New Ruger Precision Rifle

[Airon]

Ruger is making some cool stuff these days. Which some of the other legendary brands would get their crap together.

Available in 6.5 Creedmoor, .308 Win, and .243

http://www.ruger.com/micros/rpr/models.html
http://www.americanrifleman.org/article ... ion-rifle/

[seekers]

Ruger set the bar high with all the design innovations on this new rifle.
A bolt action precision rifle that accepts so many different types of magazines is unheard of. While most precision bolt rifle owners have to pay up to $65 and more to fit the AICS systems of bottom metal this system accepts those, less expensive M14 mags and the highly reliable PMAGS costing less than $20 each.
Another huge plus is the fact that barrels can easily be replaced using AR-style wrenches and a headspace gauge. With the "barrel burning" reputation of the 243 & 6.5 this is welcome news.
An in depth review with video can be seen at his link:

http://www.scout.com/military/snipers-h ... ifle-65-cm

[ron]

Ruger set the bar high with all the design innovations on this new rifle.
A bolt action precision rifle that accepts so many different types of magazines is unheard of. While most precision bolt rifle owners have to pay up to $65 and more to fit the AICS systems of bottom metal this system accepts those, less expensive M14 mags and the highly reliable PMAGS costing less than $20 each.
Another huge plus is the fact that barrels can easily be replaced using AR-style wrenches and a headspace gauge. With the "barrel burning" reputation of the 243 & 6.5 this is welcome news.
An in depth review with video can be seen at his link:

http://www.scout.com/military/snipers-h ... ifle-65-cm

The 6.5 Creedmoor is the one cartridge least likely to wear out barrels since it has less case capacity relative to the bore size Than the 6.5 Swede which there are thousands of such rifles in circulation well over 70 years old that have fired thousands of rounds of ammo and still have their original barrels. You may be confusing the 6.5 Creedmoor with the 264 Winchester magnum or maybe the 6.5/284 because one of the reasons the 6.5 Creedmoor was created was that competitive shooters were experiencing "barrel Burning" with the 6.5/284 which is not really an overbore cartridge but in guns that fire thousands of rounds of ammo in load development. practice and completion, barrel life was relatively short compared to the 6.5 Creedmoor which is the chambering that Ruger has wisely chosen.

The 243, on the other hand, does not have as good barrel life as a .308. or some of the benchrest 6mm's like the 6mm lapua or 6XC with longer necks and less case capacity. But the 6,5 Creedmore has less case capacity than the 260 rem and is known to have long barrel life. However, I can also see the wisdom of choosing the 243 just because that it such a popular cartridge and so many people already own other guns in that same chambering.

There is an Xlnt article in this month's American Rifleman on the new Ruger rifle and it sounds like one hell of a gun. and I just6 kind of skimmed the article and missed the part about tghe ability to swap barrels so thanks for pointing that out.

My problem is that when it comes to gun prices. I still find it hard to wrap my head around the idea of rifles selling for over a thousand dollars since I can remember back to a time when $1000-1200 dollars would buy you a pretty nice used car. However, I do realize that what Ruger has here is a gun that would cost several thousand dollars instead of just a little over a grand for this one if you tried to build one like it or have it built custom.

I can see that this gun will sell like crazy. even people with not much money are likely to sell of a few other guns or do whatever it takes to get one of these. Of course then you have to figure out how to afford scope for it which will cost more than the gun.

I also think that it's inevitable that they'll eventually come out with a long action version or this gun to be chambered in 300 win mag or maybe even .338 Lapua.

[seekers]

Here are some posts from a sponsored shooter using the 6.5 Creedmoor, he admittedly uses his rifle hard. It's comparisons like this that make me say the 6.5 CM is a barrel burner, when comparing it to a 308. Maybe when comparing it to the 243 and others that "can" be shot out in under 2000 rounds it isn't in that class.

BigMahi2 wrote:
.308 barrel life ~3000
6.5CM barrel life ~1500


Rob01 wrote:
Both of those are at least half of actual barrel life. .308 actual can go from 5000-10,000 and Creedmoor is 2500-4500. Both depending on how they were shot. My Creedmoor had around 2250 on it when I had it set back and it was still shooting sub 3/4 MOA after almost 3 years of hard match shooting.

BigMahi2 wrote:

Rob01 - When you first got your 6.5 CM, was it a 3/4 MOA shooter?

No, chances are it was under 1/3 MOA.

