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10/22: Lighter spring & bolt more reliable?

rfb

Private
Minuteman
Jun 17, 2011
21
0
54
Seattle
Title says it all. I've read about people using lighter guide rod springs and radiusing their bolts to make subsonic ammo cycle reliably.

I'm thinking of using a Kidd -10% guide spring and radiusing my bolt for using standard ammo. I figure at the very least, it'd speed up lock time and I'm hoping it increases reliability when shooting cheap, inconsistent ammo. I've got a bolt buffer, so I'm not worried about increased metal-on-metal contact.

Any drawbacks to using lighter springs/bolts? Is there any reason not to do this?
 
Re: 10/22: Lighter spring & bolt more reliable?

Lock time would be trigger based (how long between sear breaking and firing pin being hit), not how the bolt cycles.

If sub sonics are really a problem (they never have been in any standard 10/22 i've owned) then I'd polish the guide rod, maybe polish the bolt, and polish the inside of the receiver. Especially on the new ones with the krinkle paint finish...
 
Re: 10/22: Lighter spring & bolt more reliable?

Erp, meant cyclic rate, not lock time. And this would be for standard ammo, not subsonics. Is there any reason not to use a lighter spring?
 
Re: 10/22: Lighter spring & bolt more reliable?

i personally like the factory recoil spring/guide assembly. I break them in with a brick of automatch then use standard velocity or subs. never had a problem. i had a kidd recoil setup with the light spring. it worked great. i just like how easy it is to put the factory recoil guide back together in the bolt. seems like i was always scraping the kidd guide rod on the face of my clark barrel when putting everything back together.