I’ve had my Ruger 1022 carbine for about 40 years now and it’s one of those firearms I’ll never sell. I’ve used it mostly for plinking but for the last couple of years it has been my go-to rifle for ORPS matches (Factory class). Apart from some upgrades, it’s still basically a factory stock rifle. I’ve put a picatinny rail on top to mount a scope and also a short picatinny rail on the bottom of the forend to mount a QD bipod mount. The rifle still has the factory trigger but I did polish the sear to improve it a little. I modified the bolt release so I can release the bolt by just pulling the bolt back. I replaced the factory mag release with an extended mag release for easier mag changes. I’ve found that putting a shim under the barrel at the forend improved accuracy somewhat as well as tensioning the action screw to 10in/lb. The action screw tensioning was a result of an experiment I did after seeing a YouTube video. This was the result:
I’ve shot many types of .22 brands through this rifle. For some reason it really liked the old Winchester T-22 ammo. This is no longer available. Currently, I use CCI Blazer or CCI Standard for practicing and Eley Club for matches. As you can see, the CCI Standard is pretty good but does often have one or two flyers in the group. The Eley Club ammo does not exhibit this. All groups are 5-shot groups fired from the bipod and rear rest at 50y.
ORPS matches are held at 25y to 100y and this is probably as far as I will shoot this rifle. Being a semi-auto rifle has its advantage for these matches for quick follow up shots. Also, having a flush magazine works great when having to move the rifle to different shooting positions quickly. There’s no protruding stick mag to get snagged on your barricade. I’ve put a Vortex Diamondback scope on this rifle. This scope has a zoom from 4-16X and parallax can be adjusted down to 20y. Having a QD bipod on the front also works great when having to change shooting positions on different types of barricades. Sometimes a bag is best and other times the bipod is best. Anyway, I hope this will help some of you that are thinking of getting into ORPS shooting. One caveat though is that I think I lucked out with an exceptionally accurate Ruger 1022 Carbine. If I had to buy one now, I would look into some of the custom 1022 clones offered by DLASK rather than a stock Ruger.
I’ve shot many types of .22 brands through this rifle. For some reason it really liked the old Winchester T-22 ammo. This is no longer available. Currently, I use CCI Blazer or CCI Standard for practicing and Eley Club for matches. As you can see, the CCI Standard is pretty good but does often have one or two flyers in the group. The Eley Club ammo does not exhibit this. All groups are 5-shot groups fired from the bipod and rear rest at 50y.
ORPS matches are held at 25y to 100y and this is probably as far as I will shoot this rifle. Being a semi-auto rifle has its advantage for these matches for quick follow up shots. Also, having a flush magazine works great when having to move the rifle to different shooting positions quickly. There’s no protruding stick mag to get snagged on your barricade. I’ve put a Vortex Diamondback scope on this rifle. This scope has a zoom from 4-16X and parallax can be adjusted down to 20y. Having a QD bipod on the front also works great when having to change shooting positions on different types of barricades. Sometimes a bag is best and other times the bipod is best. Anyway, I hope this will help some of you that are thinking of getting into ORPS shooting. One caveat though is that I think I lucked out with an exceptionally accurate Ruger 1022 Carbine. If I had to buy one now, I would look into some of the custom 1022 clones offered by DLASK rather than a stock Ruger.
