My son just purchased a Ruger MkII International in 308 Win. Should recieve it next week.

Questions are has anyone got any experience with this rifle? I am expecting the typical awful ruger trigger which will probably need some work. But any other heads up?

I am thinking using 165 gr Nosler partitions would be a good choice for deer.

I had one in a .270 They are extremely loud with the 17" barrel. Mine was loud and kicked like a mule off the bench. After lots of tweaking and load development it would only print 4" groups @ 100yds. As for the bad accuracy, I'm sure it was just my rifle. You stand as good of a chance getting a good one as not. I'm snake bit when it comes to Rugers.

Best of luck to you.

Terry

This has a 18" barrel. The short barrel is why I suggested a 308, the muzzel blast and roar is why I guided him this route. I am not a Ruger fan by any means, but my son wanted a mannlicher and in his price range it was this or a CZ and the 308 in the CZ has a detachable mag which in my opinion ruins the rifle.

I did get him a excellent price on this new Ruger. I have also heard that tensioning on the front barrel band can have profound effect on accuracy. I am expecting hunting accuracy out of this rifle, and 1-1.5 MOA is more than acceptable. I have also heard that Ruger has got the quality of their barrels improved and they are no longer the tomato stakes they once were.

I have the CZ in 308 and it is a tack driver. Agree det mag is a detriment. I was reading the other day about improving the accuracy of a FS rifle. The author suggested a shim about halfway up the bbl to mimic a pressur point on a half stock rifle. I have an H&RFN carbine I am going to try it out on. The Mauser actions I understand are to be supported for a couple of inches along the bbl. All I have shot so far are CZs and they do not need any tweaking.

Schromf, I had the tang safety version's in 7x57 and 250 Savage and the MKII in 308. The 308 was exceptionally accurate. I tuned the trigger to 3lbs (a Dayton Traister aftermarket would work well) and bedded the action and the entire length of the barrel. Wonderful rifle...

BTW, mine had 18.5" bbl's... not sure why Ruger used to list them as 18.5 and now list's them as 18".

Brad,

What loads were you using? How good was the accuracy?

I will look up the trigger option you suggested, sounds promising. Did you work with the rifle before bedding it? Was it something you did because you were unhappy with the factory setup?

Just picking your brain, I know my son and the fiddling and tweaking are going to be the realm of dear old Dad.

Edit: I wish they were making this in a 7x57 (or even a 7mm-08). I don't quite understand gun companies and marketing, currently I see no 7mm mannlicher rifles for sale in the CZ-Ruger price range, yet Remington figures there version in the model 7 will fly at twice the price.

S, RL15 is the only powder you need for the 308... it's the fastest with accuracy in every 308 I've played with. I generally just used Speer 150's and got sub moa groups. No, I didn't shoot it before I bedded it... there's a LOT of wood there and I wanted to stabalize the whole thing. That much bedding is a bit tricky if you've never bedded a rifle. I did mine in two stages. The receiver first and the barrel second.

If you have any more question's glad to help...

I've got a tang safety RSI in 308 also. Mine happens to love 150 gr. bullets so that's what I stick with. The 165 Partition should be good for just about anything you want to hunt in NA. I'm using Hornady Interlockts just because I've had good luck with them. I'm not sure what the current factory triggers are like since I haven;t shot one myself, my older model is fine for hunting, get 1.25" groups from my handloads and just about any 150 gr. factory load.

My mind isn't set on the 165 partition bullet. I just went through my 30 cal bullets and I have 180-190-200 grain hunting bullets, and a boatload of match bullets in 168 gr.

So a bullet purchase looks neccesary, think I will look around and see what I can get in a bulk buy, in the 150-165 gr hunting bullets.

Note: I am not a big beleiver that deer need super premium bullets, hence the bulk buy thought

I had that same rifle in 308 and it shot well without much fuss. They are loud as hell, regardless. I'd ask Seafire for a Blue Dot load just to see what velocity you can acheive with a fast powder. In mine, facory ammo lit up the night too with a 24" bright fireball.

Thats a great little rifle your boy bought! I wanted one myself but rebored an older Sako carbine to .358 win instead.
A couple of thoughts, yes contact Seafire for blue dot load possibilities. A fast burning powder will give you less muzzle flash / blast and good speeds in that 18.5" pipe. On the bench, watch where you place the forend of the stock in relation to the sand bag... I found that my Sako was fussy about placment- it likes to have the bag just ahead of the magazine well screw. Any pressure on the forend would open my groups up.
Lighter weight bullets will work magic on deer size game and give less recoil and muzzle rise. I see no reason for anything heavier that a 150 and garden variety at that. Have fun! BT53

I have been shooting the 130 gr Barnes X BT moly-coated in my 300 Winchester Magnum and I bet it would make a superb medium game load (or a 130 gr TSX if they make one) in your .308.

