Loose trigger housing on 10/22

[DougB]

I'm considering purchasing a used 10/22. There are three to choose from, all made between 1976 and 1982. All appear to be in pretty good shape, but the two oldest have quite a bit of looseness in the trigger housing to receiver fit. Is this normal? Can it be fixed? Is it the stock? I received a suggestion that I buy oversized pins from Brownells to fix this, has anyone done this? Is this a sign of heavy use or improper treatment? Thanks for any input.

Doug

 

[Gewehr98]

The Brownells oversized pins are the way to go. I bought a set and put them on my sloppy Bicentennial-edition FrankenRuger. It's a good way to ensure that when you squeeze the trigger, the energy is spent working the sear, vs. pushing things around on the loose upper/lower fit.

 

[4V50 Gary]

If the play is because the pins are loose, you could probably acraglass the holes to fit. Put the release agent on the takedown pins and apply modeling putty to ensure that the pins are flush. Apply acraglass to both sides the receiver and push the pin in (no trigger unit). Clean off any excess the on the outside and inside of the receiver. Allow to set. Remove the pins and remove excess again. This should reduce the diameter of the receiver holes such that you would get a tight fit again.

Otherwise, if the trigger unit is sloppy because of side to side movement, you may want to acraglass the trigger unit (plenty of release agent on the unit) to the receiver.

These are just hairbrain ideas which I haven't tried. Comments anyone?

 

[Gewehr98]

Not a bad idea, Gary. Problem I see with Acraglas is that it can, and does, soften up and could loosen up in fit after time, especially in a 10/22, where the steel bolt impacts the bolt stop pin each cycle. Polyurethane bolt buffers help that a lot, but there's still a good bit of monkey motion and flexing going on in a 10/22, I don't know how long the Acraglas would endure. Maybe Devcon? What I would suggest, and it's what I did to the above featured 10/22, is Acraglas bed the trigger housing in the stock, as I did with the barrel, and leave the receiver free-floated. It keeps the trigger group centered, but keeps the stresses off the alloy receiver. The oversized action pin kit really isn't that expensive, though, and will provide a good snug fit.