Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles Ruger SFAR

I am torn over one of these. I would get the longer barrel just for the velocity and blast reduction. I want to hunt with my grandkids and its $700 for a tikka compact or $500 for a Ruger compact plus tax. This seems to accomplish, shorter stock, and increased familiarity with a modern sporting rifle, while not weighing 12 pounds with a scope. I would use a 5 round magazine and the simple 150 grain soft points that work just fine on southern 100 pound does..

My 20” Remington/DPMS GII small-frame .308 came with a soft Supercell recoil pad and is likely the most pleasant.308 I’ve ever shot. Wife and kids aren’t big rifle shooters and they enjoyed it. The operating system and pad toned it down to a long, slow shove.

Be aware though, that right side port pop is legit in a box stand, should someone be seated to your right. They need to cover their ears. Had mine rung twice when my daughter shot on my left side.

Thank you, i have also experienced the pop with a 6.8 spc. I am not overly impressed with this cartridge after 4 deers shot with it.

Yes….port pop is there in most semis.

Just curious, how many of the 4 deer did you lose?

1 a 10 point about 180 pounds, at about 170 yards, i probably hit him just below the spine and over the lungs. The TTSX bullet may have been too hard. I am just done with it, not in the same league as a 243, 270, 308, in my opinioin even a 5.56 kills better with a 62 grain TTSX.

After countless deer and more than a few hogs, not to mention other stuff, (with both) the 6.8 kills far better than any 223, with even the best bullets. I don’t compare it with much in a 308 or ‘06 sized case, because neither will fit in an AR15….which is what’s making the SFAR attractive right now…..I haven’t tried the 6ARC or HAMR, but I’d expect them to be at least on par with the 6.8 and Grendel….which is more than a 223 and kill a lot of deer and hogs. Some folks do get soured on certain rounds for personal or anecdotal reasons. I don’t care what bullet is on hand, if I can’t shoot a hog or deer in the CNS, I’d rather not shoot it with a 223. It sucks to try to trail blood on either from a 223 in the thick stuff, vs most anything else. JME.

The SFAR may solve a lot of the cartridge quandary for some folks vs deer and hogs in a reasonably light/handy AR platform….and that’s good.

I’m interested to see how much worse port pop is in the 308 vs a 6.8, 223, etc though.

I have shot more than a few, lost 3-4, hard slower bullets never perform for me as well as softer faster bullets. I have always had good luck with 150 grain 308 bullets, even out of a shorter barrel model 7 remington. My grandsons and I hunt in a box stand, we all wear ear protection during the hunt with electronic sound enhancement. The port sound will destroy your ears with the 6.8 in the box stand. The 95TTSX may just be too hard at 2700 fps for small LW animals.

Just to be clear: When referencing port pop, I’m speaking to suppressed use.


For small LW animals, I’m sure a 62gr TTSX at 2800-ish or a 150gr 308 at 2600-ish is orders of magnitude better.

I may be wrong but there seems to be a lot of sound from the chamber when it is in the box stand.

That's what I noticed too. Port Pop is more commonly discussed when talking about suppressed use, as the shot noise at the port can be worse than at the muzzle, but the port is loud even unsuppressed when compared to a closed-breech rifle. If that port is pointed at the nearby wall of a box stand or another human's head a couple feet away, there is going to be more noise noticed than with a bolt gun. Been there before with both scenarios.

Incidentally, word from my LGS is Ruger is likely pulling this off the shelf shortly due to a lawsuit from POF. Just figured a heads up would be appry

So, if I'm reading you right, POF has exclusive rights to building 308 AR's. No one else!
Does that also apply to Colt and anyone else making 223 AR's, since they got the right's from Aamalite?

If POF has the patent on their design, then yes they can sue Ruger and win. Not hard to understand. It is also not the first time Ruger has done this sort of thing. They got themselves in hot water over other things in the past. As for people using others patents: A patent is only good for a certain amount of time. After that, it's fair game. Hence the reason many builders are building rifles based on the Ruger 10-22. The patent expired and now anyone can use it. I'm not a lawyer and have not researched it with great effort, but that is just how it works. There is basically no protection from patent infringement after the patent expires. The reason why anyone can basically build an AR15 or Armalite AR10. But if you go and copy someone else's product that has patent protection, prepare to get slapped with a lawsuit. The guys over at Ruger are pretty stupid, so I'd expect nothing less from them...

Glad I struck while the iron was hot! It’s a damn nice weapon.

Not for 308 AR's across the board, but for the small frame using an AR-15 bolt carrier and shank diameter at least.

I checked on Ruger patent infringements and found none. Ruger has sued a few that it claimed did this but nothing
on the other way round. I'm just curious if Ruger is in the wrong or if this is just I don't like Ruger thread.
Information is king, hearsay is internet dribble!

I thought DPMS came up with that for getting WSSMs into AR15s?

I hope Rumore chimes in on this.

nothing wrong with a good I hate ruger thread. Works perfect for me.

Patent protection covers only the strictly functional aspects of a product’s design. Trade Dress protection covers only the distinctive and recognizable, but strictly nonfunctional, appearance aspects of a product’s design (think ‘57 Chevy tail fins). While patent protection is time limited, trade dress protection is not, as long as the product with those specific appearance features remains in production and consumers continue to associate them with the product’s maker. It’s sorta like copyright. This is why unlicensed copies of the Ruger 10/22 differ slightly in appearance from an actual Ruger 10/22. Ruger’s recent modifications to the appearance of their increasingly various 10/22 options have likely weakened their trade dress protection for all but their original 10/22 Carbine model.

That’s probably more than you ever wanted to know about this subject.

Misguided, perhaps. But, definitely not stupid.