10/22 nearly fell apart.

[N_S]

I was shooting up at Sunnyvale Rod and Gun with my buddy (if you spotted a loud idiot with an orange and white sweatshirt, that was me). When we went over to shoot in the rimfire section I got the Ruger out of its case and the first thing I noticed was that the front sight post didn't appear to be on perfectly straight. It looked canted to the right just a little. Some closer looks indicated that as far as I could tell it was on properly. We proceeded to throw a couple hundred rounds of really poor quality Remington plinking ammo downrange. After a few switch-offs I noticed three things. One of the unused rail screws on the top of the receiver came almost all the way out. More importantly the gun started feeling really loose, like it wasn't attached to the stock. More importantly still we developed a visible gap between the barrel and the receiver.
With the help of some other shooters who had the right hex wrenches we discovered the problem. Either the gun was already loose for whatever reason or it managed to shake itself loose. The stock retainer screw was halfway out, the barrel nuts were loose and the barrel was able to rotate about 10 degrees in either direction. It's not too big of a deal since the gun continued shooting reliably and we were able to fix it by just re-tightening everything but now I'm concerned because I have a gun that can shoot itself loose or just somehow magically gets loose from sitting around. Is this normal?

Also the gun was producing strange little puffs of smoke every time you closed the bolt. But I imagine that's just the lousy ammo.

[jshoebot]

Clean your gun. Apply loctite to the barrel nuts. Tighten down the stock retaining screw.

[stitchnicklas]

proper maintenance is a must

[tonelar]

Has it been riding in your car a lot?
Sounds like what happens to trunk guns.

[jshoebot]

Sounds like what happens to trunk guns.

Really? I've never heard of that happening with trunk guns. I usually switch mine out every few months or so, so I've never had a problem.

[rimfireman]

Clean your gun. Apply loctite to the barrel nuts. Tighten down the stock retaining screw.

do not apply any glue in the barrel channel area of the receiver as a side note*
-


stop and clean rifle.

buy a new v-block if its needed (stainless steel ones are pretty good)

reinstall barrel make sure that the bolt lines up with the extractor notch on the barrel.

screw in v-block and apply about 8 to 10 pounds of tension to retain the barrel.

(loctite rail screws)

/cheers

[tonelar]

Really? I've never heard of that happening with trunk guns. I usually switch mine out every few months or so, so I've never had a problem.

Never happens if you check (or loctite) your screws once in a while. Or dampen vibrations (like with a padded case).

[N_S]

Has it been riding in your car a lot?
Sounds like what happens to trunk guns.

See that's the strange thing. It was in a car on the way there but until then it was just sitting in a closet.

Either way I think the key is to just check and re-check the screws every time I go shooting.

[Kryptyde]

I'm a little shocked that you would fire any firearm that appears to be broken/damaged/falling apart.

Maintaining equipment properly and inspecting prior to use is a critical part of firearms safety.

[-hanko]

When we went over to shoot in the rimfire section I got the Ruger out of its case and the first thing I noticed was that the front sight post didn't appear to be on perfectly straight. It looked canted to the right just a little. Some closer looks indicated that as far as I could tell it was on properly. We proceeded to throw a couple hundred rounds of really poor quality Remington plinking ammo downrange. After a few switch-offs I noticed three things. One of the unused rail screws on the top of the receiver came almost all the way out. More importantly the gun started feeling really loose, like it wasn't attached to the stock. More importantly still we developed a visible gap between the barrel and the receiver.

With the help of some other shooters who had the right hex wrenches we discovered the problem. Either the gun was already loose for whatever reason or it managed to shake itself loose. The stock retainer screw was halfway out, the barrel nuts were loose and the barrel was able to rotate about 10 degrees in either direction. It's not too big of a deal since the gun continued shooting reliably and we were able to fix it by just re-tightening everything but now I'm concerned because I have a gun that can shoot itself loose or just somehow magically gets loose from sitting around. Is this normal?

The goofy front sight post suggested you should have checked the gun before you shot it.

-hanko

[N_S]

The goofy front sight post suggested you should have checked the gun before you shot it.

-hanko

I probably didn't adequately explain that. The front sight post looked very slightly off-kilter but on closer examination it appeared to be fine. Bigger problems like the gap between the barrel and the receiver started to manifest themselves only after a few hundred rounds and it was at that point that we stopped to assess the situation.

[Caseless]

Use blue Loctite on the screw threads if they keep coming loose.

[Quickdraw Mcgraw]

do not apply any glue in the barrel channel area of the receiver as a side note*
-


stop and clean rifle.

buy a new v-block if its needed (stainless steel ones are pretty good)

reinstall barrel make sure that the bolt lines up with the extractor notch on the barrel.

screw in v-block and apply about 8 to 10 pounds of tension to retain the barrel.

(loctite rail screws)

/cheers

[SGGear]

I'm a little shocked that you would fire any firearm that appears to be broken/damaged/falling apart.

Maintaining equipment properly and inspecting prior to use is a critical part of firearms safety.

^^^

[Barabas]

I was going to post about how Marlins never have this problem, but then I changed my mind.