It's all about what the shooter expects. If you expect 2 MOA performance, the. Barrel life is can be 5000 rounds. In any case, know that barrel life for 6.5CM is roughly half of the .308

Rob01 wrote:
No obviously but 3/4 was the large side. It would still put in close to 1/2 at most times but still not as consistent as I wanted for a match rifle. After the set back it was back to the 3/8 MOA rifle it was.

Most people look at sub 1 MOA as the standard. If you want sub 1/2 MOA you will be replacing barrels a lot more often obviously. Also it's how you shoot the rifle. My rifle was shot very hard and got very hot. You don't beat up the rifle then you will get more life but yes the 6mm and 6.5mm cartridges will be about half the life of the .308 but they also give better performance so it's a give and take.

[scrappy]

Very cool toy. Completely utilitarian in apperance, but would be great at the Rock Lake matches Now I just need to sell a child or two, wait, only 1 left at home, better get a good price.
Only drawback to things of this nature is cost. $1300 for the rifle, then another $1300 for a scope, etc. Could have $3K in it before you were done. I can shoot my hunting rifles for a LONG time for $3K.

[Call Turner]

I am not impressed . A Ruger American action that is set up to take AR style mag's. Picatinny rail and AR forearm. AR style adjustable rear stock . Whoopee! I wish they would put in the time to rebuild the Ruger American mag's!

[ron]

I am not impressed . A Ruger American action that is set up to take AR style mag's. Picatinny rail and AR forearm. AR style adjustable rear stock . Whoopee! I wish they would put in the time to rebuild the Ruger American mag's!

I agree one thousand percent on them re-designing the American rifle mags but this rifle not exactly a Ruger American action. It uses the front half of the Ruger American bolt but then they add a section to the rear of the bolt that is as long as the front of the bolt. This greatly helps to align the bolt in a straight line. Also, that rear4 stock assembly is pretty sophisticated. it folds and has an adjustable cheekpiece and the length of pull is determined differently than most any standard AR stock as far as I know. Also I think the barrels are easier to change out and these barrels use 5R rifling which is inherently accurate.

In my opinion this gun is a major development and It's like a $4000 rifle for $11-1200. Beauty is as beauty does, and in this month's American Rifleman they test one in 6.5 Creedmoor ans that gun DOES shoot. in the articvle thay also explain why the 6.5 Creedmoor is such an inherently accurate cartridge and they mot that in this 11-12 pound gun with scope how it's like shooting 22 Hornet in terms of recoil.

My only problem with it is I could never afford one in spite of it's "relatively" low price when you take into consideration the fact that after you pay $1200 for the gun, you're going to have to pay at least that much or more for the kind of scope you'd need to take advantage of the accuracy of the gun, at long range anyway. a less expensive ($800) scope might suffice out to about 600 yards which I'd be willing to live with but the total cost would be closer to two grand than it would be to one.

I guess if I really wanted a gun like this really bad I could sell of some other guns to be able to buy it but most of my other guns are ones that I really like and would have to want one of these really really bad to part with some of my other ones.

[Airon]

I've read guys on other sites that have ordered them for $875. Tax, shipping and transfer, looking at $1000ish.

[seekers]

I've read guys on other sites that have ordered them for $875. Tax, shipping and transfer, looking at $1000ish

Turners Outdoors, a retailer in CA is selling them for $999 +tx so I agree with your $1000 +/- price getting them shipped should be the norm.

People can't just compare it to "another rifle", in my opinion. This is a precision rifle, set up for precision rifle competition, right out of the box. You have to make sure you compare apples to apples. Even a remington 700 SPS 308 or AAC-SD that sells for $650-700 needs to have the plastic stock replaced immediately and still wouldn't take a mag system for the $300-400 price difference. Let alone all the other innovations that the new Ruger has.

When you compare it that way it compares favorably to rifles that cost way more and is a great deal IF you are going to use it to it's potential. As another hunting rifle or target rifle inside 600 yards, this or a GAP would be hard to justify, for me anyway.

[seekers]

Here's a 12 page thread where this rifle is discussed in detail. Even about part availability in the future. Some are new owners and give their impressions and range reports.

http://www.scout.com/military/snipers-h ... fle?page=1

[ron]

I've read guys on other sites that have ordered them for $875. Tax, shipping and transfer, looking at $1000ish

Turners Outdoors, a retailer in CA is selling them for $999 +tx so I agree with your $1000 +/- price getting them shipped should be the norm.

People can't just compare it to "another rifle", in my opinion. This is a precision rifle, set up for precision rifle competition, right out of the box. You have to make sure you compare apples to apples. Even a remington 700 SPS 308 or AAC-SD that sells for $650-700 needs to have the plastic stock replaced immediately and still wouldn't take a mag system for the $300-400 price difference. Let alone all the other innovations that the new Ruger has.

