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I still haven't even shot mine. I have to get to a range. Hopefully this weekend!

Just from a few dry fire (still ridding myself of some flinch) tests I can tell the trigger is fantastic.

chasetheonly wrote:I still haven't even shot mine. I have to get to a range. Hopefully this weekend!

Just from a few dry fire (still ridding myself of some flinch) tests I can tell the trigger is fantastic.

Too bad....you need to get out with your new baby.

Yeah. I missed my opportunity this weekend, so hopefully next.

Crap!! Just missed you. I was away on vacation, not looking at the forum. Sorry.

What about this weekend, or next?

FINALLY got to the damn range with the gun (after a bizzarre gun dream last night..). The Ruger 308 is a mean chunk of metal. Went to Blue Trail and murdered some paper targets at 100 yards.

It took 10 or so shots to sight in because I was burning through the $20 box of cheapo (read: SHIT) 150 gr ammo I've had laying around. That ammo was literally HORRIBLE. I will never buy it again. Shots landed all over the damn place in 2-3 inch groups, which was torture to sight in with - but I was thinking it was just me getting used to the gun or something like the scope settling in, who knows...

I thought I got it sighted in right when I ran out of shit ammo, so I switched to Winchester 168 Gr NOT-as-shit ammo. First 3 shots were perfectly under 1" from each other, which was very rewarding after thinking I had no idea how to shoot a new gun. I let a few others I met there shoot the gun, ate some food, and tried not-as-shit 150 gr Federal "Nosler" ammo (whatever the f' that means). Not as good as the 168's, but significantly better than the shit ammo I started with. All shots after that were within an inch, but accuracy fell off to 1.5" - 2" groups when my shoulder started to hurt pretty bad, haha. All shooting was done on the bipod with no pads, which I've wanted to practice with.

For $299, I think I got myself a nice zombie slayer. Gave her a good cleaning when I got home, and am now only wondering how well zero'd it'll be on the first shot next time out. Once I get it dialed in really nice I'll start looking for 200 yard and beyond shooting.

My advice would be to try lighter, and heavier bullets. I'm not sure what twist your Ruger's barrel is, but I would imagine it would stabilize everything from 147's to 180's satisfactorally (I'm too tired to spell it correctly).


Try a few more different brands of ammunition & see how it does with each different loading. If that doesn't work, start handloading & dial it in.


(On a side note, check your mounts, make sure everything is square & torqued down sufficiently... that may cause erratic printing as well if your optics are shifting around, even a teeny-tiny bit).

Sounds like the ideal rifle to be reloading for...
...some just don't get it, I guess. Factory ammo isn't always the only game in town, based on the oft-repeated results of customers that I hear.
Frangibles and cast bullets shouldn't be discounted either. Hint!

Thanks for the advice. I'll admit that I know as little about reloading as Sarah Palin knows about string theory - but I am interested in it.

I honestly just don't have the time to go shooting very often, but every few months when I do, accuracy makes it worthwhile. I know it sounds stupid, but trying to squeeze every bit of precision out of a $299 rifle and burning through $500 of ammo to do it is a lot more fun to me than buying an $800 rifle that'll be easy out of the box.

Net/net, I tried 3 different types of ammo on Sunday, and 2 of them managed to get < 1 MOA @ 100 yards with a sore shoulder and jumpy bipod, so I'm pretty happy so far.

Could you guys tell me some specific rounds to try? I could buy a box of each and go to the range one day. It'd be a fun experiment to document.

A price tag does not guarantee accuracy.

It took considerable work to get my 12FVSS from out of the box to .484" 200 yard groups.

Knowing what to change and why is the key.

JohnFH wrote:A price tag does not guarantee accuracy.

It took considerable work to get my 12FVSS from out of the box to .484" 200 yard groups.

Knowing what to change and why is the key.

I'm sure that's true, and I hope it is! I'd hate to have to pay $3 a round to get something accurate when $1.50 each can do 95% of that.

I'll have to try a lot of different ones, though.

I had a shooter sample some of my Sinterfire reloads out of his DPMS Panther (or whatever it was... .308 anyhow) at HRSS one day. They printed just about where the fancy 168gr Match ammo was printing.
This doesn't prove anything one way or the other, of course. He just shot my ammo for free. I don't know what the factory fodder set him back. (and no, my 20 rounds aren't free these days!)

CTSixshot wrote:I had a shooter sample some of my Sinterfire reloads out of his DPMS Panther (or whatever it was... .308 anyhow) at HRSS one day. They printed just about where the fancy 168gr Match ammo was printing.
This doesn't prove anything one way or the other, of course. He just shot my ammo for free. I don't know what the factory fodder set him back. (and no, my 20 rounds aren't free these days!)

I'll buy a set

The point is, just trying a lot different rounds and hoping to get lucky is not the right approach, there is a method to properly figure out what should be right and just buying ammo and hoping is wasting money.

There are very good reasons we care about barrel twist, velocity, bullet BC and little things like that.

I don't pay $3 a round, I make my own.

JohnFH wrote:The point is, just trying a lot different rounds and hoping to get lucky is not the right approach, there is a method to properly figure out what should be right and just buying ammo and hoping is wasting money.

There are very good reasons we care about barrel twist, velocity, bullet BC and little things like that.

I don't pay $3 a round, I make my own.

Sorry - 22" barrel, 1:10 twist.

I don't want to burn money, so I'm all ears. But I'm willing to try more than two ideas, that's all I'm saying.

Come on down to Branford with the rifle and we can do some measuring and tune some loads for your rifle specifically. Of course, you'll have to work with whatever components I have available at the time.