What, no one has responded to this great question?? Everyone must be out deer hunting (glad mine is over
). Ok, now to answer some of your questions. I've got one in 308 and it is a great rifle. I had to bed it and float it to wring out its best accuracy. I know some swear their bone stock all weathers shoot 3/4" groups "all day long" but that wasn't the case with mine. Heres a list of some of the answers to your questions:
1. Yes they are bomb proof as hell
2. Integral mounts are great and robust (rings are a little heavy though)
3. Finish is great (matte stainless)and yes they do clean up very well.
4. Don't know about rusting (maybe some of the AK boys can answer this).
However in our neck of the woods I think the all weather will do exactly what the name implies.
5. The action can be made smooth: Polish up the bolt body (hell, I polish up the bolt handle too while I'm at it--just like the look of the polished bolt handle of the MKII's I guess). Polish the inside of the reciever lug raceways too while your at it and the rugers can be extremely smooth. While I'm in a polishing mood, I take the trigger group out and replace the spring and polish the sear and engagement areas to lighten up the trigger and smoothen it out a lot. Doesn't take too much with the newer LC6 trigger.
6. How do they shoot??? Well mine is a true "less than 1 moa" rifle now, often giving groups of 3/4" or so after bedding though of course. Here are some pics of some of the work I've done to mine and the type of accuracy I get with it:
Its a great shooter now and shoots neck in neck with my SC FN model 70 308 fwt. Honestly I couldn't tell you which one I like better (that would be a hard decision):
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I do, however, like the fact that it is an "All Weather" type of rifle for less than half the cost of the winchester model 70 EW. If you like the way the ruger handles and fits I'd say buy it and you'll be pretty happy with it. The only thing I thought was weird on my 308 All Weather is it only holds 4 rounds in the magazine and it is pretty heavy for what it is (8.5 pounds all up!!). I've been thinking about putting mine in a mcmillan swirly stock just because I think they look good that way. Just my .02. Take care Dan and let us know if you end up with the all weather and let us know how it shoots. Like I said, a little bit of tweaking and it should be great. Just as good, functionally, as the winchester model 70 but with a better trigger