Luke Moffat and I had been kicking around an idea for awhile about a cheap, lightweight rifle that will shoot and wont make me cry if I were to scratch it or get rust on it. One rifle he recommended and we talked at length about was the Ruger American .308 Compact. We figured we could scope it and keep it at or under 7lbs. Now, I have nothing against the Tika Lite or the Kimber Mountain Ascent and will probably own an MA at some point but since my money went towards binoculars this year, there was no way I was going to buy both. So, I decided to put my money where my mouth is, leave Luke alone for a little while, and I bought the Ruger for $350 OTD. Cabelas had a sale on the Leupold VXII w/ the CDS turret for $250.00 (plus tax) and I had a set of aluminum lightweight Weaver rings laying around that needed to be used.
My first impression of the rifle when I picked it up is whoever at Ruger packages these things loves to lube the hell out of them. My FFL had already hosed it down with gun scrubber before I picked it up and then I cleaned it again when I got home. After shooting it today it still had lube coming out where the barrel meets the receiver, if anyone from Ruger is reading this, please ease up on the lube. So, right off the bat, I love how this rifle feels in my hands, and it is very quick to the shoulder. I'm a big guy at 6'1", 245lbs and it looks like a little .22 when I'm shooting it but it's very comfortable. It'll be nice for carrying around all day plus it will be better suited as a loaner gun for my 13 year old nephew when he comes up to hunt than my Savage 110 30/06. One thing I had to do was pull the rifle out of the stock and sand it down a little to keep the barrel from touching the stock. I'll probably shave a little more after today as it appeared the barrel was close to the stock. No big deal, I've had to do it with my Savage rifle stocks and a new B&C Medalist.
Today was the first day I was able to test two loads and shoot it without a howling cross wind and so far I am very impressed with the results. My two handloads were Barnes 180gr TTSX and SMK 175gr. Both were loaded to minimum powder charges with TAC powder and a CCI BR-2 Primer. One thing I noticed was that there is not much room in the mag if I were to seat the bullets further out but I believe I could hollow out the mag if needed. It's a plastic mag and feels kind of chincy but it's a much higher quality mag than what came with my buddies Remington 770. Shooting it is not bad at all and I have not messed with the trigger. It's not as good as a Timney but it does break cleanly and for hunting, I like it where it is. Recoil was not bad at all but it is loud and the barrel does heat up fairly quick. Oddly, it does not shoot 147gr FMJ and 150gr FMJ very well. I had one failure to feed and that was with a Magtech 150gr FMJ in which I could not close the bolt. It had zero issues feeding my 147gr and 180gr handloads.
Overall, I cannot complain about this rifle. It's handy, it shoots, and I don't care if it gets soaked by the elements or takes a spill. Best of all, it came in under 7lbs and cost me around $600 to build. I will be working up hotter loads for this over the summer and will post results if there's interest but I would recommend one of these if you're looking for a knock around rifle or are on a tight budget. Happy shooting.
I had a nice wad of Copenhagen in my mouth while shooting which was not a good idea as the scope was bounding with my heartbeat. I'm sure I could tighten these up without that happening. I also pulled the third shot with the SMK's. Never fails.
The biggest surprise of the day. I thought my table was throwing off the scale so I tried it on another table and it weighed even less than this.
My first impression of the rifle when I picked it up is whoever at Ruger packages these things loves to lube the hell out of them. My FFL had already hosed it down with gun scrubber before I picked it up and then I cleaned it again when I got home. After shooting it today it still had lube coming out where the barrel meets the receiver, if anyone from Ruger is reading this, please ease up on the lube. So, right off the bat, I love how this rifle feels in my hands, and it is very quick to the shoulder. I'm a big guy at 6'1", 245lbs and it looks like a little .22 when I'm shooting it but it's very comfortable. It'll be nice for carrying around all day plus it will be better suited as a loaner gun for my 13 year old nephew when he comes up to hunt than my Savage 110 30/06. One thing I had to do was pull the rifle out of the stock and sand it down a little to keep the barrel from touching the stock. I'll probably shave a little more after today as it appeared the barrel was close to the stock. No big deal, I've had to do it with my Savage rifle stocks and a new B&C Medalist.
Today was the first day I was able to test two loads and shoot it without a howling cross wind and so far I am very impressed with the results. My two handloads were Barnes 180gr TTSX and SMK 175gr. Both were loaded to minimum powder charges with TAC powder and a CCI BR-2 Primer. One thing I noticed was that there is not much room in the mag if I were to seat the bullets further out but I believe I could hollow out the mag if needed. It's a plastic mag and feels kind of chincy but it's a much higher quality mag than what came with my buddies Remington 770. Shooting it is not bad at all and I have not messed with the trigger. It's not as good as a Timney but it does break cleanly and for hunting, I like it where it is. Recoil was not bad at all but it is loud and the barrel does heat up fairly quick. Oddly, it does not shoot 147gr FMJ and 150gr FMJ very well. I had one failure to feed and that was with a Magtech 150gr FMJ in which I could not close the bolt. It had zero issues feeding my 147gr and 180gr handloads.
Overall, I cannot complain about this rifle. It's handy, it shoots, and I don't care if it gets soaked by the elements or takes a spill. Best of all, it came in under 7lbs and cost me around $600 to build. I will be working up hotter loads for this over the summer and will post results if there's interest but I would recommend one of these if you're looking for a knock around rifle or are on a tight budget. Happy shooting.
I had a nice wad of Copenhagen in my mouth while shooting which was not a good idea as the scope was bounding with my heartbeat. I'm sure I could tighten these up without that happening. I also pulled the third shot with the SMK's. Never fails.
The biggest surprise of the day. I thought my table was throwing off the scale so I tried it on another table and it weighed even less than this.
