Range Report

As the weather starts to cool off a little along the Texas Gulf Coast the outdoor rifle ranges are starting to get pretty busy. A lot of guys are getting ready for deer season and the rest are just taking advantage of those rare times when you can get outside without suffering heatstroke. Although I probably won’t make it out to bag any deer this year, we will still probably make our annual hunting trip to north Texas to bag a few hogs. It looks like that will be in January or February again this year but it is never too early to start getting ready, especially when you will be carrying a new rifle into the fields.

The Ruger American Predator in .308 Winchester will be my “go to” rifle this year and last time out I ran into a bit of an issue. Ruger, by design or oversight, didn’t use any thread locker on the scope rail and under recoil from the .308 the screws backed out leaving my scope on less that solid footing and my shots were all over the paper.

With the rail re-attached (with a generous application of thread locker on each screw) I wanted to see how she would do.

A few shots at 50 yards showed I was at least on paper so then it was time to head to the 100 yard line (100-125 yards is about the outside distance for me when hunting). I was having some issues with consistency at first which had be rechecking the scope rail but after a bit I was able to settle down and she should be about zeroed in. 

I spent quite a bit of time practicing with the Ruger American Ranch Rifle in 7.62×39. To be honest I really prefer the “short .30 caliber” to the .308 as the recoil is significantly less and the ammo is cheaper. Which was the plan after all, since other than caliber and color the rifles are identical.

One of the things I wanted to do was test some ammo other than the Brown Bear and see what the difference would be in reliability, point of impact and the groupings. My AR in 7.62×39 is very sensitive to different ammunition brands and types. There can be several inches difference in point of impact at 100 yards and significant differences in the accuracy of each round with that rifle and I wanted to see if that was still the case with the Ruger.

I tested super cheap TulAmmo, my standard Brown Bear, Fiocchi brass cased ammo, Hornady 7.62X39 123 gr SST® Steel Case and some reloads. The little Ruger hand no issues feeding or firing any of them. Picky, it is not and it was very consistent too. There was very little, if any, difference in the point of impact regardless of the ammo. The group did tend to spread out with the cheap TulAmmo resulting in groupings of around 2-3 inches instead of the 1-2 inches I could get with the other types of ammunition. I continue to be impressed with this little rifle.

Since the Ruger has no issues with the brass cased Fiocchi or my reloads that means I can use it at indoor rifle ranges as well which opens up a lot more of the year for practicing with a rifle. As much as I love shooting, outdoor ranges when it is almost 100 degrees outside with almost 100% humidity are a lot less enjoyable than sitting in air conditioned comfort…

I can’t wait to make it out into the field with one (or the other) in a few months time and back to the range sooner than that.

God bless

Range Report: Ruger American Bolt Action Rifles

OK, first off, I was a bad boy…

A Very bad boy…

We’re not sure how we are going to cover all the costs of repairing our home and replacing the stuff we lost in the flood and I bought a new rifle. I could not resist the temptation and I purchased a Ruger American Rifle Ranch Model in 7.62×39 (Darn It Ruger, Why Now?). Then I broke down and ordered a Vortex 2×7 scope for it along with a set of rings. Oh, and I also ordered two extra magazines and they should be in shortly…

My New Rifle

Yes, I feel a little guilty about buying a new rifle…

However, I do plan on selling another rifle I have had for a while and that should cover the cost of the rifle, scope and magazines. There might even be a little left over.

First, a quick refresher on this rifle. Bolt action rifle based on the budget “American” series of rifles from Ruger. The Ranch variants all sport short, medium weight barrels. The barrels are cold hammer forged and threaded for suppressors or the muzzle device of choice. The 7.62×39 feed from standard Ruger Mini-30 magazines. These rifles also come with a scope rail already installed and the actions are set in lightweight polymer stocks.

How do I like it?

Well, let’s start with the bad.

The action on the 7.62×39 is nowhere near as smooth as on its .308 counterpart. I don’t know if this is a function of feeding from a magazine designed for a semi-auto or if it is because I bought one of the first ones manufactured or what. I will say that as more rounds went down range the action did get much smoother but still not up to the standards of its bigger brother.

I also had some feeding issues. There were times that the rounds didn’t feed properly. That could have been operator error as I tend to tilt bolt action rifles a bit when cycling the action. It was definitely operator error when it failed to feed an entire magazine of ammo, each one jamming up before it entered the chamber. That was because there was already a round in the chamber…Doh!

The action seems to work best when worked quickly and with some force (you are chambering a Russian designed round after all).

I tested a couple of rounds of dirt cheap TulAmmo and it seemed to feed and run fine but I would need to run more rounds through the rifle to really determine how well it works in the little Ruger. I didn’t test any American made ammunition either although I am sure it will work fine. I sent almost 100 rounds of Brown Bear (Barnaul) 123 Grain soft point down range today and there were no issues with feeding or extraction.

This is a good thing because I like this ammunition. It seems to be very consistent, accurate and reliable. In side by side testing it has been just as reliable and accurate as American made ammunition but with significantly more punch. The manufacturer loads this round close to the maximum specifications for the cartridge. Plus it runs less than a quarter of the price of American manufactured 7.62×39 ammunition!

