Black Collar Arms launched their Piglet Takedown Chassis system for Ruger 10/22 Takedown-compatible components late last year, and now they’re building complete rifles, pistols, and SBRs on top of it. To be clear, by “they” I also me “me,” as I’m one of the co-owners of Black Collar Arms. So this “review” is going to be less subjective than usual and I’ll focus on laying out the facts and specs and please understand — full disclosure — I do have a stake in Black Collar.
Any Piglet TD firearm build starts with a Piglet TD Chassis. It’s 9.1 ounces of aluminum machined in Black Collar’s central Texas facility, then hard anodized. A Black Collar Arms fixed or folding Stock Option, a pistol brace (typically we use an SB Tactical FS1913), or nothing can be chosen by the customer and bolted to the chassis’ rear Picatinny rail.
Up front there’s one accessory option, the Piglet TD Handguard, available in three lengths: 3-slot, 4-slot, and 6-slot. Effectively every rimfire suppressor available (check out Silencer Shop!) will fit inside the handguard so if you wanted to, for example, run a 6-inch barrel plus a suppressor in the 6-slot handguard, you could totally do that (our next “spec build” will be a 6-inch pistol designed to be suppressed).
For the short barreled rifle (SBR) seen in the video, we went with a 10-inch Acculite threaded barrel (Acculite is our go-to for the Takedown builds), 4-slot handguard, and folding Stock Option. Then it all went off to George at Capitol Armory for this sweet tigerstripe camo job.
Black Collar uses Brownells BRN-22TR receivers, Ruger BX triggers (as standard…others are available), and custom bolts for their Piglet Takedown firearm builds. Plus our fantastic Priapus Grip, of course. A Ruger BX-25 magazine is standard.
Taking down the takedown is super easy! Pull the bolt back slightly to get the extractor out of the barrel’s extractor groove, slide the takedown lever on the bottom of the handguard (it’s the chrome knob in the pic above) with your thumb, rotate the handguard and barrel assembly counter-clockwise about 45 degrees, and pull it out the front of the receiver.
Installation is the reverse, except there’s no need to concern yourself with the bolt as it’ll move itself out of the way when you insert the barrel into the front of the receiver. Just shove ‘er in and rotate 45 degrees until the click.
You may note, in the photo above, the button head screw that’s in front of the takedown lever. Black Collar Arms designed the Piglet chassis and handguard specifically not to use the odd, factory Ruger half-threaded screws with small heads, opting instead for a more standard screw with a larger diameter head that uses a larger tool and spreads the clamping forces out more effectively. Two are included with the chassis, one for the front action screw (hole on the bottom of the chassis just behind the takedown lever) and one to connect handguard and barrel.
Because the handguard and the barrel are a fixed assembly, though the barrel goes in-and-out of the receiver, some Takedown shooters prefer to mount their optic to the barrel assembly to ensure flawless point of impact retention no matter how many times they take down and reassemble their gun. This can be accomplished on the Piglet Takedown through the use of a Black Collar Arms Night Vision Bridge and an optic that accommodates being forward-mounted (long eye relief).
None of us think this looks as nice as mounting the optic on the receiver and the truth is that return-to-zero is pretty dang good on this system regardless. But…if you’re building a high-accuracy tackdriver of a gun, then this may be your huckleberry.
Or, of course, if you’ve gone a little over-the-top and mounted a thermal optic on your little plinker. Then again, after eating and really enjoying a wild rabbit that we shot a couple months ago, this may well end up being a common setup in the Jeremy S. household.
Needless to say, whether it’s a 10-inch SBR like this one, a 16-inch rifle, or a shorty pistol (“Charger”) build, a .22LR takedown is a pretty darg handy tool to have in one’s back pocket (so to speak). As pictured above it’s 4 lbs., 3 oz.
After taking down the 10-inch barrel it’s only 11 inches long in its largest dimension. Black Collar Arms ships complete Piglet TD firearms in a very nice Savior Equipment bag, but the darn thing will fit in a small backpack, a briefcase or, heck, a large fanny pack (which I’m told [incorrectly] are back in style).
With the receiver, internals, triggers, barrels, and magazines all standard Ruger 10/22 components or 10/22-compatible components, it all runs and shoots just like you’d expect and there are dozens — hundreds — of factory and aftermarket options for parts and accessories. Get a Piglet Takedown Chassis and install your own parts into it, or have Black Collar build you a complete gun. Either way, there are a few features of the Piglet Chassis that I’d like to call out…
That screw head above the trigger is mirrored on both sides and, in my opinion, it makes the Piglet Chassis the best 10/22-compatible stock or chassis on the market.
