Okanogan
Well-Known Member
I recently picked up a new Ruger SFAR 16 inch barrel 308 and am posting some first impressions for anyone else who might be considering one. As background, I picked it up for a woods gun for western MT that would have the capability to take deer, black bear and maybe elk that roam beyond the back yard. Because it is also grizzly country, I wanted a semi-auto for potential defense situations. I wanted something different than the long range first focal plane scope setups in the safe.
I mounted a Sig Sauer Tango MSR 1x10 on the SFAR and took it to the range for the first time yesterday. I shot Norma 150 gr factory fmj target ammo and my own hand loads of 150 gr sst over 44.5 gr Varget. The barrel break-in went much easier than I expected with less copper fouling than I've experienced with my Bartlein barrel equipped rifles. The SFAR's 100 yd accuracy met my expectations with the factory ammo averaging about 1.5 MAO and my hand loads performing a little better at just over 1 MOA. The rifle cycled properly with no problems with the adjustable gas block on the #2 setting. Unsuppressed, the SD for my handloads was running in single digits.
After 25 rounds +/- I switched over to using a Dominus suppressor with the gas block on the #1 setting. The rifle continued to function flawlessly with my handloads. My SD increased with the suppressor and my muzzle velocity went up 40 fps. My groups improved slightly and tended toward two touching with the third flyer making the overall result still about 1 MOA.
I expected to hate the rifle's stock trigger. It has some short initial pretravel that I don't like but then breaks crisply with a trigger pull that doesn't feel heavy. I'm picky about my triggers so I will still change it out for a Trigger tech but the factory trigger is good enough that I'll wait for them to go on sale so I don't spend 1/4 the price of the rifle on an aftermarket trigger.
The rifle looks very much like an AR15 and nobody at the range thought it was a AR10. With the smaller receiver it won't take my AR10 bore guide for cleaning. I used a 300 BO bore guide instead but it was looser than a normal bore guide fit up.
Overall, I am happy that the rifle/ scope combination seems to meet my goals for a fairly light and compact woods autoloader.
I mounted a Sig Sauer Tango MSR 1x10 on the SFAR and took it to the range for the first time yesterday. I shot Norma 150 gr factory fmj target ammo and my own hand loads of 150 gr sst over 44.5 gr Varget. The barrel break-in went much easier than I expected with less copper fouling than I've experienced with my Bartlein barrel equipped rifles. The SFAR's 100 yd accuracy met my expectations with the factory ammo averaging about 1.5 MAO and my hand loads performing a little better at just over 1 MOA. The rifle cycled properly with no problems with the adjustable gas block on the #2 setting. Unsuppressed, the SD for my handloads was running in single digits.
After 25 rounds +/- I switched over to using a Dominus suppressor with the gas block on the #1 setting. The rifle continued to function flawlessly with my handloads. My SD increased with the suppressor and my muzzle velocity went up 40 fps. My groups improved slightly and tended toward two touching with the third flyer making the overall result still about 1 MOA.
I expected to hate the rifle's stock trigger. It has some short initial pretravel that I don't like but then breaks crisply with a trigger pull that doesn't feel heavy. I'm picky about my triggers so I will still change it out for a Trigger tech but the factory trigger is good enough that I'll wait for them to go on sale so I don't spend 1/4 the price of the rifle on an aftermarket trigger.
The rifle looks very much like an AR15 and nobody at the range thought it was a AR10. With the smaller receiver it won't take my AR10 bore guide for cleaning. I used a 300 BO bore guide instead but it was looser than a normal bore guide fit up.
Overall, I am happy that the rifle/ scope combination seems to meet my goals for a fairly light and compact woods autoloader.
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