Am I expecting too much accuracy from my 10/22 ?

[farscott]

If one were to buy an aftermarket barrel, stock, receiver, and parts kit, and assemble their own, would they be likely to improve the accuracy as compared to a standard factory 10.22?

It would be interesting to try a build with a lightweight carbon fiber wrapped barrel, but the cost of buying the parts and building it is quite a bit more than simply buying a basic, complete gun. I wonder if the juice is worth the squeeze?

If one opts for a complete rifle from Volquartsen, the accuracy potential is likely much higher than a factory 10/22 Carbine. However, it is not much different than a DIY rifle. The differences is in acquisition cost. The Volquartsen rifle, while expensive, is less expensive than modifying a factory 10/22 unless one gets lucky. I have been lucky once and unlucky many other times. Many of the differences are in the tight-chambered Volquartsen barrel being threaded into the receiver and the TG2000 trigger group. A Kidd trigger group feels nicer to the trigger finger, but my experience with the TG2000 and Kidd trigger groups on the same rifle showed the less expensive TG2000 was not disadvantaged.

My most accurate rimfire is a Winchester 52D with a Leupold M8-12X on it. It sometimes shoots groups under 0.2" at 50 yards with certain lots of Lapua ammo from a Randolph rest. Switching to a different lot of the same Lapua ammo results in groups more than triple the size. It is extremely ammo picky and I dread having to find another lot it "likes" as that means a lot of trial and error. It will shoot eight rounds into a small group while the other two rounds more than double the group size. The groups also are also weather dependent with smaller groups on hotter, humid days. It will do 0.5" groups with many loads and fail to do better with most.

My "lucky" most accurate 10/22 is a factory 10/22 VLEHP model with the factory trigger group having a Kidd kit added to it and a McMillian stock from a Volquartsen rifle to aid in shooting from the rest. The VLEHP came with a factory 0.920" diameter 16.25" cold hammer forged barrel in a pink Hogue polymer stock. It cost me less than one quarter of any of my Volquartsen rifles as I got it from CDNN on clearance and outshoots all of them. The stock more than doubled the investment the rifle. It has shot 0.3" groups with certain lots of Gemtech Suppressor ammo and hates the Lapua ammo the 52D loves. I can usually shoot 0.5" groups at fifty yards unless the wind is wild or I fail to do my part. It is purely a bench rifle now. For going afield, I much prefer a Tactical Solutions rifle with the sleeved barrel and a Kidd trigger kit wearing a Leupold M8-8X as it is much easier to carry and shoot offhand.

Hard to beat this for an accurate field 10/22. https://volquartsen.com/inventory_co...75?clearance=1 or https://volquartsen.com/inventory_co...34?clearance=1

[Skinner Precision, LLC]

I have a 10/22 carbine with a factory barrel and Kidd trigger job. That and a Leopold scope are the only modifications.

From the bench at 50 yards, these are my best 10 round group sizes
- CCI Standard Velocity: 1 inch
- CCI Mini-Mag: 1.5-2 inch

It's honestly been years since I ever sat down and shot groups from a bench, so I don't exactly remember how much accuracy I should reasonably expect from it. It's just a nagging feeling that it should be better than this because 10 years ago, I shot an Appleseed and did not have an issue getting rifleman patches (better than 4 MOA) shooting in all field positions (no bench) and with iron sights and CCI mini-mag. But that was at 25 yards with reduced scale targets. Does 22LR accuracy drop off this much at 50?

Definitely try better ammo before deciding 1" @ 50 is all the system is capable of., Very few people have great luck with standard velocity CCI, it tends to be more of the OK to poor end of the spectrum. In the Sub $10 box category wolf, eley club, SK pistol match and norma tac-22 are all in stock at various retailers if you Google a little.

In regards to the accuracy dropping off, a rough rule of thumb is that the group size doesn't double from 25 to 50 or 50 to 100 yards it is closer to quadrupled...

[Rick R]

Many years ago I bought one of the heavy barrel 10/22 rifles with the hammer forged looking barrels. Then I spent several hundred dollars on .22lr ammo trying to get decent groups at 25 yards. And failed.
That gun ended up traded off and I later purchased a 77/22 just to have a .22 to shoot. Surprisingly it would shoot Winchester “Dynapoint” bulk ammo well enough to knock empty 9mm brass off the 25 yard rail using a 4X scope when I did my part.

A couple years ago I acquired a Ruger rimfire “Precision Rifle” and it’s been educational. On a calm day with a 12X scope it’s capable of one hole groups off the bench with Eley Tenex ammo. None of the common ammo was better than 1 1/2” using the same setup and some are amazingly worse. I did find one lot of Norma Match that shot decently, but when I went back to the store they had restocked and the new stuff wasn’t much better than CCI Mini Mags. Norma TAC shoots 80% into nice tight groups with 20% going into flyers below the main group (droppers?). Shooting at a target thru the chronograph revealed that the low hits were rounds that were substantially slower than others.

