I was swapping stocks on a pair of Ruger 10/22 rifles today. I replaced both stocks and was doing a function test.I tried the safety….and rather than the usual ‘click’, the safety just kinda slid over to the side…almost out of the receiver. Hmm. Okay, let me move it to the off position and see if it works…nope. So the safety was moving weirdly and the hammer wouldn’t drop. Hmmm.
Alright, curiosity gets the better of me. I pop the pins and look in the receiver. Here’s where problem one comes in – to see down to where the safety button is you pretty much have to remove everything in between. Which, as you can imagine, is a tremendous pain in the ass.
Turns out, this is not a unique problem. It seems that if you put the push-button safety in a halfway position, in order to facilitate a stock change, you may rotate the safety to the point where the notches for the detents and notch for the sear become swapped around. I had no idea.
On the bright side, I learned how to strip a 10/22 receiver down to the very last part.
As an aside, Sportsmans Warehouse has Ruger 10/22 rifles on sale for $180. And Cabelas will price match.
I had the exact issue when I rebuilt my 10/22 with a Huge overmolded stock and a heavy target barrel. Figuring the safety was broken I returned the barreled action to factory original configuration and boxed it up and sent it back to Ruger. Got it back eight days later with a complete new trigger group installed. They also replaced the broken rear folding sight. I never used it because I mounted a scope.
Question fro the old fat dude in the back.
Are newer production 10/22s more problematic than older models ? I’ve read that production short cuts have turned a very reliable carbine into a rifle which sometimes requires some tweaking. Synthetic internals often mentioned as the cause. Is this a real or just perceived issue ?
Thanks for the price matching tip! Now that you can actually buy 22LR again I should really buy a couple thousand rounds and introduce my youngest, a 12yr. old girl to the JOY of shooting with the Ruger 10/22 and a 25 round magazine. Reload faster dad! LOL!
Keep an eye out for Classic Firearms sales on .22 LR. Last sale the price was $12.99 per brick and that dropped to $12.49 if bought by the case. You can sign up for the email alerts. They have gun giveaways and good deals on milsurp and LEO trade-ins.
Right now you can get a Beretta 81 in 32acp in really great condition for $209.99.
Just for a moment there you had me. In the not too distant future, I’m planning on replacing the stock on my 1022 TD with a Boyds Barracuda takedown stock and for a second I thought there would be issues.
Glad that everything worked out all right.
Good Tip and good to know. I just finished up fixing my old-ass 150 dollar 10/22 that never ran right. Busted extractor, so I fixed that and figured why stop there, so I kept going and completely disassembled everything and gave everything within the receiver a massive overhaul, including stripping the paint from the receiver and everything therein and thereabouts. Sanded, resanded, and resanded, then stained (and restained….) the stock in an unusual color because why not? Totally worth the time and effort. Tested with a few full to capacity Butler Creek 25 round mags full of a mix of old, new, round nose, JHP and whatever else I could find to mix it up. Accurate AF and the gun runs great. It’s a cheap gun – have fun with it.