It seems I just can NOT resist these nifty Rifles!
The day before the VarmintWife and I left for a 9 day vacation (March 26th) my local gun shop got in a mint Ruger American Varmint Rifle in 22 L.R. on consignment.
I already have a few of these but this Rifle was so inviting (great price, great trigger no wear at all etc!) and being familiar with them I bought it and set it aside until I got back from our trek.
I got home several days ago and mounted a blued Leupold 3x9 variable with adjustable objective and E.F.R. feature (extended focus range) on it. I had a bit of a time finding a set of "blued" rings to match the scope and the finish of the Rifle but eventually I found some, and quickly mounted/bore sighted the combo.
This rig looks GREAT with the blued scope, rings and Rifle finish matching very closely!
Next I began the wait for the wind to cease here in SW Montana - easier said than done.
Finally I got a respite this morning and headed for my friends private range.
I had along SEVERAL types of quality 22 L.R. hollow-point ammunition to test but the main ammo I wanted to try and to use was the newish Federal 22 L.R. 38 grain hollow-point bulk pack ammo that is packed in 1,100 round black cartons.
I have two of these 1,100 round cartons and this upcoming Gopher season will indeed be seeing me using this ammo afield, for the first time.
Anyway at the range the nifty little Rifle proved up on my store test of its trigger (with snap caps) and I dialed it in directly (no troubles with the Leupold adjusting the point of impact by the way!).
The Federal 38 grain ammo shot very well at 50 yards and the two five shot groups I made with it averaged .480"!
I wanted to try some 100 yard groups as I had plenty of ammo along and I was so happy with the 50 yard groups of the Federal ammo that I decided not test any other ammo.
As I set up my 100 yard target I felt the wind picking up!
By the time I was starting to shoot it was puffing along at 12 to 15 MPH!
My only group at 100 yards measured right at 2.000" so I halted shooting because of the conditions.
On the way out of my friends ranch I bagged a single Ground Squirrel with the new to me rig!
Good omen that.
No fail to fires, extract or eject in my first 30+ rounds fired and again I was very happy with the accuracy - so far.
I highly recommend these Ruger American Varmints - I am certain they are a great value/Rifle for the money!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy
