308 ammo for Ruger Gunsite Scout

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Cheap and 308 do not go together. Just go with 150gr to start you don't need any thing more than that. There is a real heavy hunting round that was soft tip and cheaper by federal I had real nice luck with. The 180 gr. not the 168 that is$$$
An intellectual is someone that can change their mind after being given enough evidence.

“ I nearly murdered somebody, and it made me realise that you can't face violence with violence. It doesn't work. ”

—Joe Strummer
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Re: 308 ammo for Ruger Gunsite Scout

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Try to fing some surplus? I think Samco had some if it hasn't been baked to death in Florida. Just watch out for the Indian made stuff - I had some when I owned a FAL and it was nasty stuff. English is good, German or Czech is great if you can find it. That's as cheap as you'll get.

Only other thing is to take up reloading if you intend to get serious with that rifle.
Live like you will never die, love like you've never been hurt, dance
like no-one is watching.
Alex White

Re: 308 ammo for Ruger Gunsite Scout

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.308 Win. should be a lot more affordable than some of the larger hunting calibers like .300 Win Mag, etc. I've had pretty good luck with Federal 150 gr. at Walmart, or the Rem. Corelokt. Federal Fusion is also worth a look, but it depends on what kind of shooting you are doing. This was my hunting rifle caliber until I bought a 7mm-08, which is considerably more expensive to shoot. Both are great calibers, but the selection for .308 cannot be beat. Try American Eagle as well. I've seen it at Sportman's Warehouse for about $16/box and on Cheaper Than Dirt it is rated pretty highly.

308 ammo for Ruger Gunsite Scout

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Price is always relative. 308 is cheaper than the other large rounds but still.
An intellectual is someone that can change their mind after being given enough evidence.

“ I nearly murdered somebody, and it made me realise that you can't face violence with violence. It doesn't work. ”

—Joe Strummer

Re: 308 ammo for Ruger Gunsite Scout

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Mason wrote:The Ruger looks like a cool rifle. Congrats. What are your scope plans? Gonna hunt with it?
My scope plans are the Leupold scout scope. I won't be able to get it for a while though, been buying too many guns lately, i'm poor right now. Good thing it comes with iron sights, so i can play with it.
No, I don't think I'll be hunting with it. Fourty plus years of diabetes has kind of done a job on my legs, which kind of keeps me out of the field/woods, but I thought it was a cool rifle and they had one on the rack when I went to buy my Glock, so I put it on layaway and picked it up the following month.

Re: 308 ammo for Ruger Gunsite Scout

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New to the forum.
Proud owner of a 2014 Ruger Gunsite Scout in 18" Stainless. Scout scope with QD scope rings and a Ching sling. I know it isn't the "End All" rifle for everyone. But for me....bitch'n rifle!
When I first got it, took it to the range with 7 different mfg of ammunition. 140 rounds. From mild to wild. Cheap to wallet busters. Off shore crap to Nosler High test stuff. Wanted to find out both how it shoots and what ammo it liked to eat. What speeds and weights worked the best. Mounted a Leatherwood LEER 2-7 x 32 Scout Scope W/ .308 BDC. (Best thing for heads up shooting. Can't beat the time to target.) During the initial barrel break-in, it shot probably 2-3 inch groups @ 100 yds. Not real impressive. Been shooting since I was a whipper snapper, so I consider myself somewhat of a marksman. (in my own mind, anyway.)
However.....during the course of the initial barrel break-in, things started to settle down. Still a little wild and all over the place, but later discovered that was mostly due to the ammo I was feeding it.
I would have to go back over my ballistic test results to identify the ammo I put thru it. The ammo it ended up liking the most was Winchester X in 180 gr. After zeroing the scope at 100 yards, I took it over to the 200 yd range. Did the math and cranked in another 11 clicks. First shot went thru the bull at 200. Wife says "Bullseye!". Second shot, she says "Missed". Missed? Looked thru the spotting scope and the target did indeed look the same. "How can I miss by that much?" Jumped in the truck and ran down to get a better look. Had to take some pictures with my cell phone. The target was a 1 minute spot with a 1/2 minute circle in the center. First bullet landed approx. 3/8" from dead center. Second bullet William Telled the first hole. Slight "Double D" where both bullets are within 3/8" from dead center. That's less that 1/2 MOA. Some was luck. Most was gun control.
Bottom line. This is a shooter. Not trying to dis anybody, buy I have a feeling a lot of the complaining about accuracy of this gun has to do with the shooter.
I have put roughly 1K rounds thru it to date. Can't get enough of it.
I took off the flash hider and installed a .308 Fortis RED hybrid Compensator/Muzzle brake in stainless. No more muzzle jump. Can see the dirt fly behind the target thru the scope now. Highly recommend this upgrade.
I now reload 44 gr. Varget with 165 gr. Spear BTHP. Dead nuts. Missouri Whitetail dropped like a stone. Meat in the freezer.
Some will like it. Others will hate it. But this one is mine.
Thanks for letting me spew.
Shoot Straight and hold the line.

