Thread: 10-22 carbon fibre barrel options?

I have a stock standard Ruger 10/22 which I put into a Magpul X-22 stock but I'm looking at upgrading the barrel.

I'm not wanting to make the rifle heavy so I'm thinking of a carbon fibre barrel.

I was in Gun City today where they were showing me their barrel they push which is a Ranger made Carbon Fibre. I know their Ranger line of firearms so i'm skeptical of their barrel

For those of you who have gone down the path of a carbon fibre barrel, what have been your pros, cons, what barrel's would you recommend?

Nothing made for or by Ranger for starters, volquartsen (spelling might be off) make bloody good stuff. Dunno if they do a carbon fiber barrel or if you could even import one right now.

what the weight difference between carbon fibre and a steel pencil barrel cut short fluted and threaded?

unless you are gonna go total rambo with the 10/22 the best thing you can do is have a decent barrel solidly locked into the receiver, if you want something more and dont want the weight go to a tensioned barrel

I had a Volquartsen THM Tension barrel on my 10/22, not carbon but alloy outer and still very light, if they are still available, I’d recommend.

My original 10/22 barrel was done by Bunny Buster in Nelson. Turned down skinny and had carbon tube tension sleeve fitted with an internal monocoque suppressor, works great and is very accurate.

Originally Posted by Mathias

My original 10/22 barrel was done by Bunny Buster in Nelson. Turned down skinny and had carbon tube tension sleeve fitted with an internal monocoque suppressor, works great and is very accurate.

Was that the one Guncity copied ?

Originally Posted by Kiwi Greg

Was that the one Guncity copied ?

Yeah I believe so, as I later saw one sectioned up on display in their shop. I had mine done years ago, before Christian shut up shop.

I had one of the guncity carbon tension barrels on my 10/22. Absolute rubbish. Had to be sent back as the machining was poor, and rounds would not eject. When they fixed it, and sent it back, it shot worse than the sporter barrel with 25,000 rounds through it, that it was replacing. The suppressor that forms part of the barrel is also very average.

Look for another supplier, as I'm pretty sure the Ranger barrel will leave you disappointed.

I was left so frustrated that I sold the off the 10/22 and got a CZ.

Cheers, the Ranger barrels are the GC ones as mentioned above.

I’ll look around to see what else is on offer

I have a ranger carbon barrel . Never had a issue shoots fantastically . Cci subs into one ragged hole.

I have the factory alloy sleeved/tensioned barrel.

First of all, what you are looking for really is a light weight barrel, right? there is no need to be limited to carbon wrapped barrel. Graphite wrap barrels and aluminium wrapped barrels are just as light.

Secondly, You can find accurate examples with every barrel maker. But the chance of you getting a bad one increases when you go with likes of Ranger. I guess GC either uses ruger factory barrel or their own sourced barrels. Either way it is not a great source.

Thirdly, as far as brands offer ultra light weight barrels go, I would suggest: KIDD ultra light (Alu wrap), Whistlepig (Alu wrap), Magnum Research (Graphite wrap). I have shot all three. MR looks the best and is very accurate. KIDD uses Lother barrel which has great reputation for accuracy. WP is cheaper and quite easy to install. I have a WP, it is brilliantly light and very very accurate. I find it to be as accurate as my KIDD bull barrels. With so many good options I dont know why you would bother with Ranger.

Ultimitus, thanks for the advice. I've never been a fan of GC or their own made products as most of their stuff is copies of good products but they've gone cheap on and i consider what they've done is theft.

When I went in there the other day all they had was a Ranger barrel so it gave me an idea on what to look for and to get an idea of for weight savings.

Where do I get a barrel of a KIDD ultra light (Alu wrap), Whistlepig (Alu wrap) or a Magnum Research (Graphite wrap) from?

Do I import them into the country myself or is there someone here in NZ?

for KIDD, contact Darin who runs this site: https://www.usaguns.nz/index.php?rt=...ory&path=71_76 it looks like that he does not have an ultra light in stock right now, but he should be able to get one.

For MR, barrels are hard to come by. Serious Shooter (long time ago) and Gun City (up until recently) had the full gun for around 1300-1500. second hand full gun also comes up every now and then on trademe.

For WP, they used to export to NZ, they have stopped the exports a couple of years ago, but with current ITAR change I think they will be able to export again. they do offer a USA->Canada->NZ export route which you can ask. I did not enquire because I thought it would have been expensive given the involvement of a middleman. I bought mine when they still did the export.