Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires 10/22 to build or to buy?

Great thread. Building a 10/22 as we speak. Just placed my order for all the kidd internals. Looking for a barrel. Havent quite decided which to go with this time. Such fun guns to tinker with

They are like lego's for big kids. Good luck with your build. Maybe you can report back, when you get it done. Thanks!!

Will do!

I have built a couple of 10/22 rifles over the last 40 years and now when I want one I get a Kidd super grade.They will spoil you.

I'll bet they will. I love my Kidd barreled 10/22. Actually like the new stainless 10/22 clone I showed in the OP of this thread too. That rifle was just about perfect, as is. The green mountain barrel is not shooting as well as the Kidd barreled 10/22, but it's respectable. My girlfriend loves shooting it, so that's a plus. Here are some targets from yesterday. I wasn't at the range for very long. Just long enough to check the trigger work:






Alright, the rifle looks like it's shooting almost as well as the Kidd barreled rifle now. With the addition of the polymer buffer, new Volquartsen trigger work, and this ammo... Dang..


So, now the trigger feels just like the one in the Kidd barreled rifle. A great $29 upgrade IMHO.. Fine tuned, it's right at a 2 pound pull. Since this is basically a BX trigger, or polymer housing factory Ruger trigger, it did take some work getting this Volquartsen trigger to work. As I stated in an earlier post (warning and full disclosure).. I had to use a Volquartsen target hammer I had laying around, and drill the new Volquartsen trigger for the proper alignment for the factory BX disconnector to work with the factory sear in the Volquartsen trigger. It's working great though, with a little work and knowhow.

I should have never read this thread…

I probably shouldn't have started it either. One of the reasons I did, was because I've been seeing so many used Ruger 10/22's lately. Some very good prices too. Some down right great deals. Before finding this rifle, I saw a like new older target model for $275 locally. Then there was a thread on 10/22's, maybe even a couple threads, and some guys were saying you had to spend $2,000.00+ on one to get a good one. I kind of called bs on that, then that day, I found this damn stainless receiver 10/22 clone that had to go home with me. Before I bought it, I had to research it because I had never seen one. It was a cool feature though, to have a stainless 10/22. Partly because I've seen the aluminum ones stripped out, on the scope mounting holes. Always wondered why Ruger didn't make a 10/22 from steel, or stainless, but I get why they make them out of Aluminum. To fix some of that issue, Ruger now makes the integral rail on top, which is an excellent upgrade. The competition models have that feature anyway, I don't know about the standard 10/22's made these days.. As far as I'm concerned, Ruger should add that feature to all of their 10/22's.

Part of the beauty in the 10/22 is you can do a lot of the work yourself. As I have shown, with some of the modifications and simple bedding I do, just as an example. However, I did not show the trigger work, because some of that was done to make it work. It did not affect the safety of the system, but there may be a reason the standard Volquartsen trigger is not compatible with the poly bx trigger housing. I emailed Volquartsen the other day, and found out they do make a kit that includes the disconnector, trigger, hammer and springs, that you can install into the BX trigger/polymer housing. That kit is about $100.00, but I had some Volquartsen parts (hammer and springs), plus I had already bought the trigger to install, a couple weeks ago, and I knew I could make it work.

Hopefuly this thread has been interesting to you guys. It's kind of a tribute to the 10/22, as it's a pretty good rifle. I know it's extremely popular, as just about everyone I know owns one. Most of my club members in Washington own them, and they always use them in our speed matches, and head to head challenges. I've personally used them since I was about 16 years old, and have come to appreciate them for what they are. The 2 I own, hold their own against some of my target rifles, so I know they can be excellent shooters.

I think this is a excellent thread. It must be nice to have the patience and mindset to be able to tinker around with stuff.

I bought one back in the early 90s…and went down the rabbit hole… I’m about to go back down that hole… 😎

Have fun, but don't get yourself lost.

Scope should be here next week. Once the frigid cold breaks, im going to spend some time with it to see what it will do. Ill report back

Hey gunchamp, I didn't see this until today. Looking great!!! I like that Volquartsen barrel. I believe the beautiful and talented Kirsten Joy Weiss has one of those. They are supposed to shoot great. Thanks for posting! I look forward to seeing how your build shoots. It probably won't disappoint. What kind of scope, are you going to put on it? So you are running Kidd trigger parts, but a Volquartsen barrel??? Aluminum or plastic trigger housing? I'm about ready to swap out my plastic housing trigger on my Elite 22S. I have always despised the dang plastic housed triggers. They seem to work well, just prefer the old style aluminum better!!! Tell us more about your build, if you don't mind. I like the stock choice.

As for my newest 10/22, the clone anyway, built by Tactical Innovations, I wanted to try a nice stainless Volquartsen brake on it. Mainly for one reason: The barrel looks too damn short!!! I like my 20" Kidd barrel rifle. So, anyway I installed the Volquartsen brake on my Elite 22S and went to the range a few days ago. Shot 5 10 shot groups, with 3 different types of ammo.

The first shot was low and about 1 1/4" to the right. I'm talking about 2" low!! The rifle was damn quiet though. This is the forward blow comp that Volquartsen sells. Nice looking little brake:


And it added 2" to the barrel length, which was perfect, and it looked good too, but the accuracy was horrible with 3 different types of ammo. There were weird first shot fliers that the rifle had never done before, not even with really cheap ammo. Sorry, no pics of those groups, as I was so disgusted I just crumbled them up and tossed them in the dumpster at the range before heading home to pull the pos comp off. Groups ranged from 1" to 1 3/4" at 50 yards. Totally unlike this new to me rifle.

So, yesterday, I had the rifle at the range even though the weather was crappy. It was spitting small pieces of ice, and they were melting as they hit the bench top, and the rifle and my sweatshirt. I shot through it though:


Here are the groups it shot.

First 10 shot group:

Back to normal, but you can see how much I had adjusted it when the comp was on there^^^

Second 10 shot group:


Third:


Fourth:


After I shot this group, I asked myself how many groups do you need to shoot, to prove the rifle is back to shooting like itself, or to prove a rifle out?

Last and fifth group of the day:


I'd say the rifle is back to its old self.