When you compare it that way it compares favorably to rifles that cost way more and is a great deal IF you are going to use it to it's potential. As another hunting rifle or target rifle inside 600 yards, this or a GAP would be hard to justify, for me anyway.

You make some very good points. It's not a hunting rifle with the amount of weight and bulk you have to carry around. and ballistically with the .243 and even the 6.5 it may be accurate out to 600 yards but the smaller cartridges don't have very much energy at those ranges so with those limitations you need to actually stalk the game to get close enough to make a clean kill utilizing the greater velocity and energy figures the smaller cartridges generate at those closer ranges.

I agree that this ins't just "Another Rifle" It's a major development, And when you say that someone would have a hard time justifying getting one of these guns if they weren't able to utilize it's full potential, I'm not so sure about that. If I had the money for both it and a decent scope, I'd want one "just because" or maybe just for the "Cool" factor.

[seekers]

When you compare it that way it compares favorably to rifles that cost way more and is a great deal IF you are going to use it to it's potential. As another hunting rifle or target rifle inside 600 yards, this or a GAP would be hard to justify, for me anyway.

Key part of this was IF

But I plan on wringing one of these puppies OUT! I have my own steel and am scouting locations in Pend Oreille county to get out past 1000 yards! I have no problems justifing one of these! I just need to get funds in hand!

I've really been wanting a 6.5 Creedmoor and this package seals the deal!
I don't want to give the impression that I'm ALL-IN, but I had 300 rounds of once fired Hornady brass delivered LAST WEEK!
Scope is a Vortex PST FFP MIL/MIL just waiting to be mounted...

[ron]

When you compare it that way it compares favorably to rifles that cost way more and is a great deal IF you are going to use it to it's potential. As another hunting rifle or target rifle inside 600 yards, this or a GAP would be hard to justify, for me anyway.

Key part of this was IF

But I plan on wringing one of these puppies OUT! I have my own steel and am scouting locations in Pend Oreille county to get out past 1000 yards! I have no problems justifing one of these! I just need to get funds in hand!

I've really been wanting a 6.5 Creedmoor and this package seals the deal!
I don't want to give the impression that I'm ALL-IN, but I had 300 rounds of once fired Hornady brass delivered LAST WEEK!
Scope is a Vortex PST FFP MIL/MIL just waiting to be mounted...

I still can't get over people paying over a thousand dollars for a gun. Back when I was a kid, times were tough. Some of us couldn't afford to buy both rifle and ammo at the same time. Those of us that could only afford the ammo, we would go into the woods, hide behind a tree, wait till a deer walked by, jump out, grab the deer by his tail and before he could react, slip a round up it's butt and hit the primer with sharp rock. Blew it's head clean off every time (we were meat hunters, no trophy).

Those of us that could only afford the rifle, would go into the woods, hide behind a tree, wait for a deer to walk by, then jump out and club it to death. Keep in mind that was before the days of lightweight synthetic stocks.

[seekers]

I still can't get over people paying over a thousand dollars for a gun. Back when I was a kid, times were tough. Some of us couldn't afford to buy both rifle and ammo at the same time. Those of us that could only afford the ammo, we would go into the woods, hide behind a tree, wait till a deer walked by, jump out, grab the deer by his tail and before he could react, slip a round up it's butt and hit the primer with sharp rock. Blew it's head clean off every time (we were meat hunters, no trophy).

Those of us that could only afford the rifle, would go into the woods, hide behind a tree, wait for a deer to walk by, then jump out and club it to death. Keep in mind that was before the days of lightweight synthetic stocks.

We have more in common than you think, that's why I could only buy the brass, I couldn't even afford ammo yet!

Pro & Con thread 308 vs 6.5
http://www.scout.com/military/snipers-h ... -creedmoor

[albin25]

Back when you were a kid??

How many rounds in the butt did it take to kill a Wooly mammoth ?

[seekers]

I still can't get over people paying over a thousand dollars for a gun. Some of us couldn't afford to buy both rifle and ammo at the same time.

Of course I'll be selling something worth north of a thousand to buy this so then I'll be able to afford both.

But it's taken years of accumulating, trading, and upgrading to get to this point. It didn't happen overnight, no sir!

[ron]

Back when you were a kid??

How many rounds up the butt did it take to kill a Wooly mammoth ?

They didn't have Wooly mammoths back in the 1890's but in 1898 the 577 Nitro Express was developed and that would have worked just fine.