Tricking Out A Ruger 10/22 Rifle

For Half A Century, This Unassuming Rifle Has Made It Easy For Owners To Teach An Old Dog New Tricks

STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY TOM CLAYCOMB

I’m convinced that the Ruger 10/22 is the most popular .22 rifle of all time. Not only is it a great little rifle right out of the box, but there are probably a million aftermarket items available that enhance its functionality even further, making it the most “trick-out-able” gun on the market.

Now, your vote may be swayed by the current AR platform rage, but that involves multiple calibers and brands. I’m talking about the most popular single gun, and the Ruger 10/22 owns that honor, hands down.

Not bad for a rifle that first hit the market in 1964.

The 10/22 became my go-to rifle pretty quickly. How could I not love it? It’s extremely dependable, accurate and, as I mentioned, you can trick it out as much as you want. But it was my quest to hunt the elusive whistle pig (which in southern Idaho, where I shoot, refers to a Townsend’s ground squirrel) that led me to desire a higher level of accuracy, which in turn led to this article.

I love hunting varmints in the spring, and on good days I’ll shoot 400 to 500 rounds at these ornery targets. But if you’re like me when shooting hundreds of rounds using a gun with a small capacity clip, you’ll get frustrated, and I mean fast. In fact, it’s easy enough to get frustrated if you don’t have two or three fully stocked 25-shot banana clips on hand.

As my experience progressed, it got to be fun to see how far out I could hit whistle pigs. I hit one a year or so ago at 197 yards, and then another at 207 yards. If they hold still and let you get three shots to zero in, you can hit them out there. Of course, the gale-like winds we encounter regularly out on the high plains here in Idaho don’t help with long-range shooting.

I noticed that while sighting in with a new scope, I’d have one or two fliers out of a 10-round group. Then, when I listened good, I observed that there’d be a difference in the loudness or volume of the report, which meant it had a little less powder than the previous shot.

I then begin to doubt the ammo more than my shooting ability, a conclusion that was confirmed when my buddy told me that even with good ammo, match shooters weigh their bullets and kick out those with the highest and lowest weights. I also shot his tricked-out 10/22, and although I thought he might have gone a little overboard with his, it got me thinking about which steps I should take with mine to achieve a higher level of accuracy.

In other words, which items helped me and which ones did not?

TRICKY, TRICKY

Hunting whistle pigs requires a scope because they’re small targets. You may have to take head shots when they pop out of their holes, so I didn’t begin this test using open sights. In fact, with a cheap scope and Remington ammo I was already getting between .65-inch and 1.0-inch groups at 25 yards. Then I shot some Eley ammo and got my groups
down to .4 inches.

The first thing I did was install a Leupold VX2 4-12 AO CDS scope that I’d had painted in the company’s Custom Shop to match my new Boyd stock. Now I could really focus in and I was able to get my shooting down to groups of .6 inches with the Remington ammo and .4 with the Eley.

My original trigger had a pull of 5.5 pounds but it had a rough spot and some drag, which hurt my accuracy. So after adding the scope I installed a Timney trigger with a 2¾-pound pull. This lighter setting aided my squeeze immensely.

Installing a Timney 10/22 trigger was super simple. In fact, my son-in-law located a YouTube video that showed everything we needed to do, so we did the first one together. The video said to remove the stock and pull the pins. Well, we removed the stock and two pins fell out, so I looked at him and said, “I assume those are the two pins we’re supposed to take out.” They had been held in place by the stock, so the process couldn’t have been simpler.

Despite the wind being pretty bad, with the new scope and trigger I was able to shoot groups between .5 inches and 1.0 inch using Remington ammo, and with the Eley I was consistently getting .5-inch groups. I now felt as if I had a good shooting rifle.

The next step was to put on a Brownells barrel and a Boyd Stock. Removing the barrel was also pretty simple. First you remove the stock, and then there are two Allen bolts holding a block that pins in the barrel. Remove them. My barrel was tight, so I ran home and used a wooden dowel rod to tap it off. To mount it again, just reverse the
order of steps. Then I slid on the Boyd stock and tightened it down with the one screw. What a sweet-looking rifle!

The following day I had to teach some seminars at Sportsman’s Warehouse, but as soon as I was done I took off for the plains. Now, I didn’t measure it, but I’ll estimate that the wind was blowing around 15 miles per hour. The next day there was a little less, probably 8 to 10 mph, so that helped. But with my new, tricked-out 10/22, I was able to achieve .4- to .6-inch groups with the Remington ammo, and .2- to .3-inch groups with the Eley. I now had a shooter.

If you believe different brands of ammo vary in your bigger caliber rifles (and I do), the variance is even more so with a .22. So on the final day, just for the sake of this article, I shot four brands. Here were the best groups that I obtained with each brand.

Federal Target Grade Performance: 1.3-inch group

Winchester M22: .9-inch group

Remington Golden Bullet: .4-inch group

Eley Force: .2-inch group
TEST PARAMETERS:

Tests were performed at 25 yards off a stable bench with Altus shooting bags;

Distances were set using a Leupold RS-1200iTBR/W Digital Laser Rangefinder;

Five-shot groups were fired;

Shooting was done out on the prairie, so wind was a factor. For example, using Eley ammo indoors, I believe I could have obtained .1-inch groups.

SUMMARY:

Here is how I would rank (from 1 to 5, with 1 being the most important) which item most affected and/or improved accuracy besides choice of ammunition:

1. Scope You must be able to pinpoint one spot or you just aren’t going to be accurate.

2. Trigger If you can’t get a good squeeze, you just aren’t going to be able to tighten up your groups.

3. Boyd stock My stock is super comfortable and I feel like I have a good grasp of my rifle. Does that really help the accuracy? I think it does, if only minutely. Your mind will not drift off thinking how awkward or uncomfortable it is to hold. And although it is not a factor on a .22, Boyd claims that they help reduce recoil on larger caliber rifles.

4. Bull barrel I think this add-on would play a bigger factor on hot days when you’re pouring out the ammo. A lighter barrel would get warm.

5. Cool factor If you want to have a rifle that takes people’s breath away, a scope out of the Leupold Custom Shop and a Boyd stock will surely help. Tell Leupold what type of stock you’re buying and they’ll paint your scope to match it. What’s cooler than that? In addition, both companies have options too numerous to mention. 

Here’s a different take on whether getting a Ruger 10/22 is worth it by Youtuber GunGuyTV.

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