This page is about the Black Ruger, which is in many ways the Ruger discussed in ‘First project‘. Many things have changed since then. It no longer has its original barrel, for instance. It has a factory barrel, but from a Ruger ‘model K’ special edition that was produced only for select dealers. The standard 10/22 barrel measures 18.5″ and is painted black. The barrel it now has is 22″ long, and is naked stainless.
The new barrel made the Williams receiver-mounted sight unworkable, so the rifle has a Millet/Desert Eagle sight instead. Since those sights are not as ‘tall’ as the Williams, I had to go with a smaller muzzle brake, so it has the brake from GRG Mfg.
The rifle has two barrel bands, as discussed in ‘The joys of tuning‘. It has a new stock, because the old one had been tweaked beyond its ability to recover. This is what the rifle looks like now:
I’m calling it the ‘Black Ruger’ because I used Varathane (okay, it’s not MinWax, but very good) ‘Espresso’ stain when I refinished the stock. The stain is essentially black. Here’s the result:
Again, this is the sort of wood grain that Ruger hides behind its factory spray-on brown-colored varnish. If you want a custom look for your Ruger, consider simply refinishing the stock. No two are the same, so uniqueness is guaranteed.
Another thing different about the stock is the anti-cycloduction feature. I covered the problem of cycloduction the page for ‘First project‘ and decided to improve on the result.
Here’s one view of the ‘skeleton’ of my updated version of the anti-cycloduction stock:
and here’s another view:
The point of the anti-cycloduction stock is to allow the shooter to keep both eyes level with the horizon, and shoot with both eyes open, without creating ‘ghosting’ and other things people complain about when discussing shooting with both eyes open. The experience is a lot closer to the experience of shooting a pistol with both eyes open. From personal experience, I can tell you that it makes shooting a rifle with open sights and both eyes open a nearly magical experience. Go over to ‘First project‘ for a more scientific discussion of how this works. It works even better than that.
You can see how the structure of the stock makes room for the shooter’s cheek, so that the right eye can get directly behind the sights without tilting the head. You can also see that this version only works for right-handed shooters.
And this is only the ‘skeleton’ of the stock. It actually has leather upholstery, and for the horizontal cheek rest, it has foam padding from an insulation tube normally used for commercial air-conditioning systems. With the upholstery, it looks like this:
The only things holding the upholstery together are snaps, which are totally cheap and easy to work with. The ‘skeleton’ you see is aluminum strap, measuring 0.25″ by 1.0″. A little sawing, sanding, bending, drilling and screwing, and the job is done. Oh, and a bit of optional work with a wood chisel.
I’m so happy with the results, and so impressed with how easy it is to work with aluminum stock, that I’m giving serious thought to throwing the wood parts away and making a stock entirely out of aluminum parts. With bits of leather here and there, of course. Springs and rubber components for tuning as well.
If I do that, I’ll be posting the results here, for sure.
bestruger1022 