Ruger SR 762 kinda disappointing

Oledude95 · Jan 16, 2015

Has anyone else experienced any jamming, failure to feed, failure to eject, or other probs with the SR762? I bought a new one about three months ago and up until the past weekend it ran perfect. Was much more accurate than I ever thought a "short barrel" .308 would be. I've had .308's forever but all were bolt guns. I wanted an AR platform .308 and had heard a lot about the (then) new SR762. So, I bought one and was really pleased. Have had it about three months and then this past weekend it sort of died. I started to shoot with the same ammo and all that I'd use the prior weekend and the gun would fire the one round that was chambered and then it quit. Bolt carrier would not move, except for about one half inch and then the next round up from mag would push out and jam. Tried everything. Changed mags, ammo, cleaned regulator and piston. Checked everything I knew to check. This is my first AR .308 and first piston gun and I don't know yet if I'll keep it or not. I've called Ruger, gotten and RMA and have it packed and ready for UPS to pick up Monday.
If anyone else has had this kind of experience I'd love to hear about it and what it turned out to be.
Thanks, Guys.

Leucoandro · Jan 17, 2015

What brand or brands of ammunition are you using?

Charlie

Jim Puke · Jan 18, 2015

Is it steel cased ammo?

If so, try some brass ammo and see if it will cycle it.

I had the same issue with a mini-14 and the steel ammo was the problem.

Leucoandro · Jan 18, 2015

Jim Luke said:
Is it steel cased ammo?

If so, try some brass ammo and see if it will cycle it.

I had the same issue with a mini-14 and the steel ammo was the problem.

If it was steel case lacquer covered ammunition, it will continue to stick until he can get all the lacquer residue out of the chamber. That can take a very, very, very long time. My Father cleaned a mini-30 that way, had to let it soak overnight on at least 5 occasions, combined with 10+hours elbow grease to get it all out.

Charlie

PriseDeFer · Jan 19, 2015

How does it come to pass that lacquer melts into sticky disaster in American guns and not ComBloc or Chinese? Heat is heat, no?

Leucoandro · Jan 19, 2015

PriseDeFer,

I suspect it does,they are just designed for it. Just like they can shoot those ferris bullets without destroying the rifling where it is bad for american rifles.

I stopped shooting the lacquer stuff through my because of the lacquer, sealing material between the bullet and case (in older ammunition, sort of like creosol). Also, most of the soviet block caliber bullets (like 7.62x39) are ferris, test yours to see if a magnet sticks to the bullet itself.

Charlie

OldePhart · Jan 20, 2015

Most military guns, and especially the "surplus" SKS/AK, etc., weapons were built to work in terrible conditions with the often ham-handed maintenance of impressed soldiers with little real training or experience. As a consequence of loose tolerances most of them will take a steady diet of almost anything you can shove in the magazine...accuracy is generally poor as a result, but they do tend to go bang every time you pull the trigger...and continue to do so long after "sporting" arms have given up in disgust at the abuse.

Oledude95 · Jan 20, 2015

Hey Guys,
Sorry for the late post but sometimes I just put things off that I should take care of sooner. The type of ammo should have been included in my original post. Sorry about leaving it out.....
The only type of ammo that has been fired in my rifle is Federal GMM 168 and 175 grain. I've used it from the beginning of firing the gun and up until last week had no problem at all. I use this in my other .308 rifle (bolt gun) and except for hand loads that I fire in the bolt gun this is the only ammo I use. (+Some Hornady Match when I can get it)
As I stated, I have no idea what happened. I was really getting into this rifle despite my early reservations about a short (16.2") barrel shooting .308's. This rifle is deadly accurate straight out of the box and though it is not up to my Remington 700 .308, it still is much more than I had expected and I don't regret getting it at all. But the Remington has been completely blueprinted, has a 24" barrel and a Leupold Mark 4 sitting on top.

After purchasing it locally I realized that I could have saved about $330.00 getting it online and I was kinda po'd but that was my fault for not checking more thoroughly. Anyhow, ten years from now I won't give it a thought, as I sit in my rocker in the nursing home and think about shooting. :lol:
Anyhow, I've already shipped it back to Ruger for them to look at and hopefully let me know what the deal is.

I have to say here that the customer service guy that I spoke with at Ruger should be given some kind of superior accomplishment award if he treats all customers on the phone as he did me. I cannot remember his name but he was great. He took the time to let me explain all the problem, in my own words, and acted like he was totally concerned about getting it made right. He told me that UPS would pick it up on Monday (Jan. 19th) at my house and all that I had to do was box it up. And, it was picked up yesterday afternoon, the UPS guy gave me a receipt with tracking number and he already had the shipping label printed out.
You cannot ask for better service. I did not have any run-around about what I did or did not do to the gun or with it and all I had to provide about the rifle was the serial number. That alone is worth a lot of the extra that I paid for the rifle, at least to me.
Sorry this has run on for so long but when I find out something more from Ruger, or get the rifle back I'll post it here immediately. Thanks again.....................

