How long does a 10/22 "bolt buffer" last?

[smurf hunter]

I spent all weekend at an Appleseed down in CastleRock. Great experience, but that's another post...

Towards the end of Saturday I had quite a few jams and FTFs. I got pretty proficient on clearing them out, but on the timed qualifications that hurt me.

Later that night in my tent, I field stripped everything to clean it. I popped out the bolt, since it was really nasty after shooting 300+ rounds in the open all day. Months back I'd installed an aftermarket rubberized (nylon?) bolt buffer from Tactical Innovations. It runs quieter, even less recoil and is supposed to reduce wear and tear on the receiver.

For whatever reason after I tapped this rubber bolt pin out, I could not get it back in. Setting it on a flat surface (in my tent with a notebook and flash light) I could see it was fatter on the ends than the middle. It was also very limp compared to when new. Fortunately I had the OEM steel pin in my range bag and put that back in.

On Sunday I fired another 250-300 rounds and only had one FTF. Only probably was I about 4 MOA (1") low @ 25 yards. So I re-zeroed and was pretty darn close the rest of the day.

Questions:

1) Do these nylon bolt buffers wear out? If so, how many rounds?

2) Would it make sense that a worn bolt buffer would cause me to shoot high? (I don't think I noticed over time, re-zeroing ever 500 rounds over a few months).

3) Are these just plain B.S. and not worth the few bucks they cost?

I'm not a stealth rabbit assassin, and a metal "click" nor the recoil bothers me

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[torpedoman]

use the factory the bolt buffer is a way to part you from your money. grand daughter has one that has tens of thousands down the barrel and the bolt and factory pin show ZERO wear.

 

[smurf hunter]

I figured it was along those lines. I wasted $4 and change. Lesson learned.

Some goofball tried to convince me the pin holes in the receiver would ovalize after a point. I'm sure my barrel will become a noodle after a few million rounds as well

Thanks

 

[GUNNY]

Stick with factory parts. My 10/22 has over 50k through it with the factory part's, and it looks new, use some auto grease instead of oil, that will help since the .22 are dirty. I did a torture test this weekend. I'll post the vid tonight.

 

[Blitzkrieg]

The bolt buffer accessory is not really to spare wear and tear, but to quiet the action sound, especially worthy when shooting suppressed

If you need one, go with the Volquartsen.. I have been selling them for 10 years with zero complaints, and my 10/22s have them installed and I have yet to have a problem. They are 100% clear polymer

 

[madcratebuilder]

The bolt buffer accessory is not really to spare wear and tear, but to quiet the action sound, especially worthy when shooting suppressed

If you need one, go with the Volquartsen.. I have been selling them for 10 years with zero complaints, and my 10/22s have them installed and I have yet to have a problem. They are 100% clear polymer

+1
It's more noise reduction thing for me. Not all bolt buffers are created equal.

 

[gophishhhh]

aftermarket buffers are for noise and they reduce wear and tear on cheap optics. If you are going to use an aftermarket buffer, it needs to be polyurethane that is around a 95A durameter rating. I have thousands of rounds through the guns i have them in with no wear issues at all.
As for the losing zero after field stripping. this is most likely due to removing the action from the stock. The take down screw (the only screw that holds the action in) can have a huge affect on accuracy when assembling and dis-assembling, unless you torque the screw to exactly where is was prior to dis-assembly. About the only way to correct this problem is to pin the back of the receiver and free float the barrel, which results in no pressure issues on the barrel.

 

[smurf hunter]

Last night as I was cleaning my 10/22 I noticed the scope base had worked loose. That *might* have contributed.

As info I'm running a 4x32 Nikon prostaff with low profile Burris rings on the stock Ruger base. I added some blue loctite to the screws holding the base into the receiver. Did the same for the scope ring screws. That scope is pretty decent, and is designated as a "rimfire" scope.

When I initially installed everything, I greased the mount base/receiver screws. Old habit from bicycle maintenance, to avoid it seizing later on. Apparently that doesn't work after 1000+ rounds of shooting drills.

I might measure the torque on my take down screw and mentally determine how tight that is. I figure I can do this from finger tightening, then count turns until desired torque is reached. At least this will get me in the ball park if I disassemble in the field.

 

[Mookie]

It sounds like the buffer you got was garbage, it is also possible that your Ruger might be a touch out of spec if it caused other problems. I have them in all of my 10/22's and have tens of thousands of rounds through them.
I have the 1022 buffer and the Rimfire Tech buffer, nearly zero wear after about 5 years of shooting.

It is possible that your cleaning affected accuracy also. And what kind of ammo are you using if you are fouled that bad after only a few hundred rounds? Why in the world would you GREASE screws? They have to be held in tight for a long time with constant vibrations. Use blue loctite on them. Torque on the action screw can easily change POI. If you have not already remove the barrel band, it is useless and will give you worse accuracy.

 

[smurf hunter]

Mookie:

Think my buffer was junk. All good tips - and validating to hear I was on the right track to a solution. I mentioned I applied blue loctite in my above post after I returned home. The fouling I think was due to over oiling of the bolt and that simply sucked up all the soot. I was shooting a mix of bulk winchester (555 box), federal bulk and then on to CCI minimags for the AQT shoots. I've learned that in dirty conditions the higher velocity stuff cycles the action much more reliably.

Regarding barrel band: I actually attached the swing swivel to that bottom screw to avoid drilling a front swivel stud. At Appleseed all the shooting is done with a sling. In some of the shooting positions I got my non shooting hand wrapped in the front sling pretty tight so I could maintain a solid natural point of aim.