Jim

Re: 308 ammo for Ruger Gunsite Scout

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"I now reload 44 gr. Varget with 165 gr. Spear BTHP."

My apologies to everyone.
The "Spear" and BTHP reference above were both incorrect.
The projectile is actually a "Speer" 165 gr. BTSP. Lot 2034. Has a .520 B.C.
Boat tail Soft point. Not hollow point.
No cannelure, (so no crimp) #200 CCI LR primers and Loaded to C.OAL 2.75".
Poke around for Whitetail in the snow, so I also seal all the primers for good measure.

I am starting to work up some 165 gr. Remington Accutip with the same 44 gr. Varget load to give them a try this weekend.
The Speer has been pretty good to me though.
Just means more evaluation time. You can tell how much I hate that.

Noslers, 168 gr. Ballistic tip
Winchester X 180 gr., BTSP
Winchester 150 gr. Power Point,
Federal w/ 168 gr. Sierra Match King BTHP,
Silver State Armory 165 gr Accubond,
Silver State Armory 175 gr HPBT,
Herters Select Grade 150 gr. SPCE.

The .308 180 gr. Winchester X ammo mentioned in the above post proved the best as well as the cheapest of the store bought bunch. $18 a box.
The other stuff went from $18 all the way up to $43 a box.

The Herters was a weird stepped FMJ projectile. However, it made holes in the paper targets that looked like they were made with a hole punch. No ragged edges. If it matters, it did have the heaviest of all the brass.

It did give me a load of nice reloadable "once fired" brass for the Ruger.

Shoot straight and hold the line.

Jim

Re: 308 ammo for Ruger Gunsite Scout

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Looks like yesterday was the last decent day for reload testing for us here around Chicago. Outdoors at least. Snow came in big time. (Sat nite and Sunday)
However, Friday nite I cooked up a new batch of .308 paper busters in anticipation of spending time at the range Sat morning.

Reloading is serious business for me. So there is no confusion, these listed home loads are for my 18" Stainless Ruger Gunsite Scout in .308 cal.

All cases prepped and trimmed to 2.0075"
All primer pockets cleaned with CCI #200 LR primers plugged in the hole. Primers were sealed with Markron Bullet and Primer sealer.
All loaded with the same 44 grain of Hodgdon Varget go fast.

20 ea. with 165 gr. Hornady BTSP Interlok. No cannelure. Loaded to C.O.A.L of 2.75"
20 ea. with 165 gr. Speer BTSP. Also no cannelure. Loaded to C.O.A.L. of 2.75"
20 ea. with 165 gr, Remington BTSP. Polymer tipped with cannelure. Loaded and crimped to C.O.A.L. 2.76"

Gives me a good base for apples-apples comparison. The only thing different was the different mfg. projectiles.
A little chilly at 30 degrees, slight 3-5 wind over the left shoulder. Sun was shining so it was party time.

