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This has likely been posted before but I just wanted share my experience.
My wife had not taken her 10/22 to the range in some time - so we took it today - and when its turn came up I was unable to pull the charging handle very far back. About enough to get my thumb between the breach face and the rear of the barrel/chamber. Seemed odd to me that it would stop so hard in the same spot every time - a part of me thought - uh-oh all those warnings about Frog Lube may be true - especially since it had sat for many months. But no - that can't be it - it was not gummy or slow but a hard stop. So maybe something broke or got lodged in there perhaps? I recalled hearing about the scope rail screws being an issue - but I had not changed the scope rail since it was new and never had an issue with those screws interfering with the bolt.
When I got home and took it apart I discovered the ejector flag had gotten flipped around and yes it is possible to fully assemble the 10/22 with the flag flipped around backwards. The odd part of this is that whenever I clean a weapon I perform a full manual operation of all the parts (and even have snap caps for 9mm and shotgun) - so it took me a while to remember why this happened.
A few months ago someone posted a question about the 10/22 and I too her rifle out of the safe and partially disassembled it to look at it and maybe even take a picture to be sure that I was providing an accurate response to the question. Since I did not do a full disassembly that I would do for cleaning and the only thing that I can think must have happened is that since I only did a partial disassembly I did not run through my normal full reassembly with function check that I would have done if I were cleaning it.
Yes I should have had a screwdriver in the range bag and could have died it on the spot - but we were getting close to done and had dinner reservations.
So it is a good example of following standard operating procedures ALL the time - even when you are performing some non standard action.
I would imagine it might also be possible - though maybe unlikely - that someone new to the 10/22 might make this mistake during reassembly - not be able to charge it - take it apart and not notice that the flag moved during disassembly and then reassemble it again and have it work and be left confused as to why it didn't work and then it did even though they did everything "the same" both times.
Edit - perhaps the title should be Trigger group not installed correctly - since I didn't take the trigger group apart at all - just positioned the flag incorrectly without realizing it.
My wife had not taken her 10/22 to the range in some time - so we took it today - and when its turn came up I was unable to pull the charging handle very far back. About enough to get my thumb between the breach face and the rear of the barrel/chamber. Seemed odd to me that it would stop so hard in the same spot every time - a part of me thought - uh-oh all those warnings about Frog Lube may be true - especially since it had sat for many months. But no - that can't be it - it was not gummy or slow but a hard stop. So maybe something broke or got lodged in there perhaps? I recalled hearing about the scope rail screws being an issue - but I had not changed the scope rail since it was new and never had an issue with those screws interfering with the bolt.
When I got home and took it apart I discovered the ejector flag had gotten flipped around and yes it is possible to fully assemble the 10/22 with the flag flipped around backwards. The odd part of this is that whenever I clean a weapon I perform a full manual operation of all the parts (and even have snap caps for 9mm and shotgun) - so it took me a while to remember why this happened.
A few months ago someone posted a question about the 10/22 and I too her rifle out of the safe and partially disassembled it to look at it and maybe even take a picture to be sure that I was providing an accurate response to the question. Since I did not do a full disassembly that I would do for cleaning and the only thing that I can think must have happened is that since I only did a partial disassembly I did not run through my normal full reassembly with function check that I would have done if I were cleaning it.
Yes I should have had a screwdriver in the range bag and could have died it on the spot - but we were getting close to done and had dinner reservations.
So it is a good example of following standard operating procedures ALL the time - even when you are performing some non standard action.
I would imagine it might also be possible - though maybe unlikely - that someone new to the 10/22 might make this mistake during reassembly - not be able to charge it - take it apart and not notice that the flag moved during disassembly and then reassemble it again and have it work and be left confused as to why it didn't work and then it did even though they did everything "the same" both times.
Edit - perhaps the title should be Trigger group not installed correctly - since I didn't take the trigger group apart at all - just positioned the flag incorrectly without realizing it.
