When the 541-S first came out, the whole sale was $249, I bought one, then another, then another. I noticed that the 581 looked like the same gun, bought one of those also. I fire lapped all of them with 800 grit al oxide, five shots only with CCI sub sonic ammo. Accuracy at 100 yards was astounding with CCI standard velocity and cci green tag.
I did bed the action and freefoat the barrel, ran a 6.5x20 Leupold target scope and had the target knobs marked out to 200 yards.
A lot of ground squirrels and jack rabbits were shot at some pretty incredible distances.
Run a brush though your RF barrels every 250 rounds to keep them shooting their best. None of my rifles ever had the habit of throwing the first shot. I made a rod guide for my rifles so I would not wear the throat egg shaped with the cleaning rod.
Precision shooting magazine had an article on how to make convert a 788 and these 581's to a two screw trigger. I converted mine, not a hard thing to do if you have a drill press and a mill vise.
All my best friends ended up with those rifles over time as they shot them in the squirrel fields. Everyone of my friends came back to me within a year or two saying something had happened to their rifle...could not hit squirrels at 100 anymore. Same story with all of them, they had started shooting CCI mini mag hp, and none of them had cleaned their rifle. I got them to stand at the muzzle while I cleaned their rifle. I pushed 4 wet patches though the barrel, then a slow pass with a new 22 RF bronze bristle brush. As the brush exited the barrel, I unscrewed the brush and got them to examine the lead in the brush bristles.
I never will forget one of my friend's responses, "You mean now I have to clean my Rifle?"
My response laughing, "unless you are dumb as a buffalo, you do!"
His response, "How about if I just LET you clean it?!"
I said, "OK, you bring me a Quart of Crown Royal and we will call it even."
He said, "I don't drink."
I did bed the action and freefoat the barrel, ran a 6.5x20 Leupold target scope and had the target knobs marked out to 200 yards.
A lot of ground squirrels and jack rabbits were shot at some pretty incredible distances.
Run a brush though your RF barrels every 250 rounds to keep them shooting their best. None of my rifles ever had the habit of throwing the first shot. I made a rod guide for my rifles so I would not wear the throat egg shaped with the cleaning rod.
Precision shooting magazine had an article on how to make convert a 788 and these 581's to a two screw trigger. I converted mine, not a hard thing to do if you have a drill press and a mill vise.
All my best friends ended up with those rifles over time as they shot them in the squirrel fields. Everyone of my friends came back to me within a year or two saying something had happened to their rifle...could not hit squirrels at 100 anymore. Same story with all of them, they had started shooting CCI mini mag hp, and none of them had cleaned their rifle. I got them to stand at the muzzle while I cleaned their rifle. I pushed 4 wet patches though the barrel, then a slow pass with a new 22 RF bronze bristle brush. As the brush exited the barrel, I unscrewed the brush and got them to examine the lead in the brush bristles.
I never will forget one of my friend's responses, "You mean now I have to clean my Rifle?"
My response laughing, "unless you are dumb as a buffalo, you do!"
His response, "How about if I just LET you clean it?!"
I said, "OK, you bring me a Quart of Crown Royal and we will call it even."
He said, "I don't drink."
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