high country
Member
Long post, sorry in advance, I just wanted to share some things that I did putting this rifle package together and how it seems to have worked out. From the couple of other threads where I was considering where to go with this first project for 2022, some may know that I set out looking for a budget rifle to mount a Hawke Sidewinder 30 4.5-14x42mm that has been sitting unused on my shelf for several year.
Motivated by some of the fun “first gun of 2022” type threads, I wanted to fill a niche of a budget (minimal out of pocket expense) setup with a plastic stock in a decent hunting caliber. The Ruger American series seemed like a good rifle for the low price, and the reviews seem to generally bear that out. At the recommendations of several on here I was looking for a predator model, but came across an unfired standard model in 6.5 Creedmoor that I could trade for in exchange for a handgun I was selling, so a mutually beneficial trade happened and I had my new rifle.
I ordered up some brass, 6.5 Staball, and 140 grain Hornady HPBT bullets. While waiting for those to be delivered, I got the scope mounted up using a set of rings that I had on hand, and decided to try to address a few of the “shortcomings” of the rifle (if you can even call them that on a $350 budget hunting rifle). The trigger was definitely on the heavy and vague side, the bolt made an annoying zipper sound when moving in or out, and the stock has the typical plastic stock hollow feel.
For the trigger, I swapped out the factory return spring for a lighter one (about 2/3 of a ball point pen spring), and added shims from triggershims between the blade and trigger and between the trigger and trigger housing. The result of this was a trigger that feels nice and solid with very little lateral play and breaks just under 2 pounds. There is essentially no take-up or creep, but a fair amount of overtravel that I can’t really do anything about. It is similar in class to the trigger on my Howa Mini, but is not even in the same league as the trigger on my CZ527, for some relative comparisons.
I polished the obvious machined striations out of the bolt with 400 grit then 1500 grit, then lubed the bolt up and cycled it a couple hundred times. The zipper sound is mostly gone, and it smoothed out decently well. I think it will continue to slick up a bit more with use.
I actually really like the thin shape of the stock. It is the most recent iteration, so it has a pretty good honeycomb in the forend. I left that alone, it was already free floated with plenty of clearance and reasonably stiff. The only real gripe I had was the hollow feel of the butt. As shade-tree as it sounds, I read a while back about someone packing the butt with plastic grocery bags (lets call it synthetic packing…) to get rid of the hollow sound. I had a big pile of that type of synthetic packing sitting in the corner and I figured if it doesn’t work I just pull them out, no harm-no foul. So, I started stuffing and packing it in with a small dowel and it actually worked really well. I used spray foam for the same purpose on a previous project, and the grocery bags were way more effective (and free, without the mess of dealing with the spray foam).
So, for a total of $9 for some shims, a free spring, and a huge pile of plastic bags that were trash anyway, and a couple hours of my time this rifle shaped up. Fairly smooth action, with an acceptable 2lb trigger and a stock that feels a little less like a cheap plastic stock.
I loaded up 20 of the HPBT bullets in lapua cases over the Staball, toward the bottom of published charge for 140gr bullets. I loaded them about 0.025” shy of jamming in the lands, which puts the OAL at 2.830. That functions fine in the magazine which is nice.
I got it to the range today briefly to put those first few rounds through it to sight in and get an idea of how it shoots.
The scope is decent, but not amazing, works well enough on this rifle. It has good optical clarity to 12x, but falls apart above that. The turrets are a little mushy, but work fine. I have yet to see how repeatable adjustments are.
Once I got sighted, I shot five 3 shot 100 yard groups keeping the barrel on the cooler side, with resulting groups between 1.24” and 0.42” with an average of 0.86” (if you ignore a group where I jerked the trigger and pulled the shot off a couple inches, which was 100% just bad shooting on my part). Given that I am still getting used to the rifle and trigger, the bag I was using at the rear was fighting me a bit to sit right, and that is without any load workup, I am quite happy with the outcome here. I would like to be able to get a better cheek weld, so I may add an adjustable comb, and I ordered up a bag that should work better. I don’t care if it shoots 1/2moa honestly, but if I can get good POA/POI consistency at that 0.86" average group size, it would be easily accurate enough for anything I am going to use it for. This is not intended to be a bench rest gun.
