No? Probably not. But please dissuade me.
Bought the wife one a few years ago when they first came out. Thing was absolute crap. Fte’s like no tomorrow, gritty trigger, unreliable, just hates the thing. But it was her’s, and i wasnt going to waste $300, so i broke it down. To blame was a lot factory goop guming up the works. A good cleaning of guide rods and bolt, WD the trigger mech and put it all together. Using stock mags and finding the right ammo (usually the cheapest stuff going), thing has run like a top ever since..
However its always been on my build list to buy a 10/22, because well, everyone does it. But i want a compact heavy barrel little tack driver that i can chase gophers with, tag along on quad rides and hunt empty aluminum cans at will. It needs to function reliably, decent trigger, and still shoot, but im not going to dump a couple thousand dollars into it. But shopping for stuff, wow. I know the price of stuff has gone up, but for a 22? Its hard to find a HB 10/22 for less than $700 in any kind of shape, and i havent even put a trigger or magpul peice on it yet..
So while browsing EE, i saw a few 597’s, and cheap at that. Hoping on the google machine, its obviously nowhere near the popularity of a ruger, but some decent upgrades exist for it. A few options for triggers, a few choices of barrel lengths and profiles, match grade stuff for under $300, and most importantly, cheap and easy fixes for issues plaguing them (mainly extractor issues).
So i started math, and while im no economic professor, i can obtain and build a 597 to what i want, for about than the cost of your average 10/22 in its basic form...
So, found a good used 597 on EE. Ordered a 16.5 HB inch barrel for it ($100 shipped), will get the trigger, extractor and hammer upgrade, Egw top rail and drill in some sling swivels, maybe even an unfinished boyd’s varmint, for right around $600 i’ll have a pretty decent little setup that can freely drop mags and drill holes in pop cans. Oh, i can share mag’s with da wife.
Am i wrong for thinking this will be a great, inexpensive little project that will pay dividends in fun?
Bought the wife one a few years ago when they first came out. Thing was absolute crap. Fte’s like no tomorrow, gritty trigger, unreliable, just hates the thing. But it was her’s, and i wasnt going to waste $300, so i broke it down. To blame was a lot factory goop guming up the works. A good cleaning of guide rods and bolt, WD the trigger mech and put it all together. Using stock mags and finding the right ammo (usually the cheapest stuff going), thing has run like a top ever since..
However its always been on my build list to buy a 10/22, because well, everyone does it. But i want a compact heavy barrel little tack driver that i can chase gophers with, tag along on quad rides and hunt empty aluminum cans at will. It needs to function reliably, decent trigger, and still shoot, but im not going to dump a couple thousand dollars into it. But shopping for stuff, wow. I know the price of stuff has gone up, but for a 22? Its hard to find a HB 10/22 for less than $700 in any kind of shape, and i havent even put a trigger or magpul peice on it yet..
So while browsing EE, i saw a few 597’s, and cheap at that. Hoping on the google machine, its obviously nowhere near the popularity of a ruger, but some decent upgrades exist for it. A few options for triggers, a few choices of barrel lengths and profiles, match grade stuff for under $300, and most importantly, cheap and easy fixes for issues plaguing them (mainly extractor issues).
So i started math, and while im no economic professor, i can obtain and build a 597 to what i want, for about than the cost of your average 10/22 in its basic form...
So, found a good used 597 on EE. Ordered a 16.5 HB inch barrel for it ($100 shipped), will get the trigger, extractor and hammer upgrade, Egw top rail and drill in some sling swivels, maybe even an unfinished boyd’s varmint, for right around $600 i’ll have a pretty decent little setup that can freely drop mags and drill holes in pop cans. Oh, i can share mag’s with da wife.
Am i wrong for thinking this will be a great, inexpensive little project that will pay dividends in fun?
The 597 was my first rimfire, had it, oh, 18 years now? I never had extraction issues with it, some trigger upgrades would be nice but I've made do without 'em. No rifle, even bolt actions, runs flawlessly 100% of the time. Mine has been very reliable, only the odd malfunction per hundreds of rounds shot. 10/22's have never appealed to me, so I give your plan a big thumbs up! I used mine at a Mapleseed last October and qualified for the patch on all 3 targets shot. A few of those 10/22 guys didn't get a patch 
