Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Question for those who have Ruger Rsi or International rifles?

Although I have owned several Ruger centerfire bolt rifles I have never had nor handled one of the RSI or International rifles with the full length stocks. Just wondering if any who have owned the Ruger full stock rifles would tell me where the rifles balance ? muzzle heavy? on the stock screw ? And also how they tend to shoot with factory ammo ? Say a three shot group at 100.
Also anyone ver have the 308 AND the 30-06 that could comment on the differences between them as far as accuracy, muzzle blast, balance etc ?

I only have the .22, many refer to the stock as a "mannlicher" style.

I've shot the 7X57 and a .308 and have some familiarity.

These have and do shoot factory ammo 2" or below. About as well as you need out to 300 yds, which in the informed opinion is all 97% of hunters truly need. To the handloader, the gun should be able to go below an inch with regularity.

Can't speak to the balancing. Weight and balance are not particular issues for me. I don't pay close attention unless a particular rifle begs the question.

I have Ruger 77 RSI, with both tang safety and Mark II style actions, and in both long and short actions.

For me, the SAs are butt-heavy and don't balance as well as the LAs. All 77 RSIs have 18.5" barrels, so there is some muzzle blast, and accuracy is generally OK, but not MOA or less. By installing a neoprene O-ring shim between the forearm tip and the barrel, I have been able to improve accuracy, but like the man said, 3 MOA of less will kill out to 300+/- yards, and a reloader should be able to do better than 3 MOA.

In the older Rugers, barrels could be a crap shoot. I have 2 77 RSI that are only 6 SNs apart, 78-447x2 and 78-447x8. 1 is a shooter and the other is a dog, but they look exactly alike with no obvious issue(s) with the barrel on the dog. The barrel seems to have a kink in it and just sprays the bullets when it gets warm.

Jeff

My 77RSI is a tang-safety .250-3000 and shoots 1 to 1.5 inches with either Remington or Winchester factory loads. Unfortunately, I haven't had the time to fiddle with handloads enough to find a load it really likes better than factory ammo. I agree with 260Remguy that the long actions tend to balance better (farther forward) than the short actions, but everything is a tradeoff. The long actions are 270s and 30-06s, still with the 18.5" barrel, and they are slow and loud.

Why is mine a .250? I just happened across it at a gun show and liked it. Besides, how many of these do you see around?

I have had two. Started with a 250 savage and traded it in a fit of stupidity. After years of remorse I recently bought a 243 to replace the 250. While not quite as high on the coolness scale it can best the 250 for speed and once the bolt closes the deer can't tell the difference. In reality as someone said above they are slow due to the 18.5" barrel. I haven't found "the load" for the 243 yet but I am seeing a loss of 200-300 fps over 22" barrels. Basically I consider the rsi as short to medium range rifles say up to 200-250 yds. The advantage to them is light weight and shortness which is generally contra long range. If you want a long range rifle then get a full sized rifle with a medium wt. 22-24:" tube. Having said that my 243 took a nice doe last year at around 200 yds drt. Mine shoots around 1.5 " w/o a problem but I don't shoot over 3 shot strings.

I had an older one that shot patterns. Full stock rifles are known to be problematic at times, due to pressure points very far forward. They often take a lot of sorting out to get them shooting how I tend to like a rifle, and I'm not a fanatic for MOA or under.

I have a Ruger RSI Centennial year in .243. Nice wood and shoots about 2". Great gun and nice balance for me with a 1 1/2x5x20 shotgun scope, but I don't use a .243 for KS deer.

I also have a custom Mod 95 Mauser Mannlicher carbine in .257 Roberts with a butter knife bolt and a push to cock action with a period Weaver 4 power scope. It is very sweet, but heavy.

I have a tang safety RSI in .308Win that will shoot three shots under .5" with 47gr of W748 and Nosler 150gr Partitions.

I had a tang safety RSI in 7mm-08 that was a two inch rifle with the two or three loads I tried in it. I suspect it would have shot better with more load workup.

I have a tang safety RSI in .243 that I started my daughters and a couple of grandsons on. It is one of my favorite "walk about" rifles--I think that it carries and balances great. Never had one in a long action. I had a No. 1 RSI in 7x57 that was a bit butt heavy, but I liked to carry it, too. Sold it on the 'Fire last year and wish that I had not done so.

I have one of the limited run made for Lipseys
Ruger 77 RSI Stainless 7mm-08.
It is a little Butt heavy but not bad over all,Mine shoots
factory 140 CL less than 2 in. so far.
You really have to be a RSI fanatic to get one of these guns
I like mine okay but due to my build Weatherby`s fit me better.
(Busted up shoulders from High school football 30 + years ago.)
I HAD MINE ON CONSIGNMENT at my local gun dealer for 4 months
NO Takers for what I was asking.I ain`t going to give it away.
SO I will try and deal with the stock fit issues and make it my main Deer rifle.
AMRA

I had a tang safety 308 that was a tack driver and very consistent. It was my goto public land big deer rifle until I lost it in a fire.

