My wife recently started shooting and is limiting herself to 22lr. She has decided that she is tired of cycling the bolt on her Savage MKii each shot, so I got her a 10/22. She is small so that typical 13-14 inch trigger pull is too long. She also only shoots suppressed.

I found a 10/22 for $195.


I cut 2 inches off of the back of the stock with a scroll saw and cut down and threaded the barrel.


I nearly ruined the barrel though. I marked it off in a few spots for turning on the lathe then started cutting with the band saw on the wrong mark!

This is why I have a smaller diameter in front of the threads to eliminate the cut mark and keep the barrel longer than 16".

This barrel was not straight like many other cheap barrels. I also do not have a 4 jaw chuck so I used a three jaw to hold the chamber end and a live center in the muzzle. I turned down a small straight spot to ride in the steady rest then turned down and cut threads. I got lots of chatter when cutting the relief groove. I finished with re-cutting the crown.

The lousy Ruger scope mount base will be replaced with a Leupold Weaver type base to mount a 4-12 Nikon mil-dot scope. I will also get a .920 match grade barrel to replace the factory one. I will need to remove some wood to make the new barrel fits also.

After I sand off the finish I want to use a very dark stain. Can anyone recommend a blackish stain that still allows the grain to show through?

Ranb

I sanded off the original finish and stained it black. The grain still shows a bit and I like that better than painting. I still need to cut off the front part and widen the barrel channel after obtaining the .920" barrel.



There are a few deeper scratches that I did not get out, but it looks nice and will look even better when I put on a protective sealant.

I attached an old scope and brought it to the range to op check it. It functioned 100% with 50 rounds. The nylon bolt stop pin that replaced the original steel one reduced noise when shot suppressed with subsonic ammo.

Ranb

FWIW, it takes some pretty meticulous prep work of the muzzle in order to utilize a center accurately. It becomes even more critical when you are planning to push a bullet through a suppressor, centered. Some folks think that simply inserting a center into the muzzle will somehow keep the bore true, ain't so. BTW, that looks like the thread tenon for the Silencerco Sparrow. Is it?

I cut off the barrel then squared it off in the lathe so that the live center would ride the lands evenly. The silencer is well aligned on this barrel and I am not getting any baffle strikes at all. I merely did a single point cut for the threads and cut a relief groove in back. The tenon was cut solely to remove the defect I created when starting to cut with the band saw as described in the original post.

I have heard of the Sparrow but know nothing about it at all. I make my own silencers.

Ranb

It is shootable now and works well enough. I still have to put a good barrel on it. The silencer is about eight years old and has been treated a bit rough. I still need to find some paint that will stick to it or learn how to anodize.

If the scope looks like it is set too far back, it is. My wife is short and holds her cheek rather far back on the stock.

Ranb

When you rebarrel it, give these a try. I use these when I do Rem 581's. They are phenomenally accurate and relatively cheap.

You might also try some hi temp flat black paint, the kind they use on BBQ's and wood burning stoves. It holds pretty good and will withstand the heat that the "cans" are known to produce.

http://www.brownells.com/.aspx...g-REPLACEMENT-BARREL

I already have a barrel on order, but thanks. I tried the high temp wood stove paint on barrels and silencers before and while it never bubbled up, it was soft and wore off quickly. High temp paint is not required on this can as I am unable to heat it up much on a semi-auto or bolt gun. The GunKote finish on the silencer now was completely ruined after one trip in a gun case in the baggage compartment of an airliner. One person suggested that I try Rhino Lining to make a thin hard shell on the tube.

Ranb

All it really needs now is a trigger job and a extended clip release. I hate the factory trigger on those things. I completely re-worked mine and I am still not happy with it.

I am going to machine the bolt release so that it auto releases. I am going to get an extended magazine release also. I will work on the trigger a bit too, but if I can't make it work right, then I might get some better parts. I have a Nikon 4x12 mil-dot scope in for warrantly service, when it comes back I will mount that in place of the 4x on it now.

Ranb

quote:

Originally posted by ranb40:
I will work on the trigger a bit too, but if I can't make it work right, then I might get some better parts.

Ranb

I originally tried to rework the factory trigger. While you can get the trigger pull lighter, you will still have a lot of creep. The other thing that you cant fix from the factory trigger is the grittiness. This is partly due to the reset spring.

Almost done. The original barrel shot 3" at 100 yards, not bad for a bent barrel. The .920" barrel shoots 1.5" at 100 yards. It weighs a ton but my wife will be only shooting it from the bench. Still need to machine the bolt release so it will auto release and try to make the trigger better. Still waiting on the Nikon to return from warranty service.

Ranb

The stock still needed more work. My wife's fingers are short so she needed a smaller area to wrap her fingers around to get to the trigger. I whittled down the pistol grip area with a rasp and smoothed it out with sand paper.



For some reason the newly exposed wood is not taking the ebony stain very well. But form over function I guess.

I also ground down the bolt release to make it auto release. Easier said than done the first time. I only had to take it out then reinstall six times.

Ranb

Use black wrinkle paint; Brownells has it and so do most good hardware stores. Throw away the factory trigger and get a new match trig and sear, already tuned.

quote:

For some reason the newly exposed wood is not taking the ebony stain very well.

Prime it and use black spray-on truck bed liner.

I gave away my trigger assembly away and installed a Jewell. It would help it shoot better if you had a buddy weld a tab on the rear of the receiver and drill and tap it for a second action screw.

How effective is the "can" on it?
Does it quiet it down a bunch or just take the edge off?
I'd like to make a couple of those moderators, can you show some better pictures of it?
By the way nice the way your project is turning out.