What is the Ruger 10/22 really like?

MD

MD

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After viewing all the recent fuss about the 10/22 magazines, I have a question:

What is the Ruger 10/22 really like?

I know that out of the box it is small, handy, utilitarian, but is it a good shooter?

I've never even had one in my hands but I'm curious.
 
Awful. Unless you just enjoy spewing out a lot of bullets at a target, they are not very good guns in my experience. Not particularly accurate out of the box, horrible trigger. But hey, you can dress them up in all sorts of ways. Quickly sold mine and got a cheap Anschutz bolt action (this was about 20 years ago) and never looked back.
 
Out of the box they do the job. Not super accurate but there's barrels for that. Not the best trigger but there's aftermarket for that too. Market for stocks and a million other parts. The 10/22 has arguably the biggest variety of parts/upgrades available. It's like Lego
 
I will never be without a light barrel version, which are plenty accurate enough for pests around the farm, and also a heavy barrel version, which provided its a good barrel are as accurate as most anything else. triggers are easy to fix. I have power custom in mine, 3 pounds dead clean and a very short reset. reliability is very ammo dependant, but for the most part in my 2 personal guns the last jam was over 1000 rounds ago in each. plenty of cheap ammo works wonderfully. some not so much. federal bulk pack has given me grief in the past that's about it.
 
A couple years ago, I gave mine to my brother. I don't miss it.
I enjoyed the rifle for what it is, an inexpensive plinker. I found it too small and too inaccurate, but a decent do all that was great at nothing.
I prefer bolt guns, in the little cartridge.
 
got my first one back in 1984 when growing up on the farm.
i estimate i put over 100k ammo through it growing up shooting gophers and anything that moved really.
never had a problem with the gun and it ran like a top.
still have it, cleaned it up and did some trigger work on it but it didnt really need it, 100k rounds and the trigger had smoothed out anything that needed smoothing out.

i find it interesting when people come in and scream how nasty 10/22's are than they say they went over to a "insert company of choice" BOLT ACTION gun and are now happy.
its not the 10/22 that made these people so unhappy, its the semi automatic that made these people unhappy.
you are never going to achieve bolt action accuracy with ANY semi auto out of the box.
period.

now, you can upgrade your semi auto, any semi auto and tune it and get it as good as a bolt action but out of the box your never going to beat a bolt gun.

wish people would get that little point right in their heads instead of bashing a good gun.

anyways, i like the 10/22.
like i said, i got one back in 1984 and beat the hell out of it for 10 years then i upgraded to a stainless model with a folding stock and shot that for 10 years.
than i started building and playing with more 10/22's.
built 4 super nice builds with all after market parts and stock and such.
than picked up one of the 50th anniversary ones for ####s and giggles.
have also picked up a couple clones as well to play with.

personally i think they are a fantastic gun for plinking.
in my personal opinion everyone should have one tucked away in the safe or in the truck or tractor, in fact id be hard pressed to think of anyone that i know who dosnt have one....
 
Out of the 40 or so guns i own, 10 of them are .22's. And of the 10 .22's (no pun) there are 5 10/22's and ive sold quite a few others. I love them, and have a lot of money and time into them. Lets see now;
1. has tech sights
2. Is done up as an mp5
3. Hogue stock, stainless receiver and bull barrel, quartzen trigger, and silver Leupold vx2
4. T3 summit with straight pull receiver, barrel, and trigger. Has a vortex viper
5. Standard rifle, with a hogue stock.

They each get about the same amount of play time. If icould choose only one, it would be the T3 summit.
 
I can put 50rd into a 3"x3" square at 50yds using irons and my prescription glasses off with my mostly stock takedown. It lives in my range bag so is always with me when I go to the range. Great little gun, and the one I shoot the most.
 
The 10/22 was my first firearm and I have always owned at least one. Even after acquiring some of the worlds best I still have the 10/22 in my collection.
 
10-22's are awesome. I have 2.

The first is a stainless that wears an ATI strikeforce adjustable but stock so my 8 year old son can shoot it and the other is a stainless take down with a detachable scope.

My son can shoot 1/2" groups at 25 yards off of a bench - And that brings a smile to both of our faces.
 
I have a 10/22 VLEH and I love it. New shooters love it too. It has a heavier barrel than most and has a Hogue rubber stock. Nice rifle. There are better rifles for sure. CZ rimfire rifles come to mind.
That said, I am glad I bought this. No regrets.
 
I have two. One was my dads that he bought back in 1964 and the other I bought about 4 years ago as a project gun.
1964 version... Awesome little rifle. It is completely factory, will eat anything, and you can consistently punch holes through the centre of pennies from 25 yds.
2012 version... Out of the box they are not as accurate, less accepting of ammo, and the components are just flat out cheaper quality.
Regardless of year, very easy to completely disassemble and swap out/upgrade components.
 
Bought mine in the early '80's.

Other than swapping the stock out for one I got for $2 at a Salvation Army thrift store, to avoid beating around the original, I have found no real reason to follow my original intentions, which was to doctor it up with a whole lot of whatever caught my eye.

Well, that passed, but still have the gun. Clean it out about once a year whether it's filthy, dirty, or just manky as heck. :) So far, the major mod done to it has been to wrap some crappy masking tape around the front sight so it does not hang on the rifle case when a grouse happens to present while I am out and about. Pretty wild stuff!

Made enough first round hits on gophers, at 100 plus yards, to know it can do it if I am on my game, and the trigger is just fine.

Maybe I got a good one. But there seems to be enough happy owners around that there might just be something to it, eh?

Cheers
Trev
 
If your comfortable buying a rifle and replacing all the parts that suck to make it run right, then get one.

If for some crazy reason you expect a semi automatic rifle to feed and cycle properly out of the box.....then don't bother. Maybe some of the fellas older ones are better (back when ruger didn't have Stevie Wonder working their QC department) but those days are long gone.
 
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