10/22 Headspace

[fourtraxmc]

I picked up my first 10/22 about 5 months ago. Serial number shows it to be a 1971 model. After cleaning it and taking it out a few times I really was unhappy about how this gun ran. Mainly ftf, with light strikes. I was going to send the bolt off and have it reworked with a new firing pin etc. After some research I ended up puttting it in the lathe at work and removed about .008" from the bolt face and ended up about .044". Wow what a difference. I ran about 200 rnds of cci blazer throught it. Before the modification I was lucky to fire 5 out of 10 rounds, after not one ftf. This was with just turning the bolt face, all parts are the original 1971 issue. Sorry for the long post but very happy with such a simple modification!

[Yoteman]

I picked up my first 10/22 about 5 months ago. Serial number shows it to be a 1971 model. After cleaning it and taking it out a few times I really was unhappy about how this gun ran. Mainly ftf, with light strikes. I was going to send the bolt off and have it reworked with a new firing pin etc. After some research I ended up puttting it in the lathe at work and removed about .008" from the bolt face and ended up about .044". Wow what a difference. I ran about 200 rnds of cci blazer throught it. Before the modification I was lucky to fire 5 out of 10 rounds, after not one ftf. This was with just turning the bolt face, all parts are the original 1971 issue. Sorry for the long post but very happy with such a simple modification!

fourtraxmc, Good post! It seems the headspace on these guys is critical. There was a time when headspacing to .042 was THE THING to do. Lots of folks sent theirs to CPC and the like for this...some did as you and were able to do their own. Either way this one modification can make a tremendous difference in accuracy as well as FTF issues.
Chamfering the bolt was/is also popular.