I haven't been around the past few days, but anybody bought one of these yet?

Has the same green laminate stock the 308's had.

Seriously considering it, but I can't figure out what I'd do with it that I wouldn't do with my AR or my 243.

first I heard of it, really. But, did a search on Davidsons, and they are as you say, and in stock. Now what is the story Ruger will bring us? Now I'm seriously wondering if they are just going to pop a few of these out in each caliber every so often and then use that to gauge demand for lefty stainless? Once it seems you have figured Ruger out, they throw another curve. And why .223? Would be fun, but I just bought the lefty 375 for right at the same price

Once again, I appreciate the helpful people around here who provide me the opportunities to spend more money.

Pulled the trigger on one of these yesterday afternoon, got a specific serial number I wanted.

Of the 15 available yesterday (14 now), 14 of them were in a new serial number range but one was 2 digits away from the last LH SS .308 I bought. Not sure what to make of that, just thought it was interesting.

I want to hear how it shoots and functions. Let us know please. Kurt

Definitely!

How long till 6 or 8 of the "last one" appear on Gunbroker? They probably will skyrocket there, cause this is about the only place online with any knowledge of them.

2 have popped up on Gunbroker, and neither got bids. One at $580 and one at $625.

Interesting thing is: The 25-06, 300, and 375 versions are still gradually going even after the price jumped back up. Guess some just were not aware of the sale, and when they want one, they order.

My rifle got in today and I went over to pick it up tonight. Haven't even cleaned off the packing grease but checked some dimensions and wanted to give a first report as it stands 15 minutes out of the box and plastic inner wrapper.

Green mountain laminate stock, inletting, metal finish etc. is same as my LH SS .308, so I won't go into that. Suffice to say it is a handsome rifle, if you like green-brown-black and stainless steel. The bolt lift is still stiff, it is brand new after all, but travel is straight and true. No wobble, no roughness, no hangups. That's good.

Feeding and ejection so far is great. I loaded 5 empty cases and it fed all 5 straight into the chamber, and did this twice in a row. Ejection was positive as you could expect. Feeding was smooth and the cases do not show any scratches from rough feed lips.

Trigger pull is typical Ruger, crisp, some overtravel and heavy but I gotta say not ungodly so for this day and age. My RCBS gauge measured exactly 4.5 pounds for three pulls in a row, so it is very consistent.

The actions screws are all hex head - good for them! I don't know where they got their slot head screws but I never could find a screwdriver with a tip thick enough to really fit.

It is not a lightweight. The rifle alone without scope rings weighs 7.42 pounds. With the Ruger enhanced gravity rings (aka boat anchors) and a scope it will run well into the mid 8 pound range. Oh, well. Recoil shouldn't be a problem.

Throat/mag geometry is excellent. They blocked off the magazine to allow a 2.355" OAL. I haven't removed it to measure exactly but final measurement outghta be pretty close to that. I only have three .224 bullet types on hand and ran all of them through my Stoney Point OAL gauge - Hornady 50 V-Max, Sierra 55 Spitzer BT and the Barnes 69 BT Match. Seated to touch the lands, all of them give an OAL about .1" shorter than the magazine allows. No problems there.

That's it so far. I plan to load up some pressure series on Saturday and if my butt don't freeze in this spell of cold weather will be out at the range bright and early Sunday morning to see how it shoots right out of the box.

Took it out to the range this morning and had a difficult time getting it sighted in. Even after bottoming out the elevation knob on the scope it still shot about 10" high at 100 yards. Got it home and examined the barrel and the problem was obvious.

Take a look at the very end of the barrel in these pictures. I don't think it's supposed to curve upward, is it?

Barrel is laying on its side in these pics so you can see the curvature better.







Going to call Ruger tomorrow, I'm sure they will take care of it. I'm going to ask for a shipping label as well so I don't have to send it in on my dime.

OR - I could keep it as the rarest of the rare. A left handed stainless steel Ruger hawkeye in .223 with a factory defect. Kind of like a double stamp on a coin or a crooked print on a stamp or something. I oughta be able to get at least triple the going price on gunbroker for this, shouldn't I?

Wow and how? Not sure how they could not se it at the factory. No damage to the barrel or box like it was dropped? Although I don't think shipping damage could even cause that. Maybe that's why it got a special serial number. Lol

Definitely came out of the factory like that. The box is in perfect shape, no dents or obvious visible damage. No trauma to the barrel finish either to indicate it might have gotten whacked outside the box before shipping.

