[charlie sterner]

Tyler and I made it to the range today. We zeroed his rifle and took our time to clean and break it in at 200 meters, then shot some groups. Tyler's group was about 3" and I shot a 5 shot group right about 2" with 4 of the 5 into about an inch. I'm not a big fan of the MSR style buttstock shooting it off a rear bag. It has s picatinny rail under the rear for attaching a monopod, which we don't have. Even with a rail cover on, it didn't want to ride the bags well, and with the rail mounted on the front underside of the free float tube, it seemed to throw some high fliers. Not sure if that was due to the rail on the front hitting the rest or the rail on the rear stick grabbing at the bag. Maybe some of both? If it were mine, I'd be switching that stock out with one that rides the bags better and I'd have one of those forend adaptors on the front. (What the heck are they called? Accuracy assets?)

We moved to 300m shooting at a 4" gong. Dialed it in and were hitting it regularly. Same at 400 and 500 meters. Then we each shot some groups at 500m. Tyler's group was about 6" and I had two under 2" and a high flier opened it up to about 7". Just about MOA out of a new rifle with factory 140 great bthp ammo wasn't too bad I thought. We moved out to 800 yards and took a few shots to get dialed in and Tyler was hitting the 12" gong fairly regularly. Wind was switching, causing some misses left and right I think. It'll do better with handloads, I'm sure.

All in all, the 6.5 creedmoor was fun to shoot. The brake worked very well. Recoil was that of a 223. Little bit of noise, but not real bad. The Ruger copy of the accutrigger was light and crisp, but Tyler seemed to be having trouble with the blade catching. I think he was pulling it sideways instead of straight back. I had zero issues with it. The magpul mag was kind of a pain to get to catch, and Tyler had some feeding issues, but you gotta realize, it's a machine. You have to forcefully insert the mag, not gently pushing it in and you have to work the bolt. If you hesitate going forward, the round pops out of the mag and drops out of alignment. Again, I had zero issues with the mag or with feeding. But I was snapping the mag in and working the bolt in one smooth motion.

I took some old, stale handloads from BBB 2015 I think, for my 6BR. After zeroing at 200m it was spot on with my click calculations at 300, 400 and 500m. I shot a 3 shot group at 500m that went about 2". Not having ever stretchedit to 800 with this scope, my clicks were a bit off, but I dialed in the correction and center punched the 12" gong. That little round surely impresses me.

We didn't have time to shoot our pistols and there were other guys hogging the pistol bays. Tyler has a new to him HK VP9 he wants to shoot. Maybe tomorrow after work? Sure was nice to smell gunpowder again.

 

[Kermit in Va.]

Glad you all got to smell smoke...


Underdog

 

[CarlP]

Time Well-Spent

Glad to hear you were able to get out and put the new rifle through its paces.

 

[Doug Roberts]

Nice

Thanks for Ruger Rundown, Charlie. Not bad, I reckon but that buttstock does look like it wouldn't ride a bag very well. I'm betting somebody makes an adapter or a replacement.

 

[George Foster]

Sounds as you two had a nice day shooting, the new Ruger seems it may well be a shooter. I also would like a stock that is more bag friendly.

 

[Stubb]

Bag rider

There is a fellow on 6mmbr.com that makes a bag rider that slides onto the pic rail. Fairly inexpensive, I got one for my RPR.

 

[charlie sterner]

thanks Stubb. I'll look into that.

 

[JRinKY]

It ain't a "Bag Rifle."
It's made for a front bipod and a secure hold to your shoulder in the rear.
It's a rifle you can shoot and pretend you are Chris Kyle. I'm not being critical of y'all or the rifle, it just isn't made for benchrest shooting. It's a fun rifle and they do shoot well.

I do have one suggestion which should shrink your groups by 50% Get a piece of tape, cover up the word ruger, then write SAVAGE on the piece of tape!

 

[charlie sterner]

agreed JR...about the bag rifle part. It's too purty to be a Salvage though.

