am i going overboard?

wayupnorth

CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Rating - 100%
8   0   0
Location
Northern Alberta
so my youngest kid has a birthday coming up.
I had planned ahead and decided to buy him a Ruger 10/22 and I picked one up when they were on sale last summer for a really good price.

It's been like 9 months and his birthday is drawing near and I went out and took the 10/22 out of the box and I forgot just how cheap the base model 10/22 actually is.

i have..... more than a few 10/22's in my collection.
all of which I've heavily modified.
some of them have zero actual ruger parts on them.
and I LOVE those rifles.
but they are expensive!!!

so here I was, out in my shop looking at this base model 10/22 and feeling like I wasn't a good dad.
a good dad would give his son a nice rifle.... a rifle that his son can enjoy for years to come.
something he can show off to his friend when they are out plinking.

so I asked my wife if I could change up the rifle and build our son 'the perfect' 10/22 instead.
she said if I sold the one I bought last year I could roll that into buying our son a nice one.

so I listed the rifle for what I bought it for and it sold in 3 minutes.
I guess it was a good price!

then off to Dlask I went, ordered a receiver and a 12.5" barrel, and asked them to put them other for me.
while there I decided to pick up some extra stuff for the build as well.
Kidd bolt, kidd threaded cross pins, Dlask charging handle. Dlask extended mag release.
the list goes on.
well, the hit to the Credit Card was around $1,000 which the wife was not overly happy about but she understood.

i already had a Hogue stock here at home in my parts pile.
also had a full trigger pack out of a Ruger from one of my rifles of mine that got a Kidd or Timney.

so I put the rifle together and oooooh my does it feel NICE!
I'm not going to lie, its pretty near the perfect 10/22.
perfect length, solid and cycles smooth as 2 bricks of butter sliding together.

now I'm thinking to myself - I made this rifle that will last him a lifetime maybe I should add a little 'flair' to it as well?
so I called Black Box out of Calgary and asked them about Ceracoating a couple of parts his favourite colour - Orange.
they said it would be no problem but ill have to wait until after his birthday to do it as they would not make it back in time.
i think that will take this rifle to the next level.
I'm thinking of the trigger boot, compensator, extended mag release and the pic rail and charging handle.
just give it a little accent of orange to make it pop some.

my wife asked me if I thought I went a little overboard on this rifle.
but I don't think I did.
he will own this rifle for probably the next 70-80 years and every time he shoots it he will think of me.
every time someone says "damn that's a nice-looking rifle!" he will think of me and how I put this all together for him.
I think it's worth it.
i think it will pair up nicely with the bolt action 22 he has that he got last year from me and the wife.
a nice start to his collection.

here is a quick pic of the rifle initially when I put it together, not all the parts are on it and the accent parts will be getting sent down to Calgary next week after he gets it for his birthday to get that colour added to them, so for now its a pure black rifle.

I also have a wood stock from a Ruger that I'm thinking about stripping, burning, then trying to dye orange to see what that would look like.

here is the beast!

dja7Btm.jpg
 
Not to rain on your parade, but it may have been a better father son experience to give him the stock model and upgrade it together as an ongoing project. Teach the value of money, pass on some firearm experience, and upgrade it to his preference.

But that's just me. Nice rifle, but it seems like YOU had all the fun building it.
 
Only you can guess what your son would like. My preference would be to start with the stock model and mod it to his preferences together. You may be giving him the very best 10-22 out there but you miss out on the back and forth father/son interactions talking about mods, trying different things and finding out what he likes. Giving him what you like and enjoy is great, giving him what he likes could be better, even if it means he eventually settles on the identical rifle it is still his choice and something he will see as his own.
 
I went the other way. I got my kid a bone stock ok rifle. My logic. The crapier the rifle the harder she tries, the harder she tries the better she gets, the better she gets the more she appreciates and shines when I get her a better rifle.
At that point she will probably have a shopping list of what she wants in a rifle rather that me giving her what I think she would appreciate.

That's just my way of thinking since I have a good idea of how my kid is wired.

I'm sure your son is going to love his present and all the effort you put in it. Hope he let's you shoot it occasionally..lol
 
If assembling nice guns from nice parts makes them extra special to YOU, why WOULDN'T that feel like the best possible option for your son? You're giving him "the best" in your eyes, and pushing the boundaries $-wise to make it so. Great dad!

Now as for the orange=hard pass in my opinion, I could see that having appeal only when he's very young. If it is a "lifetime" gun, all-black might be more in line with his teenage sensibilities, let alone when he's an adult. Just my take!
 
My name is wayuonorth.
I am a gun nut, I have a problem..

wayup, do what You feel is right and best ;)

X2 big time! No one knows your child better than you! Love yah for building a gun he will never forget. Life long memories can be made teaching him to shoot it properly. KUDOS PAL.
 
Not to rain on your parade, but it may have been a better father son experience to give him the stock model and upgrade it together as an ongoing project. Teach the value of money, pass on some firearm experience, and upgrade it to his preference.

But that's just me. Nice rifle, but it seems like YOU had all the fun building it.

I was thinking the same.
Appears you built the rifle to what you like. However, if I were your son I probably won't appreciate it but happy none the less.....
 
The basic 10-22, then add goodies as birthdays and xmases commence.
Lern'im the way hands awn.

Oh well, gitterdun once.

would have been my plan too. help him slowly upgrade it.

as for the orange stuff, i think that wont age well. may as well just rattle can those part so one day it is easier to put back.
 
i understand what a lot of you are saying.
i was 100% thinking the same thing, hence why I picked up the bone stock one.

and yes, I love tinkering with 10/22's so I'm not gonna try to lie and say I didn't enjoy building this for him.
i would have been hard-pressed to build a 10th or 12th 10/22 for myself or however many I have now.... they just keep multiplying in that safe I swear!

a lot of my fondest memories are using my stock 10/22 shooting gophers on the family farm growing up, so ya that was on my mind.

and the end of it I thought about when we went shooting gophers last summer with my dad (his grandpa) and both grandpa and me had our custom Dlask/Kidd build guns and I gave my son a random stock one I had laying around.
i could tell he was a little sad that the old bulls had the nice toys.

so I think that is why I went crazy and built him this rifle.
we can both still try to get that wood stock refinished together!

knowing my luck he will just open the box and be like "oh, neat, do I get a xbox game too?"
kids these days!
 
get him a bolt gun ...with open sights ..like a cooey or the like ....wood stock...and some paper targets.. shooting mat. .. then teach him that learning how to shoot well ..from any position is the basic skill not every one has....do not showwwww him how to be a bang slammer.......got to many of those now
 
Back
Top Bottom