Ruger SR-556 Reviews

by **St8Shooter** » Tue Jun 08, 2010 3:14 pm

Moment of weakness. I had a bag of about 500 staring me in the face. I thought, well I could just dial it up to 3(the highest setting) and test out Ruger's claim to fire anything. Horrible idea!!! I had black all over me, and my baby's bolt carrier!!! I felt sooo bad. Had to rod out the case as it was stuck in the chamber... First time I was upset during a weapons cleaning session...

by **chrt396** » Thu Jul 15, 2010 9:24 pm

I bought my Ruger SR556 locally in Tampa Bay for $1525 which was a good deal with all things being equal. As the first poster stated...when i first got the rifle, I bought 100 rounds of Federal Ammo...everything worked perfectly. I then bought 500 rounds from a reputable re-loader in Pinellas county. (I buy all my hand gun ammo from him...no problems..no misfires...no jamming). I went to the range so that i could zero in my Eotech and was able to fire off about 100 rounds when the gun started jamming BIG TIME! I don't know if I got a bad batch or the rifle took a dump on me, but I bought some more Federal today and plan on hitting the range tomorrow. I sure hope it's ammo and not the rifle. That would mess up my day for sure! At 75 feet..I was burning up the center of the target and then my world came crashing down on me! Man I hate when that happens!

by **St8Shooter** » Thu Jul 15, 2010 11:36 pm

make sure you clean the piston system well. especially the front piece(the name escapes me at the moment) that you dial for gas release. get into the grooves well or you will find it hard to remove at times. I love this weapon. soooo damm accurate. even with an eotech. almost as good as a scope on the bench. I'm still trialing different loads. when the new scope mount comes in I will have an accurate review of accuracy. Until I can use a scope, I don't feel it fair to base it on an eotech with magnifier.

by **tigwelder56** » Thu Jul 15, 2010 11:48 pm

Hey State, what's the MOA on your eotech w/magnifyer @ 50 & 100 yards? Doesn't it have a zero MOA reticle?

by **St8Shooter** » Fri Jul 23, 2010 11:46 pm

Hey Tig It has a 1 MOA dot with a 65 minute circle.. With the magnifier I have with it, at 200 meters, it gave me about 1.5 moa group.

NEWS UPDATE!! Just put on as of 5 minutes ago a Nikon 3-12x42 BDC scope. Hope to try and get it out and see what kind of groups I get with it and different ammo soon. I will upsate with the info!

by **tigwelder56** » Sat Jul 24, 2010 12:15 am

Thanks for that info! I'll never be able to afford something that impressive or nice. I'm just happy to know that our troops are set up with Eotech systems, even if I'm not, lol!

by **whitehood** » Sat Jul 24, 2010 10:50 am

Ruger seems to have gotten a lot right with the rifle. ( except the price ). It also seems to have exceptional accuracy for a piston rifle. Even the weight is not exceptional for one. I probably would have opted for a 1:7 barrel twist, but on the whole, the platform seems rock solid. Knowing Ruger, however, this is what I see and where marketing comes into play. To me this weapon is designed for a guy who knows firearms to a degree but not much about assault weapons in general and AR's in particular. ( St8 being an exception and I'm curious about why he would choose this weapon over something like a Bushmaster) It seems that Ruger is trying to get to the top end market and perhaps cut out some of the custom business that Wilson, Fulton Armory etc have presently.

Here's my question and potential beef with the Ruger. How compatible in terms of parts is this with the standard mil spec AR's? If something breaks I can fix mine. Mil spec AR bolts start living on borrowed time after 5000 rounds. The second is just how good is this rifle when put through a high volume of fire exercise with standard military style ammo?

by **St8Shooter** » Tue Aug 24, 2010 12:22 am

And the results are in!!!!

and somewhat surprising to me....All tests with Nikons 3x12x42 BDC scope.

I tested 7 different types of ammo and the breakdown is this from most accurate to least. Three different days, all with temps in the 90-100s humidity was 45-65%. Twenty rounds each in 5 shot groups. I will go from most accurate to least..

