Recently purchased ruger's design contest rifle.  

Having trouble getting my poi to match my poa.  The rifle shoots to the left.  I adjusted the rear aperture all the way to the right and the poi is  still 2-3 inches to the  left of poa using 36gr cci mini mag at 25 yards.  Phoned ruger, they said front sight pinned and none adjustable and recommend me send rifle in for inspection if I cannot resolve the issue to my satisfaction.

I  plan to take the rifle out tomorrow and see what I can do with it. Whether it's me or the gun.  

Anyone else having any issues sighting in this model?

That is a known issue with the 50th anniv rifle, check out rimfirecentral.com for more info.

Thanks p226guy

I got the same rifle last week. Took it out to zero it in at 25 yards for a club match. (22 standing (non-rested) 25yard match)

I too was about 2-3" left with the rear sight fully adjusted to the right. Also about 1" high, but I can live with that by using a 6 o'clock hold. I ended up taking the rear sight off to mount a scope that a friend brought out for me. It was a Simmons 3-9x40 and was hitting the rear sight anyway.

The trigger was pretty crappy, but I wasn't expecting much from a stock 10/22 trigger. Heavy, a little gritty and a fair amount of creep.

When I got home I was able to drift the front sight to the left fairly easily, so I may try to re-zero the sights. I'll probably just leave the scope on it. I also disassembled the trigger group and stoned the hammer and sear surfaces some to smooth up the trigger. I got rid of the grit and some of the creep, but the weight is still much higher than I would like. I ordered a Volquatsen kit that should be here next week and we'll see where that puts it. It has the hammer, shims and reduced springs, so along with the smoothed sear I did I hope it will be fine.

I tried a few different kinds of ammo. Federal Auto match, Norma Tac22, Wolf Match Extra, and CCI Standard Velocity. They all shot pretty good with it, but the CCI group just shrunk right up to one ragged hole rested on a bi-pod.

I shot the match (30 rounds, 15 each at 2 targets) with the CCI SV and ended up placing 3rd with a 286 out of a possible 300 with 9x ring hits.

Here is Target 1


by c.swimm, on Flickr

And Target 2


Untitled by c.swimm, on Flickr

Not bad considering it was brand new and first time with it at the range. You can tell I was having a lot harder time keeping steady on the second target as did everyone else. I was the only one shooting a box stock 10/22. Most others had heavy barrels, custom stocks, and worked over triggers. FIrst place was the only person not shooting some kind of 10/22. He shot a CZ452 and got a 294.

A shame about the sights. That was one of the things I liked about the rifle when I saw it. I am happy with the accuracy, and can't wait to see how it does with the trigger upgrade.

I am regretably a similar situation except mine shoots to the right.

Day one.
Out of the box shooting at 100 yds.
POI was right 12-16"s
Rear site nearly maxed left for good POA/POI
Elevation good to go
All screws holding rear sight and picatinny rail loosen under recoil too.

Went home
Loosened barrel clamp screws and rotated barrel left as front sight seemed slightly canted from factory using a level.
Loc-tited all screws
Re-zero'd and now rear sight is only about 2/3 available left windage.
Not bad but when practicing coming up on target there's a tendency to be misaligned off rear sight. Meaning you end up looking between the protective ear and the side of the rear aperture.

Though grouping and zero'd well enough I have since re-loosened the barrel clamping bolts and rotated the barrel slightly back to the right. See it's misleading. The bore doesn't really move compared to the front site post and ears being farther away from the centerline of the bore. I'm mainly looking at now that the cut in the barrel is as close to perfect lining up for the bolt's extractor. Using a small bubble level I'm comfortable now that everything is as true as I can make it. Live fire will be Sunday to see if I'm back to square one or good to go.

Love this rifle but a little miffed I have to correct these problems.

Thanks for the info. I loosened my V-block screws too, and straightened my barrel. I put a level across the front sight ears and across the picatiny rail until they were both level.

I will try it out at the range on Sunday.

It worked for me. Just make sure your extractor cut in the chamber and the extractor on the bolt are lined up too.

Confirmed today. 100 yards. Zero'ing group of 5 was low right.
Made one correction and after that it put them right in there. Rear sight is only slightly adjusted left. Nothing I would call excessive.
After about 200 rounds of consistently hitting at 100 yrds using it's iron sights I'm feeling better about it's future.

Here are the key learnings for me. If anybody else is having a similar issue try these things. You need to know how to correct this stuff on your own.

*Loc-tite and witness mark everything (sight & picatinny rail screws, take down screw, barrel v-block bolts, even barrel to receiver joinder)
*Use a bubble level to get the feel for what an un-canted rifle feels like. I'll swear it's level and after checking I'll be off. For me I'll think the ears of the rear sight are level and the front will seem canted but once I had the level on it.... front sight lined up good with the bubble.
*Loosen V block bolts and re-install barrel using a level. Watch the torque on the barrel V block bolts. 25 lbs is not much at all. I'm thinking this is where some of the trouble was coming from. The elevation changed drastically (about 10"s as you can see in the pic with the zero'ing group) just from those bolts not be mashed down I think.
*The rear aperture sight assembly is slightly eschew as compared to the picatinny rail. The sight portion is on a fixed tang connected to the rail held together with one allen bolt. The site assembly on mine is a few thousand's of an inch off to the right as you can tell by the bevels on each side of the rail.  There's no fix. You can try to persuade it to one side or the other when you have it apart to apply blue loc-tite to the bolt but where the hole is drilled will prevail. The rear aperture is now centered down the rail but since the sight assembly is off to the right 2-3 thousandths the aperature is left the same amount to line everything up.
*The front site can be slightly off in it's milled dovetail slot. I can just barely catch a nail on it on one side and none on the other. You may have to align it. I did not.

All of these conditions will lead to an excessive windage or elevation issues. Mine is GTG now but it took me two adjustments of the barrel with live fire confirmation to get it all correct. I've done two range trips since firing around 200 rnds each time and getting this typical group at 100 yrds. I am now satisfied.

Was looking at one of these 50th anniversary rifles today and had to fight to keep from picking it up... I already have three 10/22s and can't see the reason to add another one.  With that said, I only wish that Ruger will sell the rear-sight/rail system, along with the winged front sight set as an upgrade since that would go nicely with my fixed stock Tactical 10/22 carbine or even with my Tactical Take-Down 10/22 carbine as well.

I have 2 of these rifles, one for me and one for my son. One of the rifles was very close to zeroed and had no problems with adjustments. The second rifle had the rear sight maxed out to the right to get windage on target. I took the barrel V block off this one and re-installed it straight. I then mechanically zeroed the rear sight and tried again. This time the rifle required only minor adjustment to get zeroed.

Right on. Good job.