Headed Down the Charger (10/22) Money Pit Path

I've enjoyed 10/22s over the years but never got too excited about them. I've seen people pour a lot of money into them improving accuracy but I was always happy with mine the way they came from the factory. I've had a Ruger Charger for years and it never got much attention. For some reason its been calling to me lately. Its been seeing a lot of range time and a little hunting taking both snowshoe hares and a cottontail rabbit. Now I'm wanting to see if I can improve its accuracy a bit. I started by switching the T/C 2.5-7X scope that's been on it for a Bushnell Elite 3200 2-6X. They're very good scopes and I've been impressed with them on guns with heavy recoil over the years.

Not happy just adding a scope that cost more than I paid for the gun, I got looking into other modifications. Now I have a Volquartsen Bolt Tune-Up Kit, Flatline Ops Recoil Buffer and a Ruger BX Trigger Assembly on the way. After watching a video that showed how much the torque on the action screw can affect accuracy I have a Wheeler F.A.T. (Firearms Accurizing Torque) Wrench on order too. The money pit is well on its way! I'm trying to resist looking at barrels (although Green Mountain has a couple nice ones)...for now. I guess I'm starting to see the appeal of tinkering with these things. How many here have gone down the Charger (10/22 or any gun) money pit path?

Which gun hasn't been a money pit? at least with contenders/encores the money pit path involves multiple barrels/calibers to play with.

I spend a fair amount of time playing with and improving my childhood 10-22, 16.25" bull barrel, buffer, spring kit, trigger kit, ~4-14 scope to clearly pick out 0.22 cal holes at 50 yards. It's a lot of fun to shoot and given the right ammo will print clover leafs at 50 yards regularly. About the time I quit tweaking it, I was talking to a gunsmith who recounted his experience of barrel bedding a 10/22 and leaving the action to float. He said it was crazy accurate as the action tended to flex a lot during use. I never tried it so don't know if it worked, but that would be my next modification.

Replacing the barrel helped some, but I got similar to better mileage out of a trigger upgrade. As any rim fire, it is still picky about what you feed it.

Been there and done that with two of them.
Both are very accurate at distances beyond most would assume a 22lr could shoot accurately.

Have built several 10/22's and have three Chargers. IMHO, the barrel is the single most important aspect of any 10/22 build. I see folks pour money into everything else or install a cheap barrel and to me, that is backwards. Everything depends on a good barrel and if you want accuracy, a "good" one is what you need. For that, I mean a Clark, Shilen, Kidd, Lilja or similar.

I have also seen serious parallax issues with big variables when used at the upper magnifications at ranges of 75yds or less.

I am resisting the Charger Bug. I can burn up plenty of ammo through my Contender Super 14 barrel. One Shot at a Time. I can only imagine how much ammo I could go through with a semi auto in an hour. The good thing is that I could reduce every rock on the 100 yard impact berm to gravel by the end of the Summer.

The Boyd's Laminated Charger Stock is $129. With a custom action the sky would be the limit on a build. You would not need to replace all the parts on a Ruger Built Charger if you built it from the ground up to start with.

Bob

I have shot good groups out 450 yards with one and 500 yards with the other clone Charger. My first one has a Green Mountain barrel. It out shot/better groups than a Lilja and a Douglas barrel. So it was the obvious choice my other one is a Chrome Moly Barrel, and for the life of me I can't remember the name. I will look. Pic below at 500 yard target.


Killed a pd with my other one (Green Mountain) at 335 yards, and just kept going on one side to the other on another dog real close to 500 on the same afternoon when Steve and I went antelope hunting.

I've built six 10/22's from just adding Volquartsen parts to full blown with Kidd and Volquartsen barrels etc. I had one Charger, and it was the most accurate factory 10/22 I have shot. I never put a different barrel on it, but had 3 different stocks and various sighting options on it. It loved Stingers. Fun as anything for plinking, but was to awkward to carry squirrel hunting for me. So I sold it and use my MKII or my Victory for bushy tails now.

It is so much fun.
You can burn through a lot of ranch pretty quick, especially using the triI-mag set up.
I use mine for playing on steel and shooting prairie dogs primarily.

Pab1,
I won both of my clone 10-22/Charger actions, so that made the price bite a little easier.
Mine are both threaded barrels as well.
I have a Kidd trigger on one and a Shilen on the other.

Can you even hear the steel at 500 yards with a 22lr Ernie?

I believe the accuracy, my 10/22 shot better at 200 meter then my browning A-bolt in 25-06.

Depends on the wind direction and on the target, but yes (sometimes).
Thinner steel is better if you want to hear impacts

Have been very interested in the MOA brand 10/22 Charger action. http://www.moaguns.com/rec10_22.html Built from stainless steel, action screws front and rear, and designed to have the barrel screwed into the action. The company making them changed hands a couple of years ago and I don't know if their 10/22 Charger action is back in production.

Has anyone had any experience with these actions and do they give a significant improvement over the standard Ruger product?

