Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires How hard is it to do our own trigger job to a Ruger 10-22 ?

Just wondered about this. I'm no gunsmith but have good mechanical skills .
Has anyone done their own gun ?

Kind of a vague question. Your skills may differ greatly from many here or gunsmiths in particular. For me personally, trigger work is exceptionally easy. To the point where I think it's funnier than hell that someone spends their hard earned money on a timney or other such trigger. My best suggestion is to buy a volquartsen target hammer and bushing kit:

Volquartsen target hammer

HuntSleepRepeat,

I have done a lot of trigger work over the years, and did one 10/22 maybe 15 years ago. It turned out much better than the original pull, though not as good as I would prefer. But the way the trigger system works I wasn't about to try to make it much crisper or lighter. However, it definitely worked reliably, and the pull was good enough to put 5 shots in 1/2" at 50 yards with the right hollow-point ammo, which was plenty of accuracy for the primary use of the rifle, shooting ground squirrels out of hayfields and cow pastures.

I put a Volquartsen kit in mine with no problems except for a mushy 1.75lb pull. I reinstalled the original Ruger trigger spring and got a nice crisp 3lb. pull. A little heavier than I wanted, but I can live with crisp and 3lbs on a hunting rifle.

Ruger makes a drop-in replacement that gets good reviews on Midway and for much less than some of the others. No doubt the $200 ones are very good, but this one will help and doesn't require messing with springs and shims, etc. About $75. Midway is out now, but the Ruger store may have them.

Very strange. Sounds like you didn't do something right.

This is likely typical of many DIY trigger jobs.

I did just exactly that, about a month ago to my 10/22 squirrel rifle. It's the BX replacement trigger that Ruger makes for the 10/22. I got it from Midway, on sale, for $55 plus shipping. Watched a video on the change, and did the job in about 5 minutes. Took the trigger pull from 7 lbs. to about 2 3/4 lbs. So far I'm a VERY happy camper!


maddog

Nope. Followed the instructions exactly, but this was over 15 years ago. All that came with the kit was the hammer, hammer spring, and trigger return spring. No bushing or shims or pins. I figured it was tolerance stack. The original trigger was so bad that I was eager to accept any improvement. Like I said, I'm happy with 3lbs and crisp.

Thanks ! I didn't know they made this.
I will probably just order one of these VS trying it myself
I doubt I could do any better

First you require the necessary levels of confidence. This is attained by convincing yourself you ARE a gunsmith even if you are not a gunsmith.

Beer helps.

Make rough parts smooth. That's all the info you need.



Dave

PS- The BX is pretty nice. And cheap. And easy.

Another proven method that was more practical in the days of yore was to put 15,000 to 20,000 rounds through it. Shined everything up just right.

A more recent method was a surprise to me. I bought a 10/22 a couple of years ago after not buying any for over 7-10 years and was disappointed in seeing the polymer receiver. The ones (7-8) that I bought in the past all had the aluminium receivers either in the raw or painted black. I decided to break it down and clean everything up while I was was replacing the barrel and the stock before I shot it at all.

Upon putting it back together I lubed up the trigger components with CLP and off to the desert to sight in the new scope. I was completely amazed how that lubrication had turned about a 6-7 pound pull into a nice 2.5-3.5 pound pull which was like one of the older ones with thousands of rounds through it.

Sad part is I don't remember specifically where I lubed it the most !!! Today after 2-3 years the darn trigger is still functioning at the low level pull and worked like a dream on a recent rock chuck outing here in Idaho.

I ran into the about the same thing about the same time. It wasn't really "mushy" just not consistent with the springs that came with the hammer. I played with different combinations of springs and got it to a crisp and consistent 3 lb's or so.


Dave.

I got VQ hammers for both of mine many years ago. I also played with the spring tension until I got a 1 3/4 lb trigger. No mush in mine -- maybe a tiny bit of creep. I also tapped a trigger stop into the trigger guard which helped quite a bit.

ON RFC, there are 2 guys who do tons of 10-22 triggers.

I have a '67 factory checkered fingergroove..........prev owner bought it new, used it a lot. Trigger still sucked.
Volq hammer and Kidd buffer. Good enough now.
Pineys gonna hate it.

There is a thread on Rimfire Central that shows how to stone the factory hammer. It cut the pull weight from 6# to 3# on mine. I did it on a friend's rifle and it went from 6.5# to 3.5#. We were both happy. The method does not give a target pull like a Volquartson, but it is cheap and easy and plenty acceptable for a plinking/hunting rifle.

Found it.

http://www.rimfirecentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=122386&highlight=cletus+hungwell