Thread: 10/22 Guru's can you get by spending $500 max on improvements to get a reliable MOA

So Missus has surprised me by paying for some heads & skins l had at the Taxidermy for my Birthday,so l have a unexpected win in the gun slush fund account. I am at the stage where after culling the gun safe l have all my CF rifles set up how l want & the only thing l could really use is a 10/22 for spotlighting out of the cab as the flush Mag,is handy as l hate mags hanging up on the shooting bars.

I currently have a well used & accurate Anschutz 520 ,but it is getting long in the tooth & new mags cost their weight in gold ,so looking at taking some wear & tear off it as we normally go bunny busting once a week at least.This old girl shoots 1/2 inch at 50 yards & as we still enjoy eating Rabbits so head shoot mainly ,l would want the replacement 10/22 to do the same .

Looking at the prices some of the "kitted out" 10/22 is eye watering to me when you could have a nicely set up centrefire for the same ,so are there any options where spending $500 on a 10/22 rifle will get reliable 1 MOA accuracy? Not really concerned with looks only performance & have a mate with a little used 1988 build rifle l can get for next to nothing to base the build on ,but it shoots 1-1 1/2 inch at 50 yards at best .

So are there any workable options with that budget? Anyone still do the old weld the barrel to stop the droop trick,that does good work?

TIA

Easy to solve prob for $500.

Sell it on trademe and buy a Marlin 795. Range tested one of my two few weeks back and it was shooting consec groups averaging 0.58" at 75m. 75. Cost me about $575 all up with scope.. Proved a precision wee shooter on recent Tekapo bunny trip - hardly missed out to 100.

TRIGGER JOB 60-100
LOCTITE THE BARREL IN $20
many years ago i had gundoc work on my 10/22 i had it down to 17mm at 100m with tenex ammo. it was a heavy barrel job though but total tack driver
sorry @mudgripz but the marlin is a flimsy action

Originally Posted by gonetropo

TRIGGER JOB 60-100
LOCTITE THE BARREL IN $20
many years ago i had gundoc work on my 10/22 i had it down to 17mm at 100m with tenex ammo. it was a heavy barrel job though but total tack driver
sorry @mudgripz but the marlin is a flimsy action

Did the torque on the v block need checking? I'm getting rubbish groups with mine too. Completely standard at the moment. Was considering aftermarket barrel.

find an old one with a metal trigger group and get some trigger work done on it($100ish?)

the older alloy/steel triggers are easier. the new plastic/stainless units take a bit longer.

[QUOTE=Danger Mouse;1256797]Did the torque on the v block need checking? I'm getting rubbish groups with mine too. Completely standard at the moment. Was considering aftermarket barrel.[/QUOTE

just get both barrel and receiver a bit scored with sandpaper. use a good quality product like loctite . ad FFS make sure everything is in line before reassembly !!!!!

Originally Posted by mimms2

shitcan the barrel band and free float, bed action, nylon recoil buffer, hone/polish trigger internals (or swap for a kidd/timney) a vq hammer will improve it too. check/recrown.

still no guarantee. some shoot "goodish" some never will.

As much as Mimmsy hates the 10/22 its clear he knows what he's talking about... and obviously that comes with experience. I always knew he was a closet 10/22 collector!



You can do a lot with a 10/22 that will cost you nothing but a few hours of your time and the benefits are tangilble. A couple of hours on a rainy Sunday can reap huge benefits and there are threads on here where you can find a long list of ideas. In short the best thing you can do is sort out the trigger - and its not difficult to do yourself. The nylon buffer will cost you about $10 and you could change that out quicker than it will take you to read this post. Not sure it improves accuracy but it does make the rifle a little quieter to shoot. I also changed the rear profile on my Block so it takes less energy to re-cock the trigger and it makes the rifle quieter too.

Spend your time schooling yourself up instead of spending your hard earned money on aftermarket rubbish that comes with fancy packaging and lots of promises.

I seem to remember that the nylon blocks main jobs was to help out the scopes. The hard steel pin puts an impulse up into the scope. That I think came from Richard Wilhelm who used to be a scope guru.
I made a couple back in the day but it was a PITA to machine down on the lathe I had. Bit thin for the length.
Would've bought one in a heartbeat now for 10 bucks but it's still in there.
Mine did shoot well under an inch at 50 but last time I tried it it was closer to the inch or more.
I would be fair and say I was never that great at cleaning the barrel. Could have a carbonated up chamber or anything

Originally Posted by bunji

Looking at the prices some of the "kitted out" 10/22 is eye watering to me when you could have a nicely set up centrefire for the same ,so are there any options where spending $500 on a 10/22 rifle will get reliable 1 MOA accuracy? Not really concerned with looks only performance & have a mate with a little used 1988 build rifle l can get for next to nothing to base the build on ,but it shoots 1-1 1/2 inch at 50 yards at best .

So are there any workable options with that budget? Anyone still do the old weld the barrel to stop the droop trick,that does good work?

TIA

I am not sure why people make a thing about "tricked out" 10/22.

* is it the stock change? But you can get aftermarket stocks for CZ, T1X, Marlin and even norinco just the same.
* is it the barrel change? Again, any 22LR that offers the ability to change barrel has a variety of barrels availabe - C455/457, Sako Quad.


Back to your question. The short answer is this: it is somewhat hard to make a 10/22 shoot well without spending money. Every part of a 10/22 is mass produced with large tolerance. You could, by luck, have a rare example where everything happens to be great. But more likely than not you will have a average 10/22.

Because the nature of the way 10/22s are made, you could spend a lot of time trying to fix and get nowhere.

Your best bet is to buy a second hand target barrel and do you best stoning the trigger and hope for the best.

Alternatively, swap to a CZ452.

After doing all of the usual listed above, then look at your head spacing and adjust accordingly. There are threads around on how to do it.

Originally Posted by mimms2

Stock bolts are hardened, or at least case hardened. You need a fine hand at a belt grinder. File ain't gonna do it. And then you want to pin the FP (horribly sloppy OEM) and tune the extractor claw. And If you go too hard then you've fucked the bolt.
VQ do drop-in replacements that are worth not-fucking-around for.


Seriously OP, everyone who's recomended selling it and buying something inherently good is right-on.
If you want a learner, to teach yourself "tuning" have at it. If you want a decent shooter, go buy one.

I would go more for a surface plate with a sheet of wet&dry taped to the top of it and hand polish keeping your bolt dead square to the surface plate.
You cannot put back on what you take off, and as you say "If you go too hard then you've fucked the bolt."