10/22 conversion to 17 mach2

K

kingsman

Inactive
had an extra 10/22 that i converted to a 17 m2. barreled it with a er shaw and proper heavy charging handle. it will a ragged hole at 100 yds on a calm day. love it but i have a problem. aftr i shoot a couple mags i start getting smoke coming from reciever and barrel. it concerned me that i have'nt shot it since. i actually thought that i had i round stuck in the barrel causing the smoke to out of the reciever. i check the barrel and there was no obstruction. the mag was not hot and the reciever was about as warm as you would expect on 85 deg. day. has anyone had this type of problem or is it just because it's shooting a hot round.
any help would be appreciated. thanks
kingsman
OPERA NON VERBA
 
17

Dear Kingsman:
Glad to have you on the forum.
As to your Ruger I have no experience with the 17 cal. I am speaking from ignorance but I don't know what pressures your running. On all 10-22s. I always after a box or two of shells are shot - take it out of the stock and tighten the barrel block screws - they'll go almost a quarter turn as the steel sets in the Ruger frame.
Without knowing the pressure (I'd assume) is hotter than the 22LR (it's 25,000#) Therefotre I can't say for sure but it sounds to me like "high pressure heat and smoke." What does the pressure of your 17 run?
Is Ruger blessing this and what spring are you using that they recommend?
I'm glad you're getting good accuracy but I must tell you I disaprove of 17 calibers. I am old-fashioned however.
Welcome to the forum - not all members are dinosaurs like I.
Harry B.
 
Chances are that you might need to have the headspacve tightened up on your rifle. The reason I suspect this is that most do. Many come from the factory with the headspace set at around .050" and it should run around
.043". Since the pressure of the two rounds are almost identical, the problem is the 17 will run the pressure up very quickly which can move the bolt rearward sooner than on the 22lr. If the headspace is around .043", this doesn't cause a porblem and you can actually run the gun just like it comes from the factory. If it is a larger amount than that, it can cause blow outs of the cases, flattened rims and many other problems, including the smoke that you are seeing.

I would advise you to first check the cases that you have been shooting. If they look ok, then you are most likely ok, but even with the heavier bolt handle, you will eventually wear out the channel in the bolt where it resides and still end up with too much headspace and cause problems down the road. The cure like I mentioned earlier is simply to have the gun headspaced correctly. Then you can put the original bolt back on and run a bolt buffer and you should be good to go.
 
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