Originally Posted by
mudgripz
Many may advise buying a Ruger 10/22 as your semiauto 22LR - yet I would suggest caution with this. Especially if you are fairly new to 22s. As a rimfire hobbyist I've had/benched 5-6 Rugers over the years and frankly they were inaccurate in stock, standard barrel form. When buying and testing new makes/models I'll typically run up to 15 types of ammo through them to find best accuracy. I did this with our Rugers - but the very best of them managed just a 1.04" four x 5 shot group average at 50m. Others averaged 1.25 - 1.5", and that's poor. We did also have a very modified model but it was mostly Green Mountain, Volquartsen etc parts - no longer a Ruger. Shot alot better but someone had poured money into it, money you rarely get back when you later sell the rifle.
The standard Rugers tested were the least accurate of about 2-3 dozen makes/models we've had. Some causes - loose chambers, uneven rifling, poor barrel pinning. On one of ours I slugged the barrel - i.e. pushed a detached projectile down it - and it was tight, then sloppy loose, before tightening again = Inconsistent twist, poor inaccuracy.
The older 10/22s were better made than recent versions - some of which are poor. Yes you can buy the look/feel of the thing, but sooner or later everyone begins to prize accuracy - and in standard form they don't have it compared to other makes. To overcome this, Ruger fans often spend an extra $1000 or so on new barrels, stocks, triggers etc - but as noted, that's money they seldom get back..
Some were definitely accurate - but they were the exception rather than the rule. Fun little 22s but often with a flaw, a limitation. Some modified and heavy barrel variants could be very fine shooters.
Cheers Mudz. And PS if you have an accurate 10/22 - hang onto it :)