These look like they're pretty well made and my wife needs her own rifle (even if she doesn't know it yet), so I'm thinking of getting one in .308 and having it cut down to her size. Add an appropriate Leupold scope and turn her loose to shoot up to 400kg entree sized animals.

Does anyone have any experience with these or a suggestion on a similar rifle?

I have one in 257R. Off hand I don't know why you would need to have it "cut down". I love the rifle, however, the recoil might be a factor in 308 with heavy bullets/loads. Having said that, it is not as accurate as I would like. I have not bedded it or anthing except free float the barrel.
Peter.

Same experience with mine as Peter. Same caliber. I have floated bbl also. Helped some. I think having the action bedded by an expert may help accuracy. 308 in thaat rifle - I would not recommend for a lady.

I really like my Remington Mtn. Rifle in .260. With 120 gr. bullets recoil is not bad at all. They kick a little more with the 140's. I wish my Mtn. Rifle was a .257 as I do love that caliber. Merg

Thanks for the replies. My wife is a small lady and most of the full sized stocks are a bit too large for her to comfortably hold and shoot. I'd like for her to end up with a rifle she can use for medium sized game animals.

She's fired my Ruger 77RSI in .308 and my Mauser 7x57 without difficutly. She can shoot my 9,3x62 or .45-70 but the recoil is a bit much.

I'd wondered about the Ultralights, seems like Ruger rifles have unique needs when it comes to accuracy.

quote:

I'd wondered about the Ultralights; seems like Ruger rifles have unique needs when it comes to accuracy.

Rugers typically have insufficient tip pressure. You can use cardboard shims to see what it likes, and then use epoxy to make the adjustment permanent. Sometimes all it needs is a dab of epoxy, providing a better seat, to keep the barrel from wandering.

The bedding design for the recoil lug is quite good. A skim coat of epoxy at that point would provide insurance.

You need to rough up the wood wherever you epoxy. Any kind of hardware store epoxy will work fine; I've seen DevCon (preferred by BR gunsmiths) in a tube at my local Ace. Neutral shoe polish (two coats) makes an effective parting compound.

Is that model available in 7-08, 260, or 257 Roberts? The light gun will have more recoil. If you're reloading, though, lighter 30 caliber bullets would have the same effect.
.

My girlfriend has a Ruger Ultra Light in 257 Roberts that shoots well under MOA and bone stock not one modification. My brother has one of the Ultra Lights in 30/06, it was a bit finicky but turned out to be a really accurate rifle as well with the right loads HOWEVER in 30/06 this thing has terrible recoil with full power 180 grain loads. The .308 may be unpleasant to shoot as well but depends on how much bench time she plans on spending with it, they are a really nice easy to carry and well handling rifle and the ones I've been around are accurate.
Good Luck with yours.

It is not unusual for any fwt. barrel to require stabization in the form of upward pressue on the forend...I have seen bull barrels that shot better that way..I have seen rifles shoot best tightly bedded all the way, particularly big bores and I have seen rifles that needed free floating in varias extents.

bottom line is each rifle is an enity unto itself as someone once said and they were spot on...

When I bed any rifle or make a stock I bed them tight, test fire for group, then if that does not suit me I will 3 point bed it and shoot it for group (pressure on the forend) and if that does not work I will free float the barrel with from about one or two inches forward of the chamber and test it for group, if it does not shoot then a new barrel is in order IMO...

I do this in the above order as you can take material out but you cannot put it back on a wood stock..unless of course you glass it back, but this works for me and saves me hours of work.

Thanks to all for the input, we're planning a trip to South Africa in 09. She's probably not going to take anything larger than a Blue Wildebeest and I'd think a .308 would be as small as she should go.

After that the rifle will be used mainly for deer here in the Eastern US.

....Rick ,, I got my wife an 06 Ultra light with the canoe paddle stock ,,, It was too long for her and the next year the Compact came out , the first time she picked up hers in the store she told me that was the rifle she wanted , flat out ... Her,s is the 308 , with the green laminated stock ... I put a 3-9 Burris Compact silver scope on it ,, She didn,t like the look of the black scopes ,,,,I moved the sling stud so it points foward on the fore end tip .. It hops around pretty good with Federal High Energy 165 Partitions and 180 Woodlieghs ....But compared to the 06 , which she shot pretty well .it is about the same .... I do recommend a longish eye relief scope and regardless what others think her,s will get a muzzle brake ....

Because of where we lived my wife had to pack my 458 and the recoil when compared is quite minimal ,Now she doesn,t have too and recoil has become more noticeable ....With electronic hearing protectors the excess noise is done away with .....I improved the trigger and shortened the lop 1/4" , put a decelerator pad on it also for her ...

,,,,,Now she wants a pink stock with roses on it

Got the new one in 7mm-08. Nice and compact with the 20" barrel. Target grey finish. That new trigger is sweet.

I've one in cal. 270W; out of the box it was a 2.5/3 MOA rifle. I had to rebarrel it with a L. Walther, slightly heavier barrel; now it's a 1 MOA rifle. Since, I've discovered Tikka, I've bought 2 and they are both 1 MOA (or less) rifles out of the box, not to mention the smoother bolts or better triggers...definitely no more Ruger for me. I would suggest you to consider the Tikka T3 lite.

The Rooger Ultralight is a nice compact rifle. Mine was a 77 with the tang safety in 257 Rob.
Right out of the box it was an half inch rifle.
Why did I sell it
Oh yes, it was traded in on another Rooger, a Mk11 in 6.5x55, which was accurate too and in my view a slightly better round.

This is the rifle I was wondering about. I think it's a newer style and not the Compact or older Ultralight version...



After shooting a bit today with some of our present rifles my wife has decided that she likes rifles with iron sights, like her CZ carbine in .223. So the search goes on.