Ruger 10/22 Accuracy Upgrade

The Ruger 10/22 is one of the most popular .22 LR rifles in history. Introduced in 1964, more than five million have been produced. It was the first firearm that I purchased, along time ago. It is reliable, durable, and reasonably accurate. Like the AR-15, there are tons of aftermarket suppliers that provide replacement parts to improve the 10/22 performance.

In the spring of 2019, I joined a small group of gentlemen who meet weekly in a friendly competition of shooting .22 LR rifles at 50 or 100 yards on NRA Smallbore targets. I showed up at the first shoot with my Ruger 10/22 topped with a 3-9X scope of about the same vintage. Even with match grade ammo, it was only capable of 1.2" to 1.9" groups at 50 yards.

After seeing the other competitor’s rifles and their results, typically less than 1 MOA, I quickly realized these were accomplished shooters with matching equipment. Realizing that I would not be competitive with my rifle, I looked for a means of improved accuracy and considered buying anew rifle. One of the guys also had a 10/22 that he had built using Kidd components. His rifle was very accurate so I decided to look into modifying my old 10/22.

Rifle Modification My 10/22 is about 30 years old and has been mainly used for plinking. The only modification was a trigger spring kit installed many years ago that lowered the trigger pull from about 8 lbs. to 4.5 lbs. Until I was using it in competitions, my 10/22 sat in the safe for along time while I shot more recently-purchased centerfire rifles.

Tony Kidd (KiddInnovativeDesign.com) offers about every component needed to build a 10/22, including barrels, receivers, bolt groups, trigger assemblies, etc. His match barrels are guaranteed to deliver 0.5" groups at 50 yards (1 MOA) and my fellow competitor was getting 1 MOA or better at 100 yards with his. From the reviews I have read, the Kidd parts are top quality, and in my opinion, are reasonably priced.

I decided to replace the barrel on my 10/22 and ordered the Kidd .22LR Match Stainless Steel Rifle Bull Barrel 20" Polished. Kidd offers a variety of barrel lengths, profiles, material, fluting, and finishes. I received my barrel in only a few days in a heavy cardboard box with plenty of packing material. The barrel was in a clear plastic tube with endcaps and the barrel had two O-rings on it that kept it from touching the tube. I don’t think I have ever received anything so well packaged.

According to their website, the Kidd barrels are bored and rifled by Lothar Walther in Germany and the bores are hand lapped. The barrel has a 1:16 twist and a 11-degree crown. The barrel was very nicely done in all regards. I checked the bore with my Lyman scope and it was very smooth with no tooling marks. I removed the action from the stock and then removed the barrel, trigger assembly, and bolt group Stock has raised comb and flat bottom to rest on rear bag.

Top: 600 grit sandpaper wrapped on brass punch used to increase the receiver bore diameter. from the receiver. The barrel slipped out of the receiver easily. Measuring revealed its tenon diameter varied from 0.682" to 0.684". Before installing anew barrel, any old paint in the receiver bore must be removed. My receiver had some paint in it which I removed by wrapping 600 grit sandpaper around a 0.62" diameter brass punch until it would just slide into the receiver bore when slowly turned by hand.

The new barrel tenon diameter measured a uniform 0.685" which was the same diameter as the receiver bore. Kidd refers to his barrels as slip fit. My new barrel was a "line to line" fit (maybe because the receiver was an older version) and it would not start into the receiver. I don’t like using a hammer to assemble a firearm so I slowly removed material from the receiver bore with sandpaper and frequently checked my progress. I clamped the barrel in a padded vise to make this easier.

I wrapped the sandpaper tightly on the punch and made the diameter just slightly smaller than the bore. This helped keep it aligned and the bore round and straight. The barrel tenon had a very small radius on the end as opposed

22 LR ammo tested. 25" group with RWS Special Match ammo. to a chamfer. Since the receiver material is soft, the end of the barrel tenon galled the bore surface and caused the barrel to bind in the receiver. I applied anti-seize compound to prevent this. When I found spots where the receiver wouldn’t slide onto the barrel, I wiped the anti-seize out of the bore and used sandpaper to remove additional material.

I kept slowly removing material until the receiver slipped all the way onto the barrel using hand pressure. I used my scope mounting bubble levels to align the barrel slot and the bottom of the receiver. The fit of the barrel to the receiver was solid so I installed the V-Block and screws. Tony Kidd recommends torquing the screws to only 10 inchpounds. It is not possible to get a torque wrench on the screws since they are so close to the barrel, so I tightened the screws with an Allen wrench and called it done.

I could have put the barrel in the freezer and the receiver in the oven to help the assembly but this would have resulted in an interference fit and I wanted to be able to remove the barrel in the future without potentially damaging the receiver. The bull barrel would not fit in the Ruger stock and I did not want to modify it, so I purchased a laminate stock from Boyds. The stock has a raised comb to allow a good cheek weld and a flat surface to ride on a rear bag.

The receiver fit snugly into the stock and the barrel does not touch the stock at any point along its length. I replaced the old scope with anew Athlon 4-12X40. At the Range I shot the rebarreled 10/22 with the same Federal Gold Medal HV Match ammo that I had used with the original barrel. The new barrel shot much smaller groups from the get go. Knowing that some brands of ammo are more accurate than others in any given rifle, I asked the other competitors what ammo they preferred.

I obtained boxes of the various brands and tested them in one session at the range. It was a calm, 75 degree day so I can’t blame the wind for the spread in group sizes. The results are shown in the accuracy table. The Federal HV Match and the RWS Special Match ammo had the smallest groups and the smallest averages. The RWS was the most consistent. It was also twice as expensive as the Fed HV ammo, roughly $10 per 50 round box compared to $5. My modified 10/22 has proven to be very competitive in the matches.

When asked if it’s from a custom shop, I’m happy to say that I built it myself. AG