Firearm Review: Endurance Testing a Ruger 10/22 Rifle

Firstly this rifle purchase was never intended as an endurance test. It just worked out that way. I keep track of how many rounds each rifle has fired in my shooting logs and recently adding them up I realized my 10/22 had passed the 100,000 rounds fired mark. I compiled all the data from my shooting logs to publish in this article.

The rifle was initally purchased in 1999 as a christmas gift for my wife. She wanted a plinking and small game rifle and as our collection did not include a 10/22 we decided to buy one. It was ordered through our local dealer as I wanted certain options. It came with stainless steel finish, scope mount installed, standard barrel profile and full synthetic stock. It came with one ten round magazine and I purchased three more ten round magazines at that time. In 2004 when the AWB (assault weapons ban) ended, I bought three thirty round magazines as well. The gun shot 2" groups out of the box with open sights and under 1" groups with a simmons scope installed.

The gun never had a formal break in period as it was intended as a plinker and not a target rifle. Up until January 2003 it was used rarely, and spent most of its time in the weapons locker. In 2003 I sold the Hammerli 208 target pistol I used the majority of the time and the 10/22 became our primary .22 shooter. At that time it had about 9,000 rounds through it. After Jan 2003 it fired an average of about 2000 rounds a month but most shooting was done in the summer time. At the 80,000 round mark accuracy began to fall off from barrel wear. The scope was removed and put on another rifle. At the time of this writing the gun has surpassed the 100,000 round mark and shoots 3" groups. It has been retired from primiry .22 status and is currently awaiting a new barrel and custom stock as funds allow.

There were only two parts failures in the guns lifetime. About the 25,000 round mark the ejector tip broke off and the ejector was replaced at a cost of $5.45. At the 48,000 round mark the hammer spring broke and was replaced at a cost of $15.25. Both parts have not needed repalcement since and show no undue wear.

Overall the rifle is worn from heavy use on the outside but all the internals are still within factory specifications. The choice of stainless steel and synthetic stocks greatly improved the rifle's performance while dirty and made it much easier to clean and maintain. I highly reccomend this rifle to anyone for general usage.

The only other weapons I have personal knowledge of that have surpassed the 100,000 round mark are an original WWII MG42 in the hands of a Class 3 FFL dealer and a Bushmaster Carbon 15 rifle bought for the sole prupose of a 100,000 round test by a friend of mine. The bushmaster made it 80,000 rounds before a catastrophic case faliure destroyed the upper reciver and injured the shooter. The MG42 is still shooting to this day.