Racklover · Jan 23, 2015

I'm sure Ruger will make it right. Keep us updated. Mine has been flawless so far.

Oledude95 · Jan 23, 2015

Racklover said:
I'm sure Ruger will make it right. Keep us updated. Mine has been flawless so far.

Hey Guys,
This is getting kind of weird. I received a call from Angela at Ruger in Newport, NH today and they have checked out my rifle and "cannot fix it". She said that the techs did their thing on it and then tested it with the same results that I had when I shipped it. They absolutely cannot repair it. That seems very, very strange to me. Even worse, she said that all SR series Rugers are made in NC and it would be 6 to 9 weeks at the earliest before I could get a replacement. To be totally fair, she then clarified and said that it could ship in one week but the earliest that they have gotten any from the NC plant after ordering was 6 weeks. I asked if she could just find another like mine somewhere in some stock and just swap. She said that was impossible. THEN, she gave me another option. She did not say not to make it public but it is so strange that I'm going to wait a while before I post it , if I do. I will be reimbursed for my SR 762 very much to my satisfaction but I will not be getting another SR 762,which is what I want. I have never run into anything quite like this before. But, when the dust settles I'll post the entire thing for all of you guys to check. It just does not make any sense at all to me but the bottom line is that I will not be getting another SR 762 unless I go out to a retail shop and buy one. Ruger is not replacing it. BUT, I am not at all complaining about the offer that they did make so I'm not trying to make them sound bad. Just strange. I'll post more when I know it. Take Care,,,,,,,,,,,,,oledude

OldePhart · Jan 23, 2015

:boggle:

BearStopper · Jan 24, 2015

As far as I have understood, they have had reliability issues and carrier tilt wear problems with these since inception and have been unable to completely resolve it to a high percentage. They are probably throwing in the towel to a certain extent rather than continuing to recycle rifles through their system. Its a shame that they don't find a way to make these run with the best of them as I think it is a good looking and handling rifle compare to just about every other .308 battle type rifle. I would own one in a heartbeat if I didn't hear about problems from a high percentage of owners in the online forums. Best of luck on your options.

Oledude95 · Jan 25, 2015

BearStopper said:
As far as I have understood, they have had reliability issues and carrier tilt wear problems with these since inception and have been unable to completely resolve it to a high percentage. They are probably throwing in the towel to a certain extent rather than continuing to recycle rifles through their system. Its a shame that they don't find a way to make these run with the best of them as I think it is a good looking and handling rifle compare to just about every other .308 battle type rifle. I would own one in a heartbeat if I didn't hear about problems from a high percentage of owners in the online forums. Best of luck on your options.

I think that you are completely correct in this statement and now I firmly believe that Ruger continued to market a defective product, knowing it was defective, for quite a long period of time. I have discovered many, many instances of owners having the exact same problem as mine. All this in the past two days. I've been online checking for SR762 problems and it's like a blizzard and the fact that Ruger started out blaming Magpul mags, then DPMS steel mags, then everything but themselves in this debacle greatly reduces the respect and admiration that I have always had for Ruger and it's products.
I don't know what the outcome of my problem will be but I'll post it after it all settles down and the dust is gone. I don't want another SR762 as I had previously said that I did. All of the negatives I've read about this rifle cannot be true but enough of them should be, by the law of averages, that I don't want another one. I'm just wondering now how much money I am going to lose for buying this high priced paperweight in the first place. I'm really disappointed more than angry, but that too, because I thought that by sticking with an established, well known, brand that I was ok. But when they called and told me the rifle could not be fixed, could not be replaced in at least 8 weeks and maybe longer, well, that should have raised a large red flag and it did. I'll post once more when this is all done. Meanwhile, I'll go play with my 10/22. I KNOW that one works.

dakota1911 · Jan 27, 2015

This will be interesting. I bought one back in 2014. There was a sale and they had the Ruger SR-762s for $1.4K and I had read several good reviews on them. There was even a nice review in the American Rifleman. Anyway, so far the rifle has been impressive. I have plopped a scope on it and taken it out to 200 yards so far which is the max for the public ranges I have been at.

One thought is the NC plant is new. Last year I was reading about it and they said all Ruger was making there at that time was the new AR-556 and the anniversary 10/22s. I bought an AR-556 this last October for $599 during an Oktoberfest sale which was partially hosted by Ruger and a Ruger employee sort of said what I had read about the NC plant. I wonder if they are moving all SR-556 and SR-762 production there also and right now are sort of doing the move.

Anyway, guess I will find out. I am going to keep shooting mine.

dakota1911 · Jan 27, 2015

Another thought is they might have been cranking on the anniversary 50 year 10/22s up till the end of 2014 at Mayodan and that should be over now. Also I for got to include pictures.