How about accuracy?

First five round grouping

I used a laser boresight to “get me on paper” before my trip to the range so I wasn’t expecting much from my few first shots. I started out at the 25 yards line to get started and to my surprise the fist shot was on the upper edge of the bullseye. Thinking it was a fluke I dropped four more shots into the target and ended up with a single ragged hole. I am not a great shot with rifles and, to be honest, this was one of the best groups I have ever shot at this distance.

Next up 50 yards:

4 Shots, 50 Yards

Again, this little rifle was right on target.

How about 100 yards?

Six shots, 100 Yards

Again, I am not a great rifle shooter and 100 yards is a long shot for me but again this rifle helped my put together on of the best groups I have ever shot at that distance. So, yeah, I think the accuracy is there.

All in all I like this rifle. The action could be smoother but I can live with that. The accuracy is there, It is lightweight, around six pounds including the scope. Since it uses the same magazines as the Mini-30 I have the option of 5, 10 or 20 rounds magazines and although they are not as cheap as AR or AK magazines they aren’t super expensive either. It would be a fine rifle for hunting deer or pigs, especially in the East Texas Piney Woods where shots would rarely be more than 100 yards and would more likely be less than half that. At around $400 it could serve as a truck gun for whatever needs a medicinal dose of lead applied around the property.

For me, this rifle will probably spend most of its life at the range. It is essentially identical to the Ruger American Predator I plan to hunt with this year but the ammo costs are a fraction of what .308 costs. It’s already topped with the same scope as I have on the .308 and the trigger is identical. So this will be my go to practice rifle allowing me to get a lot more range time at a lower cost.

So about that Ruger American Predator…

I did a quick range report on this rifle back in June (link). The action is very smooth and at 25 yards I was able to do pretty well but at longer distance I was really having trouble with it. My groups were a bit more like patterns, although still better then the Marlin 336 I used to hunt with. To be honest I was getting pretty frustrated with it once I moved over to the 100 yard line.

After a fair amount of frustration, I noticed that there was a tiny bit of play in the scope. Upon further investigation I finally discovered that the scope rail (attached at the factory by Ruger) was loose. I didn’t have the tools with me needed to remove the scope at the range so I packed it away after only about 10 or 12 rounds.

Once I got it home and took the scope off I found that all four screws holding the scope rail to the rifle had backed out. It didn’t appear that any sort of thread locker had been applied at the factory and the screws had backed out under recoil (which is pretty stout in such a light rifle). Needless to say they are now secured by Loctite now and I doubt they will back out again and I can’t wait to check the accuracy now that the scope is mounted solidly.

That’s it for this little range report.

God bless.

Really Reaching: The Mini-14

I happened to see an article this morning in American Rifleman titled Five Reasons To Reconsider The Ruger Mini-14 and to be honest I had to chuckle. These guys were really reaching on this one in an effort to try come up with reasons to buy a Ruger Mini-14 over an AR platform rifle. Let’s take a look at their reasoning:

1. The AR may appear too tactical and the controls may not be intuitive – I get the whole gray man thing and the Mini may come with wood furniture but let’s be honest here the Mini was designed (as it mentions in the article) to look like the Garand and M14 which were tactical before tactical was cool. The controls on the AR15 are about as basic and straightforward as they get. Every beginner I have ever taught picked them up in no time at all. The hook-rock-lock magazine insertion of the Mini is so much more difficult to get right than the straight in of an AR.
2. The Latest Minis are more accurate – This headline would make the uninformed think the Mini is more accurate than the AR which by and large (yes, there will be exceptions) is untrue.  If you read the paragraph underneath that headline the writer even says that 2′ groups at 100 yards is possible and not everyone needs a 1/2 MOA rifle…true, enough but if I can pay less money and get better accuracy, why wouldn’t I? The author also goes on to state that increased accuracy in semi-auto rifles leads to less reliability and increased sensitivity to different ammo types. My experience with the several ARs I have is that for the most part they’ll eat just about anything and are far less picky and more reliable than the Minis I have worked with.
3. The Minis are available in stainless steel – making them more resistant to harsh environmental conditions than a rifle designed out of aluminum, polymer and steels generally coated to be far more impervious to the elements than stainless steel alone?
4. 20 and 30 rounds magazines are readily available and reasonably priced – from a single manufacturer and double the price of AR mags
5. It’s ow available in 300 Blackout – Awesome! Or I can buy a single AR lower and shoot 5.56/.223, .22 LR, 300 BLK, 6.5 SPC, 6.8 Grendel, 50 Beowulf, .458 Socom, 7.62×39, 5.45×39, 9 mm, .45 ACP, etc… In many cases, I can even use the same magazines and bolts between different calibers.

If you like the looks and style of the Mini and can live with the mediocre accuracy buy one. I personally like the Ruger Mini. I want one (one day) but no amount of advertising dollar induced hyperbole can turn it into a better or more practical rifle than an AR that sells for half the cost and takes magazines that are half the cost.