Shaw barrels

SRU SRUNA-22 Bullpup Chassis

SRU Precision Sruna-22

10/22 Bullpup Chassis

Review

  If you are into guns, or maybe even if you aren't, you most likely have a Ruger 10/22. If you are like me, you can't leave anything in factory form. To help with that modification addiction, SRU Precision has their SRUNA-22 Bullpup Chassis for the 10/22 rifles and their clones. The Sruna-22 easily converts those 10/22's into a space age bullpup design. 

  I was looking for something different to do with a 10/22 that I had laying around. SRU had asked if I wanted one of the Sruna's to review. After using their SARB-15 AR bullpup kits, and liking it so much, I agreed. The Sruna's come in 3 standard colors: Black, Tan, and OD Green. However they currently have a limited edition White Sruna-22. I decided on the white one because it looks more like a space blaster than the other three. All of the Sruna chassis are the same, except for the color. 

  Now that you have decided on the SRUNA-22, what do you get? To start with, you get a complete exterior chassis that bolts on and around your 10/22. The Sruna separates into, essentially, 3 pieces for assembly and disassembly. You have the main aluminum piece that houses the barrel and receiver. The polymer trigger housing assembly with linkage. Then the rear quick release polymer housing. This rear housing enables you to quickly get to your 10/22’s trigger assembly. Allowing easy access for cleaning and maintenance. 

  The main aluminum housing of the SRUNA is where a lot of the utilitarian features come from. This is the section of the chassis that houses the barrel and receiver. One nice feature on the Sruna is that it will work with almost any 10/22 receiver. This includes billet machined as well as standard style 10/22 receivers. This also includes ones with or without a top pic rail. Plus it works with left hand receivers too. This housing also features a full raised top rail for mounting optics or sights on. I found using standard AR 1.5” mounts put an optic at just the right height. The Sruna chassis does drop down a little where your cheek rests. It also has a padded sticker that makes it more comfortable for your cheek. At the front are 5 M-Lok slots located at each of the 3, 6, and 9 o’clock positions. These are useful for mounting whatever. SRU also gave the Sruna 2 M-Lok slots, on 45’s, at the very rear of the chassis. Mainly so one can attach something like a QD sling mount. The top housing also has various cut outs to save weight and make it look “cool”. Warning, if you use any barrel length, or combination of muzzle devices and barrel, shorter than 17 inches, the muzzle will be inside the cut outs and M-Lok slots. I am running a 16” Shaw barrel in this one, and you can see in the pictures that it is just a wee bit short.

  The trigger housing section of the SRUNA-22 is what makes this a really good bullpup chassis. SRU uses a sturdy trigger linkage system. This linkage system doesn’t flex much. That gives the user a really decent feeling trigger. The trigger housing system also includes a new trigger and safety. The safety allows you to keep the 10/22’s original push button safety on “fire”, because the Sruna trigger’s safety keeps the trigger from moving. The trigger housing has an extremely large trigger guard that houses SRU’s designed trigger. It is a flat polymer AR style trigger shoe with texture. I like the SRU trigger. The Sruna also uses an AR style safety. It comes supplied with a polymer one that matches the trigger’s style. I switched it out for a normal AR style one. So yes, the Sruna chassis will take most, if not all, AR style safeties. Including ambidextrous and different lever styles. It will also take a number of different style AR trigger shoes. Not drop in style, but the standard style, and just the trigger. Lastly, the Sruna’s trigger housing needs a grip. You have to supply the grip, but any AR style grip will work. I’ve had 3 different styles on this one. I ended up with a fairly vertical grip from Black Collar Arms. The vertical grip just seems to work better for me.

  On the bottom rear of the SRUNA chassis is the quick release section. This section slides over your 10/22’s trigger housing and the Sruna’s trigger linkage. It has a quick release pin at the bottom rear. Just remove this pin and you can slide this piece down and off. Be careful, because the trigger pin might fall out of the linkage. It also houses the rear buttpad and spacers. When it is off, you have access to the original 10/22’s trigger housing so you can remove the whole thing for cleaning. The quick release housing goes on and off smoothly. It does have a little bit of misalignment with the trigger housing when installed. This doesn’t affect anything, it just looks a tiny bit odd.

  The SRUNA chassis also has a few adjustment screws. I thought I would mention these as they align your barrel and receiver with the chassis. In the Sruna kit are these tiny set-screws. There are places on the chassis to install these. They slightly push on the 10/22’s receiver at the front, back, and bottom for alignment. They also help keep the receiver tight in the chassis. I just snugged them down and everything worked fine, I didn’t see any mis-alignment that needed adjusting on this one.

