Ruger 10/22 Takedown First Impression

Back in March I broke the news about the all new Ruger 10/22 Takedown rifle they were introducing to the ubiquitous 10/22 line of rifles. Then I was impressed with Ruger doing some “from the ground up” innovation of their own.

By appearances most shooters would differentiate this 10/22 from others by the fact that it came with its own pack, would split in half and serves as an entry or at least a partial entry into the world of the survival rifle along with the Marlin Papoose, Springfield M6 Survival Rifle and Henry AR-7 US Survival rifle. The rifle itself is EXTREMELY light at just 4.67 pounds and has a nice compact vein to it. Disappointingly though, the rifle has no sling swivels mounted to the stock nor does the buttstock cap come off to serve as a storage compartment. Not deal breakers, but a couple of strikes against the survival rifle category nonetheless. Even further, the pack comes with Molle loops on the front but oddly has just one strap included for carrying. So it’s a pack but not a backpack. Perhaps lashed to a larger pack as a removable external pack it makes sense, but it’s high enough quality, why not just make it a backpack to begin with?

Also frustrating is the apparent fact that if you add a magnified optic that extends more than 1/2 inch beyond the front of the receiver that half of the rifle won’t fit the pack (pictured) unless the shooter opts for a reflex sight or your magnified optic on a quick detach mount. BUT, the included scope rail is a Weaver rather than a picatinny rail so your average Quick Detach mount isn’t going to lock on to the scope mount the way you want. And I didn’t mount a big obnoxious scope, just a simple old school Burris Fullfield 4×32 fixed power scope.

Such a downer! Okay well there are some early high points… 

• It’s SOOOOOO lightweight. For someone short on storage or limited space in their vehicle or even a young shooter this rifle has applications for fitting where longer guns would struggle.
• There’s a scope base included. I made a trip to Sportsmans to pick up a 10/22 mount (still only $7 or so) only to get home, open the box and find the matching unfinished mount included.
• Ruger went ahead and included an extended magazine release instead of the old school 10/22 button mag release.

Finally, if you can find one of these for a killer deal like I saw at my local Sportsmans Warehouse this past weekend (for just $289, the cheapest I had seen previously was $350ish) then the frustration of fit of the bag, lack of sling swivel studs and no storage compartment would prove moot.