Im wanting to custom build a 10/22. I have a few questions.

Can I do it myself? Or do I need a gunsmith to put it all together for me?

Can I buy a receiver somewhere or do I actually have to buy a whole rifle to start off?

I want to automatically replace the barrel and stock and I figured that was already half the gun. I just want to do it cheaply and not have a lot of spare parts left over.

If you are handy with tools and reasonably knowledgeable about guns you should be able to do almost all of the work yourself.

You either buy a base 10/22 and strip it down to the receiver and replace all the parts you want to customize or you can buy a stripped receiver and build it from scratch.
Virtually all of the parts can be bought on the internet.

You will probably reuse the bolt, guide rod and spring.  You don't need to replace the whole trigger group if you know how to do the work on that yourself.  (Or have a gunsmith do it.)
You can buy all new replacement parts for the trigger group as well.

How much money you spend is up to you.  Some guys have more than $1,000 into their guns.
Not including the scope I have about $300 into mine.

Spend your money on the barrel, the trigger group, the stock and the sights, pretty much in that order.
Do it right and you can have a gun that will easily shoot 1/2 inch groups at 50 yards all day long.  (Off a rest)  It should be able to get 1 to 2 inch (or better) groups at 100.

It would be cheaper to start out with a 10/22 and replace the parts as you go.  Then sell the parts that you take off to recoup some money.  

Bad news is that on the newer 10/22's the barrel is glued in and dissasembly should be left to some one who knows what they are doing. So buy a used older one and modify yourself.

 BTW The worst that can happen is that you take it apart and can't put it back together; just put it in a box, bring it to a someone who knows what they are doing and reassemble.

Start here

After you start with Rimfire Central, you will probably have a better idea of how you want to go. Bare Ruger receivers are sometimes available, but not plentiful. Aftermarked receivers are more readily available and can be a good choice to build a gun from the ground up from parts. It is much easier than you might think.

It is probably less expensive to buy a used 10/22 and take the receiver and build it up than to buy a VQ or other after market receiver. I got an inexpensive 10/22, changed out everything and had a pile of parts, minus the receiver. I found another Ruger receiver and built another gun from the parts. I am currently considering getting a nice aftermarket receiver and building another one just for fun.

I've got three, one is bone stock (except for a Power Custom trigger/sear) for my daughter to learn to shoot with open sights, one is the factory "target" model, and the third (the ONLY one i shoot...)  started out as a $170 BiMart cheapie.  I built it with a Tactical Solutions Barrel, Volquartsen Trigger, Hogue ghillie camo stock, and inexpensive 4-10x scope all myself.   I think I've got $500 into it and it'll do 1/2" at 50 yds all day long.



I've got zero gunsmith training and it wasn't too bad at all.  If you carefully study and memorized the trigger group parts before you remove them, it'll make sense how they go back in.  besides, i'm sure there's a graphic over on rimfire if you get lost...

+1 to having fun doing it yourself.  Careful, they're addictive....

I'm in the middle of my second build.  I got an unfinished Boyd's stock - stained it then finished with Tru-Oil.  Bedded with the VQ pillar and JB Weld.  The barrel is an ER Shaw.  The scope is a fixed 24x Tasco (japan) that a friend of mine gave me several years ago, mounted with Leupold rings and a PC base.

No internal mods yet - I'll probably be ordering those tonight or tomorrow....



ETA:  Here's my first build - a lightweight 'squirrel' gun.  TacSol barrel, Hogue stock, upgraded internals, Leupold 1-4x scope.

AR-TRVLR;

Your first gun (the one in the bottom picture) looks just like mine.
I like the stock on the second (top) one.  I might change my stock to one like that some day.  The Hogue stock is nice but it's not as sturdy as I hoped.  Polymer stocks have their benefits but there's nothing like wood for rigidity.

That 24X scope looks great but I gave up on two piece mounts long ago.  Now I only use one piece mounts like the Weigand 10/22 scope mount:
http://www.jackweigand.com/1022.html

It's only $50 and it's machined from a solid piece of metal.  It screws directly to the top of the receiver and the scope clamps right in.
No misalignment.  It will never get knocked off kilter.  Rock solid.  No fuss, no muss!

The only other thing that comes close is the BKL Precision mount but that mounts to the Weaver rail on the top of the gun where the Weigand directly bolts to the gun.

