If I hade to do it all over again.... I think I would have went a different route.
For starters...all I shoot is subsonic. Mine started out great.... but then my groups went haywire. The first 20 rounds or so...... I was impressed (Maybe that box of 20 were just magic, who knows). Then for some unknown reason..... my groups opened up considerably. It went from mabe 1-1.5 inches or so @100 yards to 4-5 inches at 100 yards.
From my experience..... consistent velocity greater than 1000 fps is a must.... The closer to the sound barrier without going over, the better results I had.
The factory stock is Garbage..... It didn't take much force for the stock to touch the barrel...... It threw me off a bit until I figured it out.
At any rate.... I got a different stock, bedded it, Timney trigger, swapped out scopes, scrubbed the piss out of the barrel, suppressed, unsuppressed, brake/no brake, used JB's bore paste/shine, tweaked the action bolt torque and my groupings were ridiculous, mostly vertical stringing. This rifle became a freaking science experiment.
Now that I finally have it figured out.... It shoots decent now, with an occasional flyer. But like I said....... its FINICKY. A change in the position of the stock on the sandbags or how you touch the rifle can make a very noticeable difference. Also.... there are some powders It just didn't like as much as others..... and keep the velocity above 1000 fps. Most if not all factory ammo will be above that. It seemed to like about 10 grains of Win296 the most.
Subsonics are handgun velocity, so the trajectory is similar to shooting a handgun. While experimenting with charges and what not.. I got a 208 grain bullet down to 750 fps...... the point of impact difference with the same bullet @ 1000 fps was over 12 inches higher. This is where consistent ammo became important.... If you have inconsistent velocity, It will be very noticeable on paper - vertical stringing.
With a rifle can, they are quiet, typically quieter than suppressed centerfire handgun rounds, but louder than suppressed 22lr. With a handgun can rated for 300bo subsonic, they're a little louder, but by all means hearing safe.
I think I would have been happier getting a CZ, and then putting on a HS Precision stock.... (which I may get rid of the Ruger and do this one day, who knows) but then again I could have had similar results. It could be the nature of subsonic ammo for this round.
