New Stick - Ruger Gunsite Scout

So I decided that I needed a new left handed centerfire bolt action rifle. I have plenty of milsurps but the bolts are all on the wrong side for me, so on 3/5 I ordered a LH stainless Ruger Gunsite Scout from Bud's. I picked it up this morning and got it to the range where I put 40 rounds of M-80 Ball through it.

Here it is with an M-1907 sling, the Ruger 10 round metal mag that is standard equipment, and Ruger polymer 5 and 10 round mags.



I shot the first 10 rounds using the factory rear sight, as pictured above. I then installed an XS rail and zeroed it at 100 yards. Here it is with the XS rail and 5 round mag:



I like the 5 round poly mag the best. The metal mag is way too long. The polymers feed more smoothly.

The bolt is still stiff but I expect it to break in over time. It'll never be as good as a Lee-Enfield, though.

Surprisingly for a Ruger, the trigger was fine out of the box. I'm guessing it's about 4 pounds and crisp, with no creep.

The stock is well designed IMO. I removed the spacer installed at the factory to better fit my short LOP. The recoil pad is good. This is sort of a 21st Century Jungle Carbine but the recoil is nowhere near as vicious.

I can't really speak to accuracy. I didn't have my rifle rest with me, it was in the upper 30s and there were gusts of 20 to 30 MPH, so I was happy to hold the 8 ring on an SR-1 target at 100 yards. After I zeroed the ghost ring BUIS on the XS rail, I did manage to ding a torso-sized gong at 200 yards several times.

The reason I installed an XS rail is that I plan to mount a scope in the conventional position, over the receiver. I'm looking at 1-4x options with illuminated reticles. I have a Burris TAC-30 on one of my AR-15s and that's currently a leading contender for the Ruger GSR.

I'm really looking forward to wringing out the GSR once I get some glass on it, and hopefully I'll be able to take a deer with it this fall.

Nice looking rifle. What can do you have on it? I'm looking at building one on a Form 1 for my GSR.

Re the rear-mounted scope: I wanted to retain a backup iron sight, hence the XS rail. If I didn't care about that then using the rings that Ruger provides would make perfect sense.

...I still question the decision to not use any of the billions of .308 surplus mags floating around, but make a new one instead.

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Ruger didn't make a new mag. The GSR uses the same mags as Accuracy International rifles, which are a standard in the precision rifle world. They did try to get it working with M-14 mags at first but had reliability issues, and also didn't want to deal with people using any old crappy surplus mag, then come crying to them when the rifle wouldn't feed.

Now, I don't know if they tried any AR-10 or DPMS/SR-25 type mags. The latter would be nice because you can get P-Mags.

It's not really an issue, IMHO. It's a bolt action rifle. I don't need the same number of mags for it that I do with my semiautos.

I have to admit that if I was right handed, or Mossberg made a LH version of their MVP, I would look long and hard at it. Most reviews I've seen from owners have been quite positive, and the Mossberg is noticeably less expensive. But when you're a southpaw, you get used to making do with limited choices.

The 5 rd. mag's are nice for hunting, but with the problems that we have around here, I do carry a pouch with 3-10rd.mag's.

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MJ growers? I don't blame you for carrying a few 10 rounders if things go south.