  The SRUNA-22 bullpup chassis is fun. It shortens up a 10/22 and moves the weight toward the rear. This makes it easier to support because the bulk of the weight is between your hand and your shoulder. It also makes it swing faster between targets. I put a bunch of rounds through it and it does have a few flaws, but they are minor. If you run a larger charging handle on your 10/22, it may interfere with the Sruna chassis’ ejection port cutout. The stock charging handle works fine, but it sits in a little farther, making it harder to use. One with a longer handle, but similar profile should work best. I filed down a larger round handle to fit. The other flaw is that the return spring for the trigger linkage adds close to 1.5 pounds to the trigger pull weight. So it makes a good trigger not quite as good. I also wasn't keen on the chassis pieces not lining up. Now for good stuff. The accuracy out of the Sruna is just as good as your 10/22 was before sticking it in the Sruna. This chassis also takes some AR parts, making it customizable to some extent. I enjoyed my experience shooting the Sruna, plus it looks awesome. 

  If you are in the market for something different in the 10/22 world, the SRU SRUNA-22 Bullpup Chassis might be worth looking into. It does everything a bullpup should do, like shortening the overall length while still giving performance. It doesn't add a bunch of weight and it is just something you don't see everyday. Head on over to SRU Precision and check out the SRUNA-22 kit. 

Firearms Insider Reviews - Key Points

Claim to Fame:

10/22 bullpup chassis system 

Target Market:

Anyone wanting a bullpup style 10/22

Features, Benefits, and Specifications of this product:

  • Compatible with all 10/22 variants except take down version

  • M-Lok slots at 3, 6, & 9 o’clock

  • Full top rail

  • Overall Length: 26.3” - 26.7” (With an additional butt pad, extends to 27.1”)

  • Length of Pull: 14.3” - 14.75” (With an additional butt pad, extends to 15.1”)

  • Chassis Weight: 1090g (38.5oz) (Ruger 10/22 wood chassis is approx. 950g)

  • Handguard Inner Width Compatible with suppressors or muzzle devices up to 1.299” in diameter

  • Upper Handguard: 6061 CNC Aluminum

  • Lower Frame material: PA66 Polymer

  • Trigger Linkage: SUS304 Metal Sheet Stamping

  • Butt Pad material: TPU

  • Cheek Pad material: EVA

  • Quick release chassis system 

  • Uses standard AR grips

What other aesthetic options or finishes are available?

Black, Tan, and OD Green 

What others are saying?:

Nothing found as of publishing

Link to other reviews:

Nothing found on Real Steel version (10/22 not airsoft)

Price point:

MSRP = $399 - $419

Retail = Same

I need it now! Availability:

SRU Precision

Our Rating:

Pros:

  • Good design

  • Takes standard AR grips

  • Works with left hand eject

  • Works with any 10/22 receiver 

  • M-Lok slots

  • Full top pic rail

Cons:

  • Misalignment between two parts

  • Increases trigger pull weight 

  • Screw height of top clamping screws

  • Some larger bolt handles may not work

Score: 7.00 Good

Favorite Link:  SARB-15 Bullpup Chassis Review 

Shaw Titanium 10/22 Barrel

Shaw Titanium 10/22

Barrel Review

  22 long rifle firearms seem to exist in everyone's collection, especially the Ruger 10/22. Lots of times we like to modify, or maybe even build, them. Sometimes that is done to make the 10/22 shoot more accurately. To help with that, you need to replace the barrel with a different one. Shaw Barrels has recently come out with a Titanium sleeved barrel for the 10/22 and its clones. With it, you get better accuracy and a lighter weight barrel. 

  The Shaw Titanium 10/22 barrel looks a lot like any other 10/22 barrel. There are a few exceptions though. The Shaw Titanium barrel has a straight bull barrel profile, but with spiral flutes. Fluting does two things for a barrel, it helps keep it cooler and it lightens it up. This barrel is also a slightly thinner profile. A standard 10/22 bull barrel usually has a diameter 0.920 inches. The Shaw Titanium barrel has a diameter of 0.875 inches. I opted for a 16.5 inch version in a matte finish. Polished is also available, as is an 18 inch version. 

  Shaw’s Titanium barrel is not your father’s 10/22 bull barrel. That fluted titanium is an outer sleeve that is tensioned over a 416R stainless steel core barrel. The core is essentially a very, very lightweight thin barrel. Then a titanium sleeve is installed over that core. Tension is then applied to the core, thus trying to pull it from both ends, making it very rigid. What does this tensioning do for you? It makes the barrel more rigid, reduces overall weight, and can improve accuracy by minimizing barrel vibrations during firing. 

