I have one.
Background:
I usually hunt deer with a c. 1989 Remington 7400 carbine in .30-'06 w/ Leupold 1x4 scope but had been thinking about getting something else for those days when I felt like carrying something else, so I bought a Deerfield last summer. Used it for I think 4 days during hunting season (I usually hunt all day for 11 or 12 days each year during the open firearms season for whitetails). The Remington is restocked with a Kevlar/glass stock + forend and weighs between 7 1/4 and 7 1/2 lbs so one of my criteria was a setup that weighed even less than that.
The Ruger does come with scope-mounting rings but I didn't want to mount a scope because that would kind of defeat my purpose for buying the gun in the first place.
Likes:
- Pretty lightweight.
- Modest recoil when compared to my 7400. Not a real issue for me, but it might be for some.
- Shell ejection poses me no problem. (I'm a lefty.)
- Accuracy isn't that of a target rifle but is certainly good enough for a 100-yd deer rifle.
Dislikes:
- Overall appearance. Even a lower-grade walnut stock would improve its looks dramatically IMO. By lower-grade I mean something like what Marlin used to use on their C995 .22 carbine. Not a big concern for me since I bought the gun as a hunter/shooter and as such it will get scratched and gouged.
- Removal and reinsertion of the clip requires some fumbling. Clip removal/insertion is easier on the Remington, especially with gloves.
(I like to carry a spare pre-loaded clip when hunting.)
- It would feel a bit better for me if the stock were somewhat longer. I assume Ruger chose this length as a compromise with a nod toward the smaller-statured hunter, which I'm not.
- The rear peep sight folds forward too easily for walking through the woods. I still-hunt walking through woods, sometimes through fairly thick stuff where stuff would slide against the gun, and found that I had to keep checking my rear sight and flipping it back up. I didn't discover this problem until I actually took the gun in the woods, when checking it out at home there's enough resistance where it doesn't *seem* like it would be a problem.
Overall I like the gun a lot for the way I intended to use it, but I could only give it an unconditional thumbs-up if you planned on mounting a scope or doing some minor work to better secure the rear sight so it stays up. (Put a drop of Loctite on the sight pin? Haven't decided yet what I'm going to do this fall.)