Ruger 10/22 Boy Scouts of America Commemorative Semi-Automatic 22 Rifle

 

by Jeff Quinn

photography by Jeff Quinn & Boge Quinn

December 20th, 2010

 

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Ruger 10/22 Boy Scouts of America commemorative.

 

 

Sights.

 

 

Rifle also comes with scope base.

 

 

 

 

Ruger's famous 10-shot rotary magazine.

 

 

Crossbolt safety (top), extended magazine release (bottom).

 

 

Commemorative pamphlet (top & center), special commemorative box (bottom).

 

 

Special BSA-prefix serial numbers.

 

 

 

 

"On my honor I will do my best

to do my duty to God and my country

and to obey the Scout Law:

To help other people at all times;

To keep myself physically strong,

mentally awake, and morally straight."

That is the Scout Oath, quoted directly from my Boy Scout Handbook from 1969. Take a moment to go back and read that again. Think how much better off we would be as a nation and as human beings if everyone would take that Scout Oath, and to live by it. Can you imagine the drastic change in this nation if our elected officials in our nation’s capital would live by that simple creed? Can you imagine the change in your neighborhood if all of your neighbors lived by that simple creed? Can you imagine the change in your life, if you lived by that simple creed?

The Boy Scouts of America, as an organization, is 100 years old this year. To commemorate that anniversary, Ruger has built a special 10/22 rifle. The 10/22 has been in production for forty-six years now, and is the best-selling rifle in the US at this time. Millions have been produced in that span of time, and Ruger is still cranking them out at an amazing rate of production. I was surprised when I visited the factory and watched the production of the 10/22 with my own eyes. The way that production is set up there at the New Hampshire factory, the rifle assemblers can change in a heartbeat from building wood-stocked blued rifles, to synthetic-stocked stainless, or even a special run of pink rifles for a distributor, or any combination thereof, without even a hesitation in the rate of production. It is efficiency perfected, and getting a special run of rifles produced can happen in a matter of hours, instead of weeks.

TALO is a wholesale cooperative of fourteen different wholesale firearms distributors. TALO commissions various special editions of firearms from time to time, for sale to dealers through their various distributors. One of my recent favorites was the John Wayne New Vaquero that was produced back in 2007 to commemorate the man‘s 100th birthday. There was supposed to be another excellent John Wayne revolver produced that year that I wanted badly, but by the time it finally made production almost two years later, I was out of the mood, and had already been happily shooting my New Vaquero. The TALO group, with their combined buying power, has the ability to make things happen, and Ruger came through with a great-looking and fitting tribute to John Wayne with that New Vaquero. TALO firearms are not just limited to Ruger products, but there have been TALO editions from Colt, Glock, NAA, S&W, Mossberg, and others.

Back to the subject at hand: this new Boy Scout 10/22 rifle from Ruger is, to my eyes, the best-looking 10/22 that I have ever seen. I had seen pictures of the Boy Scout 10/22 before, but had not seen one of these rifles in person until Ken Jorgensen of Ruger showed this rifle around at Gunsite in Arizona two weeks ago. I will admit that my view of this rifle might be prejudiced a bit, as in my youth I was myself a Boy Scout. I have many fond memories, and some not so fond, of my time in the Scouts. It was a very rewarding experience, having lots of fun, while at times being pushed past what I perceived to be my limit of endurance. The Scouts taught us young boys how to not only survive, but to thrive in the wilderness. We were taught how to make do with what we had available, and how to “be prepared” for what might come our way. We built things from sticks and rope, we cooked on the ground, we found our way through unknown territories, and we hiked for many miles at a time. Most importantly, the Boy Scouts prepared us young boys to be men, not only physically, but mentally and morally as well.

