Ruger 1022 VS American 22lr

Waterboy3313

Waterboy3313

Member
Joined
Sep 8, 2019
Messages
976
Location
Redding CA
It's been a while since I've been on here. Just recently ordered a couple of rimfires. One 1022 and one American 22lr. I ordered my ruger american and added a vortex strike fire 2 6x24 scope. I've got it put together and ready to make range trip. I didn't do my homework figuring I would be able to change out the barrel. Hopefully the accuracy is Decent out of the box. I've read mixed reviews.

Today while eating lunch I was questioning my sanity about ordering the RAR. I may not be the best marksman but I spend plenty of time sitting at a bench trying to be the best I can. I handload my centerfire ammo to the best of my ability and equipment. So being the ruger 1022 can be totally changed from barrel to stock I decided to buy one online from a local store. (10 days from the time I do paperwork etc).

My plans are to replace everything from trigger, stock and barrel plus I still need a scope. I'm curious which rifle will be the most accurate. Generally with my old Remington 597 I'm shooting out to 200ish yards. On paper it's horrible but I can still bo a decent job of hitting random clays on hillside.

A year or 2 ago I would have never wasted my time with anything smaller than 223 Remington. My buddy and I have been have a great time with the rim fires and it's great that I don't have to spend a ton of time doing brass prep and loading. I would.be curious to hear what serious 22lr have to say as well as advice on modifications. My goal is to do the best I can while having fun.
 
I’m happy with my RAR. Added Tech sights. Lightened the stock trigger just a tad. Don’t plan to change anything else.

Hard for me to rationalize buying a gun only to immediately proceed to replace everything but the receiver, but I understand why people do it. I think you’ll find the 10/22 is by far more customizable than the RAR, and has far better after market support.

I think the RAR is appealing as a solid, OEM bolt action rimfire that shares the same magazines as the 10/22. If I were putting together a target rifle, I would probably pick a different platform though.
 
I’m happy with my RAR. Added Tech sights. Lightened the stock trigger just a tad. Don’t plan to change anything else.

Hard for me to rationalize buying a gun only to immediately proceed to replace everything but the receiver, but I understand why people do it. I think you’ll find the 10/22 is by far more customizable than the RAR, and has far better after market support.

I think the RAR is appealing as a solid, OEM bolt action rimfire that shares the same magazines as the 10/22. If I were putting together a target rifle, I would probably pick a different platform though.
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I totally get what you are saying if I was looking to compete in any type of competition the ruger brand would likely be passed up all together. I'm not at a competitive level with anyone more than myself and a neighbor. My thing is I take pride in what I do. I strive to get the most of what I have/use.

Most of my non rimfire stuff has never seen factory ammunition. My dialed in handloads can make an average off the shelf rifle do pretty decent. I'm not the guy at the range jerking the trigger trying to set any time records. If I have paper in my sights I'm trying to achieve that small as possible group. If im busting clays on the berm im trying to reach out beyond the average guy thinks is possible type stuff. It's a challenge that I enjoy I also think by pushing myself I have taught myself to be better.
 
Have both. Admittedly the American is a sporter weight barrel.

The American always threw 1-2 outta 10 at any range. A good solid plinking rifle and small game to 75 yards I'd say.

My 10-22 with a replacement threaded barrel is also a good 75 yard rifle.

Only real gripe I have with the 10-22 magazine is it scrapes the daylights outta the projectile unless single loaded.

Gotta get a new threaded barrel for the American soon. That ought to be a hoot suppressed.
 
I'm not sure what this means. If the gun is "horribly" inaccurate when shooting paper, how does shooting at random clays make it more accurate?
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Just saying average group size don't seem particularly as tight as I would like to see.
 
I recently shot this group with my RAR with Tech sights at 50 yards from a bench with front sandbag rest only. Plenty good enough for me. I am sure that the rifle is a better shooter than I am. My eyes are becoming the biggest challenge for me, but I’m not really interested in adding a scope.

F53895BC-5E8E-48D3-A705-729A51F9560B.jpeg

Here’s also a picture of my rimfire rifles: RAR, 10/22, and Henry Frontier. I opted for the stainless RAR with wood stock. My 10/22 is just an OEM “sporter” stock model. I added Tech sights and a BX trigger. Very happy with it.

62CDE42B-B438-4EE8-BF92-DBF34E9F5B99.jpeg
 
When you say American most rimfire shooters will think CZ American. RAR is what I refer to speaking of my Ruger American Rimfire. Good luck You can really go wild modifying a 10/22.
 
I"ve had multiple 10/22's over the years. Out of the box accuracy varies significantly. Some will shoot 1/2" at 50 yards, some won't do any better than 1 1/2" even with match ammo. I've found this model to be one of the better versions. Known as the Light Varmint Target rifle. LVT.

