Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Ruger American opinions???

I wonder if the primers sent hard for the AR platforms?

Could be, I will try some federals (supposed to be softer?) and 😮factory loads😮 before i claim it was the gun. I haven't fired factory loads in years...

Update. It looks like a full disassembly and cleaning of the bolt did the trick. The cocking piece is now in line with the bolt instead off being off a few degrees. I think the firing pin was hanging up just enough to slow it down. It now popped 25 primers without a misfire. Time to load up 20 rounds or so and see if it will shoot as good as it was the first time out (when it would go off!).

I have been working with one in .243 that I bought for my grandson, and mounted a $59 Pentax 4-12x, so not a high dollar rig. It shot pretty nice with 100 Sierras and 42 H4350, I have been wanting to try some 80 TTSX's on deer, so loaded some with H414, worked up to 45 gr, shot about 1.25, not bad, but not special, even after playing with seating depth some. I loaded some with 45 gr H4350, the load is still mild, the OAL is .050 longer than the manual, so I'm not expecting velocity to be a lot over 3200 fps or so. Shot three three shot groups, averaging .570 with no fliers. Not too shabby for a $408 rifle/scope combo.

I have loads of brass, did a little experiment with how much 4350 the various brands held, about as I expected, RP 1 gr less than W-W and Frontier ( I always suspected Win made Hornady brass), PMC close to RP, I had some picked up LC Match brass necked to .243, it holds almost two grains less than Win, that is a bunch. All were trimmed to length, and filled to the case mouth.

I'm really happy with my 223 Predator.