 

[ralphtt]

It ain't a "Bag Rifle."
It's made for a front bipod and a secure hold to your shoulder in the rear.

Precisely. Have only run 20 rounds through my new RPR. After initial sight-in, I had nine rounds left so shot three 3-shot groups. All were well under one MOA with the smallest being under 1/4 MOA. These off a bipod with a small sandbag to assist in elevation control.

Believe it's gonna' be a shooter!

 

[charlie sterner]

Precisely. Have only run 20 rounds through my new RPR. After initial sight-in, I had nine rounds left so shot three 3-shot groups. All were well under one MOA with the smallest being under 1/4 MOA. These off a bipod with a small sandbag to assist in elevation control.

Believe it's gonna' be a shooter!

Ralph, is yours a Creedmoor? What ammo are you shooting? We bought the cheaper American Hunter ammo, box of 50, basically for sighting in and for brass. I think with handloads and/or the match ammo with the ELD/ELDX bullets it will do better. Everybody seems to like the match ammo in the 6.5.

 

[ralphtt]

Charlie,
Sorry about that . . . yes, it's a 6.5 Creedmore and I was using the Hornady 140 gr ELD Match ammo. Kinda' pricy but I wanted to find out if the rifle had potential . . . and I'm pleased to say it does!

 

[WDSWIFT]

Way to go Charlie!. I have a partner that had a 6.5 RPR. I saw him shoot an inch group at 400yds with it on 3 different occasions using Winchester Match(?) ammo. 140gr something as I recall.

And also witnessed the barrel give up the ghost at under 1100 rounds. He's since put on a new barrel on it and hasn't shot it much in the last year or so... saving the barrel I guess. WD

 

[JRinKY]

That's a lot of Rounds

Way to go Charlie!. I have a partner that had a 6.5 RPR. I saw him shoot an inch group at 400yds with it on 3 different occasions using Winchester Match(?) ammo. 140gr something as I recall.

And also witnessed the barrel give up the ghost at under 1100 rounds. He's since put on a new barrel on it and hasn't shot it much in the last year or so... saving the barrel I guess. WD

1100 rounds is pretty danged good for a Ruger Plastic Barrel.:

 

[Kermit in Va.]

JR...that's why they don't include a BIG hammer with'em like that sa sa saa...
thing...


Underdog

 

[charlie sterner]

This thing has a throat like Linda Lovelace (you old timers will remember that one)! 143 ELDX to lands is 2.878". Mag length is only 2.800. That's gonna be a LOT of jump and the Magpul mag system doesn't lend itself to single feeding. Maybe the AICS do, at least the net says so. Didn't have any 140 ELD match's at the shop and figured I'd try the ELDX (expanding) in case Tyler wants to shoot a deer or two. Dang the price of dies though. Holy crap our store cost was $55. Midway has them on clearance for $41 but til you add shipping. And wow, bullets have gone up. I got the discount at $30/100.

 

[ShaneG.]

Charlie the Savage 12fv I have has porn throat as well...my 143eldx are seated at 2.915"and that's about .010" in the lands. So far I have used some [email protected] and [email protected]&44.8g and [email protected] and 44.0g
The 4831 loads shot real good and ran 2705&2750fps. The Rl23 I'm still going to go up on but @44g it was 2830 avg. By my chrono.....dont know how accurate it is though.

 

[ShaneG.]

Oh also look at Wilson full length bushing dies.....I bought mine for the 6.5cm and for my 6dasher.....nice dies and not that expensive. Then I just bought a Redding seater die.

 

[Kermit in Va.]

Charlie, I've loaded some with 4831sc and it's shoots the 143 DOEs and 140 bts
about the same poi. I'll send a pic of the target if I can think tomorrow when I get good signal.


Underdog

 

[charlie sterner]

143 DOEs? What bullet is that?

After some digging, the pmags suck for the CReedmoor. They're 308 mags. There are other mags oit there that alow seating depths up to 3.005". I'll look into getting a different mag so we can reduce the bullet jump.