Ruger® 10/22® Sporter Autoloading Rifle Model 31166

These come with a mid weight target barrel with Ruger's BX trigger. My trigger measures 2 1/2 lbs and it will easily put 5 shots of good ammo into 1/2" at 50 yards.

They are not a regular production item. I bought one several years ago and they stopped making them. They have recently reintroduced them and I bought a 2nd one. The newer version has a threaded barrel, but other than that they are the same.

I've also gone the route of replacing the barrel and trigger with aftermarket on rifles in the past. That option was certainly more accurate than the standard 10/22, but no better than the factory LVT.

My experience with the 22 Ruger American is limited to one rifle. I'd hoped for something more accurate than my 10/22. Mine was not any more accurate than a standard 10/22. And less accurate than the LVT. Mine didn't want to eject empties unless you opened the bolt vigorously. I didn't keep it very long. Sold it and bought a Tikka T1x that just plain shoots great.
 
The thing about a 10/22 is that you can easily make a $150 dollar rifle into a $1000 rifle if you have the money. Friends have asked me why not buy a $1000 dollar rifle instead? Well there are numerous reasons but if you like tinkering and adding your own flair and making it to your personal liking, the dollar amount will not matter unless you don't have that dollar. But simply for me it is fun and makes me happy and that is priceless. I could buy those monstrosities used at the olympics for thousands of dollars but they don't appeal to me. I love building frankenrugers and each built is different using different stocks and barrels. My latest built has a Kidd barrel, on a ruger receiver, mounted on a Boyd's stock with a Bushnell Forge 3-24x56 scope that I use for 200 yards and beyond. Whatever floats your goat. I will not comment about the RAR because I do not own one and have no experience to share.
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ms6852 said:
The thing about a 10/22 is that you can easily make a $150 dollar rifle into a $1000 rifle if you have the money.
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Yeppers, my 10/22 is probably only about a $500 dollar rifle, but that's because I "customized" it a long time ago. Besides, it was less than a $100 dollar rifle (new) to start with. :thumbup:
Waterboy3313 said:
I would.be curious to hear what serious 22lr have to say as well as advice on modifications. My goal is to do the best I can while having fun.
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I guess that kind of depends on your definition of "fun." I had "fun" customizing my 10/22 (bull barrel, vibration dampener, ugly synthetic stock, target trigger, etc. etc.) - turning it from a 1", 10 shot group at 40 yards rifle, into a "put 10 shots on a nickel at 40 yards" rifle.
On the other hand, my wife has a stock Ruger American Rimfire that, while she's never actually shot "against" me and my tricked-out 10/22, she kills just as many ground squirrels as I do over on our friend's ranch. And we kill them by the dozens - everywhere from 20 yards to 100 yards out. If they're closer than 20 yards, we generally just use our .22 LR handguns. I've killed a few of them that we're more than 100 yards out with my .22-250, but I usually don't - too much noise and expense when there's hundreds of ground squirrels within 75 yards of us.
At any rate, shooting ground squirrels (me with my 10/22, and my wife with her American Rimfire) is "fun" too - up to a point. After my wife and I have killed 75 or 80 of them, we get to feeling kind of "bloody" (if you know what I mean). So, we just come home and go back a few days later. ;)
BTW, I have a fixed 6X Cabela's "Alaskan Guide" scope on my 10/22, and my wife has fixed 4X Leopold on her American Rimfire. I don't know how well my wife's 4X scope works for ground squirrels that are only 10 -15 feet away, but my 6X scope doesn't work well at all if the little vermin are that close - all I can see is a blur. :confused:
 
I have had the same 10-22 since the late 80's and it is a great rifle. As are my 2 Ruger Americans which are center fire (300 BLK and 6.5 CM).
 
I'm curious as to what MY original $29.95 10/22 will shoot . Yep bought that Brand spanking new from May Company and the sales lady handed my friend and I each a box of Remington or Winchester .22lr cartridges our choice with our purchases ,which were included in their sale. IN California no less :rofl:

That should give you a clue how long ago that was :eek: I found out Eley Tenex wasn't any better than Wolf Match Extra or SK's out of MY

Remington model 34 NRA Target or target Master ,off hand can't recall . Nice peep sight and decent shooter .

Bought that and a couple of others off a fellow who lived a couple miles from us. Lance was a movie Stock wrangler or Rounder . Gunsmoke ,Paladin ,Bonanza ,Maverick and a score of western movies using live animals . He and his Wife owned a Ranch up in Ojai , CA. for decades during the heyday of Western Hollywood block busters . GOOD Man and GREAT stories ,they broke the mold when he died .
Imagine running a chainsaw cutting 2-4 cords of wood in a day at age #91 !. The MAN had one task ,get up and get it done . As he would say the rest is gravy .
 
