Suppressing a Ruger Gunsite Scout

[The Annoyed Man]

My son and I worked together on fitting a suppressor to my Ruger Gunsite Scout - not as easy as I would have thought. Mostly, he did the work, and I paid for it. LOL.

Anyway, the challenge was to be able to use an existing suppressor I have, an AAC 762-SDN-6, with the matching AAC 51T flashhider/suppressor mount. The problems are that (A) the front sight on the Ruger prevents the flashhider from being threaded on all the way, and (B) the inside diameter of the unthreaded portion of the ID of the flashhider is larger than the shoulder at the end of the barrel where the threads begin. Solving it required machining a custom stainless steel bearing to butt up against the shoulder that would stand the flashhider off from the front sight. Balanced against that is that it made only about half of the total thread length available to thread the unit onto the barrel, so we had to be careful to make sure that we used enough Rockset and as much torque as we could apply and still be in spec.

My son made the bearing out of 304 stainless steel on a CNC machine. He had to actually make two of them, because the flashhider I bought was out of spec. We couldn't even get the can to mount onto it, but he'd already made the bearing. I sent the flashhider back to AAC for a replacement, and when it arrived it was in spec relative to the can, but the original bearing wouldn't fit inside of it, so my son had to make another one. We'll see how it all works out. I'm going to take it to the range tomorrow and test the setup.

In this first picture, you can see part of the stainless bearing peeking out from under the flashhider. You can also just barely see how the shoulder where the threads begin is too small for the end of the flashhider, and how the front edge of the front sight is too close to the shoulder, which keeps the flashhider from being able to use all of the threads:



These next pictures show how tiny the RGS is, even with the suppressor mounted, compared to my 26" barreled Remington 700 precision rifle:



This is a side view of the RGS by itself with the suppressor mounted:



I can't wait to get it to the range tomorrow and see how it does.

[The Annoyed Man]

I spent the afternoon with my RGS at Elm Fork today, on the 50 yard bay. I shot three other guns as well: my .300 Blackout 10.5" SBR, my 5.56 16" carbine, and my 18" 5.56 SPR.

I only used one type of ammunition today for the RGS - remanufactured 150 grain soft points from Freedom Munitions. That may not have been the best choice for the 1:10 twist of the RGS barrel, but I was curious how it would perform because this will be my truck gun, and I reasoned that an affordably priced soft point would be a good all around choice. This load wasn't horrible, but it wasn't great either. Plainly, I've got my research homework cut out for me. Using a low power optic - a 1.5-5x32 Leupold Scout Scope at 50 yards - the very best I could manage was about 1.5"-2" groups with this ammo (sorry, I just didn't think to take pictures today. I know from experience that this rifle is capable of much better accuracy than that, so I'm going to try some loads in the 165 to 180 grain range. I had hoped to maintain a higher velocity for flatter shooting by using 150s, but I guess that's not going to happen.

One other thing having to do with accurate shooting in the "making excuses" dept.... As my eyes have deteriorated and my cataracts have gotten worse, I find that I need more magnification just to see what I'm doing. I had intended to try and keep this rifle as close as possible to the original specifications for a scout rifle, including the forward mounted scope, but 5x just isn't good enough for me anymore. So I am going to swap out the rail for the full length one from XS Sight Systems, and mount a more powerful optic in the more traditional rearward position. I've had my eye on the Vortex 2.5-10x32 Viper PST FFP with the MRAD reticle for a while, and I think that 10x will get this short rifle out about as far as I can reasonably shoot it.

The difference between shooting the RGS unsuppressed and shooting it suppressed is remarkable for several reasons.

The first reason it was remarkable is that mounting the suppressor caused a huge deviation in bullet impact, which surprised me considerably because my other suppressor-capable rifles show little or no shift in POI between suppressed and unsuppressed fire. After confirming a 50 yard zero unsuppressed, I mounted the suppressor, and the subsequent shots impacted about a full 6" or so lower than POA. Alarmed, I dismounted the suppressor and examined it closely for signs of baffle or endcap strikes. There were none, so after remounting the can I went ahead and dialed in the elevation needed to bring the POI up to the POA.

