I had one of these ( a LH one) when they first came out 3 or 4 years ago. I liked everything about it, how handy and accurate is was, but the first ones had a sloppy bolt travel, and a too-soft stainless bolt, and the side to side slop when you brought the bolt back would cause it to bind when you pushed it forward. I traded it off, and thought perhaps I'd try to make up a similar carbine with a Rem 700 action. Cost to do that would have been up there though.
A couple months ago I was at a gun shop in a small neighboring town that has always had a good selection of left hand bolts, and I saw a GSR for sale. The bolt raceways have been tightened up on these newer ones, and the composition of the SS bolt was changed. Also the barrels are now free floated.
I bought it and put the Nikon 2.5-8x pistol scope in Warne Q.D. rings that I had on my Mini -14 "Scout". I really like the forward mounted scout scope, really fast to get into action and great peripheral vision and side to side awareness.
I sold the big "boat rudder" of a 10 round single stack magazine that came with the gun online, and bought several 5 and 10 round Polymer magazines. They are double stack, so don't stick down as far, are cheaper, quieter, less wobble in the gun, easier to load, and can be loaded while still in the gun. I also added a Galco Safari Ching Sling, easy to throw your supporting hand through the loop, and shooting from off hand, sitting, kneeling is much steadier.
I was hoping to find an accurate load with the Hornady 168 grain A-Max, as I has many boxes of them on hand. They are an expanding poly tipped bullet that is supposedly built on a Match jacket. I had not been able to get those to shoot well out of my heavy barreled Remington .308, but to be fair, the Remington only seems to shoot great with Sierra Matchkings.
Initial testing showed promise, as most groups were hovering around an inch or less at 100 yards. The Nosler brass I have been using in the Rem700 have had 6 loadings so far, so I thought I'd get some new brass for the Ruger, and bought 500 rounds of new Lake City, packaged as Federal American Eagle 7.62 x 51.
It is a bit thicker and tough brass, and annealed. I had to do very little prep work on this brass, very consistent compared to some other brands. It, and the Nosler .308 ( a buck each for empties so it should be good), and the PPU brass I use in the 7.62x39, were good to go right out of the box. I sized them, check the length which were all right on, and checked flash holes for burrs. One thing I did not check for was neck thickness/uniformity, which I have been meaning to get set up for.
Varget has been the best performer in my Bull Barrel Remington, but it has been scarce around here. I have IMR-4895 and IMR-4064 on hand, and can get lots more locally, so tried those.
My latest targets shown below, got a slight improvement when I tried seating the bullets out another .010" past the recommended 2.800". They fit in the magazine with just enough room to spare. I settled on 40.0 grains of 4064 as my GP round, and have loaded up 475 rounds of it.
My 18 " barrel Cowboy 1895 is still my favorite rifle to hunt with, but this short, light .308 is growing on me. Ruger now has a model of the GSR with synthetic stock that is a full pound lighter, and instead of a flash hider, they come with an effective muzzle brake. Swapping out my flash hider for a brake will be easy as it is a standard 5/8" x 24 thread. but Ruger has not yet made for sale the synthetic stock to replace the laminated ones, and even if they did, has not made them in left hand.
A couple months ago I was at a gun shop in a small neighboring town that has always had a good selection of left hand bolts, and I saw a GSR for sale. The bolt raceways have been tightened up on these newer ones, and the composition of the SS bolt was changed. Also the barrels are now free floated.
I bought it and put the Nikon 2.5-8x pistol scope in Warne Q.D. rings that I had on my Mini -14 "Scout". I really like the forward mounted scout scope, really fast to get into action and great peripheral vision and side to side awareness.
I sold the big "boat rudder" of a 10 round single stack magazine that came with the gun online, and bought several 5 and 10 round Polymer magazines. They are double stack, so don't stick down as far, are cheaper, quieter, less wobble in the gun, easier to load, and can be loaded while still in the gun. I also added a Galco Safari Ching Sling, easy to throw your supporting hand through the loop, and shooting from off hand, sitting, kneeling is much steadier.
I was hoping to find an accurate load with the Hornady 168 grain A-Max, as I has many boxes of them on hand. They are an expanding poly tipped bullet that is supposedly built on a Match jacket. I had not been able to get those to shoot well out of my heavy barreled Remington .308, but to be fair, the Remington only seems to shoot great with Sierra Matchkings.
Initial testing showed promise, as most groups were hovering around an inch or less at 100 yards. The Nosler brass I have been using in the Rem700 have had 6 loadings so far, so I thought I'd get some new brass for the Ruger, and bought 500 rounds of new Lake City, packaged as Federal American Eagle 7.62 x 51.
It is a bit thicker and tough brass, and annealed. I had to do very little prep work on this brass, very consistent compared to some other brands. It, and the Nosler .308 ( a buck each for empties so it should be good), and the PPU brass I use in the 7.62x39, were good to go right out of the box. I sized them, check the length which were all right on, and checked flash holes for burrs. One thing I did not check for was neck thickness/uniformity, which I have been meaning to get set up for.
Varget has been the best performer in my Bull Barrel Remington, but it has been scarce around here. I have IMR-4895 and IMR-4064 on hand, and can get lots more locally, so tried those.
My latest targets shown below, got a slight improvement when I tried seating the bullets out another .010" past the recommended 2.800". They fit in the magazine with just enough room to spare. I settled on 40.0 grains of 4064 as my GP round, and have loaded up 475 rounds of it.
My 18 " barrel Cowboy 1895 is still my favorite rifle to hunt with, but this short, light .308 is growing on me. Ruger now has a model of the GSR with synthetic stock that is a full pound lighter, and instead of a flash hider, they come with an effective muzzle brake. Swapping out my flash hider for a brake will be easy as it is a standard 5/8" x 24 thread. but Ruger has not yet made for sale the synthetic stock to replace the laminated ones, and even if they did, has not made them in left hand.
