Filthie’s Reloading Bench: Lightweights, And A Review

 So I’ve had this little Ruger American mouse gun in .223 for three or four months now, maybe 600 rounds down the pipe so far. I haven’t had a gun that is this much fun in ages either. Before I bought it I did some research on it to see what other owners thought. Opinions were generally good, and a few… not so much. They’re all over the place, really.

I have basically the same gun Fattie does, but mine is a 16” carbine.

This guy has an issue with the individual gun; the action works just fine for most of us.

I wouldn’t sit through all that if I were you.

 That’s not even a review in my opinion. If I bought a new gun and it behaved like that, I’d take it back to the seller and demand a replacement rifle or warranty repairs. I am no expert…but there are certain tells here that lead me to believe this guy isn’t either. OyToob is full of wannabees that want to pose as experts and authorities and you need to take them with some very large grains of salt. I have seen bad reloads cause problems similar to that too.

Here is a better review:

This is the version of the rifle I have.

This fella knows what he’s doing too. He bags up properly to shoot off the bench,

at least. But…I wonder if he’s not a keyboard sniper?

Not saying he is… but every gun he shoots is a ringer. And he’s doing pretty good for

having a cheap compact 6X scope… 

The Aussie’s review is much better in my opinion. He’s shooting factory ammo, only at 100 yards, and presumably no wind. I’ve seen his other reviews and the majority of them go much like this. So much so that it gets suspicious. Who knows? Maybe he’s legit? He’s younger than I am, brighter eyes, steadier nerves… but listening to him, all ya gotta do is slap a cheap scope on it, load up with Hornady 55 gr. VMAXs and you’ll be shooting like a sniper too.

Everyone bitches about the bolt on this gun. Yeah, right out of the box…it’s rough. Not like the one Fattie was struggling with, but it made a funny “zipping” noise and was a bit balky as it ran. All I did was carefully unload and clear the rifle…and just repeatedly cycle the bolt with an empty gun while watching TV. A couple 20 minute sessions over the week had it smoothed up and running fine. On the range you have to run the bolt with firmness and intent and you’ll have no problems. I can shoot mine as the gun gods intended: I don’t even take my cheek off the stock when shooting and running the bolt to reload. Some guys bitch about the stock…it flexes a bit. That *might* be a big deal for the upper echelon competition competitors…but they won’t compete with rifles like this anyways. For guys like Fattie, Aussie and Yours Truly…the stock will do just fine. Ergonomics and handling are spectacular. The only bitch I have is the partially obstructed mag dump button. Again, it’s a minor nitpick. I saw a guy fix that with a Dremel and I could too if it really bothered me… but it doesn’t. I dunno why they didn’t address that at the factory though…? Bah! Minor distractions and nit pickery!

Accuracy.

This gun can shoot. I dunno about factory ammo, all I shoot are reloads. Unfortunately I shoot in the real world and have to put up with wind, sometimes rain. As I said earlier, I’m older, with old eyes and old reflexes. I can’t shoot like I did as a kid…but I’m not terrible either. Here are the results I got with preliminary experiments with 55 grain VMAX bullets, with slowly increasing charges of CFE223 powder. Brass was Nosler match, primers were CCI. Range was shot at 200m with gusting winds. (This is why I would like to see Aussie repeat his tests a couple times). My rifle wears a Swarovski 3x9 scope.

55 grain Nosler VMAX, sitting on 24.7grains CFE223.

Sorry, technical issues with the chron, no

velocity data for this string. 

approx. 2.8 MOA

55 grain Nosler VMAX, sitting on 26.1 grains CFE223.

Average velocity was 2660 FPS, with a standard deviation of 52.

approx 2.6 MOA

55 grain Nosler VMAX, sitting on 26.9 grains CFE223.

Average velocity 2769 FPS with a standard deviation of 32.

approx. 1.2 MOA

The wind was so bad I’d hardly call this a good test…but it shows some interesting trends. Next time I’m going start at maybe 25.7 grains, and then go up in .2 grain increments and go up until I get pressure signs or run out of case capacity. Brass for this test was fine with no pressure signs at all. I’m thinking we might bump up velocities and accuracy with a little more tweaking. Itkd be nice because the VMAX is a lower cost bullet that’d be great for plinking and practice. My gun is spun for 1:8”… which is optimal for heavier bullets. Can it be reloaded with lightweight bullets and made to shoot accurately? Maybe! We’re gonna find out!

My thoughts on the rifle are very, very positive. It’s designed as a budget truck carbine and it fills that role magnificently. She’s ugly to look at but she’s loveable just the same. The goofy mag button issue is a minor, and easily fixed nit pick. 

Look it that goofy thing. Hey, Ruger? Would it have killed ya

to do the job right?

Hrrrmmm. The more I look at it, the more it ticks me off!

I may just fix that after all.

Yes, the gun shoots well enough to put a Swarovski scope on it. I put the bipod on for a quick way of getting a tad more weight out front. I haven’t used it yet because it induces a bloody cant on the gun which drives me bonkers. I also hate Harris bipods. The weight/balance issue is totally personal, I just seem to shoot better from the positions with a little more weight out front. I may have to do some research on bipods and delve into that later. It may be the little gun is worth putting a good bipod on too…

This thing for me has been a winner right out of the box. It isn’t cheap as Fattie in the first review says. It’s inexpensive - the value to cost ratio is incredible. It isn’t a sniper as the Aussie hints at… it’s a cracking good service/scout rifle that’ll shoot head to head with rifles costing two or three times as much. Everyone can use and appreciate one of these.

Cheers!

Filthie