Work in progress: 10/22 mag swap demo and trainer

[TimOren]

Coming soon: Upgrade your 10/22 demo stock with a real, working mag well! Now you can really show the mag swap mechanics in demos, as well as getting your own swap time down without waving a real rifle around.  Already working in prototype (see attached pic) will be coming to eBay and the forum as soon as I can get parts supply nailed down. Thanks for Beavertail for the idea! 

[Mrs. Smith]

Thanks for Beavertail for the idea! 

I knew I was keeping that guy around for something 

Too cool, Tim!  I'll be watching 

[USSEnterpriseCV6]

Very cool

[Beavertail]

TimOren, if only I had your skills... I might be dangerous.

[GTEngineer]

I'd of course say it in nicer words, but put me down for a couple to share with the WA instructors!

[TimOren]

Well, that took longer than I thought, but I'm up to sending out a couple test units this coming week.

Turns out the Ruger mag plunger spring is a real oddball, must be a custom part. $10 from big R, which is prohibitive, even if they were available. Tandemkross sells their uprated replacements at $10 for 3, which is still an issue. So I had to respec that part, forcing a partial redesign. Good thing is that also gave me several turns of improving the fit, which I've now tested against two different Ruger original stocks and one aftermarket.

And of course my primary printer decided to crap out right in the middle of the process, wasting a week. It's old enough that a direct replacement part is now unobtanium, so a quick R&R turned into a minor rebuild of the printer. (It's nice have two 3-D printers around. Sometimes you can use one to print a replacement part for the other, which turned out to be part of the fix this time.)

Anyway, my goal is to have this generally available in time for Patriot's Day festivities.

[TimOren]

I think I'm there. I'm still tinkering with making the build easier, but the basic design seems solid now.

Before turning it loose on eBay, I'm going to offer a limited number here on the Forum at a reduced price, since I won't have to pay eBay fees.  I'm asking $27.95 for now, via PayPal. I don't want to post my email here on a publicly visible board, so PM me if you are interested for my PayPal address. I've got four built and can do a few more before I have to reorder parts.

This ends up being a two part build. There's a forward part that's attached to the takedown screw hole, and there's a rear part that slides into the trigger group cutout (see the attachments). The rear part is sized such that if you have one of my 'clicky triggers' you can glue the two together for a permanent install.

One thing I learned in this process is there's variation in the length of the mag well cutout among Ruger and aftermarket 10/22 stocks of various materials and brand. There's also more length variation that you'd think among new and well-used 10/22 mags; if you think new ones sometimes work differently than your old reliables - you are correct. Because of that, the 'plunger' that retains the mag in this demo model is an adjustable screw. I ship it set to work with a Ruger wood 10/22 carbine takeoff stock and one of my well-worn mags. You can then adjust it to work best with the stock and mag(s) you use for demos and training.