Like most, I have had one for a while, prolly 25 yrs or so.
Its been parked for about 10yrs.  Before that it had seen plenty of use dispatching many many whistle pigs and the like.
Recently I was shopping for 12gauge shells, and found cci .22lr quiet for semi's, and thought this could be interesting and bought some.
After detailing the rifle, went out in the yard and test fired a few rounds.
Wow, they cycled fine and are pretty darn quiet.  Maybe a little bit louder than my springer .177 pellet rifle.
Really put a smile on my face.
Now off to find more of it.
, and the rifle is out of the safe.

I use subsonics in mine to shoot squirrels out of our Almond trees.

When shopping read the packaging car3fully there are two versions of cci quiet the regular one ( most common and will not function a semi)
And the semi version which functions most semis

While nice and quiet, they don’t have much of a reputation for accuracy.

For just a minor increased noise penalty European match ammo like SK eley or Lapua will function and be far more accurate

One ragged hole at 50 yards with cci subs.

I need to get mine out, it's pretty rare and just don't shoot it.

The 10/22 is not one gun , it can become pretty much anything you would wish it to be. More of a system.

You want it lighter ,more accurate , easier to pack , tiny stock for kids or other little folk , full size stock for big old boys , iron sights , red dots , true optics or whatever and there is somebody making stuff for it.

One doesn't begin to cut  it , any  gun guy needs 3 or 4 of various flavors and a serious nut more yet to cover most bases.

You know it is something when there is a whole industry out there just making stuff to improve Rugers shortcomeings

That's right.
I shoot CCI 22 Longs (710fps) which render my 10/22 a bolt action so I installed a large extended round bolt lever for easy manual cycling.



And while really slow 22 Longs aren't terrifically accurate, they're good enough for squirrels at 25 yards.

Firing a rifle upwards. Brilliant!

I bought a 10/22 in ‘74 or so.  It was my truck gun before the phrase was an excuse to buy another gun.

Great to see yours still in use!

How to say you've never hunted without saying you've never hunted.

Depends on ones locale. Where I grew up, shooting squirrels in trees was okay cause there weren't any neighbors for a long ways off.  On the farm where I hunt squirrels now, one would be ill advised to shoot squirrels any higher than about 6 feet up on a tree.  Several nearby (1/2 mile or so) houses.

MHO, YMMV, etc.

Yea, I agree,  each situation different,  we grew up plucking squirrels out of trees

No... out of our second story bedroom window into a hillside.
Same setup as a gun range.

I want to put a new trigger group in mine, as it is it stovepipes like a champ. Even with good CCI mini-mag ammo. I also want to get a threaded barrel for it.

??


Uh that is how you squirrel hunt.

In the history of humanity please cite just one case of a 22 rimfire round falling back to earth and hurting anyone.

Take a 22 rimfire round and pull the bullet. Take said bullet and throw it as high as you can. Note the damage done when it strikes the earth. Granted throwing it won’t get it high enough to reach terminal velocity but it is close enough for the example to stand.

I sure as hell would not shoot at a squirrel with anything at 6 foot off the ground. Not even a shotgun. That is human head level and dumb. Shooting up is plenty safe though.

I recently rediscovered my 10/22 also. I bought mine back in the 90's and slayed a ton of pine squirrels with it at my old place , but once I moved it got buried and neglected. I recently picked up a Faxon threaded barrel and added a Magpul stock along with suppressor and have been having some fun with it again.

I went the tricked out route years ago and now I’m trying something a little different. I’ve got an original carbine walnut (not birch) stock and I re-acquired a carbine barrel that was re-chambered with a match chamber, lapped and re-crowned. I want to make a stock looking sleeper rifle that shoots lights out. I need to make a custom butt plate because the original is too narrow for the wood, re-coat the old receiver and rust blue the barrel. I’ll bed it, free float the barrel (already relieved the barrel band to clear it) and add a BX trigger. I might get the bolt head spaced too. The only non original thing I’ll add is a peep sight. I think it’ll end up being a little squirrel hammer when I’m done.

Can you post a pic? I'd like to see your ideas.

Just send it to CPC for a work over :)

Bolt trued and headspaced, chamber recut, trigger gone over, etc.

Yep, I’ll post it up when it’s done.

I’ll probably send it to him after a bit, dumping my extra gun money into my MP5 clone right now. He did a bolt for me years ago and did great work. That gun was a work of art back from the old days of 10/22 customizing: Mike Turner cherry wood bench stock, KIDD trigger, CPC bolt, MOA steel receiver. The only Ruger part left was the bolt.

Attached File

I've had a 10/22 since the early 90s, but I never really considered it anything but a critter-gitter.  

For the past 30 years or so, my rifle was propped behind the back door to be handy for pest control--and that's about it.  It may have been fired 100 rounds in 2 decades, and other than the initial zeroing, every single shot was at a coyote, raccoon, skunk, or opossum.  It got used so little that I gave my old rifle to my gf's son.

I got interested in precision rimfire with my B14R and realized that I needed some instruction in the fundamentals, so I signed up for an Appleseed. Everyone seems to recommend the 10/22, and to be honest, I kinda missed my old trusty .22 so I bought another for a backup at the Appleseed.  It turns out that the B14R is NOT a good choice for the clinic--too heavy and the big glass is awkward at 25 yards without the bipod.  

The second day, I switched to my old 10/22......and IMMEDIATELY scored Rifleman, cleaned the Redcoat/shingle and shot 3 more qualifying AFQTs--only missed Distinguished by 8 points.  That's when the lightbulb came on for me and my 10/22 got put back into rotation.  New barrel, new stock, new optic, new trigger--it can almost keep up with the B14R now and it's still light enough for practical shooting.

To be honest, I don't think any of my centerfires have been touched in over a year, but the B14R and the 10/22 both get shot almost daily.....I'm going through 4 to 5 bricks/month, and the practice shows.  


My 10/22 was a capable and reliable rifle.  Now it's a capable and reliable rifle that's accurate and fun to shoot!

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Here’s the first pic of it assembled, no peep sight yet. I forgot that I made an internal trigger return spring for the BX trigger and it is very smooth and light, the pull weight might actually need to be increased. It also has a rivet in the rear of the receiver that is bedded to act as a second retention point and the action screw is pillar bedded. I was able to clean up the original bluing and won’t rust blue it now. I coated the receiver with Spraymax 2k matte epoxy and it seems tough as nails. Finally, I refinished the stock with pure tung oil for a very smooth in-the-wood finish.

Attached File

I've got an old wood stock I would love to build a sleeper like that.