We will see how load development and stepping up to 5 shot groups goes, but it seems to have real promise for a budget hunting rifle setup. I completely forgot to take any pictures while I was shooting, but will update with some when I have it out shooting next. Thanks all for your advice concerning the Ruger American series, and I hope some of these tweaks etc. I made are helpful for someone else at some point.
Motivated by some of the fun “first gun of 2022” type threads, I wanted to fill a niche of a budget (minimal out of pocket expense) setup with a plastic stock in a decent hunting caliber. The Ruger American series seemed like a good rifle for the low price, and the reviews seem to generally bear that out. At the recommendations of several on here I was looking for a predator model, but came across an unfired standard model in 6.5 Creedmoor that I could trade for in exchange for a handgun I was selling, so a mutually beneficial trade happened and I had my new rifle.
I ordered up some brass, 6.5 Staball, and 140 grain Hornady HPBT bullets. While waiting for those to be delivered, I got the scope mounted up using a set of rings that I had on hand, and decided to try to address a few of the “shortcomings” of the rifle (if you can even call them that on a $350 budget hunting rifle). The trigger was definitely on the heavy and vague side, the bolt made an annoying zipper sound when moving in or out, and the stock has the typical plastic stock hollow feel.
For the trigger, I swapped out the factory return spring for a lighter one (about 2/3 of a ball point pen spring), and added shims from triggershims between the blade and trigger and between the trigger and trigger housing. The result of this was a trigger that feels nice and solid with very little lateral play and breaks just under 2 pounds. There is essentially no take-up or creep, but a fair amount of overtravel that I can’t really do anything about. It is similar in class to the trigger on my Howa Mini, but is not even in the same league as the trigger on my CZ527, for some relative comparisons.
I polished the obvious machined striations out of the bolt with 400 grit then 1500 grit, then lubed the bolt up and cycled it a couple hundred times. The zipper sound is mostly gone, and it smoothed out decently well. I think it will continue to slick up a bit more with use.
I actually really like the thin shape of the stock. It is the most recent iteration, so it has a pretty good honeycomb in the forend. I left that alone, it was already free floated with plenty of clearance and reasonably stiff. The only real gripe I had was the hollow feel of the butt. As shade-tree as it sounds, I read a while back about someone packing the butt with plastic grocery bags (lets call it synthetic packing…) to get rid of the hollow sound. I had a big pile of that type of synthetic packing sitting in the corner and I figured if it doesn’t work I just pull them out, no harm-no foul. So, I started stuffing and packing it in with a small dowel and it actually worked really well. I used spray foam for the same purpose on a previous project, and the grocery bags were way more effective (and free, without the mess of dealing with the spray foam).
So, for a total of $9 for some shims, a free spring, and a huge pile of plastic bags that were trash anyway, and a couple hours of my time this rifle shaped up. Fairly smooth action, with an acceptable 2lb trigger and a stock that feels a little less like a cheap plastic stock.
I loaded up 20 of the HPBT bullets in lapua cases over the Staball, toward the bottom of published charge for 140gr bullets. I loaded them about 0.025” shy of jamming in the lands, which puts the OAL at 2.830. That functions fine in the magazine which is nice.
I got it to the range today briefly to put those first few rounds through it to sight in and get an idea of how it shoots.
The scope is decent, but not amazing, works well enough on this rifle. It has good optical clarity to 12x, but falls apart above that. The turrets are a little mushy, but work fine. I have yet to see how repeatable adjustments are.
Once I got sighted, I shot five 3 shot 100 yard groups keeping the barrel on the cooler side, with resulting groups between 1.24” and 0.42” with an average of 0.86” (if you ignore a group where I jerked the trigger and pulled the shot off a couple inches, which was 100% just bad shooting on my part). Given that I am still getting used to the rifle and trigger, the bag I was using at the rear was fighting me a bit to sit right, and that is without any load workup, I am quite happy with the outcome here. I would like to be able to get a better cheek weld, so I may add an adjustable comb, and I ordered up a bag that should work better. I don’t care if it shoots 1/2moa honestly, but if I can get good POA/POI consistency at that 0.86" average group size, it would be easily accurate enough for anything I am going to use it for. This is not intended to be a bench rest gun.
We will see how load development and stepping up to 5 shot groups goes, but it seems to have real promise for a budget hunting rifle setup. I completely forgot to take any pictures while I was shooting, but will update with some when I have it out shooting next. Thanks all for your advice concerning the Ruger American series, and I hope some of these tweaks etc. I made are helpful for someone else at some point.
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