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The Tactical Solutions 10/22
Posted by Junior Shooters
By: Ashley Rumble (11)
Republished from Volume 18 Summer 2014
I recently got the chance to test out a Tactical Solutions (TacSol) equipped Ruger 10/22 match rifle. It’s by far my favorite rifle that I have gotten to test. It had a bright red laminate thumbhole stock, a bright red fluted barrel, and a silver muzzle brake. The action was a regular Ruger 10/22, not the X-Ring system that TacSol sells. That is something I would like to try out in the future, but as it was, I still had a great rifle to shoot.
My favorite part of the rifle was the stock. Being able to grip the stock at a better angle, and being able to use more of my hand on the stock like a pistol grip made the rifle easier to handle; plus, it was much better balanced. As an added bonus, it looked great with the red laminate and cutaway on the stock! The fit of the stock to the rifle was perfect, and taking it apart for cleaning was also a little easier thanks to the free-floating stock only having one screw to take out instead of two like on a regular 10/22 that has a clamp at the barrel and front of the stock.
The barrel is much bigger than what I have on my regular 10/22. It looks like it would be heavier, too, but didn’t feel that way when I started to shoot with it. I found that it helped with the balance of the rifle just like the stock did, making the rifle much nicer to shoot, especially during long matches where little things can become big problems as the day goes on. The barrel also had a muzzle brake on the end. It is supposed to help stabilize the rifle’s kick when shooting. I didn’t have a lot of experience with anything like it until I started to test the rifle, but I will say that this rifle was stable, and I’m sure the muzzle brake had something to do with that.
With the action being a regular 10/22, there were no surprises with how it worked. That’s a good thing, because we thought there may be a few problems with the different stock and barrel, but that was not the case. The magazine came out just as it was supposed to (that happened a little faster thanks to the Tactical Solutions extended magazine release lever), and the action performed just like it does on my own 10/22.
All in all, I thought the rifle was a better setup than my regular 10/22. I was able to move the rifle faster and hold it steadier than I normally would have. Everything also looked great, felt solid, and worked like it should. I was very happy with it and was very reluctant to give it up.
A bonus to testing the rifle was able to visit the Tactical Solutions’ factory prior to the big Ruger Rimfire match at Parma, Idaho, in September. They were very interested when I told them I was testing one of their rifles, so my dad and I went to their factory in Boise to see how they make the rifle that I’d been shooting for the past six months. After we were met at the door, we were led to the manufacturing floor to see how the parts were made.
First, we went over to the huge milling machines that turn blocks of metal into the different parts. The first stop was the barrels. The man running the machine took the time to open it and let me look inside. It looked very complicated. He told me it only took seven minutes to make a barrel and only thirty seconds longer if they wanted a threaded barrel for a muzzle brake. It was very interesting to see how the machine can take a round piece of metal and end up with a great looking barrel.
Next, we went over to some of the parts they had about half done. The tour guide told me that the bricks of metal I was looking at would be X-Ring actions when they were finished. The big CNC milling machine that was about as big as a van is where they cut the metal into the X-Ring actions. We got to see it change the cutting heads to mill other parts of the metal and watched as metal chips came off. They told me it ran twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, and they were still on back order! After that, we walked over to their smaller CNC machines where they were making all the other rifle and pistol parts, just not the big ones the other CNC machine made. It was very educating to see how all the machines worked to make the parts we use in our guns. The people running the 
machines were more than happy to talk with me and show me how everything worked, even though I know they were very busy.
After seeing all the machines, we walked over to the shipping room, but everything had already been shipped out for the day, including their stocks, so we didn’t get to see any of the completed guns. That was the end of the tour at that point. Our tour guide wished me good luck during the match the next day, and we said goodbye.
During the match, I felt a little closer to the TacSol rifle I was using and felt I understood how to use it a little better because of what they showed me. My dad and I plan to build our own match 10/22 rifle, and I know just where we will be looking for the parts.
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