LTR: Ruger 10/22

[Mountaineer]

Liberty Training Rifle:

I bought a wood-stocked Ruger 10/22 at Dick's for my birthday.  This rifle was to become my LTR.  I purchased an after-market Dragunov-style synthetic stock for it for under $40.  I already had a rifle sling, and the stock comes with sling swivel mounts.  So all I needed were the swivels.



I did find out that the swivel mounts were drilled for a slightly different sized swivel, but that was about a four and a half second fix.  I also went over all the seams from the molding and cut off a little bit of flash that was left from the molding process.  It cleans it up, makes it feel a bit nicer, and looks less like a toy.  The stock is very sturdy, and I'm pretty pleased with it.  The pistol grip is easier on my wrist, and allows me to keep my hand firmly on the grip, without dragging wood, and getting good trigger contact.  Which Mudlslide, Spanner, DonD, and The Machine can all attest to the fact that these were problems for me.  I found traditional stocks hurt my wrist.  Anschutz style stocks, and pistols grips fixed this problem for me, however.

I also ordered Tech Sights (http://www.tech-sights.com) for the rifle, which seem indispensable since I wasn't too enthused over the stock sights, and I had used Tech Sights at my first AS. (Thanks to DonD)

I knew from my first Appleseed that I wanted an auto bolt release (http://drfrankenruger.com/yahoo_site_admin/assets/images/Part_Bolt_Release.41100601.JPG), but none of the places where I was already ordering from, or my local gun stores carry them.  So plus shipping, I was looking at an extra $20.  I found a picture of the auto bolt release, and saw that it is very similar to the standard one.  The auto-release is missing a little metal spike in the top opening [  <) ], which on the standard looks similar to a heart image [  <3 ].  I thought to myself, "this is a solve-able problem."

I drove over the local China-mart and bought a diamond-coated grinder for my Dremel for about $4.  I entirely disassembled the rifle, which was an adrenaline-rush-inducing experience for a first-timer.  With the bolt release mounted on the vice, I set about to grind off that little protrusion.  It took about 15 minutes for me to get it to where I was pleased with it, and it looked exactly like the picture of the auto-release.

I ran inside and set about putting the rifle back together.  I had previously purchased an after-market guide to the 10/22, and this coupled with YouTube, was very helpful in this whole process.

I put the rifle back together, and locked back the bolt.  Awesome, first test a success.  I then pulled the bolt back a bit, and the release moved up, and the bolt slid forward normally.  Second test, a success! I'm pretty pleased with it so far, and we'll see how it goes at the range tomorrow.

One thing I found about the Dragunov-style stocks is that with Tech Sights, the attached cheek piece is much to low.  either you can't see through the rear aperture, or the stock hits you on your jaw bone.  I thought about using Kydex plastic and molding one (and I'm still considering this as a long term fix), but I spoke with a marine about it first.  He told me that in the Corps, they would cut a strip from an OD sleeping pad and use 100mph tape (duct tape for us civies), and just folded it over until it was the right height and taped that sucker on.

I thought to myself, "if it's good enough for the marines, it's good enough for me."  So that's what i did.  I measured off my military surplus sleeping pad (which I already had) against the molded cheek piece that's part of the stock and cut.  It took about 3 folds to get my cheek where I wanted it, and my eye aligned with the rear sight.  I first wrapped the parts of the stock that would meet tape with a thin, clear plastic (like from a bag) to avoid a sticky stock when/if I remove the foam cheek piece.  I folded the pad, and taped it into place. 

It may not be the hottest thing on the block, but it's functional.  I still might form something out of that Kydex plastic later on, but this is what's going with me to the range these days, and to my next AS.

Overall, I'm very pleased with the Ruger 10/22 as an LTR.  I would suggest purchasing several 10-round mags, the US GI Sling, 1.25 inch swivels, swivel mounts (if wood stocked), and Tech Sights.

[The Machine]

Sounds like a good build; I'm anxious to see it in action on Oct.17-18. 

There's a section on the 10/22 LTRs here, if you can access it: http://appleseedinfo.org/smf/index.php?topic=32.0