This is a rifle that I have had for over a year now and has had a few rounds through it, so I thought to give my impression of it.
The initial impression was a good one. It is based on the Ruger Model 77, thus is almost a classic Mauser action. The bolt is recessed on the face, and the action is a little rough but it is starting to smooth out as I work the bolt a few times. Trigger pull is good, and the rifle looks to be a very rugged and robust all-weather working gun as it is made of stainless steel. The stock is just like my GSR in 308, a many-layered laminate so it should nearly as resistant to the elements as the rest of the rifle.
The safety, which is different from the classic Mauser, is very positive and strong, blocking the firing pin by means of a metal pivot. It can only be engaged, like many other firearms, if the rifle is cocked. And just like the classic Mauser, it stops the bolt from rotating while on 'safe'. Just as with the safeties on other firearms, it is a mechanical device, thus there is the remote possibility that it can fail and it should not be relied upon.
If the rifle has a design flaw, it is, just like with the 308 GSR, the magazine. It loads like a pistol mag; i.e., from the front.
The rifle is a lot of fun to shoot, but that is hardly surprising, as most of them are fun to shoot.
First, a couple of negatives were noted , both of which I think were issues of the rifle being new, of not being broke in. The bolt tended to skip over rounds in the magazine. And the bolt was not as smooth as I'd like. Possibly the two are related and both will probably lessen as the rifle wears in.
It handles well, and the recoil was milder than I had expected--not that I was anticipating bad recoil.
Doing my standard barrel break-in was a bit of a chore, as the gun, being a Mauser action, had to be magazine-fed, and the magazine was a detachable box type. For the first five shots, the barrel was cleaned after each shot, using two patches with each shot, one a patch soaked in a good nitro-powder solvent and then a dry patch. Then two shots were fired between patches, and finally five shots and the remainder of the box. This necessitated taking the magazine out of the receiver, and loading the rounds in, one at a time. On the plus side the magazine seemed to be really easy to load, but I eagerly wait for Ruger to do the polymer mags for this one like they did for the 308 GSR. There, all I have to do was snap the rounds in the magazine with the bolt open.
Accuracy of the rifle is a bit hard to gauge with me, as I am a lousy rifle shot, but the very first shot went to within an inch of the 1" orange dot that I stuck on the cardboard silhouette target.
All-in-all, I think I'm going to like this rifle a lot. For those who prefer manually-operated arms like me, it would be a good SHTF gun, as it is rugged, compact and comes in a common, readily available caliber. The very mild recoil and the fact that ammunition for it is fairly inexpensive will encourage me to practice, and (hopefully) improve my rifle marksmanship. Perhaps I am being overly-optimistic here, but stranger things have happened.
As a matter of possible interest, it is designed to shoot both 5.56mm NATO and 223 Remington.
