Well, MDT has introduced it's LSS stock for the Ruger American Series rifles and I have mine here. It took about twenty minutes to get it assembled on my RARR in 223 Rem. With a fixed power 6x42mm Leupold M8 Premier Reticle Mil-dot scope, loaded ten round magazine and sling, it's exactly 9 pounds but it feels much lighter.
My total cost of the rifle, stock with it's grip and butt stock and three magazines is still just below $1k. Considering it's a parts gun that will out shoot most Remington's out of the box; with a better extractor, threaded muzzle, and barrel/scope mounts that are "square", it's a best buy. It does not come with the buffer tube, stock, grips or AICS magazines.
With the original stock, the rifle shoots 50gr Federal American Eagle HP's into .80-95" at 100 yards and my handloaded 69gr Match ammo into .60-.70" for five shots. It has killed several coyotes from between 80-330 yards so far this winter. Test shooting the rifle in 50F temps with a quartering left rear 3-7mph crosswind. The groups were just slight smaller with 50gr American Eagle HP's, 55gr Blitz King handloads over 25.5gr of Varget. My 69gr Sierra HPBTM handloaded ammo over a modest charge of WW 748 put five into half a dime sized group three times and one group was even smaller for four rounds and then I jerked a shot low left, opening that group up to .5" at 100 yards.
Clearly an small improvement in accuracy, but a huge improvement is shootability with the LSS stock.
Now the bad news, the first round will not feed from the MDT magazines if it's loaded with more than eight rounds. Here was MDT's very quick reply to my question regarding the feeding issue:
"Good morning,
Thanks for the feedback! We always like to hear about how our customers find our products. Your build certainly looks good and seems to shoot well!
You're right about the magazine. Although more rounds can physically fit inside of the mag, we've been telling our customers to use it as an eight round mag rather than for ten. What happens is that the magazine starts to bulge when more than eight rounds are loaded into it. This affects the feeding as well as the fit of the mag into the mag well. It's certainly been a weakness of having a polymer mag. That being said, we'll ultimately be redesigning that mag to increase the sidewall stiffness and allow it to function as originally intended. It will still be a while before that is complete though, and this mag will continue to be sold as an eight round magazine.
Enjoy your shooting and let us know if you've got any other comments.
Richard"
Got to love the honesty, hard to find in this industry sometimes! For the record, the one 10 round steel magazine I have here made by another manufacture feeds ten rounds just fine. I'm not giving up my Blaser's, but for a truck or utility rifle, it's a good set up.
My total cost of the rifle, stock with it's grip and butt stock and three magazines is still just below $1k. Considering it's a parts gun that will out shoot most Remington's out of the box; with a better extractor, threaded muzzle, and barrel/scope mounts that are "square", it's a best buy. It does not come with the buffer tube, stock, grips or AICS magazines.
With the original stock, the rifle shoots 50gr Federal American Eagle HP's into .80-95" at 100 yards and my handloaded 69gr Match ammo into .60-.70" for five shots. It has killed several coyotes from between 80-330 yards so far this winter. Test shooting the rifle in 50F temps with a quartering left rear 3-7mph crosswind. The groups were just slight smaller with 50gr American Eagle HP's, 55gr Blitz King handloads over 25.5gr of Varget. My 69gr Sierra HPBTM handloaded ammo over a modest charge of WW 748 put five into half a dime sized group three times and one group was even smaller for four rounds and then I jerked a shot low left, opening that group up to .5" at 100 yards.
Clearly an small improvement in accuracy, but a huge improvement is shootability with the LSS stock.
Now the bad news, the first round will not feed from the MDT magazines if it's loaded with more than eight rounds. Here was MDT's very quick reply to my question regarding the feeding issue:
"Good morning,
Thanks for the feedback! We always like to hear about how our customers find our products. Your build certainly looks good and seems to shoot well!
You're right about the magazine. Although more rounds can physically fit inside of the mag, we've been telling our customers to use it as an eight round mag rather than for ten. What happens is that the magazine starts to bulge when more than eight rounds are loaded into it. This affects the feeding as well as the fit of the mag into the mag well. It's certainly been a weakness of having a polymer mag. That being said, we'll ultimately be redesigning that mag to increase the sidewall stiffness and allow it to function as originally intended. It will still be a while before that is complete though, and this mag will continue to be sold as an eight round magazine.
Enjoy your shooting and let us know if you've got any other comments.
Richard"
Got to love the honesty, hard to find in this industry sometimes! For the record, the one 10 round steel magazine I have here made by another manufacture feeds ten rounds just fine. I'm not giving up my Blaser's, but for a truck or utility rifle, it's a good set up.
