Norinco BushRanger Range Report

Ganderite

Ganderite

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Farm south of North Bay
I could not resist the low price of the Marstar Norinco BushRanger bolt action rifles in 223 and 7.62x39. I bought one of each.

Both have been fitted with target scopes and shot off sandbags at 300 yards with military ball ammo. Groups are huge.

223 – 4.6 minutes
7.62x39 – 5 minutes

I note that the 223 develops a lot of pressure. A mild load used in my M4 is showing some flat primers in the bolt rifle. I also note that the 223 group is 25 inches wide and only 5 inches high. This suggests a bedding problem.

I really like the rifles. The triggers are superb. About the best 2 stage commercial rifle triggers I have ever had, short of expensive target rifles. Finish is adequate for a cheap rifle. The scope bases supplied are crap. I replaced them with cheap Weaver bases.

The next step will be to bed the rifles and re-shoot at 300 yards, using military ammo and some handloads. I am hoping to get groups down to under 2 minutes.

Here is the 300 yard 223 group with IVI ammo. 14 inches, side to side.

M4IVI300yds.jpg
 
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you mean the bushmaster rifles? JW 103 & 105?

I'm really looking at getting the 105 (.223) when Marstar gets more in soon. I look forward to your posts to see what you can get these to do, so i can duplicate it after. :)

Mike
 
Rough math dictates that this rifle would print 4" @ 100 with its current set up. I would be interested if you can improve its performance thru load development. Can you post some 100 yrd pics after you spend some quality time with this rifle?
 
I plan on bedding both rifles and lightly lapping the barrels. The stocks will be re-finished, too, but that has nothing to do with accuracy.

All testing will be at short range (300 yards) because I doubt the 223 will stabalize the 69 gr match bullets. The 7.62 will be loaded with both 123 gr and 145 gr bullets.

I will show before and after pictues of the rifles and then the groups.
 
I'm surprised, I shot one on the range and hit a gong (chicken about 8") easily with a crappy 4x scope and surplus 7.62 at 200 yds with ease(3 for 3 shots)
I imagine quality might not be very consistant, buying one might be a lottery.
 
My 103 shoots 3" groups at 100 with surp ammo, after I bedded it. At that it is good enough for me for hunting when I change the tip to a prohunter. However, I now go one step further since I got a question from another nutter a month ago. When I pull the FMJ, I pour out the powder. Then, when I have 50 pulled, I weigh the powder I emptied out. I divide that by 50, and that's the charge each one gets. I went to just under 2" groups at 100yds and the MV is 2422fps. This is easily my 100yd thick bush rifle.
My Rem 799 is a little tighter still. I will only shoot non-corrosive or hand-loads in it. When I pull the bullets from my Norinco grey box ammo, I again dump the powder out, divide by 50, subtract 2 grains (that's the amount that has worked best in my rifle and has shown no pressure signs) and that is the charge I put in each case. I top that off with a 150gr .311 pro-hunter and it prints 6.5" at 300yds. That is my bush gun I will carry this year if I think I might get shots out to 200yds, or I might carry it because it looks nicer than the 103. Although I am still playing with it to make it better, the basics are there, I just have to work up some hand-loads someday. Right now, it's good enough if I need it.
Gents, this is a good rifle/cartridge combo if you take some pains to do a little bit of work. I am not going to go to the point of pulling ALL my surp stuff just to even out the powder charges for plinking (it's already good enough for that), but I will for a little better hunting accuracy. I like knowing where my bullets are going.
I used a compound called 9321 for the bedding agent. It is an epoxy used in the Aircraft industry and is absolutely fantastic for bedding. It also has a better working window than acraglass. Anyway, it works wonderful and really bonds to everything.
Someday, when I break down and get a camera, I'll start posting pictures. My video camera is a mini-tape style, and there is no camera on my phone. NOT a tech guy. I'd rather spend my limited funds on shooting stuff.
 
This the same type of rifle that almost took a guys hand off when it exploded last year?
I was seriously considering 1 until I read that.
 
I will try and do a range report of my JW-105 soon. Mine just loves 50 gr V-max. and 25 gr of benchmark. It will probably surprise many people here. As Ganderite said, the trigger is amazing. My gn has Thousands of rounds down the pipe now, and doesnt shoot quite as good as it use to, but it is still easily sub-moa at 100 yards.( I will post some pics after I take her out to the range, just for the naysayers)
 
Thanks for note about the 50 V-max. I tried the 55 and the 60. Never ocurred to me to try something lighter.

I bedded the rifles tonight, so will test agian, soon.
Click to expand...
I also tried the 40 gr V-max, they shot like crap in mine. For factory, the old winchester white box 45 gr varmint bullets that wal-mart used to sell were amazing in this gun.
 
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