Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles Ruger SFAR in 6.5 Creedmoor

I’d sure like to know something about the nature of the “major reliability issues,” without needing to watch blowhards on YouTube, and why the adjustable gas block is believed to be the culprit.

Haven’t had the opportunity yet for range testing mine. So, I’d like to know what to watch for. I noticed the gas block came from the factory adjusted to setting 3 (the most open), while the manual suggests setting 2 would be the best place to start. It may simply be that selection 3 was last thing factory test fired before the rifle was boxed up for shipment. Or, it could be a clue.

Like I said, yours should be the new generation with less issues. These issues are there with the first gen, trust me on that one. It's not hype or anything I'm making up either. As with all of my posts, I speak honestly. This is good info right here. Regardless if you watch Youtube videos or not. This was a problem, and Ruger knows it. They did the right thing, and will send a new gas regulator for the AGB, to help fix some of these exhibiting issues:





One thing I'd do with these Ruger rifles, and other Ruger rifles is check it out very well even before firing it. There are some things I do anyway, like loctite stuff, that they don't. Make sure the gas block is perfectly aligned, and screws tight. Clean and properly lube them. Their QC is like its always been, not worth a chidt..

I certainly appreciate your effort in providing those YouTube videos. Thank you. Those YouTube gun “experts” certainly love to hear themselves talk. 20 minutes of viewing to get maybe 5 minutes of useful, on-point information. That first character didn’t even show the subject rifle - didn’t have it anymore. I’d actually viewed that one before my earlier comment. But, I eventually did learn a few things from the other two videos, after the yokel got done explaining in detail a bunch of stuff that didn’t matter.

I recently built an aero m5 in 6.5 Creedmoor with a light Hanson profile 18" barrel. It's not too bad but I still wouldn't mind it being a bit lighter.

I'm actually pretty optimistic about the ruger sfar. I'd like to get one in a 308 with a 16" barrel and another in 6.5 with an 18" or maybe 20" max barrel. What barrel lengths do you think they'll offer in 6.5?

I have an older dpms recon 308 with a 16" lighter barrel and it's a 1moa or better gun. I've pretty much stayed with the same load I started with so it may even do better. I shoot a 175g cc nosler over pp2000mr in LCLR brass. I need to get it out and try my 155 scenar loads in it. I just hate the old quad rail I have on it. I need to figure out what handrails work on it and replace it with something mlock.


Bb

Generally, when compared to the 6.5 Creedmoor, I believe that the .308 Winchester is disadvantaged by reason of its SAAMI dimensional specifications. The differences in SAAMI specifications between maximum and minimum permissible dimensions are greater for the .308 Winchester than for the 6.5 Creedmoor. For cartridge chamberings in wide general use, such as the .308, the larger commercial rifle manufacturers will keep their production tolerances within those SAAMI specifications, if they know what’s good for them. Otherwise, their customer service departments will be constantly dealing with warranty claims that a “defective” rifle excessively bulges cases or won’t chamber the bargain ammo the user bought on the cheap.

Chamber reamers for large scale commercial production of rifles chambered for the most common rifle cartridges, such as the .308 Winchester, are typically supplied at SAAMI maximum dimensions for a particular cartridge. Due to manufacturing cost considerations, those initial maximum dimensions are slowly reduced over time, through inevitable wear and resharpening, until they reach minimum SAAMI dimensions, after which the reamers are replaced. So, any particular rifle may have a chamber ranging anywhere from maximum (early in reamer lifespan) to minimum (late in reamer lifespan) SAAMI dimensions for its intended cartridge.

At the .308 maximum SAAMI chamber dimensions, a SAAMI minimum dimensioned cartridge would likely not be held consistently concentric to the bore axis upon firing, resulting in pretty ho-hum accuracy. Neck sizing of once fired cartridge cases can remedy that to a great extent. But, precision shooting with factory ammunition is most likely doomed. With such a mass produced rifle, then, the only hope is to luck into one which by chance happens to have chamber dimensions precisely matched to the dimensions of the factory ammunition to be used.

