And it jammed on the second round! (That should satisfy the haters... )

Anyway, local Gun Fair gave me the opportunity to play with a .416 Ruger. I do loves me the idea of a short, relatively lightweight CRF rifle. Action seemed plenty smooth and the rifle fits me quite well.

Anyway, I busted two 4" clay pigeons at 50 yards off-hand, so accuracy was decent and recoil, while stout, was quite manageable.

What made me laugh though was that the second round promptly jammed in the magazine. It somehow didn't quite get grabbed by the claw and rode halfway down into the magazine, and halfway up at about a 20 degree angle.

Just goes to prove, even a CRF can be jammed.

I have seen the same thing happened with a 375 Ruger, and the reason was that the rim/edge on the front/underside of the bolt (between the locking lugs) was sharp as a knife.

Instead of popping up underneath the extractor claw, the cartridge was hooked by the sharp edge of the bolt and pushed forward resulting in a jam like you describe.

A minute with a dremel tool fixed it, but it should NOT be like that in the first place.
The rifle in question has since shot several houndred rounds, and is now feeding as it should without any problems at all.

I seem to recall my H&H feeding quite smoothly

I never heard of a gun fair. What is that?

Ruger is building these to a low price. Is it around $7-800. That is built in USA (labor costs)and $200 less than a CZ imported. I would expect a few rough edges. Well, - ok, I dont expect it from Ruger. Today, its not a big surprise. I don't suppose they would listen to some feedback on this, or just like the No1 safety button ... Just call it good enough? Should Ruger need customer feedback? The sales rep just witness it at the gun fair. What did he say, I wonder? Oopsie? Better make the first shot count?

This is seriously bad PR. If I ever took a car out on a test drive and the computer killed the brakes. That would be it for me. No sale.

So what ticks me off. Members of forum holding back on these issues because they like the company. Not just Ruger, saw same thing with CZ. The supporters just call them tuneups etc, the guns (CZ) are loaded with defects!

I started a thread asking why all the Ruger 375 returns on the used rack all over New England. After the name calling, character assignation et al. the thread got locked. I heard about extraction problem, now it is feeding issues. Not in my thread, thank you. Nobody came forward to tell us about the jams. Now I hear! Why? Too defend Ruger and provide a fix? There had been an earlier thread about the extraction problem. In that case there was suggestion of pilot error. The poor guy with the bad gun (two of them) was put on the defense.

Ok, in fairness to jsl, he maybe did not even see my post or care for the tone. But as a trend, there sure seems a lot of partisan politics around ctgs and companies. I sure got my favorites too, but I own three and still admit CZ has a really big QC problem.

fun round ..i think the weight is about right, though some might complain its too light ...

LMAO that it jammed .. that particular jam, nose up, rim down is called a porpoise ,,,, the 500 jeffery is known for it ... in unrebated rounds, is caused by a too weak mag spring .. something that CZ;s frequently do, and are fixed with a new mag spring ... winchester classics would do it ALL the time, except for the "knee" in their spring.. that also prevents a full round in capacity ... Kobe posted a thread in gunsmithing on it ...

i am disappointed that it didn't work out of the box

quote:

Originally posted by jsl3170:
I seem to recall my H&H feeding quite smoothly

you've got a 416 hh? just teasing

[QUOTE]Originally posted by fourbore:
I never heard of a gun fair. What is that?
[QUOTE]

Once a year (normally) the Rahaages Shooting Sport's Club in conjunction with Turner's Outdoorsman Stores hold a Shooting Fair. A bunch of manufactureres come out with quite a few of their toys and let you shoot them. Basically, you pay by the bullet.

It's a great way to test fire a rifle to see what you think of it before you buy. My dad wanted to fire a few 9mm pistols (he liked the S&W M&P 9mm) and I took the chance to shoot a .460 S&W (200gr. Horn. load) and a .500 S&W (350gr. load). I rather liked the .460...

They also had 3 trap/skeet ranges set up with Beretta and Browning there. Bunch of lovely over-unders and the new shotties to break clays with.

It's also a great marketing stunt. Exhibition shooters, wing-shooters, converted semi-auto machine guns (twin 30-cal's on a mount, for instance), hotdogs hamburgers and icee cones.

Lotsa fun really and a great time to play with toys before you buy.

Back to Ruger: I really liked the stock on the Alaskan models and the size/weight was indeed very nice. No telling just how dirty that particular rifle was. I doubt any of the firearms at the show were cleaned for three days and probably 40,000 shooters. All I can say is that I've never had a round "Porpoise" on me and sure hope it never happens again!

I shot a 416 Ruger last weekend that did the same thing if you tried to ease the bolt closed. If you chambered a round relatively quickly, it did not happen. 5 minutes with some emery cloth would fix it.