The Boy Scout 10/22 is a semi-automatic rifle that is chambered for our most useful and versatile cartridge; the 22 Long Rifle. The 10/22 has a unique ten-shot rotary magazine, a tapered eighteen and one-half inch blued steel barrel, and a beautiful walnut stock. The stock has a Schnabel forend and a sculpted cheek piece for a right-handed shooter, but works perfectly fine for left-handers like me as well. It wears, as should all rifles, sling swivel studs. The 10/22 has a good set of open sights, with a brass bead on the blade front, and the folding rear being adjustable for both windage and elevation correction. The rifle also comes supplied with a scope base, for those who prefer an optical sight. The 10/22 has a crossbolt manual safety, and also a manual bolt hold-open. The magazine release is the extended type, which is now standard equipment on all 10/22 rifles. The aluminum alloy receiver is finished in a satin black, which closely matches the finish on the blued steel barrel and polymer trigger housing. The bolt on this Boy Scout 10/22 is highly polished, which is a nice touch. The walnut stock is laser-engraved with Boy Scout and Ruger logos, and on the buttstock portion is a replication of a Norman Rockwell Boy Scout saluting, with the Scout Oath in the background. These Boy Scout rifles also have a special serial number series, beginning with the letters BSA. Mine is serial number BSA-04529, but if I can, I am going to try to find serial BSA-00527, as 527 was my old Boy Scout troop number. It’s a long shot, but worth a try. On the pistol grip is engraved the twelve points of the Boy Scout Law:

"A Scout is:

Trustworthy

Loyal

Helpful

Friendly

Courteous

Kind

Obedient

Cheerful

Thrifty

Brave

Clean 

and Reverent."

Wouldn’t it be great if everyone obeyed the Scout Law! These days, so many folks, even some that I know personally, don’t even try to live by such a creed, especially when it comes to doing business. I have heard it said many times; “That’s just business”, as an excuse for being morally wrong in dealing with others. It would be great if we all had to earn merit badges in life, as boys do in Scouting.

The walnut stock wears a beautiful satin finish, and the butt plate is a serrated hard plastic piece. Around the logos on the forend and pistol grip is very functional and great-looking checkering, to aid in gripping the rifle.

Shooting the Boy Scout 10/22 was exactly as expected. It shoots like a Ruger 10/22. That means that it functioned perfectly, and was very accurate. My Boy Scout rifle will cluster the magazine full into one ragged hole at fifty yards, which is the distance to which I sight all of my twenty-two rifles. I have many Ruger 10/22 rifles, of various configurations, and they are each as reliable as, well, they are as reliable as a Boy Scout. The Ruger Boy Scout rifle comes packed in a special Boy Scout commemorative box. My six-year-old grandson, Ethan, slowly read the markings on the box and stated, “It says Ruger 10/22, Paw. That means it’s the best, right?” He’s a smart boy.

The Boy Scout rifle handled beautifully. Mine weighs in at four pounds, fourteen ounces. Ruger lists the weight at five pounds even, but as with all wood-stocked rifles, the weight can vary slightly. The trigger pull measured four and one-half pounds on my rifle. I prefer a lighter weight pull for target work, but the Ruger trigger works pretty well as is for general purpose shooting and hunting. Also packed into the box is a special pamphlet that tells a bit about the Boy Scouts, and about the Sturm, Ruger firearms company.

The Ruger Boy Scout rifle is a fitting tribute to the fine organization, and a portion of the price of the rifle goes to the Boy Scouts of America. As I write this, it is only five more days until Christmas. If you have a Boy Scout in your life, whether he is eleven years old, or fifty-one like me, this rifle would be an ideal Christmas gift. These rifles are readily available on dealer’s shelves now. If your favorite gun dealer does not have one in stock, he can still get it in time for Christmas. Both Lipsey’s and Davidson’s have the rifles in stock, as most likely do other TALO distributors, but I do not have access to check the inventories of any other than Lipsey’s and Davidson’s.

Besides being probably the best-looking 10/22 ever built, the Ruger Boy Scout rifle, to me, has a more important role to fill. It has a meaning. With its Scout Oath and Scout Law inscriptions, it brings to mind the good things for which a Boy Scout stands. It reminds us of what we all should be, and of the standard to which we all should be held; to keep ourselves physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight. What we desperately need in this world today is a few more Boy Scouts.

Check out the extensive line of Ruger firearms online at www.ruger.com.

For the location of a Ruger dealer near you, go to www.lipseys.com.

To order the Ruger BSA rifle online, go to www.galleryofguns.com.

Jeff Quinn

 

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Like all Ruger 10/22 rifles, the BSA 10/22 carries handily.

 

 

Beautifully laser-engraved walnut stock.

 

 

Author fondly remembers his days as a Boy Scout, and still has his old Boy Scout handbook and Second Class score card.