SmallCaliberCentral

anyone have a Ruger predator rifle yet?

Have not even seen one but my nephew has a M77 Ultralight in 243 winchester which he uses as a predator rifle. Nice light little rifle, shoots very well despite the skinny tube on it. Borrowed it for deer hunting a few years ago and tried it with winchester supreme elite facotry ammo and WOW!! Put 5 shots into 3/4" and was bad news for the deer I saw a few days later!

I got one but have not shot it yet!

I bought it on line from Bud's and had it sent to an FFL in So. Calif.

I bought a sale Bushnel 50mm variable scope from Midway before the rifle arrived.
I had to order one scope mount from Midway along with dies. You can swap scope mounts with Ruger too.
Got a black nylon sling from Cheaper than Dirt.

Now I am reloading my first box of ammo. 204 is a tiny bullet, not easy to load.

I had to make a paper funnel to get powder in and still am having problems getting bullets started straight.
All my funnels and powder dump are 22 or bigger.

Midway had DogTown bullets on sale, but they are not Boat Tail and the tip is not pointed. It is a hollow point.
These are very tricky to seat. The Hornaday Vmax are a lot easier to seat.

Rifle looks nice and 2 stage trigger seems pretty good. They say you can dry fire it all you want.

I will chime in a week or so when I shoot it.

Should be fairly cheap to reload. Win brass is about $23 per hundred.
I am using TAC powder at about $120 / 8 lbs.
Bullets are between 11 and 18 cents. DogTowns being Midways home brand and the least expensive.
Primers are still hard to find.

Atavuss,

Have had one in 204 for about 2 years and it has become my favorite all around rifle. I keep it with me all of the time on the weekends and get to shoot a lot of crows and other varmits. I have killed two large hogs with it. One was approximately 300 pounds and the other was approximately 250 pounds. One round just under the ear will do it every time. My rifle is completely stock except that I floated the barrel and it will almost always shoot 1/2" 3 shot groups at 100 yd with handloaded 32 gr V-Max. (It does not shoot 40 gr bullets well.) It has the smoothest and easiest to clean barrell of any of my varmit rifles. Has a 4.5 x 14 Leupold on it that I have had for a long time. I very strongly recommend it for a ranch type rifle. Since the barrel is 24" medium weight it approaches a varmit rifle and my 9 year old grandson shot several hundred rounds through mine last summer on a prarie dog hunt. He was deadly out to about 200 yards. I love the stainless construction, the adjustable trigger, 24" medium barrel and the straight laminated stock (since I shoot primarily left handed).

i have m77 mk2 all weather. all ic say i wooowif i could get one of the smiley's over it would be the one with the widest grin, shoots any 40 and under no problem 1/2 inch 150 yards. love it