A short while back I had been helping a friend do research on a limited-range, fast-shooting, lower-recoil rifle for him to use shooting deer and pigs. The info we gathered pointed to the 35 Remington and that's what he wanted until his son surprised everyone and got him an AR in 300 BO . My friend fell in love with it, and I liked it too!
After doing all that research, since I had recently sold my 30-06 and 308, I decided that I would go ahead and get my own Marlin 336 in 35 Remington as it is a really, really good old cartridge, and I found a good deal on a nice JM. I also really liked how the 300 Blackout performed, and I found a great deal at an on-line auction for a Ruger American Ranch. It came in a week ago but I just now got to shoot it today, along with the Marlin 336 in 35 Rem (is in another thread).
The only BO ammo I could find locally is the 120 gr supersonic Remington ammo that Wally-World carries. Others have reported some misfires with it, but it's all I could get my hands on. I stuck a Nikon scope on it this morning and went over to a friends house, where they have a 35 or 40 yard sight-in range, and a 100 yard range. I bore-sighted the scope, pulled a bore-snake through the barrel twice then got it on paper at the short range. I fine-tuned the scope at 100 yards and then tried a couple of groups. I am embarrassed to say how out of practice I am, but this rifle helped me to do kind of ok, especially for this being the first box through it. For size perspective, the dots on the "targets" are 3/4", and I measured center to center. I shot from a bench with a solid front rest and a rear sandbag.
NOTE- The 3rd and the 17th rounds were misfires (tried to fire each twice- ammo does NOT say Whisper on it), so while this factory ammo is capable of sub-MOA, I wouldn't bet my life on it.
The action runs very smoothly and I love the 70° bolt throw. The trigger has just a very little bit of creep (most of that is the take-up of the little safety blade), and the let-off is very crisp, at least to me, but I'm not much of a trigger snob. If it breaks light, crisp and cleanly, I'm happy. The entire rifle is light and compact, and it has a threaded barrel. I even like the synthetic stock. It's light-weight and is made of some tough material, so I don't have to baby it and be afraid to take it out into the woods. I have a bipod for it but may or may not install it. There is no place where the stock forearm touches the barrel, totally free-floated. If the stock flexed any while on the rest and touched the barrel, I sure couldn't tell it. The only rifle malfunction was when I loaded 5 rounds into the magazine, the first round didn't want to chamber, so I just used 4 in the mag during this break-in session. Using only 4 in the mag, they all cycled perfectly. I think it might have been my fault by not running the bolt with authority, but I didn't want to force anything at this early stage of the break-in. I imagine when the magazine breaks in, all 5 rounds will cycle just fine. This Ruger rifle, despite being Ruger's bargain budget rifle, is a rugged, solid, smooth and fine shooting little rifle. It's not a high dollar safe queen, and doesn't pretend to be. And, from the results below, you'll see that it's also MOA right out of the box.
After doing all that research, since I had recently sold my 30-06 and 308, I decided that I would go ahead and get my own Marlin 336 in 35 Remington as it is a really, really good old cartridge, and I found a good deal on a nice JM. I also really liked how the 300 Blackout performed, and I found a great deal at an on-line auction for a Ruger American Ranch. It came in a week ago but I just now got to shoot it today, along with the Marlin 336 in 35 Rem (is in another thread).
The only BO ammo I could find locally is the 120 gr supersonic Remington ammo that Wally-World carries. Others have reported some misfires with it, but it's all I could get my hands on. I stuck a Nikon scope on it this morning and went over to a friends house, where they have a 35 or 40 yard sight-in range, and a 100 yard range. I bore-sighted the scope, pulled a bore-snake through the barrel twice then got it on paper at the short range. I fine-tuned the scope at 100 yards and then tried a couple of groups. I am embarrassed to say how out of practice I am, but this rifle helped me to do kind of ok, especially for this being the first box through it. For size perspective, the dots on the "targets" are 3/4", and I measured center to center. I shot from a bench with a solid front rest and a rear sandbag.
NOTE- The 3rd and the 17th rounds were misfires (tried to fire each twice- ammo does NOT say Whisper on it), so while this factory ammo is capable of sub-MOA, I wouldn't bet my life on it.
The action runs very smoothly and I love the 70° bolt throw. The trigger has just a very little bit of creep (most of that is the take-up of the little safety blade), and the let-off is very crisp, at least to me, but I'm not much of a trigger snob. If it breaks light, crisp and cleanly, I'm happy. The entire rifle is light and compact, and it has a threaded barrel. I even like the synthetic stock. It's light-weight and is made of some tough material, so I don't have to baby it and be afraid to take it out into the woods. I have a bipod for it but may or may not install it. There is no place where the stock forearm touches the barrel, totally free-floated. If the stock flexed any while on the rest and touched the barrel, I sure couldn't tell it. The only rifle malfunction was when I loaded 5 rounds into the magazine, the first round didn't want to chamber, so I just used 4 in the mag during this break-in session. Using only 4 in the mag, they all cycled perfectly. I think it might have been my fault by not running the bolt with authority, but I didn't want to force anything at this early stage of the break-in. I imagine when the magazine breaks in, all 5 rounds will cycle just fine. This Ruger rifle, despite being Ruger's bargain budget rifle, is a rugged, solid, smooth and fine shooting little rifle. It's not a high dollar safe queen, and doesn't pretend to be. And, from the results below, you'll see that it's also MOA right out of the box.
