Thread: Ruger 10/22 - Tricks, tips and modifications

Yeah, my first modification was to replace the buffer too. That took some of the noise out of the action and for the price of the buffer, well worth it.

Then I found some info online about lightening up the trigger and since I'm a tight-ass and didn't want to spend a fortune on an aftermarket trigger assembly, I spent a winter evening reworking the trigger parts. It was easy to do and was the single best modification I've done to the rifle. It really improved accuracy.

I'd never had an issue with the guns cycling - even with subs. Another modification I found recommended rounding off the back of the Bolt Carrier. I played with this for a while until I understood the geometry then took to it with a belt sander. It didn't take much work to change the profile a little and now the cocking of the trigger group is much smoother. Everything was polished with 1500 wet and dry afterwards. Basically you spread the load of the cocking action over a larger area (and a longer period of time). This seems to reduce the load on the bolt carrier and makes the action smoother. Again this helped with accuracy and it also reduced the noise of the action. I expect it also helps with cycling when using reduced loads such as subs because I would have to conclude less energy is used to cock the trigger group.

Taking to the Bolt Release with a file like Ryan talks about was also worth the effort. No need spending money on an after-market one... 10 minutes on a small file is all you need. That's another worthwhile modification. So much better.

I'm still using the original standard barrels and each of my 10/22's has had a few thousand round through them, yet I was mucking about with a 100 m target the other day and without much effort surprised myself with the results. While sitting unsupported I put 10 rounds into less than 100mm using subsonic ammo. When I get a chance to repeat that I'll take a bipod and see what it will really do but I've recently been impressed with my new-found ability to drop rabbits out to 100m while using subsonic ammo.