Ruger 10/22 Takedown Review

There’s very little doubt that Ruger’s timeless 10/22 auto loading rifle is the perfect firearm for novices and it was for decades. A rugged and dependable design that allows shooters correctly place round after round of inexpensive 22lr ammo downrange, it rapidly became the favored firearm of novices from shore to coast. But while the 10/22 rifle has been around since the 1960 s, much about it’d changed. It had been the same old rifle, although with a few separate window dressing for various models. There hadn’t been any updates on the mechanics. Until today. There are two minor problems that I have had with the first 10/22 design, issues that have kept me out of plunking down the $200 so it can take to bring one home.

First was that it was a hassle to clean. The design of the 10/22’s receiver is that disassembling it for a comprehensive cleaning is not a feasible option. Call me mad, but my disassembly process of cleaning a gun stops when something needs to be hauled with a hammer and a punch. I will usually just squirt some CLPs from the activity and call it by day. Second of all, while the gun had the minimum needed 16 inches of barrel length and barely a micrometer longer, it was a little on the big side. One of my buddies back in Virginia was seeking to purchase her original gun, but she needed it to fit into the storage space of a soft upper jeep Wrangler.

Anybody who knows that the car knows that the storage compartment is largely sufficient for a sandwich, a European sized can of Coke and not much more. The conventional 10/22 she desired simply wouldn’t fit. That is where the 10/22 Takedown comes from. We I saw this at last year’s NRA show and following several months of waiting, the rifle eventually turned up at my FFL. When it finally came, my gun shop gal couldn’t believe her eyes. She had never seen one before and damn near entered the thing into her book as a pistol before she realized what she had.

The happy gun owner, Facebook c. The 10/22 Takedown is made for all those that just do not have the room for a full-size rifle. For instance, perhaps you reside in one of these capsule hotels. Or you ride a bike and don’t wish to roll across the street with a full sized rifle bag conspicuously restricted to your back.

The barrel is the longest part of the rifle, clocking in at 18.50 inches. Which means you can stuff it in almost any back pack and head to the range of your neighbors being none the wiser. Forget having to hide your heater in a guitar case; whether you have a Takedown, a violin case will more than do the trick. One side effect of having a smaller global dimension is that it also becomes the very viable alternative as a survival firearm. Just throw it into the trunk of your vehicle and forget about it. Or drop it into one of the millions of compartments of your Cessna 172 before taking off to ensure you do not starve to death before SAR gets to you.

The only thing that contrasts is the Henry AR-7, which has been specially developed for survival situations. That single-minded concentrate On survival, however, keep the AR-7 off my list of guns which are fun to shoot. So where the AR-7 would be a sole purpose rifle that I’d never take to the range, the 10/22 Takedown fills both roles quite nicely. The whole idea was to do something that didn’t scream GUN!, when you came out of the front door. And also To that end, the Takedown’s design is ideal.

Nevertheless, the carrying case which comes along with the gun is a bit less discrete. Yes, nothing says to move, nothing to see here, more than a black bag with MOLLE straps and a big, attention grabbing the red logo from one of the most popular firearm companies on Earth. Not all of that well thought out, eh? But while the exterior might not be as subtle as I would as, the interior is beautifully designed. The pockets on the front are designed to make your range trip that much more pleasurable and even come with a few suggestions.

There’s a full-size cardboard cutout of a Ruger SR-22 handgun in the top pocket to suggest that it might be the perfect thing to slip in there to compliment your 10/22. And you’ll find some similarly full-size cardboard cutouts of extended 10/22 magazines in the lower pocket. There are specially designed pouches in there to keep the magazines from bashing against each other. On the inside, there is room for the receiver in the left-hand pocket and room for two barrels on the right, each with their very own sleeve and velcro flap to hold them in place. It is neatly designed, and the bag’s great for grabbing and heading to the range.

The rumor is the fact that additional barrels will be made available soon. The 10/22 Takedown is available right now in either the standard version or with a threaded barrel. And it is difficult not to think that additional pocket inside the bag means that Ruger will be supplying more barrels as a stand-alone upgrade to the stock rifle. The capability to have a brand new barrel shipped directly to your door free of FFL needed is quite attractive. That’ll mean your 10/22 may easily keep pace as your shooting abilities grow. That right there may be reason enough to purchase a 10/22 Takedown.

Should you ever need another barrel profile, or only a different barrel, then you merely pull off your present barrel and slap a brand new one in. And this process, because we found at NRA, is amazingly straightforward. The capability to remove the barrel makes the Takedown a whole hell of a whole lot simpler to clean than the traditional 10/22. The capacity to access the chamber and push cleaning the rods in the barrel without anxiety about getting more crap from the receiver makes cleaning a snap. And though the bolt still is not exactly easy to clean, it is simpler without the barrel in place.

Enough about the features, let us talk about how a thing functions on the scope. With regards to precision and functionality, her hair for the course to get a 10/22. The cause is a little spongy and not exactly crisp. , Accuracy is only about a quarter sized at 50 yards. However, the real party suggestion comes by removing and re seating the gun. The most clever of you can have noticed the scope mount is on the receiver, which divides out of the barrel for storage. Typically this would screw up your zero and wreak havoc with precision.

But thanks to Ruger’s creativity there is an adjustable ring which keeps the association between the receiver and the barrel nice and tight no matter how frequently you take it apart. With this wobble free connection, the worst shift I saw after disassembling and reassembling the rifle was a gap of about an inches at 50 yards. In a nutshell, what we’ve here’s a fantastic improvement on the classic 10/22 design. They did not just slap a brand new cone on it or alter the color, they taught old dogs new tricks. Plus they did it brilliantly. While I could sit here and think about how good this thing is till the cows come home, the best endorsement is this: when I was finished testing it, I delivered a test back to Ruger in place of the rifle. There is no way this thing is leaving my collection, to me personally; it is just too perfect a training tool for new shooters.