I'm still waiting to pick up my 10/22. California requires a 10 day waiting period. I just want one that shoots good. I'm deciding my first mod should be a trigger. The decision is which trigger? Should I spend $300 and just do it with a drop in? Should I get and would I be happy with a bx trigger for around $100? Should I buy a $54 dollar kit? Should I buy I $14 dollar set of springs and spend a day of my valuable weekend time with some stones? I like to work things over and tinker so to speak but I hate wasting time and money. I want a good shooting rifle but I don't want to dump $100s of dollars into it if I'm not getting any noticeable gain.

I guess the hard part is I got to try out one that had a kidd trigger and barrel and pulled off what I would call impressive results. It made me want to take what I brought and throw it in the garbage. As a person with skills and ability I'm lacking the part that is free time. I take pride in doing things myself but I think a lot of that time could be spent at the range having fun.
 
have had the same 10-22 since the late 80's and it is a great rifle. As are my 2 Ruger Americans which are center fire (300 BLK and 6.5 CM)
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I don't know how I missed this. I also have a ruger american 6.5 creedmoor. It's never seen factory ammo. With my handloads and sitting behind my bench I am shooting groups that are all touching at 100 yards all day long. Great rifle for the money even though I did eventually install a timney trigger. I did my initial work up and best group with the factory trigger. I just haven't taken it to the range more than once since adding the trigger.
 
.308 Norma said:
Yeppers, my 10/22 is probably only about a $500 dollar rifle, but that's because I "customized" it a long time ago. Besides, it was less than a $100 dollar rifle (new) to start with. :thumbup:
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I paid $150 at a pawn shop. It had some hard plastic stock that flexed and was real ugly. Kept the receiver and donated the barrel to a shooting club the stock I threw away.
 
I like the 10/22 for the way you can turn it into a very nice, accurate, rifle. All it takes is money. If you are capable of making some of your upgrade components it takes less. I quit with two. As they arrive in the box the only one I would consider keeping is the full stock one and I have aways been leery of it's accuracy capabilities based on the two that I upgraded. The Ruger American? Meh. It's just another lower cost bolt action rifle.
 
I paid $150 at a pawn shop. It had some hard plastic stock that flexed and was real ugly. Kept the receiver and donated the barrel to a shooting club the stock I threw away
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I did some searching locally. I couldn't find a used one for much less than the cost of a new one. I also hit up some friends that I knew had some that haven't seen day light in years. Being that I wanted to upgrade mine I wasn't scared to buy one used I just couldn't find one at the right price.

I did opt for the wood stock and the one that has a scope kit already mounted on it. I figured if all I do upgrade the trigger the wood stock would hopefully be better than the plastic stock version. As far as the scope goes I'm sure it's junk but the rings and mounts are there I guess.
 
There's more than one model of Ruger American Rimfire. The top one is the target model and the bottom one is the basic, 22" barrel model. I like them both for different reasons, but if you put them each on the tripod, you can tell that the bull barrel makes a difference. (No, I haven't measured my groups, so I can't really quantify how much of a difference.)
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I have had three Ruger 10-22 target type rifles, two I built up and one a stocker. First was from a standard rifle with a Midway stock and heavy barrel. Upgraded the hammer, recoil pin, barrel hanger. Was not pleased with the accuracy and I'm a fairly good small bore shooter. Sold it. Next, a Ruger target model. Upgraded the normal stuff and after a frustrating year of ups and downs but most painful was the tendency to throw the first shot.
Lastly, I bought a Kidd trigger group from a friend. He gave me a Ruger laminated target stock and I bought a Shaw barrel with Bentz chamber. New barrel hanger, bolt buffer, and shimmed in place trigger group, free floated the barrel, scoped and I'm finally impressed. Shoots right along with my CZ455 and my 1927 52.
No flyers and the only surprise is the fantastic trigger.
 
I know some people will say a trigger is a trigger but I will admit I'm turning into a trigger snob. I am not set on any particular brand. I have experience with trigger tech, timney and and some kits that comes with springs and stone and polish your own. I'm thinking about trying a Jard.
 
Just an update if anyone actually cares. I took the american out to the range today. Out of the box never even cleaned it. Several ammo selections later and a rough scope zero at 35 yards. I took these pictures before moving the target stand out to 50 yards. I will say the ruger american with federal bulk ammo is impressive for what it is. I have zero complaints with cci standard velocity it gets a bit better but not a whole lot. The 5 shot group is cci and the other is federal bulk stuff I bought several years ago in the purplish color 800 round pack. Targets are 1" diameter. The factory trigger has got to go.

20230514_082235.jpg 20230514_082235.jpg 20230514_082250.jpg
 
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