  If you did not know, titanium is lightweight. Okay, all jokes aside, the Shaw 10/22 Titanium barrel doesn’t weigh much. In fact, it weighs a whole 1.35 pounds. My factory, tapered, 10/22 barrels weigh in at 1.72 - 1.80 pounds. So the Shaw Titanium barrel is quite a bit lighter. This weight reduction is due to the titanium and it being a tension style barrel. So if you are looking for something lightweight, that has that bull barrel profile, this might be it.

  A barrel should be threaded and it should not matter if it is factory or aftermarket. The Shaw Titanium barrel comes threaded with a thread protector. In today's world of suppressors and muzzle brakes, it just makes sense. The thread protector is nicely knurled and the same outer diameter as the barrel. The threads on the barrel are nicely done. They are ½-28 by 0.400 inch deep. This is a pretty standard thread pitch and depth for 22 long rifle barrels. Even though it is a shorter thread depth than an AR15, .223 and 5.56 muzzle devices will screw on and work. 

  Shaw uses a Bentz style chamber in their titanium 10/22 barrel. The Bentz chamber is what I call the Wylde chamber of 22lr. It is somewhere between a true match chamber and a standard one. As Shaw Barrels says: “The Bentz chamber is a match-type chamber for semi-autos.  It is not as tight as a true, minimum-spec match chamber, but is much tighter than a sporter chamber.” I found the Titanium barrel to shoot well. It didn’t give me any feeding issues with cheap ammunition, and it shot that ammo well. I was able to shoot a 1”, 10 shot group, off hand, at 25 yards with some bulk box ammo and a red dot. The CCI mini-mags shot about a 1.25” group with those same parameters. I then installed a 1-10x LPVO so I could get a better idea of how accurate the barrel was. Then I took it out and shot 5 shot groups at 50 yards. I was able to get a 0.80 inch group with standard velocity CCI mini-mags. All the other cheap ammo I had grouped between 1.3 - 1.7 inches. If one were to use match ammo, I would expect even better results.

  The timing on receiving the Shaw Titanium barrel couldn’t have been any more perfect. Near the same time, SRU sent me a 10/22 bullpup chassis for review. So guess where the Titanium barrel went? You got it, in the SRUNA chassis. Since the Shaw Titanium barrel is a 10/22 barrel, installation is super easy. Just remove the 10/22’s barrel clamp, slide the old barrel out, and slide the Titanium one in. The only flaw with this chassis/barrel combination is that you can’t see the barrel very well through the chassis. Since the Shaw barrel is pretty nice looking, it might look better in a more normal style stock or chassis. 

  Performance on the Shaw Titanium barrel was good. I was pleased with the accuracy I got out of it. Especially since I was mainly using cheap bulk box ammo. Being lightweight makes for a fairly light 10/22. It would work really nice in one of those 10/22’s that are meant to weigh under 3 lbs for competitions. In fact I was debating on installing it in my CP Firearms Dragonfly kit. I would also like to mention that the workmanship on the Shaw barrel is fantastic. If you look down the rifling, it is clean and smooth. Plus having that dull grey titanium color just makes it look good.

  If you are in the market for a great 10/22 barrel, give the Shaw Titanium one a look. It is super lightweight. Yes, it is a little pricey. But remember you are getting lightweight, titanium, and a precision tension barrel. It is also threaded for adding muzzle devices. I don’t think you could go wrong with the Shaw Titanium 10/22 barrel. It would be fantastic in a lightweight steel challenge rifle. Shaw offers more than just 10/22 barrels, so head on over to Shaw Custom Barrels and check them out.

Firearms Insider Reviews - Key Points

Claim to Fame:

Match type accuracy out of a lightweight barrel

Target Market:

Those wanting a lightweight, more accurate 10/22 barrel

Features, Benefits, and Specifications of this product:

  • 0.875" Diameter Bull Barrel

  • Spiral fluted titanium 

  • 416R stainless core

  • Length: 16.5”

  • Weight: 1.35 pounds

  • Bentz chamber for 22 long rifle

  • 1:16 twist rifling

  • Threaded ½-28

What other aesthetic options or finishes are available?

Polished and 18” lengths

What others are saying?:

Nothing found as of publishing. 

Link to other reviews:

I couldn't find anything worth your time. 

Price point:

MSRP = $350.00

Retail = $315.00

I need it now! Availability:

Shaw Barrels or Midway USA

Our Rating:

Pros:

  • Lightweight

  • Accurate

  • Threaded for muzzle devices

  • Includes thread protector

  • Bull barrel style profile

Cons:

  • Price

Score: 8.00 Great

Favorite Link:  CP Firearms Dragonfly review