I thought I'd give an update on the Predator. The gun shoots great.....now. The gun came with a very large burr on the front of the barrel chamber. It would scrap brass off the casings and build up until the next round would jamb in the chamber requiring a tap of a rubber mallet on the bolt handle. Obviously this got past Ruger QC. I called Ruger and they told me to take it to the nearest gunshop. However, the gunshop wanted to charge me to ship the gun because I didn't buy it from them. Ruger seemed complacent. I did not get a good feeling over the phone that Ruger was going to accommodate quickly or cared. The girl I spoke with was awful so I just fixed the gun myself. I solved the problem by grinding a light bevel in the barrel chamber face (it was flat from the factory) with a 1/2" metal burr ball and used a small file on the remaining burr. The burr/dent was actually quite large. The tools cost me ~$40, money well spent compared to rolling the dice on Ruger customer service. As far as the gun features are concerned, the stainless bead-blast finish is far too fragile. The metal finish mars easily so take care not to scratch it if you get this gun. The magazine binds on the action BADLY. I had to dremel out and file a sizable amount to clear it of binding on the action. Also, why hasn't Ruger moved up to a one-piece floor plate? I knew going in that it was still a two-piece design but it still surprises me Ruger hasn't upgraded the bottom metal design on their "flagship" design bolt gun. The barrel has a traditional hunter crown and mine is only fair-good in quality. I'm sure I'll cut in a new crown at some point down the road. My final grievance is that the stock is a pressure point/pressure fit design. This makes zero sense to me considering the gun has a slightly heavier contour barrel and a strong laminate stock. I ended up opening the barrel channel to free-float the barrel and bedded the action. The two-stage trigger takes getting used to but it is actually a very good trigger. The trigger came well adjusted and breaks ~2.5lbs. I'll leave it alone for now. I really liked the concept of this model but I think Ruger failed in a few areas of execution and quality control. Now that I've got all the bugs worked out I expect this to be a great gun moving forward. Considering how fragile the finish is I may get the gun finished by Robar at some point down the road.
