Nice! At some point I'd consider going this route with my RPR, but I get pretty good performance from mine right now (and don't complete), so it's not a huge priority.

 

Nice build and fun project! My RPR was my first 22 rifle. I haven’t used it much since I caught the CZ bug. Curious to see some target pics!

 

I’ve had a RPRF in the past and have considered getting another one several times. Nice setup you put together there.

 

Beautiful job you must be proud!

 

That is a nice rifle. I looked up the heatseeker chassis. It certainly should be better than the factory as It costs exactly $10 less than my RPR cost new.

 

Certainly a great job on the build! It looks great! I hope it shoots as good as it looks. What ammo are you using in it? Any target pictures to post?

I bought a RPR, mine will hang right with my best CZ457`s. So i have zero plans to fix something that isn`t broken. Since i bought mine awhile ago, seems its hit-n-miss with alot of them as far as accuracy goes. I guess i got lucky with mine, it SHOOTS LIGHTS OUT! Mine isn`t as ammo fussy as my CZ`s are either. Its really fun gun to shoot.

 

How good does it shoot? let's see some targets, and no cherry pick'in!

 

Beautiful build, hope it shoots as good for you as it looks...

 

Thanks for all the great comments and feedback. As far as ammo goes, I've had the best success so far with Center X and SK LRM. Eley Match has also proven to be quite good. I haven't been to the range since I received the chassis a few weeks ago, as the weather here in Kingston hasn't be great. Looks like it will be okay for this Saturday so I'll be sure to post pics of the targets with a few different types of ammo. I'm hoping to see at least .1 or .2 improvement. I've shot the RPR (pre-chassis) side by side with my CZ457 build , the CZ routinely beats it by .1 to .3 across all ammo types. I'm really hoping the time and money invested pay off!! And yes...no cherry pickin' the best groups...the pressure is on.

 

It was a good day to shoot here in Kingston on Saturday. Temps were on the cool side at +1 C and there was very little wind. Ran through Center X, SK Flatnose Match, Eley Match, SK Rifle Match, SK Long Range Match and Eley Team. All types shot fairly well, but it clearly preferred some over others. And for some reason every single five round group of Eley Match was one inch left. No wind to account for, and i never touched the scope from start to finish. This new RPR build certainly shot better than my stock configuration and is very close to my CZ457 build. There's still room for improvement, maybe some lot testing will help. Overall I'm happy with the results though.

 

I well know that 22 rifles are finicky about ammo and what one loves another may hate. I haven't gone up the ammo ladder very high and haven't shot it all this year due to health reasons. Mine is stock except for a Timney trigger to take care of the constantly hanging up center blade on it's stock trigger that I never managed to fix. I got as far up as RWS Target Rifle using what could be found at local stores which got me into the 50 yard .4's at 8 bucks a box for the last I bought. I first tried it when I found some at Big 5 Sports for $5 a box. Here is hoping I get to shoot more this year and can try some higher grade ammo.

 

Great job on the build!! Very nice looking rifle. Looks like a good shooter. I would be very happy to own a rifle like yours.

 

Very nice build @claytonfifield43. Mind if I ask where the balance point is? Looking at the same chassis for my 10/22 and you have a very similar setup to what I was planning on running.

 

At the moment, with four weights up front and one at the rear in the stock, and with MDT Skye bi-pod mounted, the balance point is dead center. Works perfectly with the rotary mags if your shooting off a barricade with a bag. I haven't experimented too much with the weight distribution yet, but I think if I removed the bi-pod I'd likely have to remove the rear weight to keep the balance point the same. Rear weight in and bi-pod off, the balance point shifts a few inches back. With a larger bag it likely won't matter.

 

Here's the poor man's version 😂 oh wait the budget minded version.

This rifle was purchased as a gift for my baby girl, for her 9th birthday. She has been shooting air rifles for a few years now. So I figured she's ready for a bolt gun. The Ruger RPR made sense. I figured it's bolt action just like her air rifle. So it should make for a easy transition in to the world of 22lr rifles. The fact that the stock could be easily and quickly adjusted was a huge selling point. I figured the Ruger RPR was a great rifle that she can grow with and enjoy for a very long time.