A couple of years ago, walking the SHOT Show floor, I noticed that the rear of the receiver and the connected trigger pack on a handful of 10/22s that I saw in various other companies’ chassis and stocks wiggled up and down fairly substantially. With nothing but a single screw holding the extreme front of the receiver into the stock/chassis, the rear was effectively unsupported and free to wobble. I say “effectively,” because there’s supposed to be an internal ledge inside the back of the stock/chassis that indexes into a groove on the trigger pack, and most of the factory stocks will overlap the rear of the factory action slightly. Fine in theory, but in practice the clearances are loose and I was shocked to see how common a wobbly receiver is in the 10/22-compatible space!
Long story short, when you assemble a Piglet Chassis you won’t use the factory rear receiver pin. We include two screws and you’ll thread one into each side of the chassis. These screws go through the receiver pin holes and into the trigger pack holes and they solidly, securely, and precisely hold the rear of the receiver and trigger pack in place.
Another feature we were able to accomplish was machining the grip mounting flange and trigger guard cover dingus thingy as an integral part of the chassis. To my knowledge we’re the only 10/22-compatible chassis on the market that’s one solid piece of aluminum including this grip mount flange piece. On the other ones I’ve seen, this tiny little fiddly flange is bolted to the chassis with a tiny little screw. Then you’re going out and swinging your whole rifle around by the pistol grip! I love that we figured out how to machine this as an integral part of the billet aluminum chassis.
One more feature that’s sort of a nice touch convenience is that we’ve cut a relief notch into the bottom of the chassis so that, when the safety is on “safe,” the receiver and trigger pack will slide smoothly out the top of the Piglet Chassis without interference. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve forgotten that with most other 10/22-compatible stocks and chassis out there, the crossbar safety needs to be hovered in the middle between “safe” and “fire” in order for it to clear the bottom of the stock/chassis, resulting in frustration, swearing, and then embarrassment at forgetting this little trick yet again. No more!
I think that’s it, y’all! Watch the video at top to see her running suppressed — these things are CRAZY quiet — and check out the Piglet Takedown Chassis over at Black Collar Arms. Which, in the spirit of full disclosure again, I have an ownership stake in. We’ve done pretty dang good here in my opinion, though, and I’m an even bigger fan of the Piglet system today, having played with and test fired a few complete gun builds, than I was when we first launched it! It ain’t the cheapest 10/22-compatible chassis option out there, but I do believe it’s the very best.
Specifications: Black Collar Arms Piglet Takedown Chassis
Piglet TD Chassis Weight: 9.1 ounces
3-Slot Handguard: 4.9 ounces and 5-3/4 inches long
4-Slot Handguard: 5.9 ounces and 7-3/8 inches long (stops just short of the shoulder on a 10-inch barrel)
6-Slot Handguard: 7.9 ounces and 10-1/2 inches long
.: Accepts Ruger 10/22 takedown and clone receivers (Brownells, TacSol). Only fits takedown models.
.: Machined from a solid block of domestic aircraft aluminum
.: Mil-Spec Type III Hardcoat Anodized (Cerakote options available)
.: Accepts any AR-15 pistol grip
.: Accepts most M1913 Picatinny rail-compatible pistol stabilizing braces (FS1913 recommended) or shoulder stocks (Black Collar Arms Stock Option recommended)
.: Accepts 10/22 compatible magazines
.: Ambidextrous QD sling sockets front and rear
.: 100% designed and manufactured in Texas
I would have considered this had I already not bought the 10/22 ‘Charger’ takedown and the SB Tac. pistol brace.
Talk about compact. The whole package breaks down small enough to fit into one of those small black military surplus tool bags like this one :
https://colemans.com/mechanics-tool-bag
Yours looks interesting, but I’m already set… 😉
And, aren’t reviews typically done by someone with no fiscal interest in the product? (Yes, I noted you did the disclaimer in the video…)
Well when you get bored of the factory plastic furniture you can ditch it for a Piglet TD chassis + handguard! All your factory parts plus the SB brace will drop right into/onto the Piglet setup.
doc says to steer clear of a grain of salt but i’ll make an exception here.
“…building a high-accuracy tackdriver…”
to me that means a bolt action. that said, i have all semi auto rimfires. “dad, you can’t miss with this thing” is good enough for me.
love takedown anything, boy has charger. since i can’t really have sbr here i’d like a 16″ that we could swap when noones looking (wink). there are some nice 10/22 upgraded rifles being made but i like this one… it would be my only modernish thing.
can you supply the more robust fastener, assuming it will work on a stock charger?
No, the fasteners we use won’t work on the factory stock components. The thread size and pitch is the same, of course, but the length is different and the screw head diameter is different so they won’t work with the factory stuff or any aftermarket stuff designed to use those weird factory screws.