The wife bought me a new Ruger American Rifle for Christmas in 30/06. While this would not have been my first choice, I must have said (At some point in time) that at the price it would be fun to mess around with. So I cleaned it and looked it over. My first impressions are the stock is cheap feeling and would be noisy in the woods, the magazine rattles a wee bit, and care must be taken reassembling the rifle to ensure the barrel is floated. The trigger would not adjust below 3 ¼ pounds and the trigger housing seems to be plastic. I found the trigger pull to be anywhere from the 3 ¼ to about 4 pounds so I put a little gun slick on the trigger and it seemed to be very consistent after that. So far I was not impressed.
I had bought my son a Leupold 2x7 ultralight scope for his 243 compact. So I took the Bushnell 3200 3-10 off of it and mounted it on the Ruger in Weaver medium rings. I bore sighted it on the fire hydrant up the street. I rummaged around and found some factory Rem 180 gr RN and Fed 180gr SP. I also loaded up a light load of varget behind Sierras 165 gr BTHP. This Ruger has a very short throat. The Rem and Fed loads seemed fine but the Sierra bullets had to be loaded shorter than the recommended seating depth. This is the reason for a "light" load of varget.
So off to the range I go. I shot at 50 yds just to break it in. The first 3 shots of the 180 RN were on the paper and about ¾ of an inch. The next 3 were about the same. I switched to the 180gr SP and they printed 1 ragged hole, reshot a group of 5…same 1 ragged hole. I finally shot the 165's (this is my favorite bullet in 308) it printed 1 hole, not a ragged hole or clover leaf, just 1 hole. I reshot and found it was the same. Not bad for an entry level rifle.
I had to go back to the range today to let my son shoot his new scope so I loaded 3 rounds of the varget load to reshoot. I fired 1 group at 100 yds off a rest and it printed .6 inch.
My final conclusions were a bit of a confession. I really had low expectations of this rifle due to the fact it has a cheap stock and short throat. I was wrong and honestly like the rifle after shooting it. It fit me well, shoots well, and it is American made. With the scope we have about 500 dollars in this gun and for that price this is a steal. I do need to shoot it more to really call it sub MOA but it seems to have a good start and even if the final hunting loads I develop are just over an inch it is still a good value. We shall see…
I had bought my son a Leupold 2x7 ultralight scope for his 243 compact. So I took the Bushnell 3200 3-10 off of it and mounted it on the Ruger in Weaver medium rings. I bore sighted it on the fire hydrant up the street. I rummaged around and found some factory Rem 180 gr RN and Fed 180gr SP. I also loaded up a light load of varget behind Sierras 165 gr BTHP. This Ruger has a very short throat. The Rem and Fed loads seemed fine but the Sierra bullets had to be loaded shorter than the recommended seating depth. This is the reason for a "light" load of varget.
So off to the range I go. I shot at 50 yds just to break it in. The first 3 shots of the 180 RN were on the paper and about ¾ of an inch. The next 3 were about the same. I switched to the 180gr SP and they printed 1 ragged hole, reshot a group of 5…same 1 ragged hole. I finally shot the 165's (this is my favorite bullet in 308) it printed 1 hole, not a ragged hole or clover leaf, just 1 hole. I reshot and found it was the same. Not bad for an entry level rifle.
I had to go back to the range today to let my son shoot his new scope so I loaded 3 rounds of the varget load to reshoot. I fired 1 group at 100 yds off a rest and it printed .6 inch.
My final conclusions were a bit of a confession. I really had low expectations of this rifle due to the fact it has a cheap stock and short throat. I was wrong and honestly like the rifle after shooting it. It fit me well, shoots well, and it is American made. With the scope we have about 500 dollars in this gun and for that price this is a steal. I do need to shoot it more to really call it sub MOA but it seems to have a good start and even if the final hunting loads I develop are just over an inch it is still a good value. We shall see…
