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I had a GSR a few years ago, one of the first left hand ones to come out. I loved it, but decided to move clear across the state to work in the oil fields and had to raise some cash for the move. I have a DPMS AR-308 and a heavy barrel Remington 700 in .308, but neither of them are as light and handy as the GSR. I had a chance to buy a used one in very good shape last week. It seems Ruger has tightened up the bolt raceways in the receiver (and someone told me they went with a harder stainless for the bolt as well) as this one, and one I handled at a store over the winter seemed to be smoother when working the bolt.
My first one was a 1 MOA shooter once I started hand loading for it. I bought several of the polymer mags when Midway started selling them, and liked them much better. Lighter, cheaper, don't stick down as far, can be topped off while in the rifle, quieter, and you could probably drive a truck over them and they'd still work.
I was reminded how much of a pain the steel ones are yesterday. You almost have to put it down against the bench, and after loading the first round, push it way down in order to load the second one, or else the previous round will tip and pop out the back of the magazine. You almost need a third hand. It is super easy to load the polymer ones, I could almost do it with one hand, just snap one straight down into the mag.
I had used a Leatherwood 2-7x scout scope on my first GSR, along with Tactical Solutions rings, They look identical to the Warne Q.D. rings, but are lighter aluminum instead of steel.
My first GSR:
The one I picked up on Saturday has a nice 4 1/4 lb. trigger with no creep. I put on it a Nikon 2.5-8x long eye relief scope with Warne Q.D. mounts that I had used on my Mini-14. I sighted it with some Hornady 147 gr. FMJBT over W748 powder that I shoot in my DPMS AR. Then tried a 100 yard group with a load that shoots 1/2 MOA in my bull barrel M700. It is a Sierra 168 gr. Matchking loaded over Varget. I shot this 100 yard group ( I forgot to take a pic of the target out at the range, but when I got home I stapled the target to a piece of cardboard for the pic):
Next target was 5 shots at 300 yards with the 147 grain FMJ load, as we had shot up all the Sierra Match loads by then:
My friend shooting the 330 yard gong:
Me shooting the gong from sitting position:
A few new developments in the GSR world, are the Polymer stocks Ruger is using on some variations, they are a full pound lighter than the laminated stocks. Although I don't like the black stocks, a GSR that is a pound lighter would be nice, if they are being made available separately yet. I would probably blast the stock and make it grey, and Cerakote the barrel and receiver a different shade of grey.
Also some have been shipped with a muzzle brake on them. I know a couple guys that swapped out the factory flash hider for a Smith Enterprise brake, for a little extra recoil reduction, not that they kick bad anyway.
I have wanted to get the long eye relief version of the Leupold VXR 1.5-5x with red FireDot, so will work on that, along with a Ching sling or Andy's Rhodesian sling.
My first one was a 1 MOA shooter once I started hand loading for it. I bought several of the polymer mags when Midway started selling them, and liked them much better. Lighter, cheaper, don't stick down as far, can be topped off while in the rifle, quieter, and you could probably drive a truck over them and they'd still work.
I was reminded how much of a pain the steel ones are yesterday. You almost have to put it down against the bench, and after loading the first round, push it way down in order to load the second one, or else the previous round will tip and pop out the back of the magazine. You almost need a third hand. It is super easy to load the polymer ones, I could almost do it with one hand, just snap one straight down into the mag.
I had used a Leatherwood 2-7x scout scope on my first GSR, along with Tactical Solutions rings, They look identical to the Warne Q.D. rings, but are lighter aluminum instead of steel.
My first GSR:
The one I picked up on Saturday has a nice 4 1/4 lb. trigger with no creep. I put on it a Nikon 2.5-8x long eye relief scope with Warne Q.D. mounts that I had used on my Mini-14. I sighted it with some Hornady 147 gr. FMJBT over W748 powder that I shoot in my DPMS AR. Then tried a 100 yard group with a load that shoots 1/2 MOA in my bull barrel M700. It is a Sierra 168 gr. Matchking loaded over Varget. I shot this 100 yard group ( I forgot to take a pic of the target out at the range, but when I got home I stapled the target to a piece of cardboard for the pic):
Next target was 5 shots at 300 yards with the 147 grain FMJ load, as we had shot up all the Sierra Match loads by then:
My friend shooting the 330 yard gong:
Me shooting the gong from sitting position:
A few new developments in the GSR world, are the Polymer stocks Ruger is using on some variations, they are a full pound lighter than the laminated stocks. Although I don't like the black stocks, a GSR that is a pound lighter would be nice, if they are being made available separately yet. I would probably blast the stock and make it grey, and Cerakote the barrel and receiver a different shade of grey.
Also some have been shipped with a muzzle brake on them. I know a couple guys that swapped out the factory flash hider for a Smith Enterprise brake, for a little extra recoil reduction, not that they kick bad anyway.
I have wanted to get the long eye relief version of the Leupold VXR 1.5-5x with red FireDot, so will work on that, along with a Ching sling or Andy's Rhodesian sling.
