Guess I march to the beat of a different drummer. T/C Contender Carbine. Reason: Improperly cut chamber at Fox Ridge and customer service that makes WJ Clinton look like a saint. T/C can kiss my ass. They need to not admit their affiliation in public forums and should wear extra hunter orange in the fall.

My Ruger 10/22, M77(2), #1(2), and M77/44 are all sub MOA shooters with original factory barrels. Function is fine. I had a M77V in 6mm that shot 2" or so(sold), and a #1 in 7x57 that needed a new barrel from Lilja. Smith that did that screwed up so it got a second Lilja tube. Home run with that one.

I have seen and handled 1 Rem 710. A dab of grease in the bolt raceway and it functioned smoothly. Shot 1.5" groups with 2 brands of ammo, and has since accounted for 15 deer. 30-06 BTW. Owner got the store to keep the scope it came with and put a Leupold Vari-x II 3x9 on top.

Ray - excessive recoil and crap groups are a sign of excessive headspace - which can be dodgy, but at least the savage is strong.

[ 10-11-2003, 10:20: Message edited by: Derrick Bunn ]

a rifle called a midland 2100 30-06 made from a springfield 1903 bolt and ''new receiver'' new barrel new stock .bolt was so loose iam amazed it didnt fall out when you were chambering a cartridge .when i was shooting wild cattle with it ,that cheap shit idea for a bolt sleave lock would turn around at the slightest bump when bolt was pulled to rear ,i will never own another rifle with this ''womans engineering'' including any model 70 bodgy shit engineering, mauser 98 is still the best why are copies always worse than the original????????????????/

Ruger 77 .22 hornet. Times two. One had an 8 lb trigger another had one that was off my RCBS trigger pull scale. Shot good groups if you are into shot guns. Too bad because the guns have a lot of excellent features.

#1 POS- Ruger 77 Stainless synthetic in 30-06- beautiful gun but would not group whatsoever. Sometimes I could get a 3/4 to 1" group at 100 but most were 4-6" and totally erratic. Adjusted action screws and did every thing possible but to no avail. Sold if and bought a Rem700SS in 30-06 and will shoot 1" at 100 and often better all day long with handloads or factory ammo.

#2 POS- Ruger Mini 14- Totally reliable, but I have shotguns that group buckshot better than this this thing would. Its only purpose seemed to be making noise and wasting ammon. I sold it and bought a Colt HBAR and shoots 2" at 100 with factory irons all day long with about any ammo.

#3 POS- Italian Sharps replica in 45/70 (forget the make), every corner was sharper than a razor, action was incredibly rough and hung up often, the vernier sight on it wouldn't hold a zero for anything.

I think that's typical of Mini-14's. I've never adjusted the sights on mine; I don't think I'd know the difference. But it sure is fun to blast away at trash and rocks with, using the cheap steel-cased Russian ammo. I've given up handloading for it since that stuff came along. Back when I bought mine in 1976 or '77 they were advertising it as "The World's Most Expensive Plinker." It's still shooting fine. The extractor recently broke. Ruger didn't have one. Had to order it from some guy who advertises in Shotgun news who was machining replacements. The gunsmith who fixed it said it looked like new, probably hadn't had 100 rounds through it. I laughed and told him it was more like 10,000 rounds. Won't ever have to worry about a new barrel, because I'll never be able to tell if it's getting inaccurate because it's wearing out.

Well, I have no Ruger stories...at least not about their rifles. Their handguns are something else. Their factory handgun service is even worse. For instance, I once sent in a lightweight Single Six for their re-finish service. Asked them to also replace the rear sight, as it was a bit low. Handgun couldn't be sighted in without filing the front sight down, which I was loathe to do. They sent it back to me with no rear sight at all. So I wrote them and asked that they return my rear sight.

The only response I ever got was a form letter telling me that "rear sights for that model are no longer available". They never did replace my sight.

