Ruger 10/22 Williams Receiver Sight

[Ernest.T.Bass]

My interest in my Ruger 10/22 was recently rekindled when I was scratching through a junk drawer and found the receiver sight from my 10/22. The carbine was a present for I believe my 10th birthday or so (sometime around 1976 or 1777). I absolutely loved that gun.

I was also in love with M1 Garands. So the next best thing was a set of Williams Receiver sights for my Ruger. I mail ordered them from some catalog company and it came with two apertures. The OEM front sight was just barely tall enough with rear in its lowest position. I figured out that if I removed the bead and filed the sides flat it would work out about right. Hey-not bad gunsmithing for a 11 or 12 year old kid!

So I recently found the old Williams sight. I decided I needed to find a good proper front sight so I hit the Williams Web sight and found a 1/16 in. Gold bead that should fit the bill. I found that Midway had that and some other stuff I wanted in stock. While I was at it I got a smaller target type aperture with a .050 hole.

I had one of the ATI Dragonuv type stocks and some sort of Chinese scope I had wound up with in a trade. I ditched that setup and found the original stock in the closet. The barrel band was in bad shape. I had broken it at one point and my cousin had welded/heliarced it back. It wasn't that bad, but I made a call to Ruger anyway. I got a spare magazine and some scope mount hole filler screws while I was at it.

A brass drift punch did not take of the front sight on my first attempt. I had to do a little hand fitting with a small triangular file.

I found some CB Caps and spent some time in the back yard sighting the rig in. I still love this gun.

Here are some pictures so you can join me in stroll down memory lane to when I was 10 years old.

[Ernest.T.Bass]

More of the kitchen table gunsmithing story

[Guest Mugster]

Great post. I'm in the process of rebuilding my 10/22 as well. Mine was issued to me in 1982.

I wound up with a pristine ruger barrel/stock combo (thanks to easilyobsessed) for not too many bucks. It looks great, but I need to refinish my receiver...its more dinged up than yours is I think. I broke the original stock in half a long time ago.

I'm liking the look of those williams sights. I dunno, it's a hard sell. I keep waffling back and forth on keeping it stock or adding a few mods. The little shooter is pretty good as it is.

Edited June 3, 2008 by Mugster

[Ernest.T.Bass]

More pics of the 10/22 with the peep sight.