Full Auto 10/22?

Prof Young

New member
Somewhere along the way I recall running across information that there is an add-on piece that turns a 10/22 full auto. That some of these add-on pieces are still around since before NFA was enacted and may be purchased for a boat load of money in states where full auto is legal. Is this mythical or real?

Life is good.
Prof Young
 
To clarify, the NFA was passed in 1934. It requires registration and taxes. The closure of the civilian machine gun registry was the Hughes Amendment to the Firearms Owners Protection Act of 1986.
 
From a design stand point, it's easy to make a 22 full auto. The hard part is making it stop before the mag runs dry.
 
From a design stand point, it's easy to make a 22 full auto. The hard part is making it stop before the mag runs dry.
Those Norrell Trigger packs are pretty sophisticated. It is not that easy to make a reliable full-auto 10-22.
 
Making it stop isn't that difficult either. Bit of wire strategically placed will do it. The hard part is avoiding arrest for manufacturing an MG.
A net search for 'full auto 10-22' turns up 24,600,000 sites from YouTube to sites with a how-to and parts.
 
From a design stand point, it's easy to make a 22 full auto. The hard part is making it stop before the mag runs dry.
Those Norrell Trigger packs are pretty sophisticated. It is not that easy to make a reliable full-auto 10-22.
Mobuck is right: a full-auto 10/22 is a fairy simple design. Keep in mind that one of the simplest autoloading firearm designs is an open-bolt, blowback-operated machine gun. What’s more complicated is a closed-bolt select-fire 10/22 like the Norrell.
 
I do recall one tidbit from an article about full auto 10/22's. It said "bolt bounce" was an issue in longer firing strings. Since the bolt is a simple blowback, and does not lock closed, sometimes it could actually bounce back out of battery before the firing pin strike just enough to cause a misfire. So they drilled a big hole in the back of the bolt and halfway filled it with mercury (some used big ball bearings instead). The mercury or bearings were free to move back and forth within the bolt. So when the bolt slammed home, a split second later the mercury would also slam forward, which added enough momentum to keep the bolt closed long enough to fire.
 
So to answer your question...yes, they are real.

The prices currently are around $17,000 to $22,000, depending on the conversion piece.

There are three conversions that I know of.

The cheapest is the registered receiver conversion. These are approximately $17,000 or so.

The second is the registered sear. These are about $20,000 or so.

The most desirable is the registered pack. These are the highest at approximately $22,000+.

People, even Norrell owners confuse the sears with the packs. The packs are the most desirable and will probably have the greatest longevity of the conversions because the internals can all be replaced, and there is zero stress on the pack.

The sears are often confused for the packs because the sears often are in a pack, and the packs have a serial number serialized on the packs. When people talk about the 'packs', they're referring to the trigger box, itself.

It's the same scenario with the HK sears that come in packs and the DLO trigger packs, if you're familiar with how those work. When you have a sear gun, it's not the pack that is registered, even though someone wrote the serial number on the pack, rather, it's the sear that is registered. This is an important distinction because with a registered sear, you CAN replace the sear, but not the trigger box; whereas with the registered pack, you can replace the sear, but not the trigger box.

The conversions are more desirable because you can take any currently produced 10/22 and convert it to run with the registered conversion device. With the registered receiver, you're stuck with that 10/22.

I'm a collector, not a gunsmith, so I don't know what goes into converting the 10/22. But based on my conversions with knowledgable smiths, it's not that difficult. Most importantly, it's legal to do, provided you own a registered conversion piece.

As for issues, such as bolt bounce, reliability, etc...know that most 22LR MGs are notoriously unreliable. They require lots of maintenance and gunsmithing to run reliably. Also, they require lots of cleaning. 22LR, especially if you shoot the cheap lead exposed ammo, can really gunk up the mechanisms.

Finally, I hate 22LR MGs of any sort. They're fun to own for a few sessions, then they become a pain. The reason is the ROF and the pain of reloading the mag. They just don't provide enough of a 'bang' for the effort put into running it. Have you ever tried loading 30-50 22LR rounds into a magazine? It's more effort than loading 30 into an AR. Then imagine the entire magazine zipping out in two seconds. Rinse, repeat. Gets old real fast.

Disclaimer: don't rely on my advice above. Do your own research.
 
Machineguntony said:
Finally, I hate 22LR MGs of any sort. They're fun to own for a few sessions, then they become a pain. The reason is the ROF and the pain of reloading the mag. They just don't provide enough of a 'bang' for the effort put into running it. Have you ever tried loading 30-50 22LR rounds into a magazine? It's more effort than loading 30 into an AR. Then imagine the entire magazine zipping out in two seconds. Rinse, repeat. Gets old real fast.

This loader is the best thing for high capacity rimfire rifle mags. It truly does work as shown.

https://www.mcfaden.com/McFadden-Machine-Lightnin-Grip-Loader-s/1828.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2OuxhqtqIM
 
thanks for all the info . . .

Fun info. Thanks a lot. Guess if I'm ever a zillionaire I would investigate further.

Life is good.
Prof Young
 
From a design stand point, it's easy to make a 22 full auto. The hard part is making it stop before the mag runs dry.

I've seen plans for making a Ruger 10/22 full-auto. They require modifications to the receiver, bolt and some fire control parts, as well as making at least one new part from scratch. This is a lot more complicated than I believe most people think. If you are a Class II manufacturer or a machinist then maybe this would be easy for you? Now if all you want to do is make it some kind of slam-fire jam-o-matic, then such an operation is fairly simple.
 
Back
Top