Ruger Break In

[choprzrul]

I bought a Ruger American in 6.5 CM for the grandkids to use once they get old enough to go deer hunting with us. https://ruger.com/products/americanRifleGoWild/specSheets/36924.html



I bought 200 Nosler brass for it, so I needed to fire form them and get the rifle broke in today. I had found Hornady 140gr BTHP Match bullets for a good price a few weeks ago, so I loaded them up over 40.0gr of IMR4451.

I was curious about grouping as the rifle broke in, so figured I'd do 10 targets with 20 shot groups each.

After 3 sighters (if I remember correctly) I was on target and went to work shooting 20 round groups. The first 140 had Federal 215 primers and the last 60 (bottom 3 targets) had Federal 210 primers. Using my LabRadar, the velocities were very consistent, albeit kinda slow from that 16" barrel. It seems like the velocities jumped up about 25fps at 125 rounds in. The regular large rifle primers dropped the velocities back down 25fps, but then they seemed to jump up about 15fps at about 180 rounds in.

If you look at the targets, the first 7 look centered about 1/2" high. 8 and 9 look roughly centered, then after the velocity rise for the last 20, the center of the group seems to be about 1/2" high again.

For 20 shot groups, out of a very light rifle, I think this little Ruger will make a really good deer rifle for the young ones!



The 2 rounds in the center were my sighters. You can tell I was struggling at times to focus. The 3.5lb trigger pull wasn't helping, but there is a new MCarbo trigger spring waiting for me in the mailbox.

Now to clean up and prep that brass and start load development with 85gr Hammer Hunters. I hope the Ruger likes those light bullets as well as it did those Hornady 140s. It will be interesting to see how much difference there is going to 85gr. My shoulder is fine after shooting 200 of the 140s....but I'm not an 8 year old....

Fun day....just wanted to share

 

[K22]

Some observations:

Personally, I could never shoot that many rounds and make any reliable conclusions regarding the results. I just couldn't adhere to good shooting fundamentals over that many rounds in one range session. Also, a light rifle is subject to increased shooter error the more rounds you shoot due to recoil anticipation and flinching. But that's just me.

For a deer rifle at reasonable ranges, I think you're good to go - you don't need a tack driver. I would opt for the 140-grain bullet for deer hunting. A light hunting rifle does have its advantages especially in difficult terrain. But I would prefer a 22-inch barrel for better balance and depending on the powder used, more barrel length to take full advantage of powder burn time.

I would expect some jump in velocity as the copper is laid down in the bore. This has been my experience.

I wouldn't go any lighter than a 3 lbs. trigger especially for a youth rifle.

You didn't mention the scope used. I would opt for a straight 4x if you can find one but nothing more than a 3 x 9 for a youth rifle.

Glad to see that you are advancing the hunting tradition in your family. Best wishes.

 

[LiveFire]

Ruger Americans are dandy hunting rifles. I bet your grandkids will enjoy that rifle for years and years to come.

 

[jmkasza]

I bought one of those, almost the same as yours, but with the 22" barrel. My intention is to have our daughters use it when they learn to hunt, but I get to fool around with it first.

So far it has been a nice shooter. Just over 100 rounds through it thus far and it has decided 120gr NBT's work really well. Haven't tried anything lighter at this point and probably won't. Good luck with yours!

 

[choprzrul]

Some observations:

Personally, I could never shoot that many rounds and make any reliable conclusions regarding the results. I just couldn't adhere to good shooting fundamentals over that many rounds in one range session. Also, a light rifle is subject to increased shooter error the more rounds you shoot due to recoil anticipation and flinching. But that's just me.

For a deer rifle at reasonable ranges, I think you're good to go - you don't need a tack driver. I would opt for the 140-grain bullet for deer hunting. A light hunting rifle does have its advantages especially in difficult terrain. But I would prefer a 22-inch barrel for better balance and depending on the powder used, more barrel length to take full advantage of powder burn time.

I would expect some jump in velocity as the copper is laid down in the bore. This has been my experience.

I wouldn't go any lighter than a 3 lbs. trigger especially for a youth rifle.

You didn't mention the scope used. I would opt for a straight 4x if you can find one but nothing more than a 3 x 9 for a youth rifle.

Glad to see that you are advancing the hunting tradition in your family. Best wishes.

I agree....it was a lot of rounds and at nearly 6 hours, it was a long haul to be shooting. My primary goals were to get the new brass fire formed and get the new barrel broke in. The 10 groups were merely a side effect of those two goals.

In addition to cleaning with Shooter's Choice and then CU+, the IMR4451 Enduron powder was doing a real good job of controlling copper build up. I was seeing only very slight traces of blue on my patches with the CU+. I cleaned the barrel at 5, 5, 5, 5, 10, 10, 20, 20, 20, 40, and then the last 60. The copper after those 60 rounds, while pretty solid after the first 6" of barrel, came off really easily once I was at home.

3lbs seems quite reasonable to me also. I just wanted the option to go lower than the current minimum of 3.5lbs on the factory trigger.