After the coverage of one of the newest 10/22 versions in a previous edition of Shooting Wire, here, I was contacted by a friend at Ruger. It seems the company wanted it back; it’d gone out with the wrong sights.
… and after going to the trouble of getting a zero with that gun.
It’s their gun, so I more-or-less sadly shipped it back. The reason I was sad was just the absolute utility of the little heater. The rifle, Model 31152, was a short take-down model 10/22 with the neat Magpul X-22 Backpacker furniture.
Taken down, the barrel assembly fits in a space on the underside of the buttstock. The stock has a nice-feeling handguard and integrated storage in the cheekpiece and the pistol-grip. The stock storage area holds three spare 10/22 magazines (supplied). A nonslip butt pad and QD sling mounting capability with optional adapters rounds out the package.
The rifle was to come with fiber optic sights, front and rear. After a few weeks after returning the fine little gun, I was notified there was a transfer awaiting me at the local gun shop. It was another 10/22 Takedown Model 31152.
Like the previous gun, it shipped with a magazine in the gun and three more under the cheekpiece of the Magpul Backpacker stock. Realizing that I’d have to check the zero on this gun, a pleasurable chore with a 22, I collected some ammo and a shooting rest and headed out to the range.
The just-over-four-pound rifle has a barrel of 16.4” that features a threaded muzzle. A thread protector is in place; check it often to ensure it hasn’t backed out from shooting.
The sights, far as I can tell, are the WDOS Ruger 10/22 Firesight Set from Williams Gunsight.
I set up at fifty yards on the 2/3 size IPSC-style steel target (about 12”x15” “body” and ca. 4”x4” “head” box) that I’d freshly painted. I used Remington “Golden Bullet” HV from the 50-round box and fired a five-shot fifty-yard group. The shooting was from a seated rest.
The first five went under the sights, favoring right. I was holding on the upper 1/3 of the target. After a rear sight adjustment – have your gunsmith screwdriver set and ‘cheater’ glasses with you – I put five hits into the center of the target. Using Federal Hunter Match, I hit center in a ca. 2.5” five-shot group. The best four hits made bullet splashes on the steel that touched – under an inch. That’s better than I can see.
With CCI Stinger – a lighter bullet going faster – the group hit center under the sights, about 1.5” below the top of the front fiber optic sight. Four of the hits went into an inch and a half, with a single flyer pushing out to 2.5”. That’s plenty good for a light, 16” takedown carbine and iron sights for this old man.
The following day, I took the new gun out to see where it’d hit at a shorter range with other ammunition. From 25 yards standing, using Remington ‘Golden Bullet’ (HV, 50 round box), I stayed inside the ‘head’ area of a Birchwood Casey ‘Dirty Bird’ 12”x18” BC-27 without real effort. I also fired Winchester “333” 36gr. HP, CCI CLEAN-22 and CCI Blazer from the Backpacker-format 10/22TD. All rounds fed, fired, extracted-ejected. That’s good enough.
The sights are everything I’d been led to expect. Paul Pluff, at Ruger, told me that fiber optic sights were keeping him in the iron sight game longer. That’s the case for me too. They are wonderfully visible and an improvement.
As to the gun, it’s a remarkable little rifle.
-- Rich Grassi