Upgrading Ruger’s handy little 10/22 has evolved from a cottage industry into serious business generating products from manufacturers large and small. New among stock options for the compact rifle, Luth-AR’s synthetic MCA-22 is an ambidextrous, adjustable and affordable offering for the 10/22 shooter.
Luth-AR collaborated with Roth Performance, better-known for its shotgun aftermarket products on the design and manufacture of the MCA-22 modular chassis stock. Yet the MCA-22’s practical ergonomics indicate it had considerable input from precision rifle shooters.
Manufactured of glass-filled nylon, the aluminum adjustment knobs and butt pad length-of-pull rods, and the steel adjustment bolts for the cheek riser and the butt pad comprise the two-pound MCA-22’s only metal parts. The vertical pistol grip, smooth on the back side, sports aggressive serrations on the sides and front. Quite slim at the top, the grip flares out in a palm swell, and at the bottom terminates in a small ledge on which the small finger of a medium-size hand rests easily. The forearm has a square bottom about 1¾ inches wide to rest flatly on bags or other supports; the sides are slightly scalloped, providing a natural-feeling grasp for the thumb, palm pad and fingers. A dozen lightening cuts also double as gripping serrations.
Buttstock adjustments are simple and intuitive. Length of pull (LOP) is adjustable across a range of 3¾ inches; six threaded holes in the two length-of-pull rods allow adjusting LOP from 11¾ to 15½ inches in ¾-inch increments. The cheek riser has a vertical adjustment in very fine increments across two inches, allowing a full inch above or below bore line. Locking shims on each side of the buttstock engaging serrations in the cheek riser to lock it in place. Removing the cheek riser knobs, bolts and locking shims permits moving the cheek riser fore-and-aft ¾-inch, a help in achieving perfect scope eye relief. The butt pad has a vertical adjustment of one inch; this is the only adjustment requiring a tool, a ⅛-inch Allen wrench.
That same Allen wrench is all that’s needed to drop a standard-configuration Ruger 10/22 barreled action into the MCA-22 stock using the provided button head cap receiver screw. To accommodate bull barrels routinely encountered on competition rifles, the MCA-22 has a Tapered Barrel Insert easily popped out with a pair of straight slot screwdrivers. Accessories can be attached to the stock via seven M-LOK slots, five on the bottom and one on each side. For attaching a front sling swivel, there’s a hole predrilled on the bottom of the stock at the tip that can be tapped 10-32 to accept a dome-style sling swivel stud. Two locations on the buttstock accept GrovTec Threaded QD Cup Inserts to serve as sling rear attachment points.
DROP-IN
A Kidd-barreled 10/22 I recently purchased secondhand but unfired seemed a good candidate for the MCA-22. The action had been upgraded with a trigger job, aftermarket bolt assembly, and oversize mag release and cocking handle, but its soft rubber stock became suspect in the rifle stringing shots vertically with all ammo. Pulling the rubber stock and installing the MCA-22, including removing its Tapered Barrel Insert to allow the bull barrel to free-float all the way to the barrel’s V-block, took less than 10 minutes. The receiver fit quite snugly into the MCA-22, with the back of the receiver butted up firmly against the stock in its recess. While not exactly bedding in the accepted sense, the tight fit does offer confidence in the receiver being very well supported in the stock. The takedown screw received 25 inch-pounds of torque, surely enough for the essentially recoil-less .22 LR cartridge and not so tight as to crush the glass-filled nylon stock.
The pre-drilled hole in the fore end tapped easily, as it is composed of an inserted material slightly softer than the stock, and a 10-32 sling swivel stud went in without a hitch. However, the stud is so close to the fore end tip that attaching a bipod extended half the bipod base beyond the fore end. An M-LOK sling swivel adapter, also installed without issue, solved the problem in moving the bipod mounting point back a couple of inches.
SUPERBLY LIGHT
Combining the two-pound MCA-22 with the Kidd-barreled action creates a featherweight rifle package of only 4½ pounds; the scope adds another pound. At first blush, it feels a bit light for the 300-yard competition shooting for which I intend it—at least, it feels too light for one accustomed to the heavy rifles of centerfire long range competition. Range time will tell. Mounted with a smaller scope appropriate to .22 LR hunting, it would be a superbly easy all-day carry in the field.
Luth-AR’s fully ambidextrous MCA-22 lives up to its claims. Drop-in is simple, the range of adjustments appear wide enough to accommodate nearly every body type and size, and the stock is readily swapped between multiple 10/22 rifles, thanks to its Tapered Barrel Insert. The MCA-22 is available directly from Luth-AR for $189.95.
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