Back in the days before the Howard gun bans I owned both an AR7 and a Ruger 10/22. The AR7 was fun but not really useful. The 10/22 was one of my favorite rifles. True, the trigger was bad as was the barrel quality, but it did the job and was ultra reliable. More than any other .22 I've owned, the accuracy varied enormously depending on what ammo was used. It was an individual thing. Two Rugers, identical in all respects, would have totally different preferred ammo. Mine would give 3-6" groups at 50M using Win Rabbit Ammo, but cloverleaf groups using Win sub-sonics.

I believe the recently manufactured Rugers have a far better barrel quality since Ruger moved to in house barrel manufacture.

Would love to have one of the Izhmash Biathlon rifles but they have been subject to import sanctions.