The second reason suppressing the RGS was remarkable was because of the very significant reduction in perceived recoil. It's a .308; it's a fairly light rifle (7 lbs), and as a bolt action, there are no reciprocating parts which counteract recoil. I'm not normally a recoil sensitive person, but I would describe the RGS recoil as brisk. That's not normally an issue for me, but I have a torn left rotator cuff, and unsuppressed, the rifle was painful to shoot. Suppressing it cut the recoil impulse by at least half, si it feels more like shooting an AR15.....which is to say that it was quite pleasant. This is my happy face:

The third reason was the obvious one. 16" barreled .308 rifles all have quite a bark. The AAC 762-SDN-6 suppressor more than tamed that bark. One gentleman, about my age, approached to ask what caliber I was shooting, and when I said .308, he seemed very surprised. He said he'd never actually heard a suppressed rifle in person before, and between the much reduced noise signature and the much reduced recoil impulse, I think he thought that I was shooting a much smaller cartridge.

Overall, I would call this project to suppress a Ruger Gunsite Scout a success. Now I've just got to find a hunting load that shoots accurately in that rifle (I already know match ammo will shoot well in it, but don't want to use match ammo for hunting purposes if I can help it).

[CleverNickname]

Sounds like a lot of work. I just screwed a mount on my GSR's muzzle, used a peel washer to time it and then put my Gemtech HVT on the mount. It took like 5 minutes.

[The Annoyed Man]

Sounds like a lot of work. I just screwed a mount on my GSR's muzzle, used a peel washer to time it and then put my Gemtech HVT on the mount. It took like 5 minutes.

That wouldn't work with the AAC mount.

[The Annoyed Man]

I added a Galco Ching Sling and bipod; swapped out the OEM rail for a full length XS Sight Systems rail, and added a Vortex 2.5-10x32 Viper PST (MRAD FFP) in a ADM QD mount. Pictures to follow tomorrow.

[The Annoyed Man]

Just got back from an afternoon at Elm Fork with AndyC, who fired my RGS in its new configuration. While declaring that I obviously don't get the scout rifle concept ( ), he allowed that it was one sweet shooting rifle with the suppressor on it. It is remarkable how much it tames the recoil. It's almost like AR15-recoil now. The scope is a keeper, but the mount is too high. Fortunately, I have some lower rings coming on Monday. This thing is for sure gonna be my truck gun.

[Skiprr]

I've been impressed with Vortex. Their high-end glass is mentioned by benchrest competitors in the same sentence with big names like Steiner, NightForce, and Schmidt Bender...and can come in at about half the cost. Even their budget mid-priced scopes are pretty darned good.

Oh, and tell Andy yours is a Hybrid Scout Rifle, or HSR. Not a Scout.

[Liberty]

I like what I've seen and heard about what you have done with the gun, I'm sure Mr. Cooper would have approved of you making it work best for you.

I've kept mine fairly simple following the scout concept and installed the Leoplod long eye relief x2.5 scope with a see through mount. So far It seems to work for me, although I'm still thinking about giving up the iron sights and lowering the scope. but for right now I enjoy using the iron for close up and glass for more distant. The big glass long eye relief does allow for quick sight and shoot.

[Lynyrd]

Nice work, and good to see another lefty!

[The Annoyed Man]

He even deigned to shoot my FAL once he summoned enough strength to pull the trigger:

That FAL trigger is so heavy, it didn't seem to make any difference if the safety was on or off. I had to dig a breaker bar out of the back of my truck. It has a trigger like a fencepost. I think I sprained my trigger finger. I won't be able to play guitar in church tomorrow. Am I even still saved?

[Skiprr]

That FAL trigger is so heavy, it didn't seem to make any difference if the safety was on or off. I had to dig a breaker bar out of the back of my truck. It has a trigger like a fencepost. I think I sprained my trigger finger. I won't be able to play guitar in church tomorrow. Am I even still saved?

Wheeler recently released a new model of its Trigger Pull Scale. This one goes up to a basic bench-press weight of 225 lbs. for those more...sturdy firearms. Next time you go shoot with Andy, I'll lend you mine and you can check the FAL.