Turns out , she kind of hates the rifle 😂. The main complaints the action, she had a hell of a time working the action. I agree cycling the action was down right brutal it felt as if I was filing metal 😆. The trigger was a hair to heavy but the worst part for her was the safety blade. I agree as well and there was a bit of binding going on with the safety blade.

Alright so my goal was to smoothen the action, install Arca rail, lighten up the trigger, and soften up the trigger safety blade. Let's get to work.

Here's the bolt body after lightly filing all the edges and polishing them.

Changed our OEM bolt knob for a eBay $15 dollar knob. It's significantly longer giving my baby girl more leverage to work the action.

Here's the receiver after filing / polishing the edges.

" "

" "

Those bolt guide rails are slick.

Here's the receiver all scuffed up and ready for paint.

Here's the trigger components all polished up. The trigger safety blade is super slick.

Here are the modified OEM springs. I ended up trimming 4 coils off the safety blade spring and permanently compressing the last 3 coils of the trigger return spring.

 

I see no reason for the void in the stock so I filled it using JB weld .

Here's another view.

Here's the stock after a paint job. Since I knew I wasn't gonna invest any more money into this rifle. I was gonna have to make this thing look decent on the cheap.

Here's the stock all put back together. It looks pretty freaking cool. The inside of the stock was painted as well even gave it a extra coat. I figure it will help make things a little tighter.

Here's the mag catch block. I purposely went heavy on the paint here.

The face and bottom were not painted as it would probably cause issues.

Here's the block slapped together. It's got a thick layer of paint on top and sides. It should help for a tighter more secure fit in the stock.

 

Here's the receiver after paint. Notice I didn't paint the inside and all threaded holes were masked off.

Here's a nude pic of the receiver 😆 after paint

For all the freaks out there here a pic of the rear 😆

Here's the rail installed with medium strength thread locker torqued down to 20 inch pounds.

Here's the bolt catch in place.

Here's the trigger unit all slapped back together. Lightly coated all internal components with grease.

 

Trigger installed on to the receiver. Dang that's already to many different colors 😆.

Action is absolutely butter.

Action all put together. A thin layer of acrylic glue was applied for bedding barrel into the receiver and immediately was torqued to 32 foot pounds.

Then the handguard was installed I forgot to take pics of the handguard after paint. The thin layer of paint really helps tighten things up and made for a super center handguard. Screws were torqued to 25 inch pounds using medium thread locker.

Here she is all slapped together. The mag block sat super tight yet still removable against the stock. I torqued down the action screws to 25 inch pounds let it set a day then re-torqued them to 35 inch pounds.

Here's a pic of the $20 Arca rail I installed on the RPR. All hardware was torqued to 15 inch pounds using medium thread locker.

Here she is with a $40 CVlife bipod and Modified Arca to weaver $15 mount.

 

Here she is ready for some action. The RPR was topped off with a $100 CVlife Featherweight 4-16 magnification scope for the price I'm super impressed.

I can't wait for my baby to shoot it. The action is so much easier to cycle now. The trigger is absolutely beautiful. No binding super smooth crisp break.

Lowest trigger pull weight setting. Test was out of 5 pulls.

Avg 13.5 oz
Low 10.5 oz
Max 1 lb 0.6 oz

Here's the results on the heaviest setting. Tested using 5 pulls.

Avg 1 lb 9.2 oz
Low 1 lb 6.2 oz
Max 1 lb 12.7 oz

I imagine those number will probably drop by 2-3 oz once everything settles. Super happy with the results. The safety blade pretty much offers no resistance and is super slick. Something I forgot to mention is the firing pin was also polished. Here are a few examples of what I was capable of printing with the rifle before all the modifications. These are prime examples.

5 shoot @ 50yards

5 shoot @ 50 yards

Here are 2 10 shot @ 100 using the Feds CPHP 36 grain

Il do my best to get out to the range asap and get a range report.