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IMO.....

1. Buy yourself a used 10/22 at a pawn shop or want ads etc. There are millions and millions of them out there and they are very reasonable priced used.  

2, Most 10/22s shoot better than their owners without modfication.  

3. Buy lots of ammo and magazines and shoot the hell out of it before succuming to the "have to modify it to keep up with the internet commandos desease."

4. A cheap scope will increase your accuracy more than any expensive bull barrel or trigger.

5. There is only one accessory I recommend and that is an extended mag release*. Get a cheap plastic one or make one. Don't buy a super duper custom one.

* new 10/22s come with an extended mag release from what I understand.

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#1. I tried to find a cheaper used one, apparently they hold value well. $30 difference in my area.

#2 - totally agree, if you can't hit the broad side of a barn without mods, you still won't hit it with.

#3 +1 on that

#4. Hence my tasco $10 4x (ok, I put a red dot on my mod, but red dot is whole different ball game and for a .22 about $25)

#5 Yes, they come on the new ones, bolt extender is nice along with replacing the back receiver pin($3.00)

I've seen the heavily modded ones at the range and their groups are no better (sometimes much worse) than mine. Ammo is so cheap, practice makes perfect.

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How big is a quarter lol. I didn't have a ruler but this is from a kneeling position at 50 yards with the tasco and cheap ammo. Also, this was after sighting in the tasco after I mounted it, hadn't shot a rifle in about 20 years but I do shoot pistol a lot. So the 10/22 wasn't even broken in yet, I wanted to see how it would shoot without modding.

I used to be better but it's hell getting old


http://i34.tinypic.com/jhdl6w.jpg

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Yeah that's a pretty standard stock group for a 10/22 at 50.  You won't tighten that up much shooting off a bench either.

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Ok, got home and a quarter is an inch around. Those all fit within the quarter. So I guess it's a "pretty standard stock group" for everybody. But yet if I modded with all the things you mentioned AND used some good ammo AND shot it using a bench rest or something I'd get to the .50 - .75 inch group.

Noted.

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I want a very accurate, very reliable, good running every day gun that I can take out and plink half a day with, using a variety of ammo - but at the same time is a tack-driver, 50-yrd asprin buster.

.....

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Ok, got home and a quarter is an inch around. Those all fit within the quarter. So I guess it's a "pretty standard stock group" for everybody. But yet if I modded with all the things you mentioned AND used some good ammo AND shot it using a bench rest or something I'd get to the .50 - .75 inch group.

Noted.

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So you're saying all those shots fit under that quarter?

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Ok, let me try to put this in scale. That target you see is a Official 25 ft rapid fire pistol target (only ones I had handy). The whole target is appox 7'' wide by 9'' tall. the 10 ring is exactly the size of a u.s. nickel. In that group that I got, 5 are in the 10 ring and 4 are in the 9 ring. You can see that a quarter fits over most of the group. Also, like I mentioned it was done from the kneeling position by a close to 60 year old guy (without great eyesight btw), with a gun that was new with about 20 rounds through it using remington thunderbolt ammo using a 25 year old 4x tasco scope that I paid $10 for. It was done fairly rapidly, I didn't take a long time between shots. I wanted to see how the 10/22 did out of the box. What else can I tell you? I'm not trying to b.s. anybody but I can't prove that. I'm not trying to impress anyone either. It it what it is. Hell it's the internet and I COULD of been 5 ft away. I COULD of photoshopped it and erased the two that actually touch the white part of the target. Heck, I COULD of erased everything except for the 4 that are totally in the 10 and then they would be covered by a nickel. So, in your minds eye just move that quarter over the group. Two of them aren't covered by the quarter (barely)

You posted that "With a cheap scope I was only getting about 1.75-2" -was that from the kneeling position, standing or using a bench rest?

Then you spent some amount of money on parts. I don't know what kind of barrel you got - let's say $140? Scope? $100? hammer and trigger? power Custom is $115. New stock? $100?  Round it off to $500 to get that improvement.

Now back to my original statement which started this: I've seen the heavily modded ones at the range and their groups are no better (sometimes much worse) than mine  I still stand behind that statement. I was at the range when I shot that group, a guy sat next to me, his two 20 something year old kids were with him and they MUST have had $1,000 to $1,500 in each gun - 3 total. I told him I was dialing in the scope. I told my son "it's good to go".  He went and put new targets up and I shot that group that you see. I brought it back and showed it to the guy. I said "looks like it's dialed in ok". He didn't say a word. I watched them all shoot, their groups weren't that tight and they were freaking bench resting them! In fact I asked if I could shoot one to feel the trigger pull, was the same pull as mine, he told me that they had been worked. The new ones have a better trigger pull I've been told.

Call me miserly but I bought a whole AR-15 a NICE one for $650. I'm perfectly satisfied with my group in that picture, probably with practice and good ammo I could tighten it up a bit. IMHO you can get carried away trying to improve your group with money when a major part of all this is learning how to shoot. To each their own though. The original poster wanted some input and I tried to give him some.

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http://www.gaernin.net/~enigma/jhdl6w.jpg

Still looks to me that the group is about 2.1".  Which is a good group for a stock 10/22, especially kneeling unsupported at 50 yards.  If those guys were running custom guns and getting groups about the same size, well... all the money in the world into your gun isn't going to make you a better shooter.

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yes, and that was my point, spending all that money won't make that much of a difference. Because in my example, it is mainly my inability to hold a tighter group than that. The only way I could actually judge what the gun could do would be to put it in a vise so there is no movement caused by the operator of the gun. Who knows how tight my group would be if there was no "operator error" as it were. In actual conditions, tactical or hunting, how much difference does it make? I understand though that if I was in some competition  or the Olympics I'd spend as much money as it takes. But in my world I'd rather have another pistol or rifle, but that's just my take on it.

My choice was to mod it to a G36C, about $100 just because it looks so different, again, the choices that one makes.