Ruger 10/22 Takedown - Barrel Problem

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VanMan

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Finally got time to take my new 10/22 Takedown to the range yesterday. Fun little rifle with the Butler 25 round mags - but found it was not as accurate as I thought it should be. Groupings of ~16" at 17 yards (longest distance in this indoor range). I can manage much better than that with my CZ Shadow. Was giving a cleaning at home, when I noticed I couldn't get the the patch rod all the way through the barrel. It's hanging up about 1 1/2" from the breech end of the barrel - tried going in from either end. Goes in fine from the muzzle end - but hit's the same blockage - so I know the patch rod is not too big.

Looking through the barrel, I can see a small step in the bore. I can feel it with a q-tip, feels like a tight spot about 3/8" long. Anyone seen a problem like this before? I got it From Reliable about a month ago. Guess I'll take it in for them to have a look at it. Anyone know if this is something they would try to repair or should they just replace the entire barrel?
 
took it in to Reliable yesterday. They found some pretty serious lead buildup in that spot. He managed to push out a half tube of lead that was ~1/32" thick wall and about an inch long. He said it could be the ammo I was using - which was bulk Remington Thunderbolt. Will give the barrel a good cleaning and run through a couple of boxes of copper plated Winchester, see what happens then. Hoping it's just a break-in issue and I can go back to shooting regular bulk ammo later because I picked up 8 bulk boxes of Remington Thundebolt at the Italian Sporting Goods sale.
 
Bought the same gun and shoot bulk ammo in it. So far under 100 rounds I think. I'll keep my eye on leading. What was your round count when your groups started to open up? 16" at 17 yards is huge! You could likely throw the bullets more accurately.
 
Mike Oxbig said:
Bought the same gun and shoot bulk ammo in it. So far under 100 rounds I think. I'll keep my eye on leading. What was your round count when your groups started to open up? 16" at 17 yards is huge! You could likely throw the bullets more accurately.
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Started off with 5 round groups at 10 yards to get a feel for this 10/22 and the Butler 25 round mags. Was managing 1-2" groupings and cycling just fine. Went through ~100 rounds at 17 yards, ended up with a ragged hole ~4-5". Thought I'd try some faster fire - sent about another 100 rounds down range and noticed the barrel was getting hot. Brought the target sheet back and was really surprised at how much the grouping spread out. Thought I had read about the groupings spreading out when the barrel heated up, so put it away and went on to the next toy.

I just finished giving the barrel a good cleaning. Took 2 cycles of bore solvent -> bronze brush and about 20 cleaning patches before they started coming out clean. Guess this bulk unplated ammo has it's downsides. Will see if the plated Winchester ammo cleans up a little easier. May be worth the extra $5 per box of 500.
 
Thunderbolts are not the best ammo out there but leading in my factory carbine barrels is so minimal I can heat it up until its too hot to touch then fire 500 rds between friends while we take turns loading mags. I get a bunch of lead in the throat and minor spots in the rifling but it comes clean with a couple patches, rarely requires a brush. Given the QC problems with the TDs I would clean the bore spotless and have a good look with a bore light for rough machining. The plated ammo will do better but a rough bore gets dirty quick which kills accuracy and makes cleaning take a lot longer. Its a warranty issue in that case. And FWIW mine does 16" groups at 100 yds on a windy day firing rapid fire when hot. (not a TD, but factory 10/22)
 
No tight spot now. The bore is shiny clean and I couldn't see any rough spots. Only machining marks I saw was a very small lip about 3/4" down from the breech end where it changes from smooth bore to a rifled bore. The lead buildup was about 1 1/2" from the breech end, so don't think that small lip is a problem. Will give it another workout during the Christmas break and see how it goes.
 
thought I better update this so I don't give the 10/22 TD a bad reputation. I narrowed down the leading problem to the batch of Remington Thunderbolts I picked up in December. Have shot 40gr lead round nose American Eagle, Blazer, CCI Standard Velocity and even Remington Cyclone - all with no lead buildup problems. Went through about 2,000 rounds of various brands - it's handy being able to take off the barrel to check the bore. I then tried a hundred rounds or Thunderbolt and got that lead buildup problem again.
View attachment 4936

Just out of interest, thought I would try the Thunderbolt in my Ruger 22/45. This was the result after 50 rounds
View attachment 4937

So, don't know if I just happened to get a bad batch, or maybe the rifling in my 10/22 and 22/45 are too new and sharp. These Thunderbolts will go to the back of my ammo locker for now. May try them again in a year.
 
They cause lead buildup in my 10/22 and 22/45. Both were new, but are fine with all other 40gr lead round nose ammo. I'm thinking it's a bad batch of 22, but I have lots of other ammo, so I'll give it a try next year. Both barrels would be full broken in by then.

supernova said:
Its either your bore or a bad batch of ammo. All I used to shoot as a kid was thunderbolts and I rarely had problems.
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My 10-22 TD just is a reliable accurate performer with CCI Stingers, 900 rounds so far and only one failure on the first Butler steel lips, i get on the bag 1.5 MOA @ 100 metres, great rifle and ammo... JP.
 
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