MCgunner
Member
Some 20 years ago, I bought a new Ramiline Exactor. It was hyped in all the 'zines (i've learned to take magazine tests with a grain of salt, especially when a good portion of their advertizing is by the company in question) were hyping the gun up, the "wave of the future" and all that. The concept was neat, mostly plastic except for the barrel liner and receiver/bolt, it weighs just 22 ounces. Mine has the egonomic grip that looks rather untraditional, but fits the hand wonderfully.
The gun's main attribute is that it shoots 1" groups with CCI at 25 yards and it is very light to tote as a trail gun when out and about. The problems seem to mostly revolve around the constant force springs used in the hammer and the magazine. They seem to lose their strength over time. The gun has gotten worse and worse about light strikes and misfires, usually misses on 1 out of a magazine now. At first it'd fire anything, then slowly started misfiring with Federal, but would do fine with CCI. NOW, CCI is giving me heck.
The magazines are of a plastic that seems to age and wear with time. I got three with it, originally. First thing was that it quit locking the bolt back. The spring just started getting too limp to have enough force to lock the bolt back on the last round. Now, they've gotten weak enough that the last 5 rounds (15 round mags), the bolt will occasionally miss the rim and jam on the round. The plastic is beginning to crack, have glued two of 'em, but one has busted completely.
The gun is very accurate, as stated, and makes a GREAT outdoor carry due to light weight and almost total imperviousness to the elements. However, the shortfalls in magazine design and the springs assure that it will need service eventually and now that Ramline is out of business, well, that's not really an option for my gun. I found a new magazine online....for 65 bucks.
Oh, well, for shooting and hunting I have a Ruger Mk2 and for field carry AND range work I have a really good shooting little Rossi .22 kit gun, a M511 Sportsman, so it ain't like this Ramline is much more to me than a waste of money 20 years ago, just lamenting in this post what COULD have been if the gun would have been perfected. The kinks coulda been worked out of this thing, i'd think, with different, more resilient polymers in the magazine and better spring steel in the springs. But, it never happened.
The gun's main attribute is that it shoots 1" groups with CCI at 25 yards and it is very light to tote as a trail gun when out and about. The problems seem to mostly revolve around the constant force springs used in the hammer and the magazine. They seem to lose their strength over time. The gun has gotten worse and worse about light strikes and misfires, usually misses on 1 out of a magazine now. At first it'd fire anything, then slowly started misfiring with Federal, but would do fine with CCI. NOW, CCI is giving me heck.
The magazines are of a plastic that seems to age and wear with time. I got three with it, originally. First thing was that it quit locking the bolt back. The spring just started getting too limp to have enough force to lock the bolt back on the last round. Now, they've gotten weak enough that the last 5 rounds (15 round mags), the bolt will occasionally miss the rim and jam on the round. The plastic is beginning to crack, have glued two of 'em, but one has busted completely.
The gun is very accurate, as stated, and makes a GREAT outdoor carry due to light weight and almost total imperviousness to the elements. However, the shortfalls in magazine design and the springs assure that it will need service eventually and now that Ramline is out of business, well, that's not really an option for my gun. I found a new magazine online....for 65 bucks.
Oh, well, for shooting and hunting I have a Ruger Mk2 and for field carry AND range work I have a really good shooting little Rossi .22 kit gun, a M511 Sportsman, so it ain't like this Ramline is much more to me than a waste of money 20 years ago, just lamenting in this post what COULD have been if the gun would have been perfected. The kinks coulda been worked out of this thing, i'd think, with different, more resilient polymers in the magazine and better spring steel in the springs. But, it never happened.
Last edited:
