10/22 bolt doesn't lock?

[Meety Peety]

Hey guys.. picked up a used 10/22 recently and I noticed the bolt doesn't lock after the last round is fired. This is my first 10/22 so I'm not sure if this is a "feature" or a "problem" although it seems like it would be a rather assinine "feature" to me. Can't understand why anyone would want this which makes me pretty sure something isn't right. Would this be a broken spring or something? The gun functions fine aside from that. I haven't pulled the trigger group apart yet, but I don't think that'll be a problem.. so how do I fix this?

Thanks

[69Mach1]

It wasn't designed with that feature.

[okimreloaded]

there's parts you can add that will keep your bolt open but I've been told it's like 50 bucks and to me it wasn't a big deal. I just put 200+ rounds through mine today for the first time and had a blast!

[NeoWeird]

The design of the Ruger 10/22 magazine doesn't lend itself to 'tripping' a bolt catch very well. It is, however, one of the most reliable magazine designs in history. Seeing as how it's primary role has been that of plinker, varmint gun, or target rifle, the loss of a rather pointless last round bolt hold open in exchange for almost legendary reliability is a huge advantage to most people, since the weapon is not used in a combat and/or high stress enviornment. It does have a bolt hold open feature, but it is self activated. On the factory gun you pull the bolt to the rear, depress the lever next to the trigger guard up, and release the bolt while the lever is depressed. To close the bolt, the procedure is almost identical. Pull back the bolt, depress lever, but this time release the bolt WITHOUT the lever depressed. There is an automatic bolt release that is both sold, or there are DIY tutorials online for the OEM part where the procedure to lock the bolt is the same, but to release you simply pull back on the bolt and release, similar to 'sling shoting' a pistol slide.

[Meety Peety]

I see.. well thank you for the info. I was able to manually lock the bolt, but the fact that it didn't do this on the last riound seemed bizzare to me. It doesn't bother me, just wanted to make sure I didn't have a broken/misaligned spring floating around in there. Thanks.

[NeoWeird]

Two responses seem to disagree.. anyone confirm? I don't see why the gun would be built to not lock open.. it doesn't make sense to me. Gotta be a broken spring or something

69Mach1 said it was not designed with that feature.

okimreloaded said that there are parts you can buy to do it, implying that it originally did not come with it.

I said the magazine design doesn't work well with last round hold bolt hold open. I then went on to say that there is a manual method to hold the bolt open for any reason you may need.

No one disagreed. It is NOT a feature of the weapon. The item okimreloaded is referring to is a conversion by Custom Shooting Technologies that requires you to replace the manual bolt lock feature and the magazine to achieve a last round bolt hold open feature on the rifle. The conversion is rather expensive at $60 for the unit and is only useable on the expensive $20+ modified magazines that it comes with. If you HAVE to have it, Brownells carries it. Midway no longer does which is probably due to it's low interest level by most shooters.

[Meety Peety]

Hence why I realized this and edited accordingly after 3 minutes. Thanks for the info.

[supersteve9219]

the 10/22 can be dry fired safely (it says in the manual and the ruger website) so it isn't really a needed feature since it wont damage the gun if you dry fire.

[trob]

yep, it never had that feature.

there is a mod you can do, but you have to buy specific mags for it to work