Good Evening all,
A couple of weeks ago I posted about some accuracy and ammo issues with my Ruger Ranch. So, as promised I did some ammo testing and would like to share my results.
For the rifle:
-Ruger Ranch in 7.62x39mm
-Hawke Endurance 5-15x50 Scope
-Trigger has been adjusted to break at around 3.5lbs (just measured it this morning)
-muzzle break has been installed
Image from my last trip. Was lazy and forgot to take another picture today.
It was around 2 degrees today, and there was no wind. I was shooting at 100m, then pushed out to 200m for one test. I was shooting 5 round groups, from a rest. I was not shooting from a sled. I've spent some time in the Army and I've done my fair share of shooting, so I'm not a terrible shooter but I'm not a sniper as well, for what it's worth... I ended up shooting:
- Norinco Corrosive 123 Grain 7.62x39
- Barnaul 123 Grain 7.62x39
- Sellior Bellot 123 Grain 7.62x39
- Norinco Non-Corrosive 123 grain 7.62x39
I couldn't get any of the expensive brass cased stuff I shot last time but I figured the Sellior Bellot would be a good replacement. It was also much cheaper.
Here is what I got:
I manged to get the corrosive Norinco to about a 2 inch group. I was aiming for the center.
For the Barnaul I got a bit of a tighter group. Closer to 1.5 inches. Again aiming for center.
The Sellior Bellot, about 1.5 inches as well. I marked with a red star where I was aiming.
For the non-Corrosive Norinco, if you ignore the flyer to the right (like I said I'm not a sniper) its a bit less than a 2 inch group. With the flyer it's more like 3-4 inches. Note that I was aiming center but the group moved up. Guess this stuff zeros different then the other stuff, which was pretty consistent with my original zeroing. Also ignore the punched out center. That was me messing around.
When I pushed out to 200m, I shot a 5 round group with the Barnaul, and got about a 4-5 inch group. So, it looks like it was opening up a bit. I was holding 1 milldot on the red center.
Overall, I'm very impressed with this little rifle. Like I mentioned in a previous post, I got this for less than $1000 with the scope and it's shooting junk ammo a lot better than some pretty expensive rifles I have seen and handled. With some practice, and maybe lowering the trigger weight down to 2 lbs, I think I can tighten those groups up even a bit more. If I was shooting from a sled I'm pretty confident that this would be a solid 1 MOA rifle even with surplus ammo.
Some other random observations
-I had no failure to extract issues like I had with the Hornady ammo.
-magazine is a little irritating to remove. Maybe I'm just spoiled with the AR style rifles
-I shot around 120 rounds today and had no issues feeding, extracting, or firing
-I have a 6 inch gong, and can ring it all day at 200m. I think I hit it 14 rounds in a row before I missed.
I may do some more ammo testing with it in the future but for now I think this has shown me that there is no real advantage in shooting brass ammo out of this thing, and steel cased stuff is just fine. In fact, once I am done shooting my Norinco ammo I'm switching to Barnaul.
A couple of weeks ago I posted about some accuracy and ammo issues with my Ruger Ranch. So, as promised I did some ammo testing and would like to share my results.
For the rifle:
-Ruger Ranch in 7.62x39mm
-Hawke Endurance 5-15x50 Scope
-Trigger has been adjusted to break at around 3.5lbs (just measured it this morning)
-muzzle break has been installed
Image from my last trip. Was lazy and forgot to take another picture today.
It was around 2 degrees today, and there was no wind. I was shooting at 100m, then pushed out to 200m for one test. I was shooting 5 round groups, from a rest. I was not shooting from a sled. I've spent some time in the Army and I've done my fair share of shooting, so I'm not a terrible shooter but I'm not a sniper as well, for what it's worth... I ended up shooting:
- Norinco Corrosive 123 Grain 7.62x39
- Barnaul 123 Grain 7.62x39
- Sellior Bellot 123 Grain 7.62x39
- Norinco Non-Corrosive 123 grain 7.62x39
I couldn't get any of the expensive brass cased stuff I shot last time but I figured the Sellior Bellot would be a good replacement. It was also much cheaper.
Here is what I got:
I manged to get the corrosive Norinco to about a 2 inch group. I was aiming for the center.
For the Barnaul I got a bit of a tighter group. Closer to 1.5 inches. Again aiming for center.
The Sellior Bellot, about 1.5 inches as well. I marked with a red star where I was aiming.
For the non-Corrosive Norinco, if you ignore the flyer to the right (like I said I'm not a sniper) its a bit less than a 2 inch group. With the flyer it's more like 3-4 inches. Note that I was aiming center but the group moved up. Guess this stuff zeros different then the other stuff, which was pretty consistent with my original zeroing. Also ignore the punched out center. That was me messing around.
When I pushed out to 200m, I shot a 5 round group with the Barnaul, and got about a 4-5 inch group. So, it looks like it was opening up a bit. I was holding 1 milldot on the red center.
Overall, I'm very impressed with this little rifle. Like I mentioned in a previous post, I got this for less than $1000 with the scope and it's shooting junk ammo a lot better than some pretty expensive rifles I have seen and handled. With some practice, and maybe lowering the trigger weight down to 2 lbs, I think I can tighten those groups up even a bit more. If I was shooting from a sled I'm pretty confident that this would be a solid 1 MOA rifle even with surplus ammo.
Some other random observations
-I had no failure to extract issues like I had with the Hornady ammo.
-magazine is a little irritating to remove. Maybe I'm just spoiled with the AR style rifles
-I shot around 120 rounds today and had no issues feeding, extracting, or firing
-I have a 6 inch gong, and can ring it all day at 200m. I think I hit it 14 rounds in a row before I missed.
I may do some more ammo testing with it in the future but for now I think this has shown me that there is no real advantage in shooting brass ammo out of this thing, and steel cased stuff is just fine. In fact, once I am done shooting my Norinco ammo I'm switching to Barnaul.
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