I was looking around for a bolt action 357 and came across acrylictnk's classified ad in Ruger forum. I saw he was local to me so I joined the forum and drove over to pick up my new Ruger!
I never owned a Ruger before. I have a few .357 revolvers (S&W) and a couple of Savage rifles with accutriggers. I guess that spoiled me, as I now that I have a Ruger, I know the meaning of the term "trigger creep". I talked to the people from Timney, but I was wondering if there is any other options for triggers?
I am not a fan of small magazines, and i hope someone comes out with a larger one like they did with the 10/22. Failing that, I would like to buy a couple of the 5 round mags, but I have not found any for sale. Does anyone know where to get them?
I like the idea of using the same ammo in my revolver as in my rifle. I always thought a .357 would make a good rifle round due to the higher pressure and large case capacity. I reload using mainly 17.8 grains of VihtaVuori N110 powder with 125 gr bullets, which is a rather slow burning powder for the revolver, but it does give me about 750 to 800 FPS increase in speed from the rifle!
Some loading manuals do not recommend reloading cases fired from lever action except once due to the "spring in the bolt" causing case stretching. I don't think I will have that problem with the Ruger bolt action.
I went to the range once, with high temperatures (102 degrees) and a small amount of wind gusts. I got a couple of 1.5" to 1.7" groups at 100 yards off sand bags with a scope first thing. Then the wind kicked up.
Jams were common with hollow points, less so with Sierra Sports Master which has a smaller hollow point hole. The holes were catching on the edge of the chamber mouth. I found moving the bolt slowly catches the top of the case and rocks the bullet down, moving the bolt quickly helps. The worst bullets were the Speer Gold Dots which have a very wide mouth, to open at lower speeds.
I noticed the barrel is not free floating. Is there a way to float the barrel on a synthetic stock. Does it help? One of the reasons I wanted a bolt action was better accuracy. A tubular magazine changes the barrel resonance each time a round is used.
Any help on accuracy would be appreciated.
Warthog
I never owned a Ruger before. I have a few .357 revolvers (S&W) and a couple of Savage rifles with accutriggers. I guess that spoiled me, as I now that I have a Ruger, I know the meaning of the term "trigger creep". I talked to the people from Timney, but I was wondering if there is any other options for triggers?
I am not a fan of small magazines, and i hope someone comes out with a larger one like they did with the 10/22. Failing that, I would like to buy a couple of the 5 round mags, but I have not found any for sale. Does anyone know where to get them?
I like the idea of using the same ammo in my revolver as in my rifle. I always thought a .357 would make a good rifle round due to the higher pressure and large case capacity. I reload using mainly 17.8 grains of VihtaVuori N110 powder with 125 gr bullets, which is a rather slow burning powder for the revolver, but it does give me about 750 to 800 FPS increase in speed from the rifle!
Some loading manuals do not recommend reloading cases fired from lever action except once due to the "spring in the bolt" causing case stretching. I don't think I will have that problem with the Ruger bolt action.
I went to the range once, with high temperatures (102 degrees) and a small amount of wind gusts. I got a couple of 1.5" to 1.7" groups at 100 yards off sand bags with a scope first thing. Then the wind kicked up.
Jams were common with hollow points, less so with Sierra Sports Master which has a smaller hollow point hole. The holes were catching on the edge of the chamber mouth. I found moving the bolt slowly catches the top of the case and rocks the bullet down, moving the bolt quickly helps. The worst bullets were the Speer Gold Dots which have a very wide mouth, to open at lower speeds.
I noticed the barrel is not free floating. Is there a way to float the barrel on a synthetic stock. Does it help? One of the reasons I wanted a bolt action was better accuracy. A tubular magazine changes the barrel resonance each time a round is used.
Any help on accuracy would be appreciated.
Warthog