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My wife's birthday is October 22. So last year I bought her a teal 10-22 breakdown (see what I did there ). I will probably go with a small red dot that will allow her to shoot out to 50 yards or so and maybe pop a squirrel or rabbit or two. It will definitely have to be a small enough profile that will allow it to stay mounted while in the carrying case. I am just curious to see what optics you all are using out there for a breakdown.

Pic for attention.

Any red dot will do the same job, really depends on your budget. Unless you are going to swap out the stock for a Magpul Backpacker and then get the X22 forward optic mount (or something similar like the SB Tacitcal SB22 chassis), you will have to attach it to the receiver. Those TD 10/22's hold a decent zero, so attaching a red dot to a picatinny rail on the receiver will work fine for your purpose.

Holosun makes nice budget friendly micro red dots that will work well on the rifle to keep the profile low. Whatever red do you choose, you will need a picatinny rail for the receiver first.

After I ordered a picatinny rail for mine, I discovered Ruger included one in the package.

I put a red dot sight on it:
edit--Tried to include a link, but that did not work.
Haven't decided that the barrel attachment is repeatable enough for accurate use yet.

I put an aimpoint Micro H-1 on mine but that was before the Holosun stuff was around. Aimpoint cost as much as the gun. I have not had issues with losing decent zero, it fits in the case with the sight attached. I put one of the gen 1 folding butt-stocks on it from AGP Arms here in Tempe. Nice package with the folder.

Took mine out this morning. Adjusted the sight, then removed the barrel and reattached it and tried 10 more shots. The center of the group moved about 1" at 50 feet. Removed the barrel and reattached it 3 or 4 more times. The groups were not consistent. The last group was back to the original sight adjustment. I was not impressed. The groups were about 1 1/2", because the dot was so large. Definitely not head shot on a rabbit accurate IMO.

Have you tried rotating the lock ring around the barrel. Tighten it down to where you can't remove the barrel, and then back it of one click at a time till you can remove the barrel.

Thanks. Still learning about it. Rotated the locking ring until I couldn't insert the barrel, then backed it off until I could. Will try it out next time I get to the range. I expect nothing will help the group size, tho. That is probably due mostly to the shooter, anyway. I have no problem with a scope. This red dot is a new experience for me.

If you are checking for the repeatability of the take down action, I would test with a scope, preferably one with an adjustable objective that can be set for the distance you are shooting to minimize parallax (point of impact shift based on eye location behind the scope). Don't know what red dot you are using but as you mention the dot size is usually so large it makes precision shots difficult at any distance. For me red dots are better suited for fast closer in shooting.

I agree with you. However, with my aging eyes I figured the red dot was workable. A scope will not fit in the case with the 1022, so I went with the red dot. I don't expect to use it at much more than 50 feet, anyway. I found that turning down the intensity helped. Another session at the range will tell me more.