I’m gonna work up a load for my Ruger Ranchrifle

Hi All,
I just got an older Ruger Ranch rifle, 195/ series, and I want to find a good defensive load she'll like. I've heard that the mini/ranch rifles in .223 have a 1 in 7 twist, is This True? My varmint AR has a 1 in 12 twist so she likes bullets 52 grns and lighter, my Bushmaster AR has I beleave a 1 in 8, or 1 in 9 twist so she'll shoot about anything well. But if the Ruger has a 1 in 7/twist I assume she'll want to be fed a little heavier .223 bullet. So if this is the case, what's the best weight bullet for the Ruger Ranch rifle? I want to try and stay away from match bullets as they're expensive, and my ranch rifle ain't no match gun, I'm looking for a good bullet for a defensive load. It would be great if I could use 55-62 grn bullets, but I'm not sure they would be stabilized in a rifle with a 1 in 7 twist rate. Any advice will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Paul

As I recall the mini ranch is 5.56 NATO with a 1 in 9 twist. So you can use pretty much any bullet. You don't say home defense versus trail versus a Hatfield–McCoy replay. Junk 55 gr FMJ are cheap and OK for practice, but not so for defense. Where I live heavy clothing is normal year round and I need to worry about bear and moose. For home use I like the 55gr Hornady Vmax (a bit light but OK). A friend alternates them with the Lehigh Defense 55 Grain Fracturing. I used to like the 75 gr A-max but they have been discontinued. I no longer use my mini for defense by have gone to 10mm.

Blackhawk,
I'm not talking about defense against wild animals , but rather those two legged booger bears that are so prevalent in our society today. But it's great to hear the mini has a 1 in 9 twist, that means I can use the same load in it that I use in my AR. But my main defensive guns are still my 12 ga loaded with 00 buck, and my 1911 Kimber that resides on my night stand

You might look on www.predatormasters.com, those guys are wizards on .223 and ARs.

Grafs has Hornady 62gr PTSPT-BT for less than $100/1000. These are good for ANY reasonable use for your MINI-14.
A friend had a first run Ranch Rifle that had the 1/10"twist of all the early mini's. It was easily the most accurate mini I've ever shot. With a Nosler 55gr BT over 24.0gr of H322 it would shoot 5-shot 1.0 to 1.2" groups at 100yds. (Wore a Leupold 2-7x VariX II Compact).
Most other mini's I've shot were 3-5moa shooters, including the 2 I owned.
His rifle was distinctive in that stock had a red rubber butt pad instead of curved plastic plate.

I believe that prior to recent changes for accuracy improvements, that since early '90's that the minis had 1/9" twist.
So, it really depends on when it was made.

onehandgunner said:

You might look on http://www.predatormasters.com, those guys are wizards on .223 and ARs.

Click to expand...

Yes, tons of AR/.223 wisdom there.