Ruger gen 2 scout rifle in 5.56

crazy_davey

crazy_davey

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Bought one recently for a truck, quad gun, will ride with me on my spraying quad for the rest of the summer.

I was going to build something similar with a shortened barrel Kimber but in all reality it was probably cheaper, less time consuming to buy this. Anyways…

I wanted, short, fairly light, open sights. This one so far mostly fits the bill. I want to retain the AR sights but don’t want the extra foot long pound of steel of picatinny rail. At least not right now. What would you do? Because of the goofy way they adopted the rear sight you can’t just take the whole picatinny rail off and just have the rear sight. Options are cut the rail, remove the extra, keep the rear sight. Keep it the way it is or cut and order another full rail for down the road in case I want to put a forward mounted scope on it.

If I cut it the section of rail over the ejection port will be useless. Answer is probably as simple as ordering another rail I guess.

Thoughts or other ideas maybe?
 
crazy_davey said:
Bought one recently for a truck, quad gun, will ride with me on my spraying quad for the rest of the summer.

I was going to build something similar with a shortened barrel Kimber but in all reality it was probably cheaper, less time consuming to buy this. Anyways…

I wanted, short, fairly light, open sights. This one so far mostly fits the bill. I want to retain the AR sights but don’t want the extra foot long pound of steel of picatinny rail. At least not right now. What would you do? Because of the goofy way they adopted the rear sight you can’t just take the whole picatinny rail off and just have the rear sight. Options are cut the rail, remove the extra, keep the rear sight. Keep it the way it is or cut and order another full rail for down the road in case I want to put a forward mounted scope on it.

If I cut it the section of rail over the ejection port will be useless. Answer is probably as simple as ordering another rail I guess.

Thoughts or other ideas maybe?
Click to expand...

Where did you pick one up and how much did it set you back? Been looking for a while but not seen any around.
 
I'd absolutely leave it. You never know what alternative optics you might decide to go with in future; this gun is similar to my SBL 1895, which has the almost identical rail/sight combo. It's the perfect home for a shotgun scope that has slightly longer-than-normal eye relief, but still isn't quite a scout scope. The scope can be mounted nice and low so that the eyepiece is in front of the rear sight, instead of being forced to use high rings to heave the scope way up and over the sight. Or you might decide to use a red dot sight; personally, I like those way out in front rather than at the rear of the rail, and the forward part of the rail is perfect for that. Or...who knows, it's a scout rifle...maybe it's time for an actual scout scope?

Plus, you might decide you're not in love with the gun, or just get bored with it and want to move on to something else. Any butchery such as you are contemplating will not make selling it easier.
 
Could the rear sight not be removed, and then reattached to a shorter piece of rail, or a filler type block?
Aluminum rail blanks are easy to get.
That way you get what you want, without doing anything non reversible.

R.
 
I think the plan is to cut it and just order a new one. I need it to fit in a rifle scabbard and the bulk of the rail won’t allow that. I’ve got 5 different scabbards here and it will fit in none of them. Plus it grabs like a claw when trying to pull it out. Put a magpul rail cover on but that makes it even bulkier and tighter.

I have the leather and skills to make a custom scabbard for it, but with the cost of leather these days and time it takes I might as well just order a new rail and put it aside for later.

I can make a new scabbard for the whole thing next winter.
 
Rman said:
Could the rear sight not be removed, and then reattached to a shorter piece of rail, or a filler type block?
Aluminum rail blanks are easy to get.
That way you get what you want, without doing anything non reversible.

R.
Click to expand...

The sight isn’t rail mounted. It’s just mounted on a little tab extending off of the rail. Kind of dumb IMO, but it is what it is I guess.

I was going to make a mount for it the other day, started, tossed the idea as it’s just easier to buy a new extra rail.
 
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crazy_davey said:
I thought so too, but no. There is a tab off the back of the rail which contours to the action. IMO Ruger should have kept them separate.
Click to expand...
Probably going to want two screws to hold that sight on? Or can it work with just one?
Some pics of this fine potpourri of pot metal product ;) may help.

R.
 
Rman said:
Probably going to want two screws to hold that sight on? Or can it work with just one?
Some pics of this fine potpourri of pot metal product ;) may help.

R.
Click to expand...

Going to cut it in front of the second screw so two screws will hold it in place. It’s solid steel not pot metal.
 
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