The Ruger Frontier: a rifle for today's explorers

Guns Magazine, July, 2006 by Dave Anderson

A few years ago Ruger introduced a "Compact" version of their popular bolt-action Model 77 Mark II rifle. It has a 16 1/2" barrel with a correspondingly shorter forearm. Length of pull is also shortened an inch. The standard blue steel/walnut is a neat little rifle, less than a yard long and weighs just 5 3/4 pounds. A stainless steel version with black laminated stock weighs a quarter pound more.

A fine youth rifle, its trim dimensions and light weight have also made it popular as a mountain rifle and for hunting in heavy cover. In 2005 Ruger introduced a variation on the Compact. It mates the blue-steel action and barrel with the black laminate stock. Nothing earthshaking there, but then Ruger added a barrel-mounted rib notched to accept Ruger scope rings, allowing it to be fitted with an intermediate-eye-relief scope. Ruger calls its new model the "Frontier." The test rifle is in .308 Win. Other calibers offered are .223, 7mm-08 and .300 WSM. A stainless steel version followed in 2006.

Intermediate-eye-relief scopes seem to arouse strong opinions both pro and con. Maybe I'm just wishy-washy, but I find it hard to get too excited about the concept, either for or against. Conventional receiver-mounted scopes and intermediate-eye-relief scopes both work, both have advantages and disadvantages.

So what's to like about IER scopes? First, they are very fast. Keeping both eyes open (as they should be with any sighting system), one can track the target, raase and index the rifle, and deliver an accurate shot with amazing speed.

It Works

This isn't just theory. For a time I owned two .308 Steyr Scout rifles (still have one, a friend talked me out of the other.) I fitted one rifle with a Leupold 3-9X Vari-X II scope, the other carried a Leupold 2.5X IER scope. I compared speed of getting off an aimed shot, with the variable scope set at 3X to match the IER scope as closely as possible.

The target was a deer silhouette with an 8" scoring ring, set at 50 yards. I used an electronic shot timer, which gives an audible start beep and records the time of the shot to an accuracy of 1/100th of a second. Start position was with the rifle held in both hands, butt at hip level, as one might carry it while waiting for a deer to break cover.

With the IER scope I could get off a hit in the scoring ring with times around 1 1/2 seconds. With the conventional scope I was from 1/4 to 1/2 second slower. This isn't much, but at the time I had little experience with IER scopes, while I've been using conventional scopes for going on 45 years.

The Owie Factor

On a heavy-recoiling rifle the IER scope eliminates the problem of "magnum eyebrow" from inadequate eye relief. I've yet to be cut by a scope (touch wood!) though there have been a couple of times when a scope touched my glasses.

The forward-mounted scope gives easy access to the magazine for loading. It makes the rifle easier to carry with one hand, as the hand can wrap around the receiver at the rifle's balance point. And for my taste, it makes a short, light rifle balance better. I find some carbines such as the old Remington 600 with conventional scopes tend to be muzzle light and hard to hold steady. Mounted ahead of the receiver, IER scopes move the balance point forward.

What's not to like? Well, I see the IER as more of a special purpose scope, for circumstances in which speed at close to moderate range is of paramount importance. For all-around use on an all-around rifle I like a receiver-mounted variable in the range of 2.5-8X or 3-9X. Not very exciting or original, but it works. At 3X or 4X, it is fast enough for any needs I have, while at higher power it provides more precise aiming at ranges past 200 yards.

Yes, I know--a 2 1/2x scope is precise enough for shooting big game even at 300 yards. But I'm not always hunting moose or elk. Sometimes I'm hunting pronghorns or coyotes or fox or jackrabbits. And where I hunt, even the moose and elk don't stand around obligingly in the open. When it comes to hitting an 8" target at 300 yards I can do it faster and easier with the scope set at 8X than at 3X.

Your Choice

The Ruger Frontier gives you the option. The excellent Ruger scope rings, in my experience, allow a scope to be removed and reinstalled with little if any change in zero. Extra rings are inexpensive; a shooter can have both an IER and a conventional scope sighted in with Ruger rings, and easily install whichever seems appropriate for the circumstances.

Sighting system aside, the Ruger Frontier is one of the neatest, handiest little rifles you can imagine with an overall length of just 35 1/2". The barrel rib makes the Frontier's 6 3/4 pounds a bit heavier than the Compact but not overly heavy. Slung on a shoulder the barrel doesn't catch on branches, and in heavy cover it can easily be carried in one hand. It's an ideal little carbine to tie to a backpack, store in a boat or plane, or slide in a scabbard on either horse or ATV.

The action is the proven and reliable M77 with controlled round feeding, three-position wing safety, hinged floorplate, and integral scope bases. The trigger pull is non-adjustable in that there are no screws to turn, but most 77s I've handled recently have had quite decent pulls. If not, any good gunsmith can smooth up the pull without much fuss.