TTAG gave you the heads-up on the new Ruger Precision Rifle a couple of days ago. Our man Jeremy geeked out on the magazine release. But we know you want to know how the thing shoots. Here’s a video from fattywithafirearm that shows the gun in action – with a can. “I might have to buy this gun,” El Gordo Con Rifle pronounces. And then admits a desire to steal it. Are you in yet? Full TTAG review to follow.

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49 COMMENTS

  3. Oh, I’m in alright. The only question is: 6.5 CM or .308 (…and when, as I have a little saving to do)

    • I’m in the same boat. Leaning towards the 6.5 CM, though I have a while to think about it lol

      • The 6.5 CM makes more sense to me – the .308 isn’t great at throwing highly aerodynamic bullets. Past 350-450 yards, the 6.5 can overtaken the .308 in energy and / or flatter trajectory. The new Nosler Accubond LR bullets look cool, although I’m not sure how well the 142 grain bullet would fit in the 6.5 CM case.

        I want one in 7mm Mag. The 6.5 is cool but the 7mm just hits harder across all ranges, and still has a flat trajectory. This would be cool in .338 Lapua, also. Of course those calibers don’t function out of a short action.

        • Interesting. Yeah, haven’t had enough exposure to the precision game to know my way around very well. Sounds like 6.5 has awesome external ballistics, but not necessarily awesome terminal ballistics compared to 7MM, 300 WM or .338. Well, I have a little while to save up, so maybe I’ll hang out to see if they expand the offerings. As of right now, I’d probably take the plunge on 6.5 CM vs 308, even with the extra weight and length. I already have a good .308 boltie and was still playing around with the stock and trigger… Read that Sniper’s Hide write-up and man they were pretty much driving tacks with 6.5 140 grain A Max Factory loads. (Of course, they are Sniper’s Hide dudes and I am not)

        • I’m a newbie as far as long range shooting goes, but there is a 1500 yard range near me, so I’m looking at something reasonably priced to get me out there, and this seems to be just what I was looking for. And although, the 6.5CM won’t get me to 1500, from what I’be read 1000-1200 should be doable. Yea, the Snipers Hide article on this as well as their article comparing the 6.5CM to the 308 is the main reason I was leaning toward the 6.5CM. And hey, if they come out with long action calibers later, that’s just an excuse to pick up another gun.

  4. Yeah, that’s pretty sexy. Though only a 20″ barrel option on the 308, seems odd to me.

    • Yes – since it’s a long range rifle, a 22″ barrel would help preserve a bit more velocity. The poor lil’ .308 needs all the help it can get out around 1000 yards!

      • 18-20″ is optimal for .308 at any distance. It really boils down to the .308 being an -800yd caliber.

      • It’s about barrel whip. You’ll mostly see 20″ on precision 308 since a lot of people believe that is the balance point for velocity vs precision. 308 is an 800-1000 yard max caliber. Out of 20″ barrels 308 remains supersonic out to around 1100. Trying to extend that at the expense of precision would just mean not hitting the target anyway.

        • I thought you had to push a 175gr Sierra MatchKing at 2800+ feet per second to keep it supersonic at 1100. That’s around 300 ft/sec faster than I’d expect standard pressure .308 loads to be able to push a bullet that heavy out of a 20″ tube without getting some serious pressure problems.

          That’s based on Litz’s measured G7 BC of 0.243 for that bullet, and assuming the speed of sound to be 1116.1 ft/sec.

          There are .30 caliber rounds that can reach out to 1km. I thought the .308 Win wasn’t one of them, short of building a Palma rifle with a 32″ barrel.

  6. I suggest waiting until Ruger comes out with the larger calibers they likely have waiting in the wings. 1600 yards is asking a lot of a 308 class cartridge.

      • Absolutely agreed. As it stands now, there’s zero incentive to buy this over a M&P10. The price difference is slim enough that I figure it’s worth getting it in semi auto. Now if it were available in 300wm, 338wm, or 375 ruger, or best yet, 300/375 ruger or 338/375 ruger, the vacuum created in my wallet would be nearly as deafening as the boom of getting it on the range 😉

        • Bolt action has both accuracy and legal bonuses over semi-auto. They simply have different intended uses.

    • 1600 yards is a long way past the accurate range for a .308-class cartridge. With the highest Bc bullets (175 to 230 grain Bergers), you’re going to go sub-sonic at about 1,000 yards in a .308.

    • 1600 is not referring to 308, but rather 6.5 and .243. The decision to start there and the reason you might not see a long action version right away is magazine compatibility. A long action cartridge won’t fit in the ar10 and m1a style magazines.

  7. For the first time, I am seriously considering getting into the 6.5 CM game. Sniper’s hide has a pretty good write up on their experience with this at the FTW Ranch. I’m looking forward to the TTAG review. I need some more data before I jump in.

    • Tyler, I hope you’re planning on testing it with a can.

      I’m curious as to how much a suppressor affects accuracy way downrange.

      Or if some cans are better or worse in that regard.

      • We’re trying to figure out how to do that in a legal and cost effective way. My Thunder Beast cleared Form 3 today, but I imagine you’ll want your review of this gun less than nine months from now.

        • “…but I imagine you’ll want your review of this gun less than nine months from now.”

          Er, yeah.

          Perhaps TTAG corporate could create an amendable NFA trust for company use?

