kjdoski
01-19-11, 19:40
Not sure if this is the place to put this, but I thought I'd give you my impressions:
Scout Rifle - I've been a HUGE fan of the Scout Rifle concept since I first read Jeff Cooper's work on it. If I could ever find a Steyr that wouldn't cause me to sell a kidney to acquire it, I'd snap it up. I've even tried to make the Savage version work, not successfully, but I've tried. The Ruger - not so much...
The rifle is handy, and swings/points very naturally. The stock is comfortable and attractive, and the sights are very serviceable. The safety is positive and moves cleanly, and the trigger is certainly adequate for the intended purpose.
However, the detachable mag extends pretty obtrusively below the rifle; both myself and my buddy noticed that it was hard to get a good, comfortable grip with the support hand on the rifle because the magazine interferes with where your hand, wrist, and forearm want to be to hold the gun. I ended up swinging it by partially cupping the magazine, ala the "mag well" hold on an M4 - but, given the amount of "wiggle" in the magazine when seated, I'm not sure that's going to lead to flawless feeding.
The bolt action is looser than anything I've felt on a bolt gun in recent memory - a rough, wiggly, cheap feeling movement - definitely not what I'd want on an $800+ bolt action carbine.
If you're thinking about putting standard eye-relief optics on this rifle, you're going to have to give up the rear sight assembly. And, lastly, the flash hider looks just plain nasty. For the life of me, I don't know why Ruger didn't either (a) dispense with it for an ultra-short overall length, or (b) ditch the idea and put a full 18" barrel on the gun (which would be my recommendation).
Regards,
Kevin
Scout Rifle - I've been a HUGE fan of the Scout Rifle concept since I first read Jeff Cooper's work on it. If I could ever find a Steyr that wouldn't cause me to sell a kidney to acquire it, I'd snap it up. I've even tried to make the Savage version work, not successfully, but I've tried. The Ruger - not so much...
The rifle is handy, and swings/points very naturally. The stock is comfortable and attractive, and the sights are very serviceable. The safety is positive and moves cleanly, and the trigger is certainly adequate for the intended purpose.
However, the detachable mag extends pretty obtrusively below the rifle; both myself and my buddy noticed that it was hard to get a good, comfortable grip with the support hand on the rifle because the magazine interferes with where your hand, wrist, and forearm want to be to hold the gun. I ended up swinging it by partially cupping the magazine, ala the "mag well" hold on an M4 - but, given the amount of "wiggle" in the magazine when seated, I'm not sure that's going to lead to flawless feeding.
The bolt action is looser than anything I've felt on a bolt gun in recent memory - a rough, wiggly, cheap feeling movement - definitely not what I'd want on an $800+ bolt action carbine.
If you're thinking about putting standard eye-relief optics on this rifle, you're going to have to give up the rear sight assembly. And, lastly, the flash hider looks just plain nasty. For the life of me, I don't know why Ruger didn't either (a) dispense with it for an ultra-short overall length, or (b) ditch the idea and put a full 18" barrel on the gun (which would be my recommendation).
Regards,
Kevin