Kidd trigger for the Ruger 10/22 & other Trigger options

Kidd Trigger

So the first thing you will hate about your Ruger 10/22 is the crappy trigger it comes with.

One of the most common options considered by serious shooters is to buy a custom trigger group that entirely replaces the Ruger supplied stuff. In most ways, this is a very good option.

As always, no one is paying me to write these, Im merely telling you my experience. Please feel free to share your experiences with the community by posting comments here.

The upside to buying any of the custom groups is that they usually are made completely of metal includign the housing, whereas Sturm Ruger has a lot of plastic everywhere.
But wait, before you get too happy about it like I originally did, there is a downside to all that metal.

WEIGHT BALANCING!

Please have a read on my post here on why I feel weight balancing is very important for accurate target shooting

Yes, a standard ruger already has way too much metal too close to the stock. On top of that you have your scope & mounts. You add this group & you will find your rifle balancing rather weird.

This will impact your trigger pull simply because your right hand (or left whichever is your master trigger hand) will not only be used for the let off, but also to balance all that extra weight.
For accurate shooting, the ergonimics is very important, the rifle should almost float in your trigger hand while relatively more weight should be in the front.
Not too much more in the front, but just right.

All this metal on these custom trigger groups + scope will really goof up your ruger 10/22's balance.

I would highly dicourage you from buying a steel high weaver rail machined receiver, unless of course youre going for a target style set up ith a heavy bull barel, then the balancing will come right, otherwise, you will find it quite weird to shoot, especially if lying prone.

Tony Kid's trigger group:

Tony Kidd is credited to have made the best trigger for a Ruger 10-22.
Within reason, this claim is true, but Im going to tell you some of my experiences with the Kidd trigger group. Back then he only had the 2 stage, I dont remember seeing a stage 1 group. Im glad he's made one now, & if he always used to, I didnt find it, what a bummer.
My comments are about his 2 stage group, not the other single stage trigger he sells.

Before I continue, let me tell you that this is quite possibly the best realistic attempt anyone has ever made to give a semiauto a top line fully customisable trigger, but it falls shot in certain areas to my taste where some other, cheaper alternatives win.

The Stage 1 travel distance, weight, & creep is not avoidable.
The State 2 thus engages with this intentional travel distance needed & it cant be left out.

Would you have a soft light trigger at 1.2lbs that travels 3-4mm before let off, or a slightly harder trigger at say 2lbs for a considerably shorter almost inexistent creep?

Personally, to me the most important thing in a trigger is it must break cleanly. It should be like an olympic grade match rifle, clean crisp let off. The choice is yours but I recommend a crisp break because if youre feeling it move, youre going to develop the nasty habbit of anticipating the exact pull distance on your shot your shot & potentially develop a weird breathing routine out of the situational awareness anxiety in competitons. But if you like such triggers, go for it.

The kid trigger is perhaps the most customizable Ruger trigger ever engineered so once you accept this inherent design decision, youll enjoy the group.

Also, Tony has very good after sales service, he was prompt in answering my questions & thats very useful. He was quite honest in telling me how I couldnt quite achieve the clean break I wanted with his trigger because he designed it to be a2-stage trigger & thats just how it will be.
He also said that a semi can never really have a clean break, but on that point I disagree with him because heavier triggers do break much better if you dont mind the slight extra weight, as disccused earlier.

His Kid triger group has excellent resale value even if you dont like it. So if you want to try it out for yourself despite being unsure if youll like it, its not the end of the world.

If buying, youll get to pick a sporting style curved trigger face or a target style flat balde.
This might seem not so improtant, but thats the trap I fell into.
This is most important decision you will make when buyin the Kidd trigger!

I bought the target style straight blade because I felt it would be similar to my Anschutz match rifle & would work nicely with a multitude of pull lengths, & it would look cool haha.

When I first put my kit in, it was on a rather customisable target style synthetic stock made by Fajen.
It seemed comfortable. But when I decided that the fajen wasnt as comfy because the shape on the forgrip was diggin into my left hand, I moved to the standard sporting Hogue stock.

Thats when I relised this blade trigger just wasnt as natural.

If you are going to use the Kid trigger on a sporting style stock, get the curved standard trigger, dont buy the blade, I dotn think you will like it. Infact, a curved trigger is more versatile as you can still tolerate it even on a slightly more target style stock as I later found out with my other rifles.

The choice is yours but think carefully, it has a huge impact, more than you might think.

Other trigger options:

The new Kidd single stage trigger might be the best trigger yet. If any of you have had any experiences with it, please post it here & let use all know.

If buying a complete group, the other biggest contender is the Volquartsen parts. Very nice trigger upgrades, not really adjustable, & like everything else Volquartsen, its really really pricy. if you buy every single part, its almost the same price as a Kidd single stage group for what really shouldnt be so expensive, but its very good end result.

I would prefer it to the Kidd for the reason described above, but not for the price, so, I would recommend my next option:

Upgrade your own group with some custom parts, OR even better get a gun smith to polish & install them in.
My $200 Ruger trigger group with volq spring, target sear & hammer was then polished & installed by a gunsmith. Brought the pull down to 2.15lbs with practically 0 creep. Same effect as the volquartsen for half the price. Cant complain.

In hind sight, I think all I needed was the hammer, but well, Im not going to worry about it.
If any of you have experimented with the combinations, please let us know.

2 of my mates did this polishing themselves. Their results werent as great as the professional job, but all they spent was the $90 odd on parts & thats it. Next time around, Ill polish my own parts, watch my blog for that article when it happens...

Im going to get my hands on a Timney trigger soon, watch this space. They are supposed to be the next big thing give volqs the run for its money, & the prices look pretty good.