First outing with my Ruger American 300: ammo, mags

[Teddydog]

Finally got my Ruger American Rifle in 300 out to the range last night after work. It was pretty cold (37 - 40), but dry and little breeze.

Before getting into the shooting, a little bit about magazines. I have the one supplied with the rifle (#1) and two additional factory ones (#2 and #3). All have the "+" sign on them. #1 functioned 100%, loaded pretty smoothly and locked in. No problems. #3 would click in, but several times was pushed out of the rifle when cycling the bolt. Both #2 and #3 had feeding problems and were difficult to load (first round in would want to dive under the follower). Often when trying to load rounds, these two would let the bullet nose rise up too far and stick above the chamber. I had read about this, so wasn't too surprised. Today I called Ruger and they are sending me 2 new mags. No problems and no request to return the ones I have. If that holds through receipt of the replacements, I may attempt to open them up and wind the spring tighter as described on the Internet.

I have a Nikon P-300 mounted on the rifle and the first shot at 25 was about 6" out at 2 o'clock. Got it dialed in using Rem UMC 120's. Also fired one group of Magtech 123s there before moving to 50 yards.

First group of 3 UMCs at 50 were centered and high in a nearly touching triangle. After adjusting for elevation, I put a 5 round group into about 1". One 5-shot group of the Magtech went about 2", but I was being stupid and trying to hold the bottom of the bull, so my sight picture wasn't very consistent.

Moving back to 100 yards, I again started with the UMCs and put 5 into about 1.5" (4 of which were under an inch). The Magtechs gave me a 4" group when using the stupid 6 o'clock hold, but then I wised up and went back to a proper center hold and just moved the cross-hairs around using the really nice target turrets on the Nikon. Second group of Magtechs was 2" total with 4 of them in 0.8". (I hope these flyers are me and the cold, indicating that the inherent accuracy is around 1".) Both of these loads seems decent in this rifle.

I also tried a couple of my handloads, but didn't go too deep due to the cold and it getting late. I had some loaded with pulled 150 gr M2 bullets from 30-06 ammo. With 15.5 grains of H110, I got a 4-shot group at 1" with a 5th round opening it up to 2". At 16.5 grains, the group size jumped up to over 4"!! Guess I need to do more development around the 15.5".

Last group I show as a load that I previously tried out in my AR pistol: a pullet 110 gr M1 Carbine bullet with a charge of H110. These feed from the mag in my AR pistol, but NOT from the Ruger. They single load fine and went into a group a little over 2" at 100 yards.

I'm pretty happy that the Ruger and my AR pistol both seem to shoot the surplus M2 bullets well as I have about 3000 of them that I paid around 4.5 cents each for. I have 6000 of the M1 carbine bullets, so if they feed and plink from the AR, that's pretty cool, too.

Any and all comments are welcome.

Rob

[mech5700]

Had the exact same concern (see post viewtopic.php?f=137&t=98682)...

On the second range trip, the mag release tab was broken when I took my rifle out of the case. A call to Ruger and they sent me a replacement. Also emailed them about the feeding problem and they wanted me to send the rifle in, which I never did. And when testing/chambering rounds at the house, the 2nd mag did the same thing, but a little less frequently.

Third trip to the range, I pulled the mag apart and twisted the spring 1 revolution, everything has fed fine since then. One thing to note when doing that tho, push as lightly as you can on the little tabs that hold the 2 pieces of the mag together. They are very thin and it's easy to over do it and bend them too far. When you put it back together, take a small screw driver and go thru the opening of the mag and push the tabs back to secure them a little better.

Also, some guys file the feed lips a hair. I didn't feel the need to do so after tightening the spring.

Andy

[Max713]

I had the same problem with my mags. Before you pull them apart, try taking some 400 grit sandpaper to the inside of the plastic lips of the mags. It really doesn't take much sanding at all... you can't even tell I've done anything when looking at mine, but now they feed 100% reliably. Apparently the lips on the mags are just a little too tight, causing the rim of the case to catch on its way out, forcing the nose of the bullet up - jamming it into the chamber at an incorrect angle.

[cwlongshot]

Good read, dont worry allot about accuracy...YET. Just shoot the rifle and clean it. Mine was also so-so for the first few trips to the range. After the third trip, the thing really BLOSSOMED! I LOVE MINE!



I started with Remmy 220g ammo. I bought just for the brass. I also had two boxes of locally sourced 208 Hornadys at 1050. Second trip was mostly hand loads, third was all hand loads.

I swapped a few scopes on this gun, not for problems mostly to see what I liked and the rifle worked best with. Mine also now wears a P-300 Nikon and mostly, I like it. I do not like the NON locking turrets.

The rifle is very picky loading anything not streamlined, UNLESS you do your do diligence with changing OAL. I have been able to get most profiles to feed. OAL is critical for proper feeding and some bullet lengths just wont feed.

The barrel is set 90 degrees to the magazine.




Adjusting OAL WILL allow it to feed IF the bullet is long enough.



Mine (Like many) is a real shooter! but its a light rifle with a weak poly stock so it takes a bot more form the shooter then just pulling the trigger between breaths.

Here is five shots @ 100 yards from mine.



CW

[rebel]

Glad you didn't get any "clicks" from chamber or ammo issues.

[TRshootem]

Between myself and a shooting buddy, we have 4 RARR's, 2 each of the 300 BLK and 5.56 calibers. He has began to take some material out the front lip of the magazines to reduce the tilt upward. He has also lightly removed the sharp edge and polished the feed ramp for more reliable feeding of just about any bullet profile. Seems to working just fine for him.

I may do some of the same to one of my mags, will see how it goes.

[Teddydog]

Thanks for the replies so far, folks!

I guess I forgot to mention that I DID have 2 of the UMC's go "click". One I tried to refire a couple of times without success. Ruger says that of all the ammo they tried, only Barnes and UMC have trouble. About 20 of them fired fine.

For the first outing and not a "premium" load in sight, I'm encouraged by the results.

As for the mags, since Ruger is sending me two new mags, I'm way more comfortable with "adjusting" the ones that aren't working well today.


Rob

[RWA007]

This story sounds extremely familiar to me...like that Deja-Voodoo or whatever it's called...

I've had some ammo go click (just a few out of a couple hundred) and validated with almost 100% certainty that it's the ammo and not the gun based on how far the dud's slipped into a Sheridan gauge. I've still got some un-scientific studying to do and hoping to get out and shoot it again within the next few weeks.

Also...I'm still at only ONE MAG. I purchased two mags online and had feed problems with both of them. I didn't call Ruger however, I just returned them to the sender (made sure they were returnable before I bought them). I read somewhere that Ruger had redesigned the mags for the RARR and that it was important to get some newly manufactured ones. So I decided to wait a while and then buy some and hope they were from the newer batches. Your experience with Ruger however gives me confidence to try again and if they still don't work Ruger will make it right. I've had a lot of good experiences with Ruger.

My rifle is also a shooter, in fact, it's the best shooter in my entire collection so I've put up with these little obstacles.

It's just one of many projects I've got in the oven right now...wish I had more time!