  10. My LGS had them in stock yesterday, but not in .308. That caliber sold out first of course. I wanted to give it a try, but I don’t want to add another caliber and especially not one like 6.5 CM that to me is more of a specialized round.
    But I really want to give it a try, with a suppressor I bet it’s a fun gun and the price is awesome.

      • Yea man, the idea that I would have to put $1000 plus glass on this to wring out its potential puts me in the “no” column. Really cool rifle at a great price though, just not my cup of tea, I’m an irons only believer, can’t get excited about optics.

        • Not much point in spending a lot for a gun capable of 1/2 MOA, if your only going to use iron sights.

  13. I’m intrigued. Lots of friends looking for an entry into precision rifle shooting without needing to make extrajudicial withdrawls. Anyone else heard that these will take AI and SR-25 pattern mags both?

    • They’re saying it takes them all: SR25, AICS, Magpul, DPMS (and possibly even M1A, M14). I’m curious to see what feeds/locks up the best.

  14. I read somewhere, in this article, that this rifle is capable of 1/2 MOA accuracy. Is this with factory ammo (doubtful), or carefully hand loaded ammo?
    Also, were they only referring to the 308?

  18. I’m also in the 6.5 CM club. I’m already figuring out how much overtime I have to work in the next few months to get this rifle and the silencer. I definitely want it after watching that video.

  20. I love it. It’s on my ever-growing want list. Now turning that want list into reality is easier said than done, but still droolworthy.

  21. A couple of observations for people wanting a .300 WinMag, or wondering why such a short barrel for the .308:

    1. To get the most you can out of the .300 WM, you’ll need a 24 or 26″ barrel. There’s a large amount of powder in a .300 WM, and to get it to burn, you need time and volume.

    2. In order to also maximize conservation of your muzzle velocity, you’ll need to push the highest Bc pills you can launch. That’ll be in the 210 to 230 grain range. Look at Berger Bullet’s offerings to see what I’m talking about.

    3. But still, with all of that (26″ barrel, you’ve tuned your load – you’ll need to learn to load your own to maximize your muzzle velocity and accuracy), you’ll find that your bullets will go trans-sonic at 1400 yards or so. As your bullets go trans-sonic, you start to lose accuracy, as the bullets start to become unstable.

    4. You won’t be able to compensate for this by going to a 6.5 short-action cartridge, either. Basically, you won’t be able to get to 1600 yards (or meters) with a supersonic bullet with a short or long action cartridge. You need a magnum-length action, and you need to be looking at cartridges like the .300 RUM or (much better yet) the .338 RUM. The RUM’s are derived from the .404 Jeffery case, and fit into an action that handles 3.6″ OAL cartridges.

    5. Now, once you go to a big magnum case, you might as well maximize the Bc you’re launching, and that means going to 300 grain .338 pills. Again, look at the Berger Bullets web site and you’ll see why I’m saying to look at the .338 bullet space.

    You can’t come close to the Bc’s for heavy .338’s in smaller caliber pills right now. Once you’re talking of launching 300gr .338 pills, you’d better hope that the rifle weighs at least 15lbs, because otherwise,the recoil will start to rattle your molars loose. At 10lbs, launching a 300gr pill at 2900 fps will release 50+ ft-lbs of energy into your shoulder. You’re not going to light that off in the prone position.

    If you increase the weight of the rifle to 15lbs, you’ll get the recoil energy back into the range of the .338 WinMag in a sporter-weight rifle.

    A 15lb rifle? How do you get to 15 lbs? Well… there’s a way where you’re going to achieve a heavy rifle without “adding” weight? Read on…

    6. OK, so you decided to go .338 RUM (or similar). You’ll see your bullets remain supersonic out past 1600 yards for a bit. But… in order to achieve these velocities (2900 fps at the muzzle), you’ll need a barrel length of 28 to 30″. You have a terrific amount of powder to burn, and you need to burn it in the bore to get any net effect.

    The net:net of the story is that once you decide you want to be accurate out past 800 to 1200 yards, you need to start doing your homework with a bullet table, a reloading book and a ballistics program to see for any given bullet, how fast you need to launch it to maintain the trajectory in the supersonic range.

    Last point: The short barrel on the .308 version is likely due to possible military or LEO contracts.

  23. I can see the reason behind a 20 inch barrel if what they are after is stiffness while keeping the weight down but on a rig like this which is unlikely to be shot without support I can’t see why they couldn’t offer a longer heavier barrel as an option for giving the shooter some free additional velocity that a longer barrel gives you at only the extra cost of a little more weight.

    And the 308 needs every foot per second it can get to stay supersonic beyond 800 yards. That’s why this gun is the perfect home for the 6.5 CM and not a bad Idea to chamber it in 243 which is so popular even though it isn’t really a target round. like the shorter 6mm’s which are made to use longer projectiles.

    A long action version in 300 win mag would mean even more weight and a 338 Lapua would not only double the weight but would add the cost of a artillery-type muzzle brake.

    It’s like the car guys have always said, how fast you want to go depends on how much money you want to spend. The only other possible alternative would be to stretch it only enough to accommodate the 6.5. 284 which is slightly shorter than the 300 mag. and then maybe notch the ejection port.

  24. I see a lot of people haven’t read what this rifle is actually about and the capabilities it holds…It accepts standard AR parts u can switch the 308 barrel with a longer version that is AR capable so really what you are looking at is in fact a tuned up bolt action Ar-10. I will be getting my hands on one of these soon most likely the 308 version as I am a NATO round fan.

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