I have a .308 M77 MKII RSI. It is light and very nimble to handle. It comes up on target quickly and balances right between the hands for me. It also has highly figured wood in the buttstock and is just a beautiful rifle to look at.

It was an inconsistent shooter at first, with several 1.5" groups followed by several 4" groups. I have goofed around with it and discovered that it shoots better if the barrel doesn't get too hot (duh!), and the light barrel in the full stock gets hot quickly and cools slowly.

Also, the groups from a rest are much better if the forward sandbag contacts the forend behind the front sling swivel. If I get careless and rest it too far forward, the groups get wild. Holding the rifle firmly with two hands also helps the groups.

I had quite a bit of frustration with its inconsistency the first few years I owned the rifle and suspected a bad barrel. Rather than sell the rifle, I tried fire lapping the barrel with a Tubb's Final Finish kit I bought from Midway. It seemed to work, because I have had much more consistent groups since using it.

I get 2400 fps with 180 gr. bullets and 40.0 grs. H4895. Not a particularly heavy load and since I use the rifle only at moderate ranges, that's OK with me. It is basically a .300 Savage in performance.

I do have half a box of Winchester .308 180 gr. RN factory ammo left that chronographed over 2700 fps from this rifle. Somebody must have gotten frivolous with the powder measure at the factory when they loaded that stuff.

Sounds like a great rifle to bore out to .338 Federal?

JW

Same thing with my SAKO Forester in .358 Win.
I snug the bag just ahead of the front action screw and it shoots very consistently. Farther forward can put unwanted pressure on the barrel. FWIW

The Ruger RSI - both versions - is a beautiful little gun.

I have three, all in .308 Win. Don't ask why, it's a long story. Seriously tough,years ago I had a nice Mannlicher- Schoenaur in the famous .5x54 that some low life stole out of my truck back in the mid 70's. For yars I looked for a replacement but either the sellers thought they were made of gold with diamond encrustment or the cores were corroded beyond saving. Then, Ruger came out with the RSI and I liked the look. At the time, the price was well out of my range so no go. One day, while looking through the guns for sale section of my loacal new rag (They don't allow those ads anymore, damned liberal barstards!)I saw one are a price I could proably swing and figured I could probably talk him down some anyway. I called him and the rifle as in really nice shape with no beauty marks. It had a decent scope, one of he better Redfields of the day so I looked at a light switch on the far wall, closed my eyes and snapped the rifle to my shoulder. When I opened my eyes, the crosshairs were dead center on the little toggle of the switch. I didn't even try to talk the price down. The gun also came with loaded factorry ammo, dies to load the several boxes of fired brass, bullets and a can of powder, all for the $300 asking price. Well, I pays my money and I ask him, why so cheap? He said it was the most inaccurate gun he's ever owned. Oh oh, did I screw up? I asked him what he's tried so I could see if I could work alng a different line of attack to the problem and he said nothing he tried worked worth a damn.
Well, in one sence he was right. Nothing in 150 gr. would do betetr than a pattern and 80 gr., be they spitzer or round nose were no better. Doint things in the conventional sense didn't work so I decided to go unconventional. I had some 165 gr. Speer Hot-cores that hadn't worked on my 30-06 for some reason so whar=t the hell. I tried them along with W-760, a powder technically a bit too slsow for the .308, at least with 165 gr. bullets and bingo! The first decent groups then gun ever gave for me. Granted, 1.50" ain't braggin' stuff but compared to the 4 to 6" groups I was getting, a good breakthrough. That load has been a one shot killer on deer from about 35 feet to 250 yards. Velocity at 2550 FPS is nothing spectacular but what th hell. It works. FWIW, that load does 2610 FPS and 1.0" from a 22" barreled Wichester M70.
I picked up the other two RSI's rather cheaply for the same reason, their owners said they were not accurate with anything. My load for rifle #1 worked just fine in the other two. One day, I took a gamble and took the muzzle cap off the first rifle and removed just enough metal that it no longer touched the barrel. Groups now run at the 1.25" average. just remove enough that no contact is made. It doesn't have to be much. I then did it on the other two rifles with improved accuracy.
I have many rifles, ost of which are more accurate than that RSI, but most of them would go long before I parted with that Ruger RSI. Now if Ruger would only make on in .358. That would make my day.
Paul B.

PJG:

Have one of those RSI .308's rebored! That's how I got my Sako Forester .358 from a .243.
Simple and relatively inexpensive.

You can't. The barrel is way too thin. I have been thinking of using one of my Ruger 77s in .358 and trimming the barrel and putting it in the RSI stock. The rear sight would not be a problem but I'd have to use something else for a front sight. That's no big deal. Then I'd have to send the "stockless" RSI back to Ruger for a stock.
Paul B.

New barrels are pretty easy to come by, and this one (.338 Federal/PacNor) shoots reather well. Have killed deer and pigs with it, and they seem to die just fine.



Dennis

And a gorgeous little rig it is!