Okay so I had it to the range twice, and I fired approximatly two hundred and fifty rounds thru it. Here is what I found. The good: zero fail to fire, one or two fail to load (I think I know why, will explain in a minute) zero fail to eject. The thing loves Federal bulk ammo and rips them off as fast as you can pull the trigger without fail. The problem I had resulted in the bolt carrier failing to bring cartridges into battery, it just went slack. Upon disassembling the rifle I found that the nut that keeps the carrier return spring on the guide rod backed right off and the spring became slack. I reassembled it finger tight and proceed to fire about 110 more rounds. On two occasions the carrier did not ram the cartridges home and on further inspection the nut was backing off again thus reducing spring tension on the carrier.
The rear sight is crap, but I was able to zero it at 25m, and work from that. Three shot groups at 25m average 1 to 1 1/2 ", add another inch for groups at 50m, although I was able to get one 1 1/2" group at 50. This rifle is not a tack driver, partly because of the battle sights but largely becase of the trigger. It initially felt very SKS-ish, with substantial creep and a stiff pull.
After this outing I stopped at my fave shop on the way home and we measured the trigger pull at 6.5 lbs. We also loc-tited the spring retaining nut on.
On my return to the range, the shorter range was in use so I went over to the 100/200/300m range to mess around. After a couple 10 round mag fulls fired down range to establish a rough point of aim for 100m, I fired another 110 rounds, freehand, at the target and was pleased to see my last few mags placed all the rounds within the edges (vertically) of an 8" ring so it shoots straight, remember this is standing freehand, but a lot were low due to the difficulty of establishing a "hold over" point of aim with the crude sights.
Regarding functionality, I am pleased to report absolutely no failure to load, no failure to fire, and no failure to eject. I am pleased with the function of this rifle. Keep in mind due to the M-1 style of open breech the rimfire cases blowback and for the most part eject up and to the right, but one did ping off my glasses and I occasionally felt powder debris. Always wear glasses if you ever shoot one of these.
The good:Great looking wood. Once the nut issue was rectified, this thing runs like a champ. It looks very cool and when I replace the stock rear sight with an aftermarket model and add an M-1 sling it will look WWII - Korea badass, and be able to provide a better sight picture.
The bad: crappy sight as mentioned, creepy heavy trigger (but it did seem to get better with more use. Once I put another 500 or so down the pipe I'll get the boys to check it again to see if thereis an actual improvement or if I'm just getting used to it). Too much plastic - sights, trigger guard, magazines, forestock band/bayonet lug (which can be replaced with the real thing).
Final thoughts - I like this gun, I am very happy to have it. I continue to rate it a 6 out of 10. It's something a little different than a 10/22, but the Ruger is a better gun/value I think. For the $350 I paid delivered to the door, I am marginally satisfied with the price. If you have to pay retail plus tax and perhaps shipping for a new one, run the other way because it is not worth it.
I buy a gun, love it for a while, get a hankerin' for something different, sell something to buy it. The revolving door is starting to slow down though. This is a cool quirky little gun that I think will be fun to chase rabbits in the snow with. I have a feeling it will be around a while.
