It seems this year from the beginning of Dec until well after New Years I have had nothing but time off. With my father being gravely ill and ultimately passing away, to scheduled time off, holidays and vacation days I pretty much didn't do shxt. My father has passed on to me, among many other things an older Ruger 10/22. Beat up in everyway, he got it from a neighbor who must have kept in buried under the house. Anyway when it was handed over to me it had absolutely no family heirloom value. That was then.

Decided since I had the time off, didn't feel like doing much else, had to keep my mind on other things and had a perfect project gun that I would give it a shot. Took a few days and some research time on the net to come up with what i wanted. It was my first and if I had a do over I'd probably do it different but this is what I did.

stripped entire gun down
20" blue fluted GM bull barrel
set up a ball end mill in the Bridgeport and re-cut the original tapered barrel stock
cut off the barrel band mess on the end
finsihed the stock in a dark walnut satin oil finish
polished out entire hammer, sear assembly per instructions
polished and lapped rear of the bolt for contact with the hammer
replaced extractor, mag release
bedded action, v block and barrel in Devcon
mounted Leupold VXII 4x12 AO fine crosshair on lapped Burris rings

thinking I should shoot it a few times, put it away and in about seven or eight years from now break it out for my new grandson just born at Thanksgiving. Create something for him.

What ya think ...is it worthy ?

NICE!

thanks Red
given the amount of available upgrades one can put on such a simple made rifle........I was impressed.
I want to shoot it and up to now I've have never been, even back in the kid years, much of a rimfire guy. Seems I passed over from bb guns to centerfires in one shot, so to speak.

I shot the 22lr A HECKUVA LOT as a teenager. Got away from it later on, and just in the past few years have started shooting the rimfires a lot more again. I'd forgotten just how much fun it is.

I'd like to see the shooting results with your Ruger once you get a chance to try it. I have two Green Mountain barrels chambered for 22magnum. Each is accurate enough, but each has it's specific ammo preference. Might be that the 22magnum caliber has something to do with that?

Anywho, nice looking 10-22

i like those customized Rugers! that one is great! i plan on doing one in the future, as a project gun during my summers off from school, but i have to get the platform rifle first! i like shooting the .22lr because i know i'm not burning my wallet each time a press the trigger. when i first got my .22 i put an easy 2,000 rounds through it each summer! i've slowed down a little but i still do around that much shooting yearly. i just love all the options these quiet little guns can give you with the proper ammunition. rabbits, squirrels, grouse...sounds like the future college student in me will be eating well!

i like those

Nice job.

I think it will be tough to leave it in the safe for seven or eight years. Your grandson probably won't hold it against you if you kill a few springtime prairie dogs a year just to keep the lube from gumming up.

I think I like that stock (can't see it in profile enough to tell for certain). Rifle looks good. What can you tell me about the stock?

Danny

I was just given two 10/22’s by my father in law. I was not really that excited. I have a Remington model 5 in .17HMR that is a tack driver and I hear that 10/22’s are not really that accurate unless you do a lot to them.

Having said that, you have sort of inspired me, I think I might do the same, upgrade one of them nicely and then put it away for my kids when they get old enough (I have not even had them yet). I probably will not use it much my self as I’m a big time center fire guy and like I said for rim fire I have a model 5. But hay, what a cool idea setting it up for the kids. I may even set my second one up nicely and give it to my ex’s kids.

At any rate, back on topic. I like what you did with it, it looks good.

Because it was Christmas and because I tend to draw in dependent adult children like flies to dogshxt I tried to keep things as cheap as possible. The stock is actually the original factory carbine stock. I brought it down here to my shop, back cut the barrel band area off. Then I set it up in the Bridgeport mill (I don't like to sand that much) and re-cut the barrel channel. Then I did sand off the old finish and sanded out all the nicks and scratches. Finished the stock with a dark Walnut Watco. Hogged out the areas where I needed to do the bedding work with a Dremel tool. I like doing bedding work with Devcon because its easy and doesn't take but 4 hours to set hard. Turned out nice with about .003" clearance around barrel for free floating.

Well, it looks very good what you did with the stock. I was almost thinking that this was one of those walnut stocks that Miday once upon a time used to sell for the 10/22. I think that they once sold them as a package deal with a barrel, if I remember correctly. I was going to get one of those, but they stopped selling them before I could get one.

Danny