A PDW for Cub Scouts

Right place, right time = Silver Maples at spot + $3. That kinda made my day, along with gas being $1.99.


The Ruger Charger is, basically, a 10/22 pistol. Ruger makes a couple different flavors of them and I have a takedown one of them. But…it’s kind of an unusual piece…specifically: what is it good for? It’s a ‘handgun’ only the broadest sense, it’s not as handy as a rifle, it’s bulky, and I can’t foresee too many shooting scenarios where it’s just what the doctor ordered.

Except one. (And if you’ve read my blog for a number of years, I think you can see where this is going to wind up.)

A month or so back, I came across this at a somewhat reasonable price:

Now, as is, this thing wasn’t terribly useful to me. But the free market abhors a vacuum and I know there are several aftermarket  vendors who can help me capitalize on the modularity of the 10/22 system. This chasis from Enoch was pretty much exactly what I was looking for…slots for Mlok, takes any AR pistol grip, has QD sling attachment points on either side, and just looks cool AF. Ordered it online and:

Note that at the back of the chasis, in addition to QD sling holes, there is a section of pic rail. Hmm…now, what could possibly mount onto that?

Yup. A little ‘wrist brace’ to make things…uhm…bracier? Available with either an aluminum or polymer strut, I opted for the spendier aluminum because apocalypse.Let’s get that puppy on there and see what we get.

By the power of greyskull!………….

And, yes, that is in fact a four-cell chest rig for 10/22 mags. No, I don’t wanna talk about it.

Thats a 10″ barrel on there, and I might throw on a shorter one. The final goal? Well, I kinda wanted a little .22 PDW-style gun that could fit in a backpack. The regular 10/22 takedown would do the job but I wanted the short-barrel option. I’ll be losing that crappo dot scope and replacing it with something a little higher quality.

Oh, and before anyone comments, the folded brace does clear the ejection port. The angle of the photo makes it look like it doesn’t, but thats just bad camera angles doing the talking. The brace originally folded to the left but since I want to be able to hang this thing on my right side from a QD sling I swapped some parts around and made it a right-side folder. Handy, that.

This was a little project I’d been playing with in my mind for a while and when the opportunity came up, I decided to run with it. It is massively economically a bad idea. If you want a compact 10/22 to tuck in a bag, go buy a TD 10/22 and get the Magpul backpacker stock. I was kinda in love with the idea of a PDW-style 10/22 ‘pistol’ and this is what I came up with…impractical, sure, but it’ll be fun to play with. And, who knows, in certain circumstances it might be just what the doctor ordered. Especially if I get the shorter barrel and put my Sparrow suppressor on the end.

10 thoughts on “A PDW for Cub Scouts

  1. I built something similar when the arm brace stocks became common. My daughter used it to shoot steel matches for a couple of years. It worked and still works great. Very quick and reliable. The Ruger BX trigger is worthwhile if yours did not come with it. A Sig Romeo 4 or 5 is perfect for this setup.

    • Yup. The balance is all wrong for that finger groove. But it was all I had handy. Theres a Magpul grip due at some point.

  2. Don’t wanna harsh on the fun gun mellow…
    but where did you find silver maples + 3?
    Inquiring minds and metal maniacs desire more…
    you know
    metal…

    Thanks for the fun gun specs, I know some of the cool projects are NOT reasonable, but they sure are Fun!

    MSG Grumpy

  3. I have an old Marlin Papoose with the handy grab bag and several short and long magazines. I’ve thought about having the barrel cut and threaded and getting a can for it, but the smithing, tax stamp(s) and can prices would be about 4-5 times what I paid for it. Better to find something else.

    It’s fun to shoot, though.

  4. Pretty cool little toy. Just the thing to play a game of tag with plastic soldiers like I did with my Daisy 880 pellet rifle (1 pump, BB ammo, shooting at soldiers on a rumpled blanket playing like I was a sniper.) Today, would cause a Liberal to clutch their pearls and scream “Potential Mass Killer – Oh My!”

    I have a Bushnell TRS-25 red dot on a Savage 24F Predator 30-30 Winchester / 12 gauge break open combination. A rifle designed for feral hog hunting, the red dot for shooting at night at short – mid range. On moon lit nights, plenty of light for shooting hogs which can be shot with normally illegal night hunts. Feral hog are designated non game, an exotic species which can be hunted at landowner’s discretion. Night hunting – traps, not a whole lot of game warden traps set. But if you do decide to hunt at night, give the warden a call just to let him know what you are doing.

    Why hunt them – well, no closed season and year round (night hunting and summer time go together like peas and carrots in Texas) and feral hog meat is tasty. So yeah – hunt them down, landowners and farmers applaud your efforts.

  5. Probably a good thing my local gun shop is closed, or else I’d be running down this week to price Chargers, LoL.

    Is there a reason you went with that Odin chassis instead of their Deep Six chassis? That is a bit longer forearm, which lets you get a better hold of the gun.

    But… I like.

    • I wanted shortest OAL possible for compactness. There’s a 6″ barrel in this tings future.

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