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View Full Version : Ruger VT barrel anygood ?



lead Foot
05-18-2009, 03:28 AM
I can get my hands on a new Ruger VT barrel in .308 win real cheap. Dose anybody have anything good to say about them and what sort of boolit dose it like. Thanks men.
Lead foot;:drinks::drinks::drinks:

leftiye
05-18-2009, 08:44 PM
Don't have any experience with the newer ones, and only bad to say about the older ones. I had to replace the *** barrel on my .243, haven't bought another Ruger since. The newer barrels do have a better rep. though.

GabbyM
05-19-2009, 12:13 AM
They are a little soft but they'll shoot good for a while.
What happens to many of them is the chamber wears on one side from single shot loading the rounds . The big claw extractor pushes the case to one side before it clicks over the case head. This wears the port side of the chamber. Then if you neck size your ammo you suddenly notice the rounds wont chamber until you rotate them to time with your out of round chamber. Takes about 1,200 cycles like that to wear them out. By the time my 243 win started giving me trouble chambering the bore was way shot out anyway. You can avoid the issue by pushing the rounds in the magazine and cycling them up like a Mauser should be. I used mine on prairie dogs and rarely loaded the mag. A friend of mine had his rifle do the same thing.

A take off VT would be worth about $25 if it was in like new condition.

My Ruger lasted as long as my Remington in 243 Win. About 1200 to 1500 rounds which is typical for that barrel burning round.

I've a new Shilen on my Rem and an ER Shaw on order for the Ruger.

The VT does make a good walk about barrel. It's close to a magnum sporter contour with a .625” diameter muzzle end. With a 30 caliber bore that's fairly light compared to most of my rifles.

lead Foot
05-21-2009, 04:02 AM
Thanks for the reply's guys. It is interesting to know the camber wears like that. I have a .243 M77 MK11 I bought new in 1996. It's my work gun and has fired thousands of rounds also been in a lot of dusty,sandy places. I have not so long changed the barrel for a new one cause it was a little worn, lost 300fps still shot about an inch group at a 100mts though. So I measured the old chamber for out of round and to my surprise it was ok. This gun had never let me down. The new barrel is of the Hawkeye type and I put the first three shots into 1/4'' that's with a six power scope at a100mts. For a old gun I thought that was pretty darn good. Any way I'm getting of the point. The .308 barrel I need is for cast boolits and it will be screwed into a single shot target rifle with a Sako Type extractor.
Lead foot :drinks:

softpoint
05-21-2009, 08:42 AM
I intend on buying a Ruger Hawkeye, For years now I wouldn't own a Ruger 77 because of barrel quality, but I have heard that has been corrected, and,I'm seeing many more good reports on them.:coffee:

pdawg_shooter
05-21-2009, 10:27 AM
I would say you have a 50/50 chance of getting a good one. When I was a dealer I had mor problems with Ruger than any other company.