Ruger American .243 at 650 yards...

D

Dan Newberry

New member
...with Federal Fusion 95 grain ammo. This is a bit hard to believe... but facts are facts... here goes:

We had a guy show up at the course today with a factory, brand new never fired Ruger American Rifle (RAR)... we ran through the bore sight, got it on paper at 100 yards, and fired these two shots with Federal's Fusion 95 grain .243 ammo...

RARFCfusion_zps1da35250.jpg


We just had 40 rounds to work with, so 2 shots at 100 yards seemed enough... a few clicks of right windage and we took the rifle on to 350, 500... and finally 650 yards. The thing shot extremely well. No break in, just shooting it... :o

RAR650yards3_zps4c4635b3.jpg


RAR650yards_zps4b445eab.jpg


It was pretty cold, in the high 20's with wind blowing 8 to 12 mph... but waiting on the lulls with 4 minutes of windage allowed the shots to come onto the plate. Look at the elevation spread.... practically non-existent. This Federal ammo is really good stuff...

A shot down range...
tateswinter_zps64ac51ca.jpg


This kind of performance will be hard for many to believe, I realize... but facts are facts. I was just as amazed at the Federal ammo as I was the Ruger rifle itself.

Dan
 
This post is encouraging. As i have just picked up an american in 243. All i have found locally is winchester super x and remington cor lokt in 100gr. And some 80gr super x. Saw one box of hornady 58gr vmax. But they wanted 45 bucks for it. Would love to find some fusion around here and try it out.
 
We live in a golden age of rifle manufacture. It's amazing to me that some of the gun-makers budget rifles shoot so well, as evidenced by the Ruger American. I also see the same level of performance in the Savage Axis. I bought two of them at Christmas for teenage grandkids and the little $300.00 rifles are hovering right around MOA straight out of the box.

And yes, the guys I know who shoot .243 swear by the Federal Fusion 95 grain load. Some won't shoot anything else.
 
Sold I'll have to try a box, and people need to understand that Dan TEACHES people to shoot long distances, so he gets 50% of the credit.;)
 
I recently bought a used Savage 270 that came with 150 Grain Core Lokts and it doesn't shoot them well. Guess I'll give these a try, lol. I'll reload for it eventually, but in the mean time...
 
Took mine to the range today to sight in. Took 12 shots and upon cycling the bolt to eject the last shell the bolt disassembled. Firing pin, spring, etc shot out the back of the bolt. Looks like ill be calling ruger tomorrow....
 
Yall need to quit talking so much about the Ruger American. If yall keep showing me this stuff I am going to have to break down and buy one of them.;)
 
About 15 years ago I went on a hunting trip to South Africa. Friend of mine there wanted me to bring a Ruger SS 270 with boat paddle stock so he could buy it off me when I was done hunting. Tried my best to convince him to let me bring him a Remington 30/06, but he insisted. Just so happened a big chain store was going out of business and I found the 270 there for a really good price. Then I thought I better shoot it to see if it works before taking it overseas, put a scope on it, bought some cheap Federal 130 grain ammo and took it out to the desert in AZ. First 5 shots at 100 yards could be covered by a quarter. Could not believe my eyes, took me a long time and lots of different reloads to make my Winchester 30/06 to shoot half this good! Shot another group really taking my time, and had an even better group.

I though no way in hades am I selling him this rifle, ran back to the store and bought another one! It shot good as well, not quite as good but still a 3/4 moa rifle. Shot 7 springbuck with it, including a double. He hunted extensively with it, shot lots of animals with it, including a springbuck at what he said was 430 meters, and was happy as a pig in Palestine with it.

I still have the Ruger, just shot it about a month ago in real windy conditions at 200 yards, and shot a decent group. It actually became my wife's elk rifle, but she never got a shot at one.
 
Unlike similar offerings from Remington and (OMG) even Savage...this "budget" line from Ruger doesn't seem to have a negative review online that I've seen yet.

From the simple, 3-lug short-throw bolt (such a simplistic piece of "engineering") to the hammer-forged barrel, Ruger has hit a definite winner.

A testament to the ammo and the rifle (not to mention the shooter!).

Interesting, in that you did no "break-in"- and it seems to have needed none. Not what you'd typically expect from a price-point barrel like this.

It all points to quality and tight tolerances in the machining and assembly. It would be interesting for someone with the equipment and the knowledge to measure such things as concentricity of the action/bore, trueness of the boltface and lugs to the recesses...all the usual "stuff" that makes a rifle accurate. Then compare them to the much higher priced offerings.

I was very skeptical of the bedding "blocks" on this stock- so "cheesy" looking...but if that action were moving around in the stock, you wouldn't have the results you got.

Makes ya wonder what it could do with some load development, huh?
 
Good points... especially on the break in.

The shooter only had 40 rounds of ammo (with shortages as they are, that's all he could come up with). The course was a day clinic, so he ended up being able to meet criteria with the ammo he had.

The two shots on the 100 yard target are actually the 2nd and 3rd shots from the brand new barrel. The first shot was a bore-sight... we did clean the barrel with Butch's after 10 to 12 shots, on three occasions during the course. But even cold clean bore shots were not terribly off point...

I looked around for a bad review, and like you, found none. A member above (in this thread) has mentioned that his bolt came apart... that can't be a good thing. But I'm sure Ruger will make it right, their customer service is very good...

I didn't know how those "V" blocks would work in lieu of a traditional recoil lug, but they do seem to work. I don't know how far Ruger wants to press their strength (i.e. with heavy magnums)... but for non-magnums they seem to work.

IIRC they're recommending around 80 inch pounds of torque on those action screws. The design is different, but seems to work.

Hopefully, some stock makers will get into making some laminated stocks for these... or maybe since the rifles are selling so well, Ruger themselves might begin offering them with heavy barrels and laminated stocks in varmint calibers...

Dan
 
I'd like to see a stainless model and some more calibers, though I already want one in 7mm-08. Has anyone "heard through the grapevine" any plans to offer a stainless and more calibers? I know they just added 22-250 and 7-08 at the first of the year, but I'd like to see .204 Ruger, .25-06, and 6.5 Creedmoor in the American lineup. That would get me even more interested :)
 
My Ruger American 270 will be going back. Chamber head space is too short. Can barely get factory ammo to chamber. Tried Federal, Remington and Winchester. Not sure what they test fired it with.
 
I hear their customer service is great. My problem is the hours. Only from 8am to 4pm MST monday through friday. Kinda hard to get ahold of them when you're stuck at work all week.
 
They have pretty good customer service now. Fifteen years ago it was absolutely awful, but they are very pleasant to deal with now.
Back in the day they made me so mad I said "I would never buy another Ruger." I got over it and have a lot of Rugers now and when needed their customer service has been good.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top