A Gen 3 Ruger Precision Rifle chambered in the 6.5 Creedmoor cartridge. This particular specimen sports a Vortex Strike Eagle 5x25x56 scope attached with a set of Burris XTR Signature Rings. These rings come with three pairs of plastic inserts that can custom add or subtract MOA from your particular mount. The Ruger mount is 20 MOA. I have ordered a custom Anarchy Outdoors 40 MOA mount for even added elevation for extreme long range shooting. The bipod is an Atlas unit. The magazines used are your standard AR10/SR25/LR308 box magazines. The RPR’s have been seen in use in the Russo-Ukraine conflict. I will be leaving in an hour with some custom handloads consisting of Hornady cases, Hornady 140gr. HPBT bullets, CCI BR4 primers, and various charges of Winchester Sta Ball 6.5 propellant. Will do a very comprehensive range report afterwards.
Outstanding, cant wait for your report! Ruger had some quality control issues with the first gen of these, so i'm hoping by now they have sorted that all out and made these at least as good as the rest of their lineup, frankly, I was kinda shocked when I heard of these issues, that's NOT how Ruger does things, I suspect they were in such a rush to get these out the door, that they missed a few steps, and THAT hurt them! My Brother has the second gen RPR in .308 and he swears by it, and having seen it shoot, I can attest to it being amazing!
Was not able to get to ring her out yet. Hopefully, that will happen tomorrow, but please don’t hold your breath. Work has been crazy, the young workers of today just love to constantly call off or just be a complete no call/no show for work, which would have gotten me fired 30-40 years ago.
Got it sighted in with basic fmj military ammo Not a bad group. Mounted my other target. Am warming up and letting the barrel cool down. The mirage from the barrel is playing heck with my 60 year old eyes. From this point, will post in a range report thread. There are a couple of annoying factors about this rifle I will report on.
It was a very cold day this morning and afternoon. The mirage from the warm ground into the cold air was intense. Not my best shooting, but the velocity swings were very bad. 40.0gr. charge had 2426 AV with a 67.7 ES and a SD of 22.1. 40.5gr. charge had 2474 AV with a 94.1 ES and a SD of 32.5(how did that group shoot better than 1MOA?) 41.0gr. charge had 2452 AV with a 57.1 ES and a SD of 20.7 41.5gr. charge had 2492 AV with a 48.1 ES and a SD of 16.1 42.0gr. charge had 2566 AV with a 50.9 ES and a SD of 19.5 42.5gr. charge had 2605 AV with a 79.6 ES and a SD of 26. 43.0gr. charge had 2621 AV with a 39.6 ES and a SD of 14.1 43.5gr. charge had 2696 AV with a 36.5 ES and a SD of 12.4 44.0gr. charge had 2712 AV with a 55.9 ES and a SD of 18.4 44.5gr. charge had 2760 AV with a 78.6 ES and a SD of 29.5 The Winchester Sta Ball 6.5 propellant will need the use of magnum primers to tighten up these wide velocities and standard deviations.
Now then, for the rifle itself, It is definitely built like a tank, it feels like a tank, and, it is heavy like a tank. There is only one word that describes shooting this tank. That word is “CLUNKY”, but in a good way. The bolt will need to be broken in to smooth it out. I also discovered that this rifle is very easy to short stroke, so make sure that you retract the bolt fully before you chamber a round. I have a habit of always retracting the bolt before inserting a loaded magazine and the bolt did fall forward just a tad while inserting a magazine. So again, make sure the bolt is all the way back before you chamber a round. Recoil, with the 6.5 Creedmoor and the weight of this tank, well there is no excessive recoil. The trigger is actually pretty decent, not a two stage Larue or a Giesle, but still decent, and not bad enough to want to upgrade to a better one. Now for the annoying aspect’s of this rifle. First, that butt stock has just too many moving pieces and the latest generation has what looks like a much better streamlined stock along with other aftermarket A2 style stock that will fit this rifle. For the second and last major annoyance, When you grip the rifle, the top part of your hand rest on that lump of the safety switch, very annoying, but for those with smaller hands, you may not experience this. This rifle does have an ambidextrous safety and it also interferes with your left hand the same way.
What is it with Ruger and safety switch placements? My Ruger American has it on top of the tang right in front of where my thumb wraps over. My thumb gets hit every shot. I've taken a file to it to smooth it somewhat, but haven't been back out to test it. That one looks like there is no fix for it if it gets in your way.
The wide ES and SD is too much, These are the ES and SD's that I like to see, this is a 308 with a Sierra 175 Mk, WLR, Benchmark powder, and LC LR cases.
Is that side of the safety lever full length? If so I'd look into something like the Radian lever that has one long and one short lever or replace with a non ambi lever. That woud drive me nuts on a precision rifle.
Tried H4350 with the same Hornady cases, CCI BR#2 large rifle primers and Hornady 140gr. HPBT match bullets. Some ES and SD’s made a great improvement, but they were not with the tightest groups. I shoot at a range that goes out to 1400 meters. A great place, but you, the rife, the scope, and ammo have to be up to the challenge. What I will change with the H4350 loads is the primers. Will go back to the tried and true Winchester Large Rifle. With the Winchester Sta Ball 6.5, I will change to Winchester Large Rifle Magnum primers. Also have some Hornady 140gr ELDM’s and a pound of Hodgdon Superformance which a lot 6.5 Creedmoor shooters state that you can get some very fast velocities. I kept the original Midway receipt for the case of CCI BR#2 primers, those were the days.