This is what happens when you force employees to work on Christmas day to get the orders out.

I wounder if that is the modle for shooting around corners? I hope when I pick up mine the barrel is better. I will be checking when I pick it up. I would of never of thought it would of gotten out of the factory like that.

Hmm. I wonder if Ruger will claim that it is 'within spec'.

George

a "feature"

50 MOA elevation barrel,

maybe this will start a new trend.

Called Ruger this morning and they will definitely take care of it. They even sent me a prepaid UPS label so I can ship it back at their expense.

Good for them! I have always found the folks at ruger to have good customer service. I expect they will make it right for you!

R

Davidsons would have covered it too in their guarantee. If you take the gun back to the dealer, as soon as the dealer has it, Davidsons sends out a replacement. Then the dealer has to ship the other one back to them.

But, in your case, you wanted that serial number, so it's best to do what you did.

I just looked over my .375 again, and it appears that they installed the wrong follower. It is a right hand follower and too small. It almost pops up into the action when empty, and clearly is not the correct one. I am not sending the gun back to them for this, but probably will call and see if they can just send me another follower. The barrel appears to be straight, but I'm probably not going to fire it before rebarreling.

Edit: After playing around with it, it appears that the follower just was not seated right up into the action. I'll have to try it with loaded rounds and make sure everything is ok. It just seems like the other 375 Ruger I had loaded the first round under the left rail instead of the opposite one, like this one will.

Just one left....

All gone! They don't even list it on Davidson's any more.

But there is still this one on gunbroker. She only runs her ad for one day at a time.

Considering the scarcity, that's still a great price.

http://www.gunbroker.com/Aucti....aspx?Item=325416555

Just picked mine up from the dealer. Initial impression - hey, the stock isn't nearly as fugly as I expected! Second thing was to inspect to see if I got one of the rare bendy barrel models. Mine appears straight but I will be confirming this when I get home. Action is more gritty than my 375 Ruger but less so than my 30-06 ss/lam Hawkeye. Checkering on my rifle gets a C- at best. Not sharp or as deep as my other ss/lam Hawkeyes. Overall I dig it and will not mind the somewhat slapped together feel after I break it in aand hunt with it a time or two. Should be a fun plinker.

I bought one of these rifles and got the bendy barrels.I guess I'll call Ruger and get a pickup slip or call Davidsons. I also got the 375 ruger lam/stainless 20" barrel everything seems to good it and like it better than my African model.

That's just weird that apparently an entire run of rifles had bent barrels. Something was seriously wrong at the Ruger plant.

They've had mine for four weeks now, I had expected it back sooner. When I call to check on repair status and give them the RMA number, which I've done every week now, the service operators keep saying it is "waiting for a new bbl". Funny that they say "b-b-l", only one knew that was the abbreviation for "barrel".

Hopefully they aren't digging through stacks and stacks of stainless .223 barrels looking for a straight one.

Looks like their bolt action 223 barrels share the same accuracy genes with the Mini-14

I didn't think to see if the barrel was straight on my 375 before I put it in the safe. Now that I've finally made some ammo I guess the first trip to the range will tell the tale.

I took my rifle back to the dealer yesterday. They couldn't believe it.I called Davidsons today they got a call for pickup for my rifle.The dealer said barrel bent 1/2 inch.I told Davidsons I wanted to keep the rifle so repair with new barrel. They said I could call in the future to check on updates.

i also got one with a bad barrel but to the left. with all of the adjustment out of the scope it was still 39 inches of the center of the target. i sent it back and ruger put a new barrel on it. shot it today with federal ae223g, 50 grain jhp, just because i got 4 cases of it left. five- 3 shot groups shot at 100 yards measured between 5/8 ths and 1 1/8 inch. i am glad ruger took care of the problem but it still annoyed me that it occured and i had to send it back.

How long did it take to get your rifle rebarreled? I have not heard from my local dealer or davidson's. I call on monday.

One fellow on 24hcf got his back within a month, they sent it back overnight air.

Mine was sent in on Jan. 8th and I just got the UPS shipment notification last week, it should be back this Thursday 3/14 by end of day.

I think my experience was a bit atypical, the Service dept has wait for a new batch of barrels to be made by the production department. Supposedly they got a bunch of appropriate barrels in about two weeks ago.