I bought a Ruger 10/22 back in 2001 and I modified it various times during the first few years of ownership with a couple of different Volquartsen barrels and a couple of different stocks. For about 15 years, it remained in the same configuration.
- Ruger 10/22 factory receiver
- Ruger 10/22 factory bolt (with Volquartsen Exact Edge Extractor)
- Volquartsen 18.5″ Stainless Steel match barrel (+1.5″ compensated)
- Ruger 10/22 factory trigger (with Volquarsten target hammer)
- Bell & Carlson Anschutz-style stock
- Volquartsen barrel mounted scope mount
- Weaver T36 (36x fixed magnification) scope
I rarely shot the rifle the past 15 years or so because my focus on shooting never really prompted me to bring it to the range. The configuration above is also very benchrest-oriented, with a very high magnification scope and a stock with no accommodations for a bipod (flat bottom forend for benchrest tops).
Given the discipline of rifle shooting that I am currently focused on now (NRL22 / PRS-style), I figured it would be a good idea to adjust this build for NRL22.
I acquired a KRG Bravo 10/22 chassis (Stealth Grey), a EGW 20MOA base, and a Vortex Optics Diamondback Tactical 6-24×50 FFP EBR-2C MRAD scope to reconfigure my 10/22 for NRL22.
First off, the stock needed to be swapped out so I could use a bipod. The KRG Bravo 10/22 chassis seemed like a great way to go since I have a KRG Bravo for my Remington 700P and I think it’s a decent chassis/stock, especially for the price. It also allows for the use of an Arca rail. While I have the Area 419 Arca rail on my KRG Bravo for the 700P, I decided to get the KRG Arca rail for the Bravo chassis.
I swapped out the Volquartsen barrel mount scope rail because it was technically a Weaver rail (although it could accept Picatinny rings) because it didn’t have MIL-STD-1913 cuts all across the top. It is an older design from the early 2000’s and only has a few slots for the rings. Also, I wanted to see if moving the scope rail from mount from the barrel to the receiver would help with harmonics.
Note that I repurposed an American Rifle Company M10 QD-L one-piece 30mm diameter (35mm tall) mount that I had in my cabinet for this rebuild / reconfiguration.
I needed a variable magnification scope with exposed turrets and a MIL reticle. Being that I am spoiled when it comes to high quality optics, I didn’t really want to spend all that much on a scope for this rebuild. I ended up getting the Vortex Optics Diamondback Tactical 6-24x50mm FFP EBR-2C MRAD. It is a very common scope in NRL22 base class and can be easily had for under $400.
The configuration of my 10/22 is now as follows (bold items indicate the new changes):
- Ruger 10/22 factory receiver
- Ruger 10/22 factory bolt (with Volquartsen Exact Edge Extractor)
- Volquartsen 18.5″ Stainless Steel match barrel (+1.5″ compensated)
- Ruger 10/22 factory trigger (with Volquarsten target hammer)
- KRG Bravo 10/22 Chassis
- EGW 20MOA scope base
- Vortex Optics Diamondback Tactical 6-24x50mm FFP EBR-2C MRAD
What are my thoughts on the reconfiguration?
As far as the KRG Bravo 10/22 chassis and the KRG Arca rail, I am relatively happy with it. I haven’t used many 10/22 stocks, but this one satisfies my needs for an NRL22-capable stock. Obviously, the Arca rail is critical to me for effective bipod deployment.
In retrospect, I wish I acquired the Area 419 for this platform instead of the KRG Arca rail. The installation of the KRG Arca rail is a lot more complex than with the MLOK-attached version of the Area 419 Arca rail. There are a bunch of extra steps when installing the KRG Arca rail on the KRG Bravo chassis and requires it to be installed in very specific order with regards to the screws. It literally took me three tries (installs) to get it installed correctly and took well over an hour, whereas the Area 419 Arca rail (MLOK) only took a few minutes.
I am indifferent towards the Diamondback Tactical scope. As someone who uses a Zero Compromise Optic ZC527 very often, looking through this scope can be a bit painful.
When I was using the scope for the first time, I actually cleaned my glasses thinking my glasses were smudged when in actuality, the glass just is not all that great in this scope. The Diamondback Tactical does not have a zero-stop mechanism, so you have to keep track of the 0 mark on the turret after the turrets are slipped to set the elevation and windage zeros.
The turrets are quite spongy. They do have detectable clicks, but there is play in the turret before the next click on the turret. See the these two photos to understand how much play is in the turret:
The elevation turret is in the same position, but the photo on the left where the 0 looks lined up with the index mark has the turret turned as far left before it will click over to 0.1 MIL. The photo on the right where it looks like the turret in between 0 and 5.9 MIL has the turret turned to the right just before it hits the wall to begin clicking over to 5.9 MIL (-0.1 from 0).
This can get confusing when you look at the turret to see where the elevation is set to. The one trick I am doing with this is to dial below the desired elevation setting by a few-tenths of a MIL and then dialing back up to what I want. This way I take the slack out of the turret and get a good reading on the elevation turret setting.
The turrets are also only 6 MILs per revolution.
Then again, with NRL22 you aren’t moving the elevation beyond 2 MIL, especially with a 100 yard course of fire, so you won’t have much issues losing track of the elevation turret.
In the end, the new build configuration for my Ruger 10/22 circa 2001 is sufficient for NRL22-style shooting and is a suitable platform to demonstrate semi-auto rifle usage for NRL22 matches. It is also a more practical configuration from it’s previous iteration now that it has the means to use a bipod (and tripod).
I intend to spend some time experimenting with ammunition as I need to find ammunition works well in this rifle in it’s current form.
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