I'll never go back to a two-piece mount again.

Great minds think alike, eh?  I'm actually very happy with the hogue - it does exactly what I wanted.  It's a lightweight stock for a lightweight rifle.  I have no pretensions about it being a target gun.  It shoots plenty accurately, but the bigger limit is the fool behind the trigger.  Of course, its' limits are exactly why I'm building the other one.....



I'm still reserving judgment on the scope.  It's far more powerful than what I would have bought, but the price was right....

I'll keep my eye on the scope - I've never really been a target shooter, so this is my first real foray into the game.  Are there symptoms of mis-alignment I should specifically watch out for?

My gun (like your black one) has a 10 X scope.  It can bullseye a quarter from 50 yards with cheap ammo and do it all day long.  Buy good ammo and the groups shrink to the size of a dime.
(Shooting from a sandbag rest and a sturdy bench.)

If your scope monts are out of alignment the gun will do weird things.  You will sight it in and you will think it's all right on the money but it will just go out of whack on you for no appearent reason.
I spent a whole day sighting in the gun, only to have it go off again, five minutes later.
Another symptom is if you can't get the gun to shoot on the paper, no matter how far you turn the adjusters.
If your gun does these things, it's probably best to take the scope off and remount from scratch.

Also, on cheaper scopes, it is possible that they won't hold their adjustments very well.
Some of the more "budget priced" scopes are fine for plinking and field shooting but remember the old saying:  "Good, fast or cheap...  Pick two out of three."

I'm not the greatest expert in the world but here's what I did to get mine shooting well.
1)  New Barrel, new stock & reworked the trigger.  (Kept same trigger but polished the hammer/sear.)
2)  Rimfire Technologies blueprinted bolt, guide rod, spring and bolt buffer.
3)  Sightron 3-10X scope.

To install the scope:
1) Ensure the windage/elevation adjustments on the scope are set to exact center.
I got a couple of pieces of wood to lay on the table and rolled the scope across them while looking through the eyepiece.  If the crosshairs are not centered, they will appear to wander as the scope rolls.  Adjust a click or two and repeat test until you are satisfied the scope is at center.

2)  Install scope on rings but tighten only to snug.  Ensure everything is mounted plumb, level and square.

3) Shine a light out the barrel.  I use one of those battery powered bore inspection lights.
http://secure.armorholdings.com/kleen-bore/product109.html
If you want, you can just use a regular flashlight and a dentist mirror.  Whatever method you use, the goal is to make a spot of light shine on the wall when you point the gun.

4)  Go into a dark room with your gun and light.  Aim the gun at a wall, a fair distance away.
I did this in the basement where I can get a good 25 foot shot from end to end.
If you have a gun vise, this will be easier.  If not just put a sandbag or a pillow on the table.

5)  Look through the scope and see if you can find the dot of light on the wall, coming from the barrel of the gun.
Use the adjustments in the mounts to bring the spot to the exact center of the cross hairs.
Tighten one side of the mount base or loosen the other (alternately) until the cross hair moves onto the center of the light spot.
You can use shims in the bottoms of the rings to alter the vertical alignment but, if you have been careful when you did the mounting in the first place, this should not be needed.

6)  When you get everything lined up the way you want, tighten all the screws down to the recommended torque.  (Approx. 20 inch-pounds.)

7)  You are ready to take the gun out to the range and sight it in.

Again, this is the way I did it.  Other people use bore sighters to align the scope.  Other people use those laser thingies.  Personally, I do it with a beam of light going down the barrel.  If that's how light goes down the barrel, so will a bullet.  Right?

You already know how to bed your action and tune the rest of the gun.  That should be academic for you.
But, in my experience, if you don't get that scope mounted on the gun, straight and true, there's no amount of tinkering that will make it right.

Thing is, when I got my Weigand mount, all that went out the window.  I carefully bolted the mount onto the gun and installed the scope in the mount.  It was perfect.  No fussing around.
And, if it gets bumped or dropped, there's no worry about knocking it out of alignment because there's nothing in the mount to move out of alignment.  If you hit it hard to move the scope, you probably broke the scope anyway.

I used to spend a lot of time fussing with scope mounts.  With the Weigand mount, I hardly ever worry about it.