ER Shaw Blued 16" threaded bull barrel

New extractor for my 10/22 plus magazine issues with the Archangel Nomad kit

My buddy Collin grabbed a Kidd Innovative design 10/22 extractor for me so I decided to throw it in and see if it would help with extraction issues. 

The left extractor is the one that comes from Ruger and the darker one on the right is the aftermarket one. 

The edges on the aftermarket one looks sharper to me, but I have no idea how that will affect or improve performance.  We'll see the next time I take it out. 

The new extractor spring is on the left, with the factory Ruger one on the right. 

Ok, so that's the bolt with the new extractor installed.  Pretty easy installation, watched someone's youtube video to do it.

So, onto the magazine issues. The Archangel Nomad doesn't have a good reputation for magazines that feel properly and I think it's partly because of the way they seat, as well as the outer covering (to make it look like a larger magazine than it really is.

Here's the 10/22 without the stock kit on, but you can see how the Archangel mag with the mag cover on.

This is what it looks like when you just slap the mag in.  It looks like it's in, but it's not.

I give the mag release a little tug towards the trigger guard and that seats the mag in tight.  That being said, you can still see a bit of metal in the rear there between the mag and the receiver.

I think the mag casing might be interfering with the way it seats in the receiver.  As you can see, the factory has already tried to remove some material from the casing, but it still interferes with the mag release.

Here's the mag without the mag casing.  I locked it in by tugging a bit on the mag release and the metal is completely seated inside.

 With the mag casing, it's not possible.

Rifle-length G36 handguard for my Ruger 10/22

So I picked up an H&K G36 rifle-length hand guard for my Ruger 10/22.  I had a bunch of stuff bolted on to my shorter one but it was pretty cumbersome and heavy enough with the chassis and heavy-profile barrel.  

Unfortunately the hand guard was not a perfect fit for my Archangel kit so it required some modification.

 

Besides the fitting issue, the new hand guard, much like the original Archangel one, would actually contact the barrel.  To have a truly free-floating barrel, the hand guard had to be totally clear of the barrel.  

 H&K G36 hand guard

 Archangel G36 hand guard.

 There's a faint rub mark on the stainless steel barrel where the old hand guard was contacting the barrel.

 Next to the original hole, I had to drill a new one.  It was messy, I eyeballed it, and therefore the end result was ugly and imperfect, but it worked and I was able to mount the longer hand and still free float the barrel.

Compared to before, the new hand guard looks virtually the same except it is slightly longer, has two additional vent-holes, and no rails installed.  I think I'm just going to leave it looking like this.  Looks a little cleaner than before.