You really can drop one weight with X bullets and acheive adequate and sometimes superior killing power on "normal" game shots. Or you can go the other way and duplicate the 200 gr 30-40 Krag load that made that round so famous for killing power.

I have one in 30-06. Talk about kick! I practiced with reduced loads of H-4895 and Hornady 130-grain bullets. And, I drilled a hole under the buttplate for a weight.

But, then again, I must like the style of rifle because I bought a CZ 550 FS. It is heavier with a 20.5" barrel. I didn't gain anything in the recoil department because it is in 9.3x62. Now I have reduced loads of H-4895 for it too. Check the Hodgdon web site for the uses of H-4895. I like it for practice loads.

A deer hunting buddy of mine had one. It shot good. Since we [on this deer lease] never shot a deer over 100 yards, he wanted a load with less recoil. I loaded him up some 150 grain bullets normally used for the 30-30, with 37 grains of IMR 3031. They shot groups at 100 yards under one inch, and killed deer like a bolt of lightening.
Recoil was much lighter than factory loads.

Hi....

I have the same rifle in 308 caliber, one of the older ones.

I use 150 Speer Hotcores... I believe with
H-380 ball powder, I have to look up the exact recipe. My load shoots about 1.5 in at 100 yards from a bench.

Good Looking, great little rifle. When I get tired of lugging my other deer rifles around, or I am heading into the mountains, the lil Ruger goes with me.

Regards... Jim P.

I've had a MkII for several years, nothing special off the bench, but it shoots very well from field positions. I just think full stocked rifles don't like being bagged


I just hit on using Sierra's 130gr single shot soft point with H322 and got sub minute groups for the first time. But of course Sierra has discontinued that bullet once I found a good use for it. May have to try the TSX in 130gr when I run out of Sierra's

It's a great hunting rifle, your son should like it.

Rick, besides moisture/warping control, that's where a bed-job pays huge dividend's.

BTW, I've never heard of a rifle that couldn't be shot well off the bench that was worth while in the field!

Schromf: Your comment about not manufacturing a 7x57mm hits close to home. CZ used to make the CZ 550 Full Stock in 7x57 and the CZ 550 American in 7x57, then I guess for some reason dropped the cartridge from its lineup. I own a CZ 550 American in 7x57mm and my brother, Duffy, bought the CZ 550 Full Stock in 7x57mm. His friend, a restaurant owner in El Paso saw Duffy's had to have one so yet one more order went into CZ Connection in Georgia for a CZ 550 Full Stock in 7x57mm. Thnose things are jewels ... accurate as you could possibly want and just pretty as all getout. My brother refinished his stock, had the bolt handle polished and the bolt jeweled in the small herringbone pattern. It is a true .75 inch three-shot group at 100 yards rifle with the 160 grain Nosler Partition and H414 powder. It spits those Noslers out at 2,745 fps. His buddy's shoots the 162 grain SST like balls-afire. My CZ is better than I had ever hoped for in a rifle. I just wish to hell I had bought one when I had the chance, when CZ still had its head screwed onto its shoulders and was importing them into the United States. The marketing guru's on this and other forums say that it was strictly a marketing choice, that demand for the little 7 dropped so a decision was made. I would have felt a whole lot more comfortable with CZ if the company had just pared back the number of 7x57mm being shipped to CZ-USA in Kansas City, Kan., rather than to drop the whole line in 7x57mm. As far as the popularity of this old grandfather of a cartridge, whenever someone posts something about the 7x57mm, just look at the number of responses which crop up, and that is just about on any forum. Sorry about the long post and my pseudo-hijacking ... I had to vent. Tom Purdom

Schromf: You CZ would have been a much better choice. Not in the 308 with detachable magazine, but in 9.3x62 which has a fixed magazine.

Interboat,

I recommended that he get that rifle and found one very competetivly priced. I couldn't convince him into a 6.5x55 as his little brother has a non mannlicher CZ, and he thought the 9.3x62 was Dad picking a wierd Euro caliber.