Wife even shot her Nikon P-22 scoped .22 cal. Heavy barrel Remington Model 597 Yellow Jacket for awhile. At 100 yds BTW. She has even poked a few holes with it at 200 yds. She only started shooting middle of last year. She turned out to be a natural. I love listening to her laugh. Did some modifications to the extractor and installed a new target trigger set up. Little bit of work on the mags to get them to cooperate. Did the barrel break-in procedure when she first got it. That thing is a friggin' tack driver. She likes shooting the center out of all her targets so the daughters can't shoot at anything. Just plain mean spirited. So funny though. (As long as you don't have to follow up after her) She just goes around and shoots the bulls eye in all the targets. Just because she can.

Anyway....The .308 Hornady performed....OK. Fairly decent groups at 100 yds. for a soft point hunting bullet. Maybe out to 1-1/2 Minute with a few "wild" ones. Couple 2-3 MOA out. Not sure what the wild ones were about. Probably the shooter. Maybe shooter got skeered and flinched. Or just an unbalanced bullet. Yeah, let's go with that.
Next was the 165 gr. Speer. To date, this has been my go-to accuracy load. Nice groups. All sub-minute as expected. Dead nuts at 200 yards. Puts meat in the freezer.
Lastly tested was the new batch of 165 gr. Polymer-tipped Remington.
Shot 19 of the 20 rounds that I loaded thru the middle of (2) 1" diamond test targets at 100 yards. One landed just outside of it.
Didn't get to try it on the 200. The 200 yard range was closed for some activity they were doing.
Took it over to the 600 yd range and banged 10" metal targets with it. Did miss a couple times though. BDC wasn't quite right for the load I worked up. Add in the difficulty factor of the LEER Leatherwood BDC scout scope reticle bullet drop "spot" at 600 that actually almost covers the metal plate at that distance. Even though is was a 10" plate at 600, should have never missed it shooting with a sub-minute long gun. Had to be my fault. 10" plate should have been a walk in the park shooting sub-minute. (A minute plate at that distance would have been slightly over 6")
Along with the other quietly admitted difficulty factor of old-ass eyes.
The scout scope only has a max 7X power and is probably more at home under 400 yds than at 600. 7X scout scope at 600 yards is a bit sketchy.
Actually a really excellent scope for under 200 yards. Just couldn't quite get the target clarity at 600 as in a fine hair reticle.
I know the Marines are currently engaging targets out to 12-1400 yards with a .308 in other weapon platforms. Not with a scout scope though.
But with a scout scope, this Ruger Gunsite Scout is probably not a good 1000 yard gun. Maybe with a longer XS sight rail or the factory supplied scope rings and a regular higher powered rear mounted scope.
If you're looking for an extreme long distance gun, this is probably not it. But it does exactly what Ruger designed it to do. And in my opinion, it does it really well.
With the present configuration, I will comfortably take a shot out to 400 yards on North American game with it on any given day. I usually don't hunt animals out to 1000 yards though. There is that.

Not sure how the polymer tipped bullet will actually perform on soft targets, but after many, many test runs, this particular load in the 18" barrel is about as accurate as I am going to get. Done experimenting with this .308 load. For this gun, it is about as fine tuned as I can get it.
I now have a new go-to load.
It is about a 100% load. As you can just feel the powder start to nest around the boat tail and up into the shoulder as the cannelure is being crimped. Even though some recipes call for more powder, (103% loads) I do not feel comfortable loading compressed loads. This is about as far as I feel comfortable in compressing powder inside a cartridge. Besides, crushing extruded powder gives it different burn rates and qualities. Too unpredictable. Not interested in "Hot" loads.

Life is full of decisions. Make 'em count.

Til next time.

Shoot straight and hold the line.
Jim

Re: 308 ammo for Ruger Gunsite Scout

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Fukshot "I like the Federal Gold Medal Match as a way to check a baseline of what a rifle will do before I start load development for it."

I'll have to give those a try. 2 feet of snow at the range right now. Maybe in the spring.
May be good for back up when out and about and happen to run out of home loads. Options. Everybody needs options.
Although the 180 gr. Winchester X I tested seems to be pretty accurate in this gun for a factory load. Cheap too.

Shoot straight and hold the line

Jim

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