Does anyone shoot one of these? how do you like it? How does it compare to a good bolt as far as accuracy? What are your overall likes, dislikes? One has been sitting on the shelf of my favorite hang out and thinking of buying. Would really like imput from users. Thanks
Thompson Center R-55
- Thread starter dizzy
- Start date
I just got a new one and haven't used it yet. I had a classic and it was one of the ones with a chip in the chamber and wouldn't work worth beans. Got in touch with the company and they put me in touch with the canadian warranty station who said send it back and we will replace it. They replaced it with the target R55 I am going out to the range today to give it a work out. I can let you know how it works. The other one was accurate just not reliable.
Wanted one, but the price jumped up almost $200.00. Bought a 10-22 instead and tricked it out with a heavy bbl and trigger components. I can see the appeal. They have a good reputation for accuracy and a lifetime warranty.
skeetgunner
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Burlington
The R55 is what the Ruger 1022 should be, out of the box. Heavy barrel, decent trigger, drop free mags, last shot bolt hold open, easily scoped and tack driving accurate. I love mine.
That said, there are two version, the older model uses a bolt arrangement similar to a 1022, the spring pushes bolt back into battery. The newer version uses a bolt arrangement similar to an M1 Carbine, the spring pulls the bolt closed. The earlier version is prone to feeding problems at high round counts (well over 10k rounds through mine now) and is starting to develop problems, mostly FTF.
That said, there are two version, the older model uses a bolt arrangement similar to a 1022, the spring pushes bolt back into battery. The newer version uses a bolt arrangement similar to an M1 Carbine, the spring pulls the bolt closed. The earlier version is prone to feeding problems at high round counts (well over 10k rounds through mine now) and is starting to develop problems, mostly FTF.
Finally jumped off the fence and bought one r-55 all weather. Stripped it, cleaned it with Breakfree CLP took it to the range to run several rounds through her to make sure its working Ran some federel, eley match and remington high velocity game loads. The rems gave me 3 ftf's, the bullet wouldn't feed into the chamber and when I pulled them out the tip had lead smeared off and pushed down the side of the casing, after closer inspection of the remaining bullets a lot of the tips appear to be imperfect with plenty of xs lead on one side or smudged lead etc, so I will attribute the ftf to the bullets not the gun. Otherwise it functioned flawlessly. It was by no means a tack driver but that was drivers error as I couldn't see the bloody sights (bad eyes) and NEED good glass on it for me. I can say my groups were no better slow firing than rapid firing, all 1.5 inches at 50 ft off hand, so really point shooting. Now on the lookout for a good optic either aimpoint micro or Nightforce 2.5-10 x24....should get a better indicator of accuracy once I can see the and use the sighting device. sheesh. gun feels great, solid, follow up shots a cinch. looking forward to getting it dialed in, hoping like heck its more accurate than the 10/22
lineofsight
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- Lower Mainland, BC
Try standard velocity CCI or Fiochi. At 25m mine punches the center out of a target, very happy rifle, only problem with it is that it becomes boring to shoot. Trigger could be little smoother / lighter but certainly gets the job done.
Farlsincharge
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- Saskatchewan
Love mine, R-55 Benchmark. Anyone claiming a 10/22 is just as good deserves a kick in the nuts. I worked the trigger over to bring it under 2 lbs with no creep, can't wait for spring now.
lineofsight
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- Lower Mainland, BC
Any more details on this?
skeetgunner
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Burlington
One thing to watch for, the Benchmark has a tight Bentz (match) chamber and doesn't like the extended length, hyper velocity loads. Not sure what chamber the all-weather has.
Benched and bagged, mine will print 10-shot groups into 1/2" with Lapua Super Club. But I hear ya about getting older.
They do tend to favour the standard velocity and target loads.
You have to spend a good $600-800 to make a 1022 shoot like an R55 Benchmark. The triggers on all the ones I've shot were creepless...but about 3-3.5lbs. What did you tweak?
I have had my t/c classic for 3 years and it is great.the ten shot mags are built like a tank.it is harder to clean due to the four screws instead of pins like a ruger (to remove trigger group).the break in on mine had me wondering if it was going to be a jammer.the first 500 rounds did not go through that smoothly.after the first 500 or so rounds the bolt shined up and now it is flawless.accuracy is as good as my heavy barrel .22 bolt.accuracy is better than my standard 10/22.it seems to digest any ammo i put through it it realy likes federal auto match.i do not think you could go wrong with the t/c r-55 .
Farlsincharge
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- Saskatchewan
There are two pieces in the trigger group, I call them the sear and the secondary sear. They both pivot on the same rod and are held apart by a small spring. This spring is WAAAY to heavy (it keeps the gun from going full auto, so I imagine the spring weight is a legal issue for the company). The heavy spring causes binding on the rod and leads to huge trigger weight. I replaced that spring with a lighter one, as well as the return spring. Then just polished all the mating surfaces everywhere.
To remove the creep I just built up one of the surfaces with JB weld where it rests against a rod in the trigger group. The slowly removed it until the gun passed the drop test.
There is also a guy on rimfirecentral in the states who apparently does an amazing job and is very reasonably priced.
Guys, thanks for the heads up on the ammo. the R-55 all weather has the match grade barrel (forget who makes it....but the rep told me to buy it would be a $400 touch) so the chamber is tight. Took the magazines apart before using, wiped them down with Breakfree CLP and worked the spring up and down a hundred times or so with the flat end of a fork, cycled the bcg, a hundred times plus or minus a few, guessing the ftf was simply an ammo issue.
I realize there are other rimfire optics but am partial to NF over leupold. My eyes are particular enough to notice the difference in glass with NF I am not adjusting to focus with leupold I am,, albeit very minor occular adjustments but enough to notice which is enough to bug me. not judging the optics on price but on what suits me best.
I believe its a Shilen Barrel
I realize there are other rimfire optics but am partial to NF over leupold. My eyes are particular enough to notice the difference in glass with NF I am not adjusting to focus with leupold I am,, albeit very minor occular adjustments but enough to notice which is enough to bug me. not judging the optics on price but on what suits me best.
I believe its a Shilen Barrel
Was back at the range tonight. Tried cci minimags as they are dimensionally the same as ELEY match and smaller than the Federal bulk and Remington game loads, Two magazines fed them ok, one magazine had failure to feed issues with all the ammo, one mag full had 9 ftf out of 10 while the other two mags had one each (with the remington ammo). So for sure mag has to go back and am quickly learning that the tolerances on this rifle are tight. the rifle shoots great, plenty of single holes at 50 feet. Accuracy doesn't seem to be the issue finding the right ammo does. Will get the kinks worked out as I really like the rifle and want it to work.
