Ruger Explorer: 15 Yards & Dime Groups with Destroyers

[Airik]

Pretty happy with the cheapo $48 Umarex Ruger Explorer from WM after about 350 shots. Thursday, I finished the 250-count tin of Crosman Destroyers on it, which is this gun's favorite pellet, even over Crosman Premiers. It used to like Daisy Precision Max cheapos, but hardly anymore. 15 yards and it hits the same dime-size area Every - Single - Time with the Destroyers. I can't believe it, even with its terrible trigger and a breech that looks like hacked up horse s*** and a $15 Tasco 20mm scope. I'm happy!

[RCTrax05]

Very interesting -- I have had good luck with my Ruger Explorer so far -- probably only 200 pellets through it so far. It is expecially interesting when you mentioned the pellets it used to like (Daisy's). Right now, my Explorer shoots tighter groups with Daisy Precision Max Hollowpoints than with any other pellet I've tried (Beeman hollowpoints are the closest 2nd choice). I will watch the groups as the gun continues to "season" and see if it changes it's preference to Destroyers or ??.

Thanks for the information.

[aznboi3644]

gotta love dimes

[dmoneytt]

I'm pretty happy with mine too.  I did a VERY easy trigger job and a lube/tune, without replacing any parts, and it cocks and fires much smoother now.  The trigger job is an absolute must.  I just reduced the sear engagement surface by stoning the top of the sear until I had just enough engagement to be safe, but a much shorter and lighter trigger pull.  I did not alter the sear engagement angle, and I polished all moving surfaces and then lubed the trigger group pins and sear contact surface.  I also clipped two coils from the trigger return/sear spring.  The trigger pull went from almost 8 lbs. and inconsistent to consistently crisp and just over two lbs.  Now that the gun is settling in, I am starting to more closely track group sizes.  Today I shot 10 groups of 10 shots,  and 10 groups of five shots.  All shots were taken with the factory open sights at 20 meters from a sitting position.  My 10-shot groups averaged 2.21" from center to center.  My 5-shot groups averaged 1.79".  One 5-shot group was .88".  My explorer shoots the destroyers very well, but is not quite as consistent as it is with crosman premier domed field target lights, which I used for the test.  Also, the destroyers will tear the paper at 20 meters instead of punching a clean hole, but the domed pellets punch through pretty cleanly.  I could probably do better with a scope and a good rest, but I am not ever going to shoot this rifle that way, as it is my plinker.  Also, I know that I am capable of quite good groups from a sitting position with open sights, because I can get 10-shot groups of under .4" at 20 meters with my nitro piston gamo cf-r under the same conditions.  Of course the Gamo weighs about twice as much, has a much longer sight radius and finer sights, and also has a much better trigger (after I got in there are did what Gamo should do before they ship the rifle).  It also cost me almost 8 times as much as the explorer, and I shoot them equally often because of the extreme ease of operating the explorer.  BTW, I have a Daisy 953 with a valve mod and the pump-cup filled, and it has been chronographed with the 7.9 grain premiers at an average of 495 fps.  It will just barely shoot through one side of an unsupported steel soup can at 5 yards and not even dent the other side,

[Airik]

Wow, @dmoneytt, you bumped an old post -- Now it likes CPHP's better than Destroyers, and boxed Premier Domes better than CPHP's. lol. Too bad it doesn't like Pointed, for it's low power. Haven't really shot it though in the last 3 months. It gets the chipmunks every now and then still though @ 10 yrds lol .

[dmoneytt]

Okay, so I just talked one of my shooting buddies into bringing his chronograph over.  I've been setting up a backyard range with a seat and a bench to shoot from and I'm going to put a tin roof over it to shield me from sun and rain if i choose to shoot in challenging weather.  He's been wanting to check it out, as I just added flood lighting on the targets, and I thought it would be a good chance to get his chrono on my bench.  I chronographed the same three airguns I had been shooting the soup can with and was surprised by the results.  My 953 that had been shooting 495 fps about 2 years ago is only averaging 448 fps with the same pellet type, the multi-pump pneumatic, (a cheapo model 35) was hitting 450 fps at 5 pumps, and 643 fps at 10 pumps.  I shot 10 shots for each test, and the explorer was not as fast as I expected, but still faster than it is rated.  The shots were as follows:
1-   512 fps
2-   508 fps
3-   494 fps
4-   500 fps
5-   514 fps
6-   511 fps
7-   499 fps
8-   517 fps
9-   514 fps
10- 509 fps

So, it averaged 508 fps with a 7.9 grain pellet.  Not too shabby.  I'm not sure how good the extreme spread of 23 fps is, but I didn't sort my pellets, so that would have helped in consistency.  My 953 had an extreme spread of only 6 fps despite its lower than previously measured velocity. 

So, I was pretty far off thinking this was a 550+ fps rifle, but it is shooting faster than advertised.  Anyway, we had to test indoors because it is too dark outside for the chronograph to detect the shots, so I'm going to go back outside and pop some targets with my friend.  I've been hearing him shoot my beeman pistol for the last 20 minutes, so I have to go see if I can show him up

[Airik]

So the spring guts have never been tore apart? Mine is still bone stock, and 500+ fps seems kind of high. But I've never chronographed, either. What kind of lighting are you using for the chrony? Maybe natural lighting will give different results?

P.S. Yeah, from what I remember, the open sights weren't bad at all. But I only shot it about 30 times before I slapped the little scope on. I'll have to tweak the trigger someday. Makes a wallet-friendly 17-yrd shooter in the basement during poor weather!