by Dave Workman
Senior Editor

Almost out of the gate, Butler Creek-the manufacturer of a popular line of synthetic replacement stocks and extended magazines for the mega-popular Ruger 10/22 rifle series-was back in the game with its pistol grip folding stock and 25-round banana clip when the so-called assault weapon ban became history on Sept. 13.

Butler Creek (Dept. GWK, P.O. Box 1690, Oregon City, OR 97045, 503-655-7964, www.michaels-oregon.com) calls their big magazine the Hot Lips. Alas, some states have legislated against these accessories, especially the magazine. According to the Michael's of Oregon website, these magazines are now prohibited by state law in California, Delaware, Massachusetts, New York and any state that prohibits the use of high-capacity magazines. (Check your state and local laws.)

As readers of Gun Week's Aug. 20 issue will recall, this writer recently acquired a new model Ruger 10/22 rifle and topped it with a Bushnell Trophy scope for hunting small game this fall. Well, being a practical sort, interested in saving space and understanding the kind of beating a handsome wood stock can experience on one of my hunting treks to the "High Lonesome" of eastern Washington, I traded some e-mail with the gang at Butler Creek and Michael's of Oregon. Within days, a folding pistol grip stock and 25-round magazine appeared.

Forget what the hysterics say about hunting with a gun that fires more than ten rounds, and that looks like something a WWII paratrooper might have carried. My pal, Joe Waldron, executive director of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, has on more than one occasion remarked about the practicality of having a good Ruger 10/22 with a couple of big magazines as an emergency survival rifle. That wisdom was not lost on yours truly after I actually had the opportunity to swap out the stock, and Ruger's superb rotary 10-round magazine, for the Butler Creek substitutes.

It's been 10 years since Butler Creek turned out a folding pistol grip stock, but judging from the sample they provided for this field test, they haven't lost their knack for knowing how. During the past decade, they kept the stock style alive in the form of a "fixed" pistol grip stock, on which the stock was welded open. This is one very rugged accessory, with a round steel buttstock ending in a flat plate to which a thick ventilated recoil pad is attacked. The locking pivot is tough as nails and it locks open and closed securely, thanks to a very strong coil spring.

Made from a tough polymer, the Butler Creek stock will accept both the barreled carbine action with its trademark barrel band, and the newer rifle version with the free-floating barrel like mine. Just to see how tough this material really is, I deliberately left the gun uncased on the floor of my pickup truck on a recent jaunt to the boondocks, driving over what can only generously be called a "road" in 4-wheel-drive. That rifle was bounced around pretty good, and as a testament to both the stock and that Bushnell scope, at the end of the trek, there was not a scratch on the stock and the scope was still zeroed at 25 yards.

Mounting your Ruger to one of these replacement stocks is a snap. Simply remove your barreled action from the original stock by unscrewing the retaining screw in front of the magazine port and-using the same screw-fasten it to the synthetic stock. Butler Creek's stock does not interfere with the safety or any other part of the action. It fits like the proverbial glove.

Butler Creek's folding stock features a very comfortable and practical pistol grip and I discovered at the range that this setup allows a shooter to get a firm hold on the rifle, for very accurate shooting. The accompanying photo shows a group of 25 shots on that Birchwood Casey Shoot-N-C target. These were Remington .22 Long Rifle hollowpoints and, take my word for it, any rabbit, grouse, squirrel or other small target that gets in the way of this rifle, with this load, is a goner.

The Hot Lips banana magazine uses a long band-type spring that coils back to the top. My test model had synthetic feed lips as opposed to Ruger's metal lips on its factory magazines, but it seemed to work pretty well right out of the box. I had two failures to feed on the first magazine-full, but subsequent shooting seemed to eliminate this problem, so it might just have been that the spring needed to be uncoiled to full capacity just once to smooth things out.

I can say without hesitation that at the earliest opportunity, I'll pick up another one of these to do exactly as Waldron suggested: Put this handy little rifle in a tough nylon case with the two big magazines and a couple of 100-round boxes of rimfires. When I travel during the winter, that rifle will be behind the seat of my truck.

This does not mean, of course, that I am ready to abandon Ruger's factory stock and rotary magazines. Only a fool would do that, because with the wooden stock on this rifle, and the factory magazines, this is one very handsome and functional rifle. I plan to put a lot of meat in the pot with this gun, in both configurations: With the factory stock mounted, and during the winter with the folding synthetic stock on the gun.

1989-90 Demonstration
I remember back in the late 1980s and early '90s before the federal ban was passed, when a demonstration was put on for an audience that didn't know the difference between an "assault rifle" and any other semi-auto. As the audience looked on, a man took a Ruger 10/22, swapped out the factory stock for one of Butler Creek's superb replacements, added the 25-round magazine, and suddenly most people in the audience understood just how ridiculous it was to write a law that banned cosmetics.

I've recently been told by someone looking at the rifle with the folding stock: "That doesn't look like a hunting rifle." My response was pretty blunt: "Well, it's the same gun, the same ammunition, the same scope, and you can hunt with this."

Can you imagine this rifle on the plains of Montana where prairie dogs are an abundant pest?

Butler Creek manufacturers several synthetic replacement stocks for the Ruger 10/22. Over the years, they have earned a reputation for durability and longevity.

If you're interested in one of these replacement stocks or the Hot Lips banana magazines, visit the Michaels of Oregon website and click on the Butler Creek link.