My better half has decided to take the plunge and plans on getting her PAL/RPAL soon. I like her, I like guns, and I like to tinker; so i've decided to combine my passion for all 3 and put her together a nifty 10/22 as her first rimfire to celebrate getting her licence- everyone needs a 10/22!
I want this one to be special, but I'm not willing to just throw expensive parts at it to make it that way. She and I will both appreciate this more if there's a personal touch and/or some elbow grease into it, so that's what I'm going to do. The goal(s) of the build will be to make it unique, reliable, fun to shoot, and have some sentimental value for her because of the personal touch. There's a nagging voice in the back of my head telling me that a 10/22 is not worth this kind of effort, but I truly can't think of a better beginner gun (or any other one that I can work on)
My plan so far:
- OEM stock: stripped, sanded, stained, possibly engraved with her initials? Inlet for DAR 22TX
- OEM bolt: polished, radiused at the back for the hammer, new KIDD firing pin and extractor, might try my hand at a DIY faux color case hardening using cold blue or that metal fx stuff
- OEM trigger group: hammer and sear engagement points radiused and polished, TacSol extended mag release (cerakote to match the rest of the build), DIY auto bolt release mod
- KIDD charging handle/guide rod assy
- Receiver/barrel: DAR 22TX receiver/barrel combo: the bulk of the cost will be here if I go this route. I want a short-medium length barrel (14"ish) so that the gun is still handy and packable, and I want a heavy barrel so that it can be shot a bunch without heating up like a pencil barrel would. BUT I don't want to go too short so it's loud. My only concern is not making it weigh too much, as she's pretty petite. I would plan to cerakote this to match the rest of the build.
Undecided things:
Color scheme: she thinks case hardening looks cool, but admittedly there aren't many opportunities to do that on a 10/22. I'm not sure if there's a cerakote that mimics this? I plan on staining the OEM stock pretty dark, so I can play with a bunch of colors from there, but there won't be any "girly" colors on this one. I'm thinking a dark stock, dark gunmetal receiver/barrel combo, and a faux case hardened bolt would look subtle, but really nice after all was said and done.
What am I missing?
I want this one to be special, but I'm not willing to just throw expensive parts at it to make it that way. She and I will both appreciate this more if there's a personal touch and/or some elbow grease into it, so that's what I'm going to do. The goal(s) of the build will be to make it unique, reliable, fun to shoot, and have some sentimental value for her because of the personal touch. There's a nagging voice in the back of my head telling me that a 10/22 is not worth this kind of effort, but I truly can't think of a better beginner gun (or any other one that I can work on)
My plan so far:
- OEM stock: stripped, sanded, stained, possibly engraved with her initials? Inlet for DAR 22TX
- OEM bolt: polished, radiused at the back for the hammer, new KIDD firing pin and extractor, might try my hand at a DIY faux color case hardening using cold blue or that metal fx stuff
- OEM trigger group: hammer and sear engagement points radiused and polished, TacSol extended mag release (cerakote to match the rest of the build), DIY auto bolt release mod
- KIDD charging handle/guide rod assy
- Receiver/barrel: DAR 22TX receiver/barrel combo: the bulk of the cost will be here if I go this route. I want a short-medium length barrel (14"ish) so that the gun is still handy and packable, and I want a heavy barrel so that it can be shot a bunch without heating up like a pencil barrel would. BUT I don't want to go too short so it's loud. My only concern is not making it weigh too much, as she's pretty petite. I would plan to cerakote this to match the rest of the build.
Undecided things:
Color scheme: she thinks case hardening looks cool, but admittedly there aren't many opportunities to do that on a 10/22. I'm not sure if there's a cerakote that mimics this? I plan on staining the OEM stock pretty dark, so I can play with a bunch of colors from there, but there won't be any "girly" colors on this one. I'm thinking a dark stock, dark gunmetal receiver/barrel combo, and a faux case hardened bolt would look subtle, but really nice after all was said and done.
What am I missing?