A sling also helped me out during the transitions (standing to prone, etc.).

I'm not interested in becoming sub 1 MOA competitive target dude, but I do want consistent groups and to have my rifle behave the same each time I use it. If my positions are consistent and I shoot by the numbers I should be able to hit 4 MOA or better with just about any rifle - at least that's my hope.

On my todo list is to develop a technique to tighten my take-down (action) consistently, then things should remain mostly zeroed even after a field strip.

 

[gophishhhh]

Smurf,
If you need any other info, tips or any work done to your 10/22, shoot me a email. I am down near the portland area and i do a ton of work the the ruger's, from mild to wild.

 

[Blitzkrieg]

Mookie:

Think my buffer was junk. All good tips - and validating to hear I was on the right track to a solution. I mentioned I applied blue loctite in my above post after I returned home. The fouling I think was due to over oiling of the bolt and that simply sucked up all the soot. I was shooting a mix of bulk winchester (555 box), federal bulk and then on to CCI minimags for the AQT shoots. I've learned that in dirty conditions the higher velocity stuff cycles the action much more reliably.

Regarding barrel band: I actually attached the swing swivel to that bottom screw to avoid drilling a front swivel stud. At Appleseed all the shooting is done with a sling. In some of the shooting positions I got my non shooting hand wrapped in the front sling pretty tight so I could maintain a solid natural point of aim.

A sling also helped me out during the transitions (standing to prone, etc.).

I'm not interested in becoming sub 1 MOA competitive target dude, but I do want consistent groups and to have my rifle behave the same each time I use it. If my positions are consistent and I shoot by the numbers I should be able to hit 4 MOA or better with just about any rifle - at least that's my hope.

On my todo list is to develop a technique to tighten my take-down (action) consistently, then things should remain mostly zeroed even after a field strip.

An aftermarket Clerke, Butler Creek (discontinued but still available some places, I have one for sale here in the accessories section) or Volquartsen barrel will help.. you also need to free float your barrel. The front band detracts from accuracy and most serious target shooters remove it and free float the barrel. The barrel does not need any support forward of the main action screw unless it's a heavily used field gun

 

[torpedoman]

The bolt buffer accessory is not really to spare wear and tear, but to quiet the action sound, especially worthy when shooting suppressed

If you need one, go with the Volquartsen.. I have been selling them for 10 years with zero complaints, and my 10/22s have them installed and I have yet to have a problem. They are 100% clear polymer

how does it stop the noise when the bolt never touches the buffer? kinda like the sound of one hand clapping?

 

[the4thshake]

The bolt hits the buffer when it is all the way open. When you fire it with the stock metal buffer it makes a metalic "clank" noise. With the plastic buffers it sounds more like a softer "thunk". I have WeaponKraft buffers in 3 10/22 rifles. There are countless numbers of rounds through them with no wear.

 

[Blitzkrieg]

how does it stop the noise when the bolt never touches the buffer? kinda like the sound of one hand clapping?

It does hit the buffer.. if it didn't, the steel bolt would eventually batter the aluminum receiver to pieces

 

[Mookie]

That is a good reason to keep your barrel band. I have a carbine and wanted to keep it stock (yeah, like that lasted) I floated the barrel and very carefully smoothed out the inside of the barrel band where it contacts the barrel so that it actually does not touch the barrel but it still keeps it all stock looking. Plus you can use the swivel if you want.

If you want to get a sweet barrel, depending on how accurate your factory one is, some are very accurate, most are good enough. Go to RFC and look up Nemohunter, he rechambers and recrowns the factory barrel and makes them super accurate for a good price.

 

[smurf hunter]

he rechambers and recrowns the factory barrel and makes them super accurate for a good price.

I may look into that.

I like the idea of the stock barrel, mainly because it's lighter and of course cheaper than the ubiquitous .920 heavy target barrels. I also can't get my head around putting hundreds of $$$ into a $185.00 weapon

Not to digress too much, but a 10/22 is potentially a decent survival weapon (hunting rabbits more than soviet paratroopers mind you). Think how much .22lr you can pack and hike with compared to centerfire rounds. So it just seems ironic when people pile on aftermarket stuff (giant optics, heavy barrels).

Good thread, lots of solid knowledge exchanged.
Thanks all.

 

[Blitzkrieg]

Heavy barrels are better for offhand shooting as the weight helps stabilize your hold.. and although I hear the fellow mentioned does some good work, I doubt he can match the accuracy of a Clerke, BC or Volquartsen barrel. My Clerke 16" heavy fluted barrels get 1/2 MOA and so does my buddies BC fluted 20 inch

My factory unmodified barrels could not even get close to that, more like 3 to 4 MOA

 

[the4thshake]

The rechambered factory barrels cost more then an aftermarket barrel. There are aftermarket barrels with a sporter profile much like the factory barrel. I have a 16" fluted sporter barrel on one of my 10/22s and it is feather light.

 

[Mookie]

The rechambered factory barrels cost more then an aftermarket barrel. There are aftermarket barrels with a sporter profile much like the factory barrel. I have a 16" fluted sporter barrel on one of my 10/22s and it is feather light.

GM, BC, ER Shaw are low end barrels and cost what they do for a reason. They shoot OK but not great and will never ever compete against a good barrel. If they shot with a Volquartsen, Shilen, Lilja, or Lothar Walther they would cost that much.

Why don't you take a look at the groups shot with the Nemo barrels before you state how well they shoot compared.

I also have a GM 16.5" fluted GM barrel, 17HM2. And while it does shoot nice it shoots nowhere near what my VQ barrel or Shilen or even my factory Savage.