wrenches are junk. The difference between too loose to hold and stripping out threads too tight is very small. I use Locktite but it does not make much difference without the correct torque.

I have found several bent factory barrels. They are surprisingly easy to bend back more-or-less straight enough. Not the bull barrels of course. If your sights are suddenly away off but still making good groups the first thing I look for is a bent barrel.
 
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IMHO, best thing you can do next, is to find a local club that hosts monthly matches, attend a few, participate, maybe make a few shooting buddies with similar interests, you will learn from each other, push each other, get a chance to check out others equipment before having to buy, discuss what works and more importantly what doesn't, before long you will have progressed much faster than you ever could on your own.
 
JDBraddy said:
IMHO, best thing you can do next, is to find a local club that hosts monthly matches, attend a few, participate, maybe make a few shooting buddies with similar interests, you will learn from each other, push each other, get a chance to check out others equipment before having to buy, discuss what works and more importantly what doesn't, before long you will have progressed much faster than you ever could on your own.
Click to expand...
Exactly, back in 2017 there were about10 of us that started shooting .22s in Navasota at CCC shooting complex, the 1st years was tough as nobody else saw the interest but we hung in there and then when the Vudoo came on the scene things changed, fast forward Rimfire PRS is 4 times bigger than Centerfire is with NRL membership being double of PRS, those local monthly matches are great family fun and the world agrees.
 
The posts have brought up some things for further consideration.
Loose scope mounts are a common issue with 10-22's. I solved that on one of mine by replacing the receiver with one from Brownells that has a built in Pic rail. On another that I use for ABRA benchrest, no receiver change allowed, I bedded the rail. Easy to do, put some Acraglas gel or JB Weld under the mount when installing. Use release agent on the top of the receiver if you want the option of removing it later.
A handy modification is a cleaning rod access hole in the back of the receiver. Makes cleaning the barrel much easier. Buy an assembly tool from Gunsmither to make replacing the bolt easier.
On the subject of buffers, I run the factory steel buffer. The rifle is designed to use it rather than a soft buffer. The notch in the back of the bolt is offset from the buffer so the bolt is lifted as it hits the buffer. This slows the bolt enough to let the rotary magazine get the next round in place. A soft buffer might not do this properly.
Sorry for all the unsolicited advice, I have gunsmithed for 50 years and owned a 10-22 for as long.
 
Kp321 said:
The posts have brought up some things for further consideration.
Loose scope mounts are a common issue with 10-22's. I solved that on one of mine by replacing the receiver with one from Brownells that has a built in Pic rail. On another that I use for ABRA benchrest, no receiver change allowed, I bedded the rail. Easy to do, put some Acraglas gel or JB Weld under the mount when installing. Use release agent on the top of the receiver if you want the option of removing it later.
A handy modification is a cleaning rod access hole in the back of the receiver. Makes cleaning the barrel much easier. Buy an assembly tool from Gunsmither to make replacing the bolt easier.
On the subject of buffers, I run the factory steel buffer. The rifle is designed to use it rather than a soft buffer. The notch in the back of the bolt is offset from the buffer so the bolt is lifted as it hits the buffer. This slows the bolt enough to let the rotary magazine get the next round in place. A soft buffer might not do this properly.
Sorry for all the unsolicited advice, I have gunsmithed for 50 years and owned a 10-22 for as long.
Click to expand...
Can't see any reason to apologize for an excellent and informative post.
 

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