1. Hornady 75Gr Boat Tail Hollow Point ave group .75MOA. Best 1 big hole all touching about the size of a dime.

2. Hornady 53 Gr Hollow Point W/C ave group .80 MOA Best group the size of a nickel.

3. Federal 64 Gr Hi-Shok Soft point. ave group 1 MOA. best group .75 MOA.

4. Fiocchi 50 GR V-Max. ave group 1 MOA, best group .8 MOA

5. PMC Bronze 55 Gr FMJ ave group 1.2 MOA Best group .75 MOA.

6. Federal 55Gr Nosler Ballistic tip. Ave group 2 MOA best group 1.2 MOA

7. Federal 55 Gr FMJ Boat Tail ave group 2.5 MOA, Best group 1.75 MOA.

All rounds fired on cold bore, with 1 pass of bore snake prior to shot.

OK so what did I learn from all this work/fun? That Hornady is the best round for my weapon. Gr size did not matter. Both were on the bull dead on every time. Also that I am disappointed in the performance of Federal ammo. The Fed 55 gr FMJ BT had consistantly vertical stringing that I can't identify the cause. Up to 3 inches of it on one group. No drift but still vertical stringing. I found out that for the money, PMC and Fiocchi are excellent ammo and well worth me "hoarding" lol. I'm confused by the lack of elevation change in sight in for the Hornady as they literally punched out the centerfrom both gr weights. All of the ammo was right at the bull except the Federal 64 Gr soft point(it was always low to the center by 3 inches.

Ok now on to whitehood. Sorry but it took awhile and didn't see your post till now. For the twist rate I'm not sure for me since I shoot an array of different Gr weights in mine, but so far I'm not seeing any need to wish for a heavier twist like 1:7 as shown by the honady rounds. Now would it make a difference out at like 600 meters? Maybe but as yet I'm not seeing any difference out to 300 at this time... I agree with you also about the wieght issue in that i was concerned about it but there is not a noticeable difference between stock versions and others that I have carried, other then the fact that it seems a bit more weight forward then a gas sytem. But that seems to come into my favor when doing rapid fire drills as the weapon stays down a bit more. I also agree about Ruger trying to hit the top end market more with this as it is more pricey. To be honest though I am leaning more toward the thought that they are targeting a group that knows about the AR platform and want something better. Less cleanup, very reliable, and clearly accurate. The lower end obviously is compatible with other AR's. Sure the Bolt Carrier Assembly is diferent but you can always swap that with another ruger. as of now I have about 2500 rounds in mine. some gentle some not so gentle doing training drills(dirty and hot).

After 24 years working with the AR platform I wanted to try something different, I had the money, and I didn't want to clean as much.. lol That and the Ruger name and my confidence that they would take care of it if ever a problem came up. And with that I think I will call it a day on this testing... I've written enough to last awhile. If you have specific questions feel free to ask. and remember that every weapon is different. Try this your self when you have the time. I am by no means a sniper quality shooter.. 42 year old eyes. LMAO But I do shoot 30/30 M9 and 38-40/40 M16 A4/M4. Last month in Ft Sam most recently. Now go get ya some trigger time!!

by **tigwelder56** » Thu Aug 26, 2010 1:43 pm

Hey St8, excellent report, thanks very much for the detail. I do have one question though. What was your target range? I don't want to assume it was 100 yards. I'm also surprised at the performance you got from the Federal loads. I use alot of Federal Nato rounds in my Bushmaster and have had decent performance from them. But I've never ran any tests like this. I'm not surprised the Hornady gave you excellent service. There's something about them that always speaks quality. Thanks again for the excellent range report!!

by **St8Shooter** » Thu Aug 26, 2010 5:31 pm

Yup 100 yards.. I was just as surprised as you about the federal loads. They weren't horrible but I definately expected more from them for the price.. I'd have to save the biggest surprise was how well the PMC bronze did!!! Just goes to show that cheap is sometimes good and expensive is not always what you would expect. I really expected to see different levels of performance from different grain bullets but not really. I also expected teh ballistic tip's to perform better.