Thread: Ruger 10/22 wont cycle

I snipped about 10mm off my recoil spring...cycles CCI subs like a dream now

If you're careful, try lapping the bolt to the raceways so its as smooth as it can get. Also "smoothing" or putting a gentle radius on the lower rear of the bolt to help it ride over the hammer better

Hi All
12 - 13 inches with supp. on . minus how long is your suppressor ?? hahaa makes a very short barrel !!
you must have a long stock to get it legal length .
i have polished the back of the bolt so that it ramps easier over the hammer . i tried a few other brands of ammo as with most barrels some just work a lot better moa wise than others .. i would go the softer charging spring [ ie cutting a coil off ] rather than modding the bolt to a lighter weight ......
this might cause it to cough cough multi fire . you could polish the chamber as this could be to tight for a semi ..
Good Luck with your improvements

Originally Posted by feratox

If you're careful, try lapping the bolt to the raceways so its as smooth as it can get. Also "smoothing" or putting a gentle radius on the lower rear of the bolt to help it ride over the hammer better

This may help - a considerable portion of the resistance to your initial bolt movement is due to resetting the hammer. Compare cycling the bolt by hand with the rifle cocked / uncocked.

Other thoughts.

Consider .22lr pistols with 4 - 6" barrels usually cycle subsonics just fine - its just a matter of balancing the mass of the reciprocating parts.

It is noticable that cold weather can affect cycling. had this happen at the range last month in July, and in previous years too - gun goes all intermittant using the usual 'quality' std velocity target stuff, switched to el cheapo HV bulk pack and she ran fine. Your problem may fix itself in a couple of months and reappear next May.

Originally Posted by AR7

Hi All
12 - 13 inches with supp. on . minus how long is your suppressor ?? hahaa makes a very short barrel !!
you must have a long stock to get it legal length .
i have polished the back of the bolt so that it ramps easier over the hammer . i tried a few other brands of ammo as with most barrels some just work a lot better moa wise than others .. i would go the softer charging spring [ ie cutting a coil off ] rather than modding the bolt to a lighter weight ......
this might cause it to cough cough multi fire . you could polish the chamber as this could be to tight for a semi ..
Good Luck with your improvements

Hi, no the barrel is 12-13" which puts it juts over legal, and then the suppressor goes on. sorry if that wasn't clear

I'd lighten the bolt. Chuck it in the mill and find a spot that's not consequential to mill out. You'd have to remove a lot for it to be dangerous.
The hammer spring and the recoil spring both do work to slow the bolt down, but you need both of them to have full power to chamber the next round and fire it.

Originally Posted by Skirch

I'd lighten the bolt. Chuck it in the mill and find a spot that's not consequential to mill out. You'd have to remove a lot for it to be dangerous.
The hammer spring and the recoil spring both do work to slow the bolt down, but you need both of them to have full power to chamber the next round and fire it.

I believe the 10/22 bolts are case hardened. Which means a) you don't want to remove metal from a bearing surface and b) if you "chuck it in a mill" without consideration of that you're going to break tooling. It's generally recommended to grind them.

You can also check your "headspace" in the bolt and make sure that's up to scratch for the rim-thickness of your ammo.

And grind-down the angle of your extractor claw also make sure the pocket for the claw is deep enough, and clean. You can chamfer the edges of it too.

The advice about a nylon bolt buffer is good.

You can also get away with clipping coils. This will require pulling the charging handle and peening the crimp out, cutting coils, and re-crimping.
How much to cut? Depends on age of spring and use. Trial and error, less is more. Real easy to take length off a spring, impossible to put it back on.

Originally Posted by AR7

rather than modding the bolt to a lighter weight ......
this might cause it to cough cough multi fire . s

The firing pin rides "up and over" in a 10/22 bolt, and does need to be struck by the hammer spur. There should be no means of it slam-firing unless you have exceptionally tight headspace or an exceptionally stuck firing-pin, in which case it would do it anyway.

Originally Posted by svt40

This may help - a considerable portion of the resistance to your initial bolt movement is due to resetting the hammer. Compare cycling the bolt by hand with the rifle cocked / uncocked.
.

That's a point.
You can also lighten the hammer spring in the trigger group (and polish the sliding surfaces while you're in there)

just use high velocity ammo would be the easiest and cheapest solution

2 turns off the return spring. Problem gone

Originally Posted by Calvnz1

just use high velocity ammo would be the easiest and cheapest solution

I've done a lot of rabbit shooting with both. Rabbits can't tell the difference, as far as I can tell. Being sneaky seems far more important.

I dont know about anyone else, but had nothing but trouble with winchester subs, the bolt on my rifle often won't even close with them, or won't feed a round in the chamber

So frustrating. But the primary issue is - carbon buildup in chamber/throat. Only if you’ve excluded that can you start looking at other variables. Next variable is magazine. Even original Ruger mags are not born equal! But next issue is ammo…too many variables…

Originally Posted by Old_School

I dont know about anyone else, but had nothing but trouble with winchester subs, the bolt on my rifle often won't even close with them, or won't feed a round in the chamber

Interesting. Tight chamber maybe??
You could mic the rim thickness and check against your bolt face, depends where they're getting stuck...