Quoted:
I have yet to see a Ruger with a factory tube that I would call accurate.

Quoted:
I have yet to see a Ruger with a factory tube that I would call accurate.

Originally posted by Bart B.  Posted - Oct 18 2005 :  09:02:32

Regarding Ruger's Palma rifles....

In 1990, two firearms companies contacted the US Palma Team Coach and offered to make 20 Palma rifles for the 16-person team. Here's what happened.

Remington was first offering their 40X target rifle in .308 Win. But the coach said no, thanks. He (as well as other knowledgable highpower competitors) knew that that round receiver was notorious for working loose in a few hundred shots from epoxy bedding due to barrel torque. And its extractor was not all that reliable. Plus the Remington trigger wasn't too repeatable. And finally their barrel quality wasn't all that great and the 1:10 twist they used was way too fast for 150-gr. bullets.

Along came Ruger; they offered to build 20 rifles. The coach said to go ahead and the team would test them. Ruger had no idea what a Palma rifle was. They called around and asked people they thought were experts what should be done. Nobody at Ruger knew what a Palma barrel had to do so they guessed. Nobody at Ruger knew what a good barrel had to be made like to shoot no worse than 3/4th MOA at 1000 yards. A black powder barrel maker, Green Mountain, was contracted to make barrels. Ruger had no idea that the best barrels for Palma rifles were then made by Border, Obermeyer or Kreiger and that's what the team members had on their own rifles. Two barrel types were made by Green Mountain; some with 6 grooves and others with 4.

Ruger modified their Model 77 receiver such that the front stock screw was vertical (not angled) and welded in a loading platform for single-shot operation. They designed a new trigger, too. A new stock style was made with a height adjustable cheekpiece. The stocks were all the same length of pull without any adjustment for different sizes of shooters. And the pistol grip wasn't all that good for proper trigger control.

These rifles were given to the US Palma Team mid-summer of 1991 and were tested by the 16-person US Palma Team. Out of 20 Ruger rifles, one shot fair, one was average and the rest horrible. Triggers were not very repeatable. None of the 6-groove barrels shot well. And the fixed length of pull didn't fit half the team members very well at all. I checked out the triggers on three of them and they were pretty bad. People noticed how rough the bores were when they cleaned them.

So at the 1992 World Championships, 15 team members shot their own rifles and 1 shot the best Ruger rifle because his own rifle went sour.

These rifles may still be in a vault at the NRA Whittington Center at Raton, New Mexico.

Note that Ruger's receivers are one of the least stiff ones on the market. They do bend a lot from recoil forces whipping the barreled action.

For factory rifles, seems the Savage ones shoot the most accurate. I'd go there long before even speaking the name "Ruger" out loud as a recommendation for a target rifle; it would hurt my mouth.

Last edited by Bart B.; December 28, 2009 at 05:11 PM.

Quoted:

Ruger makes two target rifles