In hindsight it is his rifle not mine ( I would have gone the 9.3x62 route ), and the 308 is not a bad caliber choice and is very practicle. I am currently buying 140 Gr Australian ball ammo for around $32 for 140 rounds. Haven't tried it in the Ruger yet but my Remington shoots this at 1 MOA off the bench, and I am a big beliver in rounds downrange to improve marksmanship, so this 308 gives him a low cost option towards that goal. I do NOT consider this hunting ammo.

schromf
Have no fear, the 308 in an 18 to 20 inch bbl is one of the best hunting rifles around.
One of the most accurate loads in ALL kinds of 308 rifles is a 165 gr Sierra HPBT Gameking or 165 gr Nosler Partition over 39.5 grsins of IMR 3031.
The 9,3x62 or the 9,3x74R in double rifles is no doubt one of the beat calibers [under 40 cal] on the planet. The 9,3 would be a great choice for his second big game rifle.

NE 450,

I was looking into your IMR 3031 suggestion, looks very promising. I am going to give the Sierra Gameking bullets in 150-165 grains a development effort. I have had good sucess with these in other rifles and calibers.

schromf,
I have killed MANY deer, antelope, and wild pigs with the 165 Sierra Gameking. It has always performed excellent from 25 yards to 550 yards.
For larger big game the 165 Nosler Partition is a good choice.
I use the same 39.5 grains of IMR 3031 for the 180 Sierra Gameking, and the 180 Nosler Partition.
with 150 grain bullets I use 42 grains of IMR 3031.
There are a lot of good powders for the 308, but my results with IMR 3031 have been so good I see no reason to change.

I have a tang safety RSI in 243, with PMC 100 grain PSP ammunition it shoots 3 shot 5/8 groups and kills as well as any 243. The blast is a little disturbing for me but I understand dead deer can't hear it.

Schromf. I have three Ruger RSI rifles, all in .308 Win. which gives you an idea of the respect I have for them. All mine are the early tang safety type.
As to loads, all three of my rifles appear to be very fussy about what they are fed. None of teh three will give anywhere near a decent group with 180 gr. spitzer bullets, period! Lord knows, I've tried and 4.0"is about the best I could ever get out of any of them. The best groups however, come from 48.0 gr. of W-760 and a 180 gr. Sierra round nose at .75" on the average. The next best is the 165 gr. Speer Hot-core over 49.0 gr. of W-760. This is the only load I've run through a chronograph, and from the 18.5" barrel of the RSI, I get 2550 FPS. FWIW, that same load from a 22" barrelled .308 I have gives 2610 FPS. Groups run a satisfactory 1.25" from the RSI and Speer Nitrex premium ammo with the 165 gr. Grand Slam bullet hit to the same point of impact with groups running from 1.25 to 1.50" from all three rifles. The best I could get from any 150 gr. bullet was 1.75 to 2.5" with the Sierra Pro-hunter. I don't like boattail bullets. Charge for the 150 gr. bullet was 50.0 gr. of W-760.
W-748 will undoubtedly give you higher velocity, but my rifles did not like it, nor the Re-15 or H and IMR-4895.
My rifles, at least, seem to be a one trick pony when it comes to powder.
That 165 gr. Speer load BTW took a large mule deer at 250 yards laser measured as the deer was facing me. The bullet hit the chest and was recovered up against a back leg bone breaking that bone in the process. The bullet retained 65 percent of it's original weight. Can't ask for any more than that. I would not hesitate to use that load on elk provided I was able to get within 200 yards or less.
Paul B.

I had the exact same model of RSI as your son and, frankly, I couldn't hit a bull in the a$$ with it. I tried several different 150 grain jacketed bullets and different powders and I'd be lucky to get them on paper at 50 yds. I think a little barrel relief would have done a lot towards accuracy but I just traded it in on a standard model M77 in 30/06 and it is a real tack driver. Hope your son gets a better shooter than mine was.

Just an update, the rifle came in last week. My gunsmith had ordered two, and one came in with a stock with noticeably more color and charactor in the stock, and my smith selected that on for my son. Starting out on a good trend.

While talking with my smith he sold 24 of these last year and he assured me he will get it to shoot as a hunting rifle. He says the first thing he checks is pressure from the front swing swivel, band setup. He checks then releaves this point if neccessary.

I have been reading a couple of other Ruger horror threads, and brought this up with my smith. His comment is that Ruger has brought their barrel making back in house and the quality is much better now than in the past, and although these are not benchrest guns ( nor were they designed to be ) they definately are capable of field accuracy.

Thanks for all the inputs on this thread.

I have owned a couple of them and I really love them, light, handy, well balanced and the .308 is a good caliber...The two I owned in that caliber shot very well indeed, and I attributed that to the short stiff barrels...I have a passion for Manlicher stocked guns,even though I don't presently have one...

I had a wonderful little Ruger Int. in 250 savage, but it soared in value until I couldn't take it anymore and away it went, a sad but financially good day!