Oledude95 · Jan 28, 2015

dakota1911 said:
This will be interesting. I bought one back in 2014. There was a sale and they had the Ruger SR-762s for $1.4K and I had read several good reviews on them. There was even a nice review in the American Rifleman. Anyway, so far the rifle has been impressive. I have plopped a scope on it and taken it out to 200 yards so far which is the max for the public ranges I have been at.

One thought is the NC plant is new. Last year I was reading about it and they said all Ruger was making there at that time was the new AR-556 and the anniversary 10/22s. I bought an AR-556 this last October for $599 during an Oktoberfest sale which was partially hosted by Ruger and a Ruger employee sort of said what I had read about the NC plant. I wonder if they are moving all SR-556 and SR-762 production there also and right now are sort of doing the move.

Anyway, guess I will find out. I am going to keep shooting mine.[/quot

I will make myself out a liar here because I said I'd wait until this mess was over before posting on this subject again but I do have something pertinent.
I have been burning up the phone lines with Ruger in NH in the last 3 days and finally got some resolution, hopefully. I've contacted everyone from customer service clerks to the CEO (who answered promptly and very cordially, (Mr. Firth) and I have been totally satisfied by all that I've dealt with.
The latest as of today, Wed. Jan.28, 2014, is that the 6 - 8 week waiting period suddenly vanished and I am getting a new SR762 out of the Mayoden, NC plant. All SR series guns are now being manufactured there and evidently they are running full time. At first when they offered me two of any rifle sold out of NH I decided to take a M77 6.5 creedmore and a Gunsite .308. Changed my mind and told them I'd take my chances and get one more SR 762 and try it. I've read a ton of negative stuff online about the gun but most of what I read indicates that the problem with the FTF and FTE and Jamming is due to magazines. I don't know that that is true but that is the most prevalent story going. But some folks have had no problem with the p-mags and others, like myself, could not get them to do anything once they started going bad. Some people have even had NEW SR 762's shipped with the DPMS mags along with a note from Ruger stating that the Magpul P-mags did not function "as well" and to use the DPMS. I don't know since I've not tried a steel mag so I cannot say. All I can say is that everybody that I spoke to at the Ruger Customer Service Center in NH was nothing but the best. Totally professional, called back when they said, gave accurate info and had a lot of patience with me. They had much more patience with me that I would have had with myself.
Anyhow, I have a tracking number, they sent the gun straight from NC by next day air, rather than going first to NH as normally done, and I should have it tomorrow. I have five kinds of factory ammo on hand, two DPMS mags, just in case and am ready to check it. I will keep all here informed of how this one goes. Remember, my first one lasted 124 rounds. I'll probably run 124 rounds through it tomorrow.
Thanks again for all who helped with good comments...................oledude

Oledude95 · Mar 7, 2015

Hey Guys,
I am sorry this post is kinda late but I have had some major back and spinal issues the past couple of months and have not done much of anything. But, I did not want to leave this one hanging and I sure wanted to give Ruger credit where it's due.
My last post, I think, said that they had made me an offer whereby I could get any two rifles made and distributed by the NH branch if I gave up my defective SR 762. At first I accepted and picked out two, one of which was a 6.8 Creedmoore with long barrel. Second was a Gunsite .308 and I thought I'd be satisfied. I did this "trade" because a lady that I spoke with in NH said that all the SR rifles were manufactured now in NC and the SR production was such that it would be months before I could get one. This turned out not to be the case. I got a call about three days after my last post here from the Ruger CEO and was informed that if I would still want a SR 762 I could get one. BTW: my first choice for the TWO rifles was 2 SR 5.56 models. They told me I could not get anything in this deal except what came out of NH. So...
Anyhow, I told them I'd like the SR 762 and it was two days later that a new one appeared at my FFL dealer with my name on it. Due to my back probs I have only fired it on one occasion but on that one I did two quick mag dumps and had no problem at all using Federal GMM 175 grain. I hated to spend that much money on mag dumps but that is the ammo I use and I'm sticking with it. As I said, it ran perfect and hopefully it will from now on. I just got a bad one from the batch originally and since I am a Ruger person I've now got the one I really wanted. The only thing, still, is I wish this rifle came in 18" or 20" barrel length. Due to the way this gun is built I think that a barrel switch would cause more problems than it would be worth.
So that is the way this one ended up. Thanks for all the comments.

(Satisfied Customer)
Deadeye

Oledude95 · Mar 7, 2015

RE: My last post, in the closeout......Deadeye and Oledude95 are the same person. I'm "Deadeye" on most forums.

Richbaker · Mar 16, 2015

If you want perfection, buy LaRue..... Ruger is a distant 2nd.

Oledude95 · Mar 18, 2015

Richbaker said:
If you want perfection, buy LaRue..... Ruger is a distant 2nd.

Can't afford LaRue

Ruger SR 762 kinda disappointing

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