I have a 10/22 TD with a Leupold FX 4X28 and want to add a light to hunt with at night?

Think of adding a small pic rail to the side of forearm but worried about the barrel and suppressor casting a shadow. And do not want to attach it to the scope tube.

Which way would be best?

I've been thinking of getting a magpul stock so I can put a light rail and a tlr1 on mine.  Right now I use 3or4 inch wide bands of inner tube and a g2.

I recently gave this some thought but my son laid claim to my takedown, so I didn't have a chance to test the theory.  But...

If you remove the "barrel band" on a TD (which serves no function anyway), that front inch and a half or so of stock is pretty much parallel to the barrel, making it a good place to mount a light.
There should be enough room there to mount a short polymer rail section using screws and epoxy.  (Using the polymer rail also makes it relatively easy to shape the rail to fit the curve of the stock if necessary.)
While you could place it on the left or right side, if you mount the light under the barrel, the beam will reach in front of you and to both sides.  The barrel may cast a shadow, but the shadow will be directly above the muzzle so it shouldn't bother you too much.

Ignore the barrel band below...just a quick mock-up to explain what I mean:

Attached File

The only issue I have with under barrel lights is usually the shadow is in the face of what you are trying to shoot.

I tried mounting a small rail like that and the first coon I shot in my coop the shadow covered the face and eyes,  if you miss you lose the blinding advantage, I missed the DRT button and ended up with a blooded up coon crawling up my leg.

Think I may just tape the light to the forearm and see how bad it sucks.

I have sling stud mounted on the bottom so that kinda screws up the under barrel setup

What about using a 45 degree offset between the scope bases and mounting it to one side or the other? Just wondering.

Choate sling swivel shotgun magazine tube clamp... clamp it far enough forward to not throw a shadow... may have to bend slightly

Well, that doesn't sound like fun!  I'm guessing you were shooting at very close range?
If the light source is as far forward as possible, and if it hangs a couple inches below the barrel, the shadow effect shouldn't reach more than maybe a foot or so directly forward of the muzzle.

Hmm.  Now I'm going to have to shop for another takedown just to test my theory!
 

10X10 coop.

It kinda was fun.  You haven't lived till you've hand to paw with a pissed off coon.

After that I had a run of stuck casings that were exhilarating. It's was funny cause it only happened when I was in the coop with a critter.  The next day I could fire a few dozen rounds with no issues. That night, bam, stuck case! I was considering mounting a bayonet.

I got rid of my chickens 2 years ago and I don't miss the birds as much as I miss the nightlife.

LOL

Regarding the stuck cases, were those cold, damp, nights?
...It's bad when you can't count on the bang every time.

Some nights were cold, alot were rainy.  Happened with my 10/22, 10/22 TD and my AR with a conversion kit.  

The AR jam was exciting. Was my first coop raider kill. A huge coon was dangling upside down from my feeder. I shot and misjudged the angle and the bullet just bloodied it's nose.  The coon drops and charges right at me I hit it with the light and go to fire. Nothing!  The coon runs right past my legs and right smack into a wall. I had just enough time the hit it with the buttstock like a golf club and stomp it with my foot. Sucker was 40lbs!  And delicious.

That may work but would cast a shadow. Will they mate up to a weaver rail? Like the one shipped with all 10/22s?

I could have used one yesterday. I sighted mine in yesterday in the back yard and was very surprised on the grouping. It got dark on me tho.  


Stock Ruger 10/22TD, Leupold FX4, Leupold QD Rings
Agulia Subsonic1B222269,  SiCo Spectre II All shots was taken at 50 Yards of the table using the sand bag. I thought these groups were pretty good for a 10/22 Take Down. The last target on the bottom right was with my Dead Air mask. The gun maintained zero with the different can and kept zero when swapping back to the spectre II.

Had a nightly trash can panda visitor for a while when we moved in.  Wound up taping a small but surprisingly  powerful flashlight to the the barrel about the 9 oc position. It got the job done at the 20 yds or so I needed to make the shot.

@OlGunner, my solution is similar to what you've proposed. This stock originally had a barrel-band too, which was removed, and the end of the stock chopped.

Fellow member here CS223 milled an aluminum block that is mounted inside the stock and an inverted rail is mounted to that. I filled in the tip with Acraglass and shaped it to fit the attached light. The "top" of the rail is milled to the same contour as the barrel.

Shadows are a non-issue with this setup. The full field-of-view through the tube is illuminated, either up close or far away. I think your solution would be relatively simple to complete and would look pretty slick; or you could run the rail into the end of the stock without too much extra work.

The difference here versus the shadowing problems @psegnatelli encountered are probably due to the distance from the light to the end of the barrel? It's only 5.5" in this case. If I look through the sight and approach a wall, I have to get the muzzle to within 29" of the wall before a shadow starts to appear at the top edge of the sight. Cut off some extra barrel, keep the target beyond 3 feet, and you should be good-to-go.

Wow, that's a pretty impressive mod. (Looks like a fun little shooter, too!)
Thanks for describing the actual shadow effect from yours.  I've just been thinking theoretically so it's nice to know it'll work (well enough for my purposes, at least).
In fact, since my light would hang lower below the barrel, it should show even less close-up shadow (given a barrel of the same length).  Yours is a much sleeker installation, though!

Thanks. That's my go-to critter-gitter while at the family farm. Slung over the shoulder, it's carried in and out of an EZ-Go, through barbed wire fences, into the woods, etc. Tucking the light closer to the barrel decreases the chances of it getting snagged on something and makes for a sleeker, handy setup. Turning it on and off is quick too, since the switch is pretty much in line with the stock and requires very little movement of the forward support hand. Even like it is though, the secondary Off/Laser/Both switch always seems to get bumped to "Off", which is frustrating.

Here's a simpler alternative to milling stuff if someone wanted to give it a try. You could do this with no specialized tools. All you'd need is some Brownells Acraglas Gel, modeling clay, and a rail.

You could test the setup beforehand by taping your light to the barrel, just to make sure shadowing wouldn't be an issue with your rifle. Space it out to replicate the expected final position.

Whittle out a slot for the rail at the tip of your stock (or cut out a hole for it, leaving a bit of material between the barrel and rail). Scuff up the interior of the stock for better adhesion.

Build a dam with the clay, and you might need some tin foil to keep the gel from running out of the rail slot. (If you chop off the end of the stock, form a 'cup' around the end with tin foil [a little wider and taller than the stock], pour and let it dry, then sand the compound smooth and flush to the end of the stock.)

Mix up the gel, pour it into the tip, and press the rail in place. Make sure you've set it low enough that it won't contact the barrel and that it's level.

Let it dry overnight, remove the clay, done.

Add a countersunk screw through the compound and rail, if you wanted to beef it up even more.

It's really easy and simple to do all this, so don't let the process intimidate you if you've never worked with Acraglas before.

The barrel band/sling attachment could be re-installed if you wanted to keep it.

X-ray view:

Plan C: Got DuckTape? Hey, no shadows!

Googling "10/22 light mount clamp on" there are a few options out there that would get it out by the muzzle.

Back in the late 90s took a Weaver or Surfire (IIRC) barrel clamp that had a small section of Picitinny rail and mounted a Surefire 6P with pressure switch.  Took couple of coon raiders at my mothers house in San Antonio as I was visiting.  This was also how we mounted lights to our guns in SF before rails.

CD

ProMag railed barrel band.

AGP folding stock comes with a fore end designed for rail sections