10/22 love

After picking up my 10/22 yesterday afternoon, I sped out the door at 9pm to make it to the range before they close at 10. I made it in time, and set up a paper plate at 25 feet and loaded the magazine. There was one other group there, five people in their early 20s, one of them a shooter, the rest obviously new.

I put the magazine into place, and pulled and released the open bolt. Whoops. Nothing happened. I futz with it a bit, but can't manage to get the bolt released. It's not rocket surgery... I remove the magazine, and try again, but still can't unlock the bolt. I eye the controls. Mag release. Safety. Trigger. What the shit? I look at the controls more closely, and spot a sliver of metal extending awkwardly between the trigger guard and the mag release. I thumb it curiously, and note it seems to do something to the bolt. I idly glance behind me and see one of the new shooters was watching the scene reminiscent of a monkey with a square peg and a round hole. I take comfort in the fact that there aren't more people here to bask in my genius, and retreat to the range counter to ask the guys there how the hell you release the bolt on a 10/22. When I turn, one of them is just coming in, and I ask him what the hell I'm doing wrong. He smiles and says, "Yeah, it's pretty stupid. You might go for the aftermarket bolt release." The then shows me how to release the bolt (rock the sliver upward while pulling and releasing the bolt).

I put two mags through it off hand, and after getting used to the trigger and sights, made a small hole in my paper plate. While reloading I noticed one of the new shooters was still looking at me, and offered to let him shoot it. "I didn't really pay for it, so..." "It's two cents a round, don't worry about it." "Ok!" I showed him how the sights should align, and he shot one magazine through it. He missed the plate a few times (I let him set the range), but it didn't matter, because he had fun. I noticed his friend was watching him shoot, and offered him a chance to shoot which he accepted gratefully. After a second short instruction session, the second friend shot a little better than the first, but he had the same grin when he was done. But this time, another new shooter was done, and I figured I'd just round it out and offer for her to shoot. She declined, and I returned to loading the magazine. After I was done I turned slightly and saw her there waiting to shoot. Another quick lesson and another quick magazine, she was done, and I was ready to return to my paper targets. Just doing my part making sure new shooters have a good time and want to return.

I put the target out to 50 feet and got into a standing shooting position (showing off my elbow rest/stomach), and shot until 10. The overall rifle feel (over the G22 bullpup) made shooting easier, and the weight and balance made it easy to keep on target. No malfunctions, one failure to fire (heavy hammer strike, cheapie golden bullet ammo). The overall feel of the gun was just right. The sights were a little low, but I'm going to replace them with peep sights anyways. The trigger was kind of heavy, but far from difficult. I planned to keep this 10/22 as close to stock as I could in deference to tradition.

I think I've got a new favorite!

Oh yeah, I went home and couldn't help but pull out the sandpaper and open up the barrel channel so the barrel was floated. I'm going to shoot it without the barrel band next time, and see if I notice any difference. I probably won't, but I just had to futz with it a little bit. :)