Modifications to the Ruger 10/22

**YBNORMAL** · July 19th, 2010, 08:39 PM

There was some interest in modifications to the ruger 10/22 in another thread so I thought I would put something together.

Please note that I am not a gunsmith by trade, just a tinkerer.

The first and probably easiest modification is one that may or may not need done, you simply have to unscrew your action/barrel from the stock and see if the threaded portion of the takedown screw is at all shiny. If it is, then by design of the 10/22 it is going through the threads in the action and touching the barrel. This will change the POI if you don't get the action tightened up the same every time. Simply grind about a thread off of the length of the takedown screw. Also in this picture you can see what a "bolt buffer" looks like. I highly recommend them, they are cheap and will save your reciever holes from loosening up over the years. They also take care of what "whack!" sound you hear when the bolt cycles.

Like this:

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One popular modification is the replacement of the bolt stop for one that allows you to have it drop (release the bolt), when you pull back on the bolt handle. Many companies make a replacement bolt stop that you can buy, but you can also modify the one that came in your Ruger to do the same thing. I am going to show you a picture of a Voquartsen part (I bought one before I knew how to modify my Ruger part) so you get an idea of the shape of the hole you have to enlarge. Your stock part is going to have a cutout that looks more like a "heart" (cupid not anatomical), you need to open up the pointy part of the heart and radius some of the hole so that when you pull back on the bolt handle the bolt release can ride down the pin with the pressure of the spring that is coiled around the hammer:

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Also in this ^ picture, you can see at the back of the trigger there is a flat pad that the trigger plunger rides on. Now with a dremel tool or something similar you want to polish this surface. It is coated with paint from Ruger is not exactly friction free. At the same time, go ahead and radius the plunger and polish it as well. When Ruger makes the 10/22, they drill the hole at an angle in relation to the pad on the back of the trigger. I think it is done this way because it is a blind hole from the factory so they have to come throught from the trigger guard.

If your up for it, you need to drill using this hole as a guide till you get through to the other side of the trigger group so you can tap out the hole (the end away from the trigger) to accept a setscrew. When you get your trigger work done, you use the setscrew to adjust for overtravel. You may have to cut a few coils off of the plunger screw to account for the setscrew so the coils don't bind before your trigger stop, also the shorter spring will enhance trigger feel.

As seen from the drill:

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This is the picture of the back of my reciever, the setscrew ends up being near the hole for the hammer mainspring:

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Something that is relativly easy is to polish all the surfaces that slide or twist on each other. You will need to be very carefull if you are going to chang anything about where the hammer and sear engage!!! If your not up for that, there is plenty more that you can smooth out to make things better. Polishing the surface of the hammer that rides on the bolt will help a lot to smooth out the action. In this picture you can see the surface I am talking about. You can also see the area of the mainspring that you want to polish, this goes into a cutout in the hammer and will help with the smoothing of the action. You can also see my (I know, I know they arent very pretty) shims made from shim stock found at the local machine shop. These are used to shim the hammer to frame(shims go between the hammer and the bushings, not between the bushing and the frame), the sear to trigger saddle, dissconnector to trigger saddle, and trigger saddle to frame. A word about the shims, you want enough in there to minimize the side to side play, but not so many that there is friction to the moving parts. Keep the number and thickness of the shims the same on both sides to keep the parts on center:

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The above picture shows some of the areas you can polish, the sides of the dissconnector and sear, and the sides of the trigger saddle. Be carefull around the sear since this is what holds the hammer and you don't want to mess with the angles of those surfaces unless you know what your doing. The picture also shows the "false" pin that will hold everything together in the trigger saddle so you can get everything lined up for reassembly. I used a broken off que-tip, you may want to make one out of an old drill bit or something nicer, (I lost my nice one so go figure).

Along with polishing the hammer to bolt surface, you can contour the lower rear of the bolt so that it will have a smoother engagement on the hammer as well as more mechanical advantage over the hammer. This is the meat and potatoes of making the 10/22 more reliable with lower powered ammo.

looking at the top view of the bolt, there is a radius that starts near the back of the bolt, this is where your new radius (on the bottom) will start. You want to have a smooth ramp for the bolt to push back on the hammer. With the ramp ending about 1/16th from the cutout in the bolt where it hits the reciever pin, or the bolt buffer you just installed. Also notice the top of the bolt, and the bolt handle "pad" (that becomes one with the top surface of the bolt) has been polished. You also want to polish the guide rod for the bolt handle. All this polishing will give a noticeable improvement in the action of your 10/22. Polish the underside of your bolt where it rides on the trigger group.

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