Great shooting Ernie, I was shooting a 12"X15" plate at 315 yards a couple years ago. I hit it with around 50-60% of my shots. Misses were not off by much. I was using a T/C 2.5-7X scope set at 2.5X so I could keep the plate at the bottom edge of the field of view. I didn't want to adjust the scope to take advantage of higher magnification.

Both of my clone actions are the MOA.

Thanks Pab1.
I took advantage of the FFP reticle and internal adjustment for the steel, while when dogging I used a SFP reticle and turned the magnification down to increase the MOA of the reticle to get enough adjustment.

Nodak/Spud makes an excellent 10/22 receiver that is an improvement over Ruger. It's all CNC machined, is setup for a flat Marlin levergun scope base with larger 8-40 screws and an anodized hardcoat finish. IMHO, the threaded barrel is overrated. Some of the most accurate rimfires available have a press-fit, pinned barrel.

yup many are PRESS FIT. meaning they are fit with an interference fit and pressed into place then they also normally pin them.

on a press fit your not going to simply pull the barrel with your hands like you can a ruger or ruger clone.

Ruger actions and direct clones use a slip fit and a clamping system that draws the barrel back and down.

accurate rimfires can defiantly come from both systems. it just depends on how you define accuracy.

The rimfire bench rest world has defiantly set a trend for 40x style actions and clones with threads.

Thanks Ernie. Couldn't get a better recommendation.

I'm sorry, are we talking about top level benchrest competition? Are we chasing thousandths of an inch?

To each their own...
Get what you want!
I?m just giving options.

you only copied part of the post.

Im just sharing facts. And clarifying what slip fit and press fit is.

Making sure factual information gets shared.

here is the rest of the post for those that may read through in the future looking for information:

yup many are PRESS FIT. meaning they are fit with an interference fit and pressed into place then they also normally pin them.

on a press fit your not going to simply pull the barrel with your hands like you can a ruger or ruger clone.

Ruger actions and direct clones use a slip fit and a clamping system that draws the barrel back and down.

accurate rimfires can defiantly come from both systems. it just depends on how you define accuracy.

Yes, I did, intentionally, trying to establish proper context. If we're talking about competition benchrest, then we need not mention the 10/22 at all. Threaded or not.

Aftermarket barrels are slightly oversized so that they may be fitted more snugly. Either way, it is not unusual for one to achieve accuracy that even a really good bolt gun cannot match. Will it be competitive in benchrest competition against 40X's? No, threaded or not.

Oh and the last Charger I put together took an act of Congress to separate from the barrel from the receiver. Very few of them just fall apart.

well I am sorry I confused you with the facts.

If you go back and re-read the post I made it also states its all in how you measure accuracy. You could also take that as in its also how much you want in the accuracy department.

We are obviously missing each other.

You got me looking into the Kidd barrel. I'm leaning toward it but also considering the 10" Green Mountain barrel with open sights. I have a Kidd bolt handle/guide rod with spring tuning kit on order. The 10% reduced spring should work well with Remington Subsonic ammo. I think their bolt will be added at some point also.

Charger update from yesterday:

Made the first trip to the range with my Charger since installing the upgrades. With rifle deer/elk season starting in two days I knew it would be packed with all the people who only seem to visit the range once a year. With no benches/bays open my only option was to shoot at the opposite end of the range at a handgun bay. I used bags on the hood of the truck for a rest. It wasn't the steadiest position. To top it off it was very windy with frequent gusts that made consistency difficult.

Right off the bat I was very impressed with the Ruger BX trigger. They should come from the factory with this trigger. It was fairly common for the factory extractor to fail to extract a round. I didn't shoot a lot today but the extractor from the Volquartsen Bolt Tune-Up Kit worked perfectly. I was amazed at how smooth the gun seemed to operate without the factory steel bolt stop pin. The Flatline Ops Recoil Buffer I used is a steel rod with a rubber sleeve. I didn't realize how much shock and vibration there was with the steel pin before this.

After emptying a magazine the bore was fouled enough to start shooting decent groups. Due to the conditions I mentioned I don't think they were nearly as good as the gun is capable of. Next week the range should be back to its normal use so hopefully I can see what the gun will do from a steadier rest.

I wanted to experiment with the Wheeler F.A.T. (Firearms Accurizing Torque) Wrench to see if the amount of torque on the take-down screw would affect accuracy. I shot 5 shots at 10, 15 and 20 inch pounds. Under these conditions I wouldn't say this is conclusive but it seemed to group best with the screw tightened to 15 inch pounds. I'll experiment with this more when conditions are better.

Cool!
Keep us updated

I just installed a KIDD bolt handle guide rod kit. This is the first visible upgrade I've done to my Charger. It has an improved guide rod and 3 springs so you can match them to the ammo being used. The other upgrades (Volquartsen Bolt Tune-Up Kit, Flatline Ops Recoil Buffer and a Ruger BX Trigger Assembly) were either internal or in the case of the trigger not visibly different. The handle is 1/4" longer than the stock handle and feels much better.