{"id":304,"date":"2009-06-11T11:24:58","date_gmt":"2009-06-11T15:24:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/?p=304"},"modified":"2009-06-11T11:24:58","modified_gmt":"2009-06-11T15:24:58","slug":"new-ruger-in-hand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/new-ruger-in-hand\/","title":{"rendered":"New Ruger in Hand"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few entries ago, you were promised that as soon as we got our hands on the latest new Ruger rifle, you\u2019d hear back. Well, we muckled onto three or so of \u2018em this past week, so here we go.<\/p>\n

As noted here earlier, the rifle is designated SR556, for Sturm, Ruger 5.56 millimeter. It takes standard AR15\/M16 magazines, and comes with three of them, produced by Magpul, one of the best makers. It\u2019s the most \u201cvendor-outsourced\u201d firearm this company has ever assembled \u2013 really, pretty much everything but the barrel and barrel extension come from outside the factory \u2013 but it\u2019s an AR15 clone, after all, and that\u2019s the logical way to make one given the nature of the industry. The trick is to use the best parts.<\/div>\n
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We toured the production cell at the Newport, New Hampshire plant. Ruger\u2019s switchover to \u201clean manufacturing\u201d has changed the look of the factory dramatically in the last few years. SR556s were literally flowing off the production line.<\/div>\n
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But, enough of that: how does it SHOOT?<\/div>\n
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The subtle feel of the mechanism as it cycles is different from your usual Stoner-type AR15, because the Ruger entry works of a piston design, specifically a proprietary two-piece piston. One of my fellow shooters said, \u201cIt feels like a whoosh, not a sproing.\u201d That about describes it, even if it ain\u2019t engineer terminology.<\/div>\n
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My buddy Russ Lary threw a 6.5-20X variable power Leupold Tactical scope onto his T&E SR556, and cranked it all the way up. Twenty power magnification ain\u2019t much for sophisticated bench rest shooters, but for us meat n\u2019 potatoes riflemen, think \u201cHubble telescope with crosshairs.\u201d At about 100 yards, he found sub-one-inch groups easy, with Match grade 69 grain and 77 grain loads from Black Hills Ammunition shooting the tightest.<\/div>\n
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The piston system does indeed run cool. I could race a pair of 30-round magazines through it as fast as I could pull the trigger, and the carrier (bolt) was still room temperature to the touch. I\u2019m told by folks I trust at Ruger that this thing has gone 20,000 rounds without a malfunction OR a cleaning in factory torture-testing. In the several hundred rounds of 5.56mm and .223 Remington that we\u2019ve run through it, we didn\u2019t have any malfs either.<\/div>\n
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It\u2019s early yet, but I\u2019m likin\u2019 this rifle!<\/div>\n
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Russ Lary discovers that the SR556 is accurate\u2026<\/strong><\/strong>
\n\"img_1798\"<\/p>\n

\u2026Gail Pepin discovers that the SR556 is reliable\u2026<\/em><\/strong>
\n\"img_1969\"<\/p>\n

\u2026and Mas discovers that the SR556 is fun.<\/em><\/strong>
\n\"img_2044\"<\/p>\n

On the SR556 production line.<\/em><\/strong>
\n\"img_1852\"<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few entries ago, you were promised that as soon as we got our hands on the latest new Ruger rifle, you\u2019d hear back. Well, we muckled onto three or so of \u2018em this past week, so here we go. As noted here earlier, the rifle is designated SR556, for Sturm, Ruger 5.56 millimeter. It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":6428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7,11,1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-304","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ammunition","8":"category-firearms","9":"category-preparedness","10":"category-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}