I have been avidly shooting my 10/22 ruger carbine model (wood stock with barrel band) and while it might be heavy, it is a lot lighter than with a bull barrel. I actually thought about replacing the barrel a while back with a nice fajen kit from Bass Pro; however, I realized that my barrel with stock flip up irons is a tack driver at 25-50 yards. Before you dump money into a new barrel, give it a shot the way it is and if you have any concern over the accuracy or it's reliability then you can give it a swap..
Also, after at least 5,000 rounds through my 10/22 I haven't had to replace any parts and have only had a handful of failure to fires and one or two failure to ejects. These are from the 525 bulk boxes that you can find at almost any store for 15-20 bucks. I had a couple failure to loads based on a crappy 25-round magazine with a plastic lip. I would stick with ruger made accessories.
Just buy one and play with it.. even my fiance, who is brand new to guns, can nail clay pidgeons laying on the ground at 50 yards shot after shot (outdoor public WMA range)...