Also sent in a Redhawk .44 Mag and an SRM .357 Maximum for sevice, both with VERY low serial numbers. They kept both of them and sent me back very high serial number guns, despite my having told them repeatedly in long phone conversations that I wanted my original guns back.

However, I do have about 20 Ruger rifles in the vault right now, and every single one of them is dependable and will shoot groups of a MOA or less...some considerably less. Of course, I have never bought a new one, other than fully automatic ones, nor have I ever owned a Mini-14. (I did own 4 AC-556's and they were not dependable.) Having said all that, I love Ruger No. 1's, and have over 15 of them.

The worst sporting rifles I ever had were a Sako .25-06 and a Holland & Holland .275 H&H magazine rifle. The Sako would not give more than 2,800 fps with any 87 gr. bullet load, wihout freezing the bolt shut. That, as you all know, isn't even halfway decent .250 Savage velocity with the 87 grainer.

The Holland magazine rifle would blow primers and freeze the bolt shut with factory ammo. Oddly enough, it was one of a pair I bought. The other was a splendid magazine rifle - accurate, as natural to your shoulder as your arm, and sweet to look at. Sold both the Sako and the Holland to a fellow who wanted my collection of Frasers, commercial mausers, and english shotguns. He made a 5-figure profit on the deal, so doubt that he cared.

AC

[ 10-14-2003, 09:05: Message edited by: Alberta Canuck ]

I am no great fan of Rugers except for #1s but I have a Ruger 77 mII that will damn near shoot 1 hole groups at 100 yds w/.280rem handloads wood stock has been fiberglass bedded and has dayton/traistor trigger.I had a synthetic stainless 223 and it wouldnt shoot decent groups no matter what I tried.w/regards

Ruger Mark II 223. Bad trigger and would not feed rounds from mag to chamber consistantly.

[ 10-20-2003, 06:57: Message edited by: jbok ]

I had a very early Ruger Mini-14 that would shoot 1 to 1 1/2" groups all day with anything I put in it. Well, as the sad story goes, I got hard up for $$$ so I sold it with the intention of replacing it later. It took a number of years, but I did with a new 90's version. The best I could get was 3-4" groups and even those would wonder around. Not much to do but sell and buy another. Did that a couple of years later and the same problem, but this time the group didn't wonder, it was a consistent 3-4" with any thing I put in it. Sold it and that was the last Ruger I've owned since.

I should have known better, because in the late 80's I bought a then new Ruger Bisley in .45 Colt and the bore was pitted out and blued over right out of the box. I had to send that back to Ruger and they rebarreled it for me, but the chambers were so big that even with the weak factory loads, it was splitting cases on the first shot! Not good!!! Sold that one in a hurry too! What ever happened to them, to big to fast???

Worst factory rifle I ever had was a marlin 39As. It wouldn't ejected, cases would fall back into the action. The firing pin would hit some hard and some rounds soft and some wouldn't even go off. Sent the gun to the factory twice it was still pos.

Marlin MR7. Shot 6" at 100 regardless. Pushed a NECO lead plug through the barrel and fell out of the muzzle by gravity alone. DID NOT ENGRAVE THE SLUG!!!! Put a 6MM Rem AI barrel on it and it shot fine 'till I lost the bolt but thats another story. By the way..., still looking for a new bolt.

Ruger for me too, won't ever have another. Looked at a Rem 710 just last week, courious only and the first one I'd seen, what a POS this thing is!!! Remington must be in trouble or will be soon. Look at the price of an older rem 700 or discontinued 721, 722, and 725, there prices are way up from a few years ago, because there good rifles and well built. Perhaps Remington should stick to making small rifle primers because so far, there still good at that.

One low cost rifle I'm very happy with are the small action CZ 527, easy to work on and even easier to tune up...........Ric N

Mine was a .22 mag. a marlin 25mn. I couldn't even get it to hold a 3 inch group at 100 yards. No matter what.