Project Appleseed

Interesting firearms tend to follow me home. It's happened time and time again. I go to a gun show or shop and see something cool that I had no intention of buying and somehow it makes its way to the safe. I was at my favorite shop and the proprietor and I were talking about suppressors. He mentioned that he'd been shooting with a friend and the Ruger Precision Rimfire was amazingly quiet when suppressed. I told him I'd never seen one, he pointed to the wall and before long another rifle followed me home.

It didn't take much to get this one ready for AQT work. I added front and rear sling swivels, a scope that I haven't been using much, and a GI web sling. Five minutes with a Bushnell boresighter and it was ready for the range. The bore sight was 4 MOA low and 1 MOA left; quick work to get it to the center of the 4 MOA square. I shot three slow fire and three rapid fire 5x5's into my version of our squares targets. The rapid fire was shot as fast as I could run the bolt, drop the mag and reload five rounds five times. Each rapid target took 5-6 minutes. On the slow fire, I returned the target to check the group each time.

Though I didn't use a sling at the range, I did some dry firing at home and it is very comfortable prone, seated and standing. The only thing I noticed was the big step from handguard to mag well. I may add an M-LOK attached platform there to make it more comfortable.

My closest range is indoor and the only shooting options are standing or resting on a bag; no prone shooting allowed. I shot these representative targets at 25 yards sitting on a stool with the rifle across a small Caldwell bag. The atmosphere was far from serene as the adjacent lanes were short barreled 44 magnum pistol left and carbine length AR15 right. I needed ear plugs and muffs, but only had plugs. I may have flinched a few times from the magnum's shock wave. But on to shooting impressions...

Overall I was very impressed. It's a one hole rifle at 25 yards easily shooting 1 MOA when I could. The short-throw bolt runs smoothly and the big handle makes it very fast to cycle. I had no malfunctions over the 150 rounds. I was able to get a great sight picture with a couple of quick adjustments to the clever stock. The 40 mm objective scope sits just above the rail in medium picatinny rings and I had it as far forward as it would go. That particular scope will not quite focus at 25 yards, but it was good enough. I did not check the trigger pull, but it's easily adjustable down to around 2.5 pounds. This one felt great out of the box. Take-up is smooth and progressive while the break is what I would call "sublime"; I got to where I could control it extremely well 50 rounds in.

Though it was hard to hear with all the cacophony of big bore stuff around me, I think the CCI SV was still making a super sonic crack. I did have a few rounds that I was able to hear and they were stupid quiet through the Dead Air suppressor.

On the last couple of targets, I noticed a guy on my right just standing there. Turns out it was an instructor who had seen my completed targets on the staging table and wanted to know what I was shooting. He watched me shoot rapid stages and was impressed by the results. I told him all about Project Appleseed and invited him to come shoot with us. He seemed interested, but the beard, tattoos and tactical stuff he was wearing says he probably won't. 

Cost for the rifle was $399 plus tax. It came with one BX-15 magazine.

Scope: Leupold Mark 4 LR/T 3.5-10x40mm
Rings: NightForce UltraLite 30mm Medium Titanium
Rear Swivel: Magpul QD 1-1/4"
Front Swivel: Magpul M-LOK Military 1-1/4"
Front Rail: Magpul 3" Picatinny
Bipod: Accu-Shot BT10 Atlas w/ ARMS 32 QD mount (only used to hold it up for pictures)
Suppressor: Dead Air Mask

Quote from: HammBone on September 12, 2019, 09:38:36 AM
I shot these representative targets at 25 yards

Nice rifle!  I can't overemphasize the value in zeroing any rifle at 25 yards, and the Appleseed Squares targets are phenomenal for that.  At an absolute minimum you get a now wind zero for windage, and that is of immense value when shooting any distance past 300 yards.

I've gotten to the point where I use a black sharpie, and blacken in 2 squares as I find the 4 MOA square to be too large.  Not that I am saying my skills are too good for the 4 MOA aiming black, it is more of an aim small miss small thing.  Tough to reliably hold center (be that 6 o clock or center of mass) on the large 4 MOA square.  Before I opted to use the sharpie, another option is to aim at a corner of the square.