Even after all that, SAAMI chamber freebore specs for the two cartridges are quite different. The freebore dimensions won’t be as snug around a bullet in the .308 Winchester chamber as they will around a bullet in the 6.5 Creedmoor chamber. The 6.5 bullet is therefore given a much better chance to enter the rifling straight on, without yaw, than is the .308 bullet.

Custom or semi-custom rifle barrels with match chambers in .308 Winchester are quite a different story, however. And, there are those rifle manufacturers which produce the chamber and bore simultaneously through hammer forging, like H&K and maybe Ruger. Then, it comes down to the dimensional consistency of the ammunition, which can be a good deal looser in the vast array of commercially produced .308 Winchester cartridges.

My new 6.5 SFAR’s first 20 round range session was yesterday. The only cycling failures I had were when I tried to get away with using gas port selection No.1 with Hornady 147gr. ELD-M ammo during initial sight-in @ 100 (cases wouldn’t even clear the chamber). Selection no.2 then ran without issues for the remainder of the 20 rounds. Everything stayed tight (except its first group [3”@200], but it’s early yet), no evidence of gas leaking around the gas port. Reasonably happy, so far.

Next step will be to install the Ultradyne linear compensator in place of the factory muzzle brake, and maybe reduce the adjustable TriggerTech’s trigger pull (now @ 2-1/4) a bit more, then try it again.

Discovered yesterday who had done the anodizing and nitride on my 6.5 SFAR:






It was certainly something worth seeing.

With its three facilities (North, West, and South), H&M Metal Processing has become the go-to supplier of surface finishes for just about the entire U.S. firearms industry. The biggest names in the business use H&M.

Now only in their early 40s, the two brothers responsible for developing the process and making the operation what it is, have been at it since their early teens. Theirs is an absolutely amazing success story, their enthusiasm inspiring. I’ve known them for years and have had them apply their outstanding surface treatment to some of my personal firearms (pictured elsewhere on the ‘fire). But, only yesterday did I actually come to know the extent of their reach in the industry. I am so very pleased to be able to call them friends.

Weather was near calm and quite pleasant this morning, for a change. So, I took my 6.5 SFAR to 500 yards, starting at 100 yards, and made 30 empty cases from Hornady 140gr ELD-M factory ammo. Results were reasonably good, but not yet exciting, actually quite acceptable for there being only fifty rounds through it, so far. Its 3/4” hundred yard five shot group did not translate into much less than about 6 or 7” at five hundred yards. The TriggerTech’s pull weight is now set at two pounds, exactly, and very nice. Garmin said velocity was 2570-ish, but with a somewhat disappointing 76 fps extreme spread and 22 standard deviation. I expect careful reloads to do better. Still no cycling issues whatsoever. No other problems to report, either. It’s a keeper, alright. The big fun is yet to come, as it breaks-in thoroughly.


Eventually figured out the correct elevation on the 24” steel at 500 yards, using only the trajectory information provided by the factory on the cartridge box label. There’s some .223 73gr. ELD-Ms mixed in there, too.

Results next time should be a bit more refined.

recently acquired an SFAR in 308. first issue for me was chewing up the brass heads pretty bad.
I calmed that problem down a great deal by installing a tubs flat wire spring and going to the heaviest buffer. I accomplished this by installing three tungsten weights. that made a lot of difference..

on the recommended two setting the gun is somewhat over gasped ejecting at about the 230 position. you change the number three it moves up to probably about the 2:00 position.

my next step is I will install a superlative gas block. all the reading and research I've done says that will fix that over gas issue while still providing plenty of setting to use for suppressor if so desired..

With my 6.5, I noticed it had a tendency to skin the headstamps just a bit on the Hornady 147gr ELD-M factory ammo. Not so much with the 140gr ELD-M ammo. My gas block has remained on the No.2 setting since my unsuccessful attempt to get it to run on No.1, in the very beginning. After a few hundred rounds, I’ll likely try the No.1 setting again, just to re-check.

The Ultradyne Athena 30 cal. linear compensator does seem to have cut the noise some at my end, though the rifle does jump around a bit. It settles back down in time to see the 500 yard impacts, however.

I assume a 6.5 is the same as 308 in the book it tells you number 1 is for suppressor use #2 is what would be normal used #3 is if number two don't work..