About Me: A certified yet non-professional gunsmith learning the trade through trail and inspiration

Saturday, March 10, 2018

The WaGuns 10/22 Rifle Pt2

See Part 1 here

Next we will work on the bolt. The stock bolts have a couple of issues.
One is that the parts are not finished that well, to save money on labor the parts come out of the cutter and are installed with minimal deburring. The second issue, is that the firing pin has some play in it that can cause it to hit the rim of the cartridge a little high, causing a miss-fire or poor precision. The bolt has a notch where the factory hits it with a chisel to close the channel, keeping the firing pin for lifting too much, but this does not do enough, so we will drill the bolt and insert a pin



Before disassembling the bolt I measured the head space, it measured out at .044" which is perfect, optimal is .044 - .047".

Disassembly


The 1/16" stainless roll pin and 1/16" Hi-Roc drill bit


Setting up the drill press


I didn't not drill all the way through, no need to and the last time I did that I broke the $7 drill bit, the 10/22 bolt is case hardened and breaking through can cause a bind when you get to the outer layer of hardened material.


Test fit of the firing pin


File the roll pin flat


I polished the sides, top and bottom of the firing pin, extractor and extractor plunger


I paid special attention to the front edge of the extractor, to help with feeding the new cartridges into the chamber


and the top of the firing pin where it may contact the new roll pin


I then polished the side to prepare it for the jeweling


This is what I am going to use to jewel the bolt (also known as "engine turning" or "damascusing"), a stainless steel brush from my Dremel that has the bristles constrained by a piece of shrink tubing



Making swirls in the valve grinding compound





I replaced the roll pin with a new stainless steel one


oiled, assembled and ready for duty



Next we go to work on the barrel, it is new, but has some dings. I wanted to provide a high polish blued finish, something the factory never provided.



The dinged up area got sanded with 100 grit, working my way up to 400 grit, then I sanded the entire barrel with the 400, working my way up to 2500 grit and finishing with fine Crocus Cloth


Close up of the polished surface


Here it is after bluing




I had a spare front sight, the rear sight might not be from a 10/22 or maybe it is from an older one, it looks a little different.









2 comments:

  1. I would be interested in seeing how you measured the headspace on the 10-22. :) Thank you in advance.

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  2. Follow this link, it explains it in detail

    http://www.perfectunion.com/vb/ruger-10-22/40048-headspace-your-bolt.html

    ReplyDelete