Nightmare

W

William Suter

Well-known member
May be the name of my new Ruger. LOL! I bought a Ruger 77 Hawkeye Predator in 22-250 from Bass Pro a few months ago. I got it out of the used rack but everything made me believe/think it was unfired. BPS bought 2000 firearms from Davidson's and this was one of them. A counter guy said they were new but had to be sold as used. IDK if I believe that or not but its been a "Nightmare" from the start. When I got it home, I noticed the floor plate wouldn't close without using brute force. After a few days of trial and error I finally got that fixed. A range trip told me the accuracy sucked so I decided to get a trigger job and float the barrel and bed the action. Now my trigger is lighter but still sucks. Granted its a lot lighter but its mushy feeling, not crisp at all. But it is lighter. Now to the bedding. I total blew this job and no one to blame but me. The bedding job turned out beautiful but........for some reason?????? I decided to not put the front action screw in. When I removed the action from the stock I cleaned everything like I always do. Then went to assemble and the front screw won't go in. Dumbass, what was I thinking? Two days later it still won't go together and I have pretty much FUBAR'ed the front action screw hole. It might be repairable with a pillar but decided to just order a new Boyd's thumbhole stock. I think in the long run it would be cheaper. I ordered the same color as the original only with a thumbhole. I got the light weight version for a standard barrel and really should have got the varmint version as I had to open up the barrel channel some to clear the heavy sporter barrel on the Predator model. But I do think this new stock is a little lighter and I like it maybe even better. Funny, the floor plate is still a PITA to open and close but I'm leaving it alone and not bedding another Ruger ever!! I did take it out and shoot it and it did give me hopes of it being a pretty accurate rifle but only a few more reloads and range trips will let me know. I guess the trigger will need replaced down the road, just not today. Hopefully my "Nightmare" is over and I can make it a coyotes nightmare.

P.S. I didn't do the trigger job. I actually paid to have it done. Guess I'll be paying again to replace it.
 
Brother I feel for you. I bought a Savage Impulse 300 win mag for big game and it has been a bleeding nightmare. Hey on the flip side, next time you buy a 22-250 look at a Browning. I have two and they are so reliable it’s sinful
 
Megalon said:
Brother I feel for you. I bought a Savage Impulse 300 win mag for big game and it has been a bleeding nightmare. Hey on the flip side, next time you buy a 22-250 look at a Browning. I have two and they are so reliable it’s sinful
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I have a Remington in 22-250AI. The Ruger was a good deal and a nice looking rifle so I went for it. My Remington is showing its age and thought it would be a replacement. It may work out but I have a ways to go. Probably should have just bought a new barrel for the Remmy. I might still do that this winter.
 
The biggest Nightmare I ever had for .223 was 30 years ago with a Ruger #1 Varm. 223 . I wasted money, mental anguish, and uncountable hours loading to get it to shoot. It Was Happy Days, when that thing left my safe forever.

but .... I Not a Ruger hater , as I do keep a RattyAss 3 MOA shooting, with only taking proprietary magazines, Mini14, that i will never get rid of. ...LOL
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Megalon said:
Brother I feel for you. I bought a Savage Impulse 300 win mag for big game and it has been a bleeding nightmare. Hey on the flip side, next time you buy a 22-250 look at a Browning. I have two and they are so reliable it’s sinful
Click to expand...
I have a Remington in 22-250AI. The Ruger was a good deal and a nice looking rifle so I went for it. My Remington is showing its age and thought it would be a replacement. It may work out but I have a ways to go. Probably should have just bought a new barrel for the Remmy. I might still do that this winter.
 
Well, I loaded up some Noslers and H380 and headed to the club. The old standard 38 grain loads were bad but this trigger made everything even worse. My smith is getting pretty old and his eyes are failing but he usually does a nice trigger job. I hate to dog on him as he's a friend as well but he really blew it on this trigger. I don't know if someone could fix it or if it will be better to just replace it. As for accuracy, well it wasn't near as good as I was hoping for but I'm just getting started searching for a good load. The "Nightmare" continues.
 
Timney offers a trigger and so does Rifle Basix. To be totally honest, the RB is $60 cheaper and easier to install (also out of stock) and I'm getting kinda tired of putting money in a rifle that isn't shooting that well as of yet. I know the trigger isn't helping accuracy when you spend more concentration on pulling the trigger than keeping the crosshair on the bullseye. I'm going to talk with my gunsmith friend and see if he thinks he can do anything with it. If not I'll go from there. LOL, it is pretty to look at if that's any consolation.
 
Its tough to struggle so much with a rifle. I bought a Ruger American Gen 2 in 204 Ruger 6 months ago and I really like it. I also own a 17HMR in a Ruger RPR and I've been impressed with both. Here's to keeping my streak going.
 
I did shoot it yesterday and with a 52 grain Berger I got some respectable groups. Not one hole but half inch and a little under. Plenty good enough for coyote. Now if it just repeats itself next time out.
 
Those rifles have been great for our customers and usually come with great factory triggers. I've got the same one in new production 22 hornet and it's a tack driver. I do know that davidsons has a money back guarantee for their buyers so those 2000 firearms are probably returns that had problems.
 
I agree with you on the Davidsons. I had a 77 Hornet with a chamber issue and they did an exchange. When I first got home with the Ruger I noticed the floor plate wouldn't close without EXTREME force. We're talking using a hammer handle to close it and then it wouldn't open without a little help with a blunt object like a screw driver handle or dowel rod. After a few hours, I figured out that if I left the screws out of the action it closed pretty easy. I ended up using a little bedding compound around the front screw opening in the stock and that fixed it. Accuracy wasn't the greatest so I decided to bed the action. This was a major FUBAR on my part as I decided to let gravity hold the action in with the help of small bungee cords. This was a bad idea and is totally my fault for the outcome. The bedding job looked great but the front action screw didn't line up and now I can't get the screw started. I tried drilling the hole in the stock larger and after two or three attempts I realize I just screwed up a perfectly good stock. SO.....I get on the phone to Boyd's and ordered a light weight thumbhole stock in the same Green Mountain camo. In all honesty, I like the thumbhole stock better anyway. Now I'm waiting on Rifle Basix to get their triggers in stock to replace the trigger. My smith did a trigger job on it but I don't like the way it turned out. I can't say for sure this rifle was a return but if I had bought it new and had some of the issues I have had it would have been returned for sure. This rifle had issues other than ones mentioned but slowly and surely I'm getting the bug worked out. I think it likes the Bergers and seems like everytime I take it out it shoots better than the time before. I think when I get the trigger replaced it will be just fine. Hopefully I don't go broke fixing it.
 


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