That rifle should SLAY at any KD event for sure.  I may have missed it, what caliber is it?

R/
Chris

Sorry. Should have stated more than "rimfire". It's a 22LR.

Quote from: HammBone on September 12, 2019, 09:52:43 AM
Sorry. Should have stated more than "rimfire". It's a 22LR.

I'm a bonehead! LOL, gotcha.  I missed that.

I debated against myself about this versus the Ruger American Rimfire which used the same 10/22 magazines, in the end the RAR won over due to the fact that I don't need to stock up on more magazines that fit only 1 rifle.  I would be all over this if it took the standard 10/22 magazines.  I've seen this rifle on the lines several times, infact I think one of my previous attendees either came real close, or got to rifleman with it.  I really liked the adjustable stock on the RPR though....  Good shootin'!

Not sure if this has changed since it was introduced, but it will use standard 10/22 mags. It came with a BX-15, but I used a regular 10/round rotary.

Elfster's Rifles and Reloading has some videos on this rifle.  He likes it.

It will use the standard 10 round mag.  He found it more accurate with the 10'round mag and most accurate with a 3D printed single loading sled.  When looking at unfired rounds cycled from the 15 round mag the bullets were being shaved from the tilt of the 15 round mags putting them into the edge of the chamber.

He is VERY through with his videos. 

I mentioned to him that the clear mags seem to be a little fatter as they have problems dropping free more often than the black ones and he was going to check it out.

I really wish they would put this chassis out for the 10/22.

I follow Todd. He's a good dude and I did see some of those videos. I don't agree with him about that little scuff causing accuracy problems. I think the rifling will scuff the bullet way more.

I have a similar issue with my R55 Benchmark. The 10 round mags had enough mechanical advantage to rotate a few degrees in the mag well. One of the guys on Rimfire Central figured out how to fix it.

Quote from: HammBone on September 12, 2019, 01:23:50 PM
Not sure if this has changed since it was introduced, but it will use standard 10/22 mags. It came with a BX-15, but I used a regular 10/round rotary.

Hmm.. then it must've been a different rifle I saw on the line then, that thing had a AR type of magazine I remember.  I'll have to look at this again then.

The Ruger Precision rifle is definitely a great rifle. I would agree on that. One nice advantage of the rifle is being able to make the bolt a long throw by removing a clip on the bolt. This makes for a great trainer tool for center fire bolt rifles.

The rifle though weighs to much to be used in CMP Rim-fire Sporter matches. Just on its own almost to the limit and add a scope figured it would be over the weight limit. So sadly none of these have followed me home yet.

Quote from: Crazyduckhunter on September 13, 2019, 08:55:40 AM
The rifle though weighs to much to be used in CMP Rim-fire Sporter matches. Just on its own almost to the limit and add a scope figured it would be over the weight limit. So sadly none of these have followed me home yet.

Yes, and most of that weight is in the barrel as it's an inch in diameter at the receiver and tapers to around  0.75" at the muzzle. From what I recall, fluting is not allowed in that class. So, you have 20.8 ounces to work with. I suppose you could put some diopter sights on it and make weight. A pic mount rear and a clockable brake/front site or a clam-on front would do the trick.

Here's a thread on Rimfire Central where a guy was looking to use iron sights:

https://www.rimfirecentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1149487

Bringing this old thread back to life.

I recently decided that I wanted to get into shooting sports. I haven't been much of a shooter prior to this. I wanted a rifle that I wasn't going to have to make a lot of adjustments to, so I decided to get the Ruger Precision Rimfire in .22 LR. Then I signed up for an Appleseed event so I could learn how to shoot it properly. I'm not kidding when I say I'm very new - I haven't fired a rifle since I was in boot camp 24 years ago.

So how did the rifle work for me at the Appleseed event? I'm a brand new shooter with a bolt action rifle who left carrying a Rifleman patch. I still have a lot to learn, but for now I don't feel like I need to make any big changes in my rifle setup.

IIT3s and above can buy these for $363 and no tax (in TX) through the instructor purchase program. Hell of a deal! I've had mine for months now! I need to shoot it more now that it's not so damn hot here.