Grey Actioned 10/22

[Discontinued]

An old Shooting friend who helped me get my foot in the door with powder burning guns recently told me had something special to give me!

apparently his club and some other members have taken it upon themselves to gift me a rifle due to me being a frontline health worker during the pandemic. I'm quite touched by this as i have quite a low income and would baulk at the idea of paying full price for a 10/22 especially these plastic trigger guard monstrosities.

I went off 10/22's but getting a free one for being a hero throughout Covid has some benefits!

He told me he believes its a special edition as the action is finished in a grey coating or chemical finish of some kind. I have not had the opportunity to see it for myself yet. however the downside is it has no stock.

I'm wondering if this is a special edition 10/22 which came with a fancy laminate stock which has now disappeared into the ether.

Apparently its a totally standard 10/22 with alloy trigger guard but in a grey finish which does not look like Ceracote..it was used by a very well known British shooter who moved to the states, he used this standard 10/22 to prove a point that even a standard 10/22 can win comps...and predictably he wiped the floor with everyone and dominated that weekends shoot, therefore it almost certainly has a very low round count

It has got me thinking about why I ditched my last 10/22

it had so many aftermarket parts it essentially was "too tricked up" it had a massive round count somewhere close to 400k rounds as it was used weekly in comp for 10+ years it slowly became ammo fussy and developed a personality we didn't get along and I sold it

the thought of a totally stock standard 10/22 has some appeal to me now as reliability is more important and to be honest one of the most accurate rifles i ever used was a 10/22 which was our club gun for visitors and probationary members that gun had never been cleaned expect the odd squirt odd WD40 when the action got too gritty to fire, that thing had so many 10,000s of rounds through it it was beautifully worn in and would regularly trounce our £2k rifles. When the club sadly closed,

however i wasn't to sad as i was given a Marlin cowboy in .357 for running the club for so many years....funny how the least committed members took Umbridge at me closing the club down when they where the ones who treated it as if they where paying customers, we gave them two years notice and yet they where still surprised when the club finally closed. Being the club secretary nearly made me walk away from the sport altogether.....it was a thankless task and was a constant headache and was also unpaid

I never got a look in as everyone was falling over themselves to buy that , much battered and beaten 10/22 which to this day is one of the most accurate rifles ive ever fired...must have been a luck one built in the mid 1980s

[A square 10]

i cannot answer your primary question , others here more knowledgeable will , but thank you for your service in these difficult times and regardless of my feelings on this topic i respect those that stood up and did their job , i think you can start over with any 1022 and make it your own whatever you do or do not do to it ,

that said i like that cowboy rifle - i shoot these regularly and you got a nice one i think ,

now to the last point of the topic in this post - whats up with closing a club ? we have so few in any country to enjoy , im not in your court here unless you care to explain further .............

['ol shooter]

I bought this one many moons ago, didn't realize it was so homely until I picked it up from the local private dealer, it was ordered from Gallery of Guns. It was supposed to be "Stainless", turned out the receiver was painted battleship grey and the actual stainless barrel was over-coated in silver, sitting in a cheap black plastic stock. Here's a pic of it after I dropped it into a Hogue rubber coated stock:

One saving grace is that it's a decent shooter, having dropped a Que'd bolt and self contained (now discontinued) Timney trigger into the grey plastic housing. I set it up for Appleseed.
Here it is in the middle flanked by it's better looking Appleseed brethren:

[Racer X]

'ol shooter, that looks like a post @2008 "stainless" model.

['ol shooter]

That sounds about right. What mystified me is why they painted a stainless barrel silver. It's bright, if roughly machined, under the paint. I have to say that if I had known when I ordered it that it looked like that, I would have passed on it.

[TwoFast4Me]

Such a nice very thing that your friends did for you, and thank you for your service! I hope you get that one shooting soon, Real soon. Jim

[Discontinued]

Originally Posted by A square 10

i cannot answer your primary question , others here more knowledgeable will , but thank you for your service in these difficult times and regardless of my feelings on this topic i respect those that stood up and did their job , i think you can start over with any 1022 and make it your own whatever you do or do not do to it ,

that said i like that cowboy rifle - i shoot these regularly and you got a nice one i think ,

now to the last point of the topic in this post - whats up with closing a club ? we have so few in any country to enjoy , im not in your court here unless you care to explain further .............

We had the dreaded property develpers come and take the land from us, it was one of the last public indoor ranges in London.

Unfortunately the governing body who where supposed to be paying rent for the range on our behalf had decided that they would put the money somewhere else even though mine and 4 other clubs where paying range and rental fee's in the hope that the NSRA would as promised pay the rent and renew the leasehold.

Sadly they mismanaged our money on vanity projects and swanky ranges pricing many of us out.

The perception is that shooting is a rich mans sport

Luckily myself and many other members found alterative ranges and clubs to shoot at.

Thanks for all the other heartfelt responses I'm touched/

My plan with this 10/22 is to keep as much of the exterior as possible standard, i may just fit a Volq hammer and extractor.

I'm also thinking of getting the barrel re crowned.

I haven't had a chance to see it in person yet and as the picture above shows i hope its not the new "stainless" version

Many thanks

[CardPuncher]

I have a 10/22 which I believe was made by Volquartsen 12-15 years ago as a distributor's custom for Davidson's. It has a grey laminated stock, stainless bull barrel and receiver which is arguably gray. It's about same color as a more recent "stainless" aluminum 10/22 receiver and like all "stainless" 10/22's looks like it's painted. The serial number starts with 244. If that's what you have, it would be about the same age. The receiver is from Ruger, not Volquartsen. This was too early for that.

So perhaps you do have "a special edition 10/22 which came with a fancy laminate stock which has now disappeared into the ether."

[Discontinued]

Many thanks for all the replies, I will get a chance to take a look in two weeks when lockdown eases somewhat.

I'm quite exited to see my new baby!

[LtCrunch]

Originally Posted by Discontinued

it was used by a very well known British shooter who moved to the states, he used this standard 10/22 to prove a point that even a standard 10/22 can win comps...and predictably he wiped the floor with everyone and dominated that weekends shoot

Originally Posted by Discontinued

My plan with this 10/22 is to keep as much of the exterior as possible standard, i may just fit a Volq hammer and extractor.

I'm also thinking of getting the barrel re crowned.

Congratulations Discontinued, that's a very nice "attaboy" to be receiving!

One thought based on your comments above. Get the action, re-stock it, then shoot it enough to know its baseline performance before you start transmogrifying it.

You may be happy enough with its au naturale accuracy to leave it alone.

Who knows, fun project

Frank

[CardPuncher]

I forgot to mention that my Volquartsen 10/22 was called the "Grey Ghost" version, which was the reason for my reply in the first place. Good luck with your new rifle And thank you for your service during the pandemic and also in the thankless and frustrating position of club secretary.