@hdbull ---
When you bed the action, you accomplish two things; one of course provides a better bed for the action, and the Second is to firm up the block in the action that the rear of the mag locks into. You'll see what I mean when you take the rifle out of the action
The standard BMX mags have the rotary feed device that feeds the round into the action, so the round goes into the chamber at a little bit of an angle. They also aid in the ejection of the round which is probably something that the 10-22 needs as its an auto loaded and that's what the mags were designed to work in.
The Butler Creek "Hot Lips" mags don't have the rotary feed like the BMX mags, and they feed the round straight into the chamber. The feed lips are made of plastic so they don't scratch the bullets. I probably ran close to 10,000 rounds through mine before the plastic wore down to a point where I started to have feeding issues. But at that point I put the Shaw barrel on and the Hot Lip mags didn't work well on the new barrel so I went with the regular Butler Creek mags. The BMX mags just felt clunky to me.
There's some talk on the hide about the bore scope, I think it's in the first section where folks are talking about equipment. For approximately $70 it looks pretty good to me. Some folks have posted pictures of their rifle bores that I though we're pretty good. Yes, it's the type of scope that uses your phone.
When I purchased my rifle, it was the only one my lgs had in stock, so I didn't have a choice. The bolt had some edges on it that actually cut my finger. A little light file work on the edges took care of that. Then I put some JB Bore paste on the whole bolt and cycled it through the action a few hundred times and it was very smooth after that.
I'm very happy to help you, or anyone with their RPR. Just realize that you need to have some patience with the rifle to get the best out of it. Mine was what I call the first generation RPR. It was made in the first month of production according to the serial number, and in the owners manual it said to tighten the action to 35 inch pounds, but then there was a flyer included that said to not tighten the action more than 25 inch pounds. Later built rifles didn't have the flier, ask I assume Ruger changed something in the chassis. By now, I'd like to think that Rugers QC has caught up to their manufacturing and are putting out a better gun. After shooting my RPR for 6 months I purchased a CZ455 to see if my groups would improve. They did initially, but with some more work on the RPR (bedding), I thought the RPR groups a little bit better than the CZ. I purchased a Tikka this past fallbut haven't worked with it much, but the RPR out shoots it. What amazes me about the Tikka is that it shoots anything pretty good, but the RPR offshoots it too. My whole point about all of this is that I've found that the RPR is capable of being a pretty decent shooter, but you have to work with it to get it in that condition. But that's OK with me, as I'm a patient person and enjoy analying a situation and trying to figure out an action to correct things. Maybe most important, I think you have to forget the notion of comparing rimfire rifles to centerfires. They are a completly different beast. My RPR is one of my favorite rifles, perhaps because it was a problem child that's now pretty decent due to my efforts.
My offer for the barrel stands. When your ready for it send me a PM and I'll ship it to you. The only thing I ask is that I'd like to see a comparison of how your new barrel shoots Vs my 10,000 round barrel. That could be interesting. Or maybe not. .22lr are different.
Good luck with the deer hunt. I shoot black powder too.
