10/22 Aftermarket Bolt?

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panaan25

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Howdy all.

Putting together a gucci 10/22 build. It's a general purpose fun gun but I suppose the closest speciality it'd have would be for race gunning like steal challenge. It'll have a 3 MOA red dot and a bull barrel with an SBI chassis. Furthest I expect to shoot with any precision is 100 meters.

Wanted to get folks' opinions on aftermarket bolts. Yah or nay? Pros? Cons? Do they offer any advantage in terms of reliability or accuracy?

Never had a problem with reliability with my stock 10/22 and accuracy-wise 1 MOA would be nice but 2MOA will do for me. I'm pretty sure there's no reason to get the aftermarket bolt for this build but just wanted to see if there was anything I'm missing.

Thanks!
 
Kidd I saw a huge improvement in accuracy adding a Kidd bolt to my build.
 
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I was having some issues with my Ruger 10/22 not feeding very well after I installed a new barrel. The McGowan barrel gave the gun accuracy but at the price of reliability, as I had not yet learned that better ammunition is a must with tight rimfire chambers. The better shooting rimfire ammunition was lower velocity and the rifle struggled with reloading itself.

I pondered an aftermarket bolt but had access to a factory blueprinted bolt. That part came with a squared up bolt face, pinned firing pin - and perhaps most importantly, the back of the bolt had a big radius. The details are here: https://www.rimfirecentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=251031 .

I have not had an issue with my 10/22 as I get ready for MapleSeed and the last few summers steel challenge shooting.

The radius modification is something that you can do to your bolt to see if it helps your rifle.
 
For those who reported better accuracy with their Kidd Bolts, what kind of increase are we talking about? Like from 2MOA accuracy to 1MOA? Was this with a scope while bench rested? Would i notice a difference with a non-magnified red dot?
 
I use a KIDD in my Dlask TUF 22. It mostly increased reliability for me. As for accuracy increase, I would say if you have a rifle with pretty bad head spacing it might make it more consistent with ammo since the head spacing is much better controlled.

EDIT: Yes a better bolt is worthwhile for the increase in reliability. Not sure it's the greatest place to try and pick up accuracy, but it could help in certain aspects I think.
 
What kind of reliability issues were you having? With my stock 10/22 I don't have any issues as long as I use good ammo. Even with bad ammo I have no real complaints.

buji88 said:
I use a KIDD in my Dlask TUF 22. It mostly increased reliability for me. As for accuracy increase, I would say if you have a rifle with pretty bad head spacing it might make it more consistent with ammo since the head spacing is much better controlled.

EDIT: Yes a better bolt is worthwhile for the increase in reliability. Not sure it's the greatest place to try and pick up accuracy, but it could help in certain aspects I think.
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You can make a factory bolt better by having the face squared and and whole thing gone over. Clean up any burs, machining defects and flaws, etc. With an after market bolt, such as a KIDD, Volquartsen or a Dlask, it's machined and made to much higher tolerances and should help with accuracy, reliability, over all smoothness, etc.
 
gobigorgohome said:
You can make a factory bolt better by having the face squared and and whole thing gone over. Clean up any burs, machining defects and flaws, etc. With an after market bolt, such as a KIDD, Volquartsen or a Dlask, it's machined and made to much higher tolerances and should help with accuracy, reliability, over all smoothness, etc.
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Correct but by the time you pay a qualified person to do all of your modifications a new bolt would be as cheap or cheaper. The Kidd bolt is a giant leap forward in quality. They are made with EDM wire cut parts and far superior materials. The firing pin is also cross pinned thru the bolt to prevent it from moving up or down during the strike. Consistent cartridge strike from the firing pin is paramount in rimfire accuracy. Wanna really grab the bull by the horns go get a Volquartsen bolt. Shoot 2 thousand rounds and wipe it off with a shop towel. It will look like the day you bought it. The firing pin is titanium and is contained within the bolt and travels through a hole so perfect pin strikes plus the bolt handle is threaded so no bridged block stradling over the bolt and rubbing the top of the receiver. They are by far the best but crazy exspensive.
 
Since you want a GUCCI build, go for it.

will it really change much on target, I have not seen it.

Can it cause issues if oversized meets undersized... sure.

But you will be happier knowing you have a nice shiny in the receiver

Jerry
 
I've reached my budget for now ;) so I'll just use the factory bolt with upgraded Volquartsen firing pin and extractor. Maybe in the future I'll get a Gucci bolt. Saving up for a Kidd trigger now.

Mystic Precision said:
Since you want a GUCCI build, go for it.

will it really change much on target, I have not seen it.

Can it cause issues if oversized meets undersized... sure.

But you will be happier knowing you have a nice shiny in the receiver

Jerry
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panaan25 said:
What kind of reliability issues were you having? With my stock 10/22, I don't have any issues as long as I use good ammo. Even with bad ammo I have no real complaints.
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I was having light strikes every once and a while, but when I measured my bolt face depth, I was getting like .051," and apparently the spec is .042" so it helped a ton. But yea, good ammo usually can help with that. My other thing for this is I can cycle SK rifle match like nobody's business.
 
panaan25 said:
I've reached my budget for now ;) so I'll just use the factory bolt with upgraded Volquartsen firing pin and extractor. Maybe in the future I'll get a Gucci bolt. Saving up for a Kidd trigger now.
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I just wore out my factory firing pin after shooting this rifle for 20yrs or so.... way too many rds to even dream of counting. Kidd firing pin and it is working well.

Extractor was changed a long while back and seems to be a real weak point in factory rifles of old. The new carbines we all got when they were on sale Dec 2020 seem to run fine with factory extractor... time will tell.

A clean breaking trigger is a far better investment in the overall performance of your rifle... until you are thinking better barrels

Enjoy

Jerry
 
I hear ya about the barrel. I've got a 12.5" Grey Birch I'll attach to a factory receiver and put in a SBI Spectre Chassis. I'm pretty stoked for all the parts to arrive.

Mystic Precision said:
I just wore out my factory firing pin after shooting this rifle for 20yrs or so.... way too many rds to even dream of counting. Kidd firing pin and it is working well.

Extractor was changed a long while back and seems to be a real weak point in factory rifles of old. The new carbines we all got when they were on sale Dec 2020 seem to run fine with factory extractor... time will tell.

A clean breaking trigger is a far better investment in the overall performance of your rifle... until you are thinking better barrels

Enjoy

Jerry
Click to expand...
 
Mystic Precision said:
A clean breaking trigger is a far better investment in the overall performance of your rifle... until you are thinking better barrels
Click to expand...

So a gucci trigger and barrel on a rifle that's crap everywhere else? I suppose it needs to be ok enough to cycle, though. Or maybe I can go full-on flamboyant with the rest. Hmmm.
 
If you replace the trigger and barrel, only the bolt is left. Most will change out the extractor... factory firing pin works until you wear it out.

As long as the factory bolt moves back and forth smoothly, gun goes bang and an empty flies out, what more can a bolt do? And if all this happens, then the receiver is doing all that it is designed to do. Exterior appearance doesn't confirm internal function.

If the goal is to improve the accuracy of a 10/22 as much as possible, there are definitely areas to spend your money on

Jerry
 
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