I am looking to buy a Hogue Overmolded Stock for my 10/22. I have the standard barrel on the rifle. My question is should I get the stock for the standard barrel or if I ever want to change to a heavier barrel, can I get the stock for the .920 heavy barrels and use it with the standard barrel for now. Will that affect my accuracy?
The Hogue overmolded stock is, I believe, designed to be 'free floating' with respect to the barrel. Buying a stock for the .970" barrel when using a factory barrel would ensure this. I cannot think of any detriment to doing so.
olefido, you can do that if you like, but remember that switching to a .920" barrel will pretty much eliminate the use of iron sights. There are options out there, but they're expensive; personally, I've got a couple of 10/22s set up as LTRs, and I've got my tack-driving 'squirrel gun' that I've pretty much maxed out.
I'd recommend using the stock barrel in the factory stock until the rifle becomes the limiting factor. You'll be better off spending the $$$ that a heavy barrel would cost on ammo (if/when you can find it!) than the barrel. The factory barrels are better than folks give them credit for; until you're at the point where you're shooting 1moa groups regularly, you won't see a difference with a HB. Plus, the chambers on the HBs tend to be 'Bentz' chambers, which mean that its harder (often MUCH harder) to get unfired rounds out of the chamber when clearing.
Just some personal experience; I don't have a lot of room to talk, though...I love my 10/22 addiction!
Byrdman
Thing is I'm already using optics due to my eyesight. So the iron sights are really a moot point.
If you go with a HB I would recommend you put the Volquartsen extractor in too. Stopped any jams or failures to eject in my HB 10/22 with a "match" chamber. I also have them in my LTR rifles.
I ended up with a green mpuntain barrel, reasonable in price, and shoots nice tight groups when I do my part.