Other than that, I was quite impressed by the 416R Hawkeye. It was a very accurate rifle. The owner was getting .75 MOA with factory ammo. Recoil was only a scootch greater than my 416 Taylor (my 416T is probably a pound or pound and a half heavier, and has an F990 pad).

I've never had a problem with feeding with my Ruger Alaskan in .416 Ruger... but, that said, any rifle that's going to Africa with me, particularly for DG, is going to a quality gunsmith for function testing/improvement... and that was done before I fired the first shot.

quote:

Originally posted by jeffeosso:

quote:

Originally posted by jsl3170:
I seem to recall my H&H feeding quite smoothly

you've got a 416 hh? just teasing

Ha!!

quote:

Originally posted by Arild Iversen:
I have seen the same thing happened with a 375 Ruger, and the reason was that the rim/edge on the front/underside of the bolt (between the locking lugs) was sharp as a knife.

Instead of popping up underneath the extractor claw, the cartridge was hooked by the sharp edge of the bolt and pushed forward resulting in a jam like you describe.

A minute with a dremel tool fixed it, but it should NOT be like that in the first place.
The rifle in question has since shot several houndred rounds, and is now feeding as it should without any problems at all.

I had the same problem with a Hawkeye in 257 Roberts. The sharp edge on the bottom of the bolt face cut into the cartridge under the bolt in the magazine. Also the extractor collar had a lip on it, which caught the rim and pushed it forward. The collar was bigger in diameter than the bolt it wrapped around. As said, some polishing with emory cloth fixed the problem.

IMO, it shouldn't have been that way out-of-the-box, but it was. I called Ruger, and the woman on the phone didn't even know what an extractor collar was. I had a heck of a time getting on the same page, with terminology, before we could actually have a conversation about the problem, and look up the part on her computer. It was so difficult, in fact, to have a conversation, that I just gave up, bought some emory cloth from the hardware store, and started working it to smooth up the rough edges.

That's the same rifle that I gave away, and later found it wouldn't shoot beter that about an 8" group, with several factory loads. So, I'll say, based on that experience, and others, that Ruger has a QC problem, and a customer service problem too. They need qualified people on the phone, for starters.

OTOH, I get a little annoyed with all the comments about the CZ 550. I wish folks would be specific if they bad mouth the CZ, and say they are talking about the Safari action. Since all six of my CZ 550s in the medium action work fine, feeding and everything, and all the CZ medium action rifles I've shot also worked fine, I consider my experience as a good representation and test of the medium action. However, I did notice that the big action didn't seem to be as consistant and well functioning as the medium action - out-of-the-box.

KB

My CZ 9.3x62 action is as smooth as any rifle I have ever owned.

I also shot the Ruger Hawkeye Alaskan .416 Ruger at last weekend's shooting fair. Working it quickly from the shoulder resulted in smooth operation and good hits on the pigeons. I liked it, but that was just a two round test. I own a .375 Ruger African which has given me no troubles, over approximately 200 rounds.

quote:

Originally posted by Canuck:
I shot a 416 Ruger last weekend that did the same thing if you tried to ease the bolt closed. If you chambered a round relatively quickly, it did not happen. 5 minutes with some emery cloth would fix it.

Other than that, I was quite impressed by the 416R Hawkeye. It was a very accurate rifle. The owner was getting .75 MOA with factory ammo. Recoil was only a scootch greater than my 416 Taylor (my 416T is probably a pound or pound and a half heavier, and has an F990 pad).

Were you shooting the Taylor at the same time?

Will:

Pondoro used a .416 Ruger. It is o.k. to get one.

quote:

Originally posted by JudgeG:
Will:

Pondoro used a .416 Ruger. It is o.k. to get one.

I am always cautious about flouting the laws of physics!

quote:

Originally posted by Will:
Were you shooting the Taylor at the same time?

Do you mean one on each shoulder? Or both rifles held together like a double?

I shot the 416 Ruger at a big bore shoot last week, and had my 416 Taylor there. I shot the Taylor first, then immediately thereafter shot the Ruger for comparison.

quote:

Originally posted by Canuck:
I shot the 416 Ruger at a big bore shoot last week, and had my 416 Taylor there. I shot the Taylor first, then immediately thereafter shot the Ruger for comparison.

And.....?

quote:

Originally posted by Grenadier:

quote:

Originally posted by Canuck:
I shot the 416 Ruger at a big bore shoot last week, and had my 416 Taylor there. I shot the Taylor first, then immediately thereafter shot the Ruger for comparison.

And.....?

Like I said above....

quote:

I was quite impressed by the 416R Hawkeye. It was a very accurate rifle. The owner was getting .75 MOA with factory ammo. Recoil was only a scootch greater than my 416 Taylor (my 416T is probably a pound or pound and a half heavier, and has an F990 pad).