If you go to the precision rimfire centric forums there is a lot of useful information but mainly you’re going to find that .22lr barrels are all unique little dilettantes that are all quite picky about what they like to eat.

[awp_101]

mainly you’re going to find that .22lr barrels are all unique little dilettantes that are all quite picky about what they like to eat.

#QFT

[gato naranja]

Many years ago I bought one of the heavy barrel 10/22 rifles with the hammer forged looking barrels. Then I spent several hundred dollars on .22lr ammo trying to get decent groups at 25 yards. And failed.
That gun ended up traded off and I later purchased a 77/22 just to have a .22 to shoot. Surprisingly it would shoot Winchester “Dynapoint” bulk ammo well enough to knock empty 9mm brass off the 25 yard rail using a 4X scope when I did my part.

A couple years ago I acquired a Ruger rimfire “Precision Rifle” and it’s been educational. On a calm day with a 12X scope it’s capable of one hole groups off the bench with Eley Tenex ammo. None of the common ammo was better than 1 1/2” using the same setup and some are amazingly worse. I did find one lot of Norma Match that shot decently, but when I went back to the store they had restocked and the new stuff wasn’t much better than CCI Mini Mags. Norma TAC shoots 80% into nice tight groups with 20% going into flyers below the main group (droppers?). Shooting at a target thru the chronograph revealed that the low hits were rounds that were substantially slower than others.

If you go to the precision rimfire centric forums there is a lot of useful information but mainly you’re going to find that .22lr barrels are all unique little dilettantes that are all quite picky about what they like to eat.

Precision air rifles are similar. Over the years I have owned a big handful of Beeman R7/HW30 springers, and each one had a different pellet that it got along with. Whether airguns or rimfires the pickiness is strong, and sometimes the expectations never do get met no matter how much money is thrown at a project.

The most forgiving .22 LR I ever owned was a Contender carbine with a Fox Ridge Outfitters (essentially T/C's custom shop) .22 LR Match bull barrel. It did rather well with a number of brands, something which I - rightly or wrongly - attributed to seating each round by hand into a fairly tight chamber. It is one of the very few guns I genuinely regret selling, though being a single-shot break-open, a shooting session with it could last a very long time indeed.

[Skinner Precision, LLC]

If you go to the precision rimfire centric forums there is a lot of useful information but mainly you’re going to find that .22lr barrels are all unique little dilettantes that are all quite picky about what they like to eat.

While NRA smallbore prone is a dying/almost dead it has a lot of historical data. While the targets are sized for sight pictures with iron sights the scoring rings also represented what the governing body thought was reasonable accuracy expectations for the then availible technology of the day. The A-23 50 yd target has a x ring of .39" , 10 ring of .89", and 9 ring of 1.89". This data /experience is somewhat analogous to a "standard" in training drill or a
historical classifieridata in USPSA.

I am fairly confident that any of the sub $10 a box ammo I listed above in any of the rifles in my picture (ranging from 1947 M52B to a 1984 Anschutz 1813) will score a mid 390's with 15 to 25 x's score for a 40 shot prone/sling supported/scoped match by a average shooter who gets a little instruction before the match. A couple of points would be lost to ammo (fliers) and a couple to the shooter. If I put irons on the hypothetical shooter might loose 1 or 2 points depending on their eyes (or not)and some x's (but not always).

I am not making this claim about the harder 50M "metric target" or even 100 yd targets where both ammo and environmental conditions play a part but 50 yards on the generous A 23 target that is a pretty reasonable prediction.

[cornstalker]

I would try some of the Wolf/Lapua/SK ammo at least once. SK standard plus has been outstanding in my custom barreled 10/22 and Ruger Mark IV and costs a lot less then most of the Eley primed match ammo.

[Skinner Precision, LLC]

I would try some of the Wolf/Lapua/SK ammo at least once. SK standard plus has been outstanding in my custom barreled 10/22 and Ruger Mark IV and costs a lot less then most of the Eley primed match ammo.

As a point of clarification, Wolf stopped being made by SK in Germany and switched to being made by Eley in Britan in about 2018. I still have a little of a nice lot of 2005 Era SK Jagd Rifle Match that was capable of cleaning the 100 yd nra target with a decent >10 x-count as tested in a couple rifles . Hopefully, world events ease and the Capstone Group gets more SK inbound beyond the pistol match that I mentioned was available.

[cornstalker]

As a point of clarification, Wolf stopped being made by SK in Germany and switched to being made by Eley in Britan in about 2018. I still have a little of a nice lot of 2005 Era SK Jagd Rifle Match that was capable of cleaning the 100 yd nra target with a decent >10 x-count as tested in a couple rifles . Hopefully, world events ease and the Capstone Group gets more SK inbound beyond the pistol match that I mentioned was available.

I was unaware of the change. Thank you.