Bought the Ruger a couple years ago for our temporary relocation to NY. I resented it for awhile because I’d rather shoot pistols and NY sucks however it has grown on me.
I use it for rifle matches (3gun rules with distances paper out to 50 yards and steel out to 100 yards) and is our main home defense gun. We also go down to my parents property regularly and bring it down with us. So because I like to pack it up and bring it with us, I was really interested in the backpacker. So I finally got one.
Not gonna lie, I’m pretty disappointed with it.
The good:
The grip angle and position is much better.
The compartments in the grip and on the cheek riser is nice.
Sling mounting points on one piece instead of split between the takedown.
It weighs much less. Combined with the weight and better grip ergos it is much more pleasant to move quickly with at least in dryfire.
The meh:
The magwell area is smooth on all sides which doesn’t allow any attachment of magwells. Ok, I could drill in and attach a custom magwell somehow. I knew that going in to it.
The bad:
The mag release is a bit better than the OEM but not by much….and they made it proprietary. So any aftermarket ones or custom ones I have designed and printed are not compatible. It’s not just different mounting method, it’s a larger size, so I can’t use the OEM one. I don’t love that but I could live with it.
The forend. Basically I feel like this was optimized to pack and then take a couple shots - not to regularly shoot. The forend is too short for my liking - way shorter than where my hand wants to hold.
Then it has the 2 mlok slots on each side for mouthing a light….but they are so far back. I prefer a simple light with a tail cap button. But mounting a light in either spot doesn’t work great and now I need to hold back even farther than where I want to hold. I could extend it out with a light bar maybe but it still barely puts it out far enough and bar would still be where my hand wants to hold.
I’d rather have seen something like this:
I would have much rather have had the forend much longer like the OEM stock and have the mlok slots be further up. I would rather sacrifice the packed size and have a much more shootable rifle. Plus, it could have been made so it could be packed with a G17 mag instead. The rifle is not a featherweight so I don’t see a huge advantage of the smallest packing size.
Just my opinion.
I’ve already converted it back to the OEM stock for now. I’m not sure if if going to try to find a better light mount solution and design a new magwell or just sell it off.
I use it for rifle matches (3gun rules with distances paper out to 50 yards and steel out to 100 yards) and is our main home defense gun. We also go down to my parents property regularly and bring it down with us. So because I like to pack it up and bring it with us, I was really interested in the backpacker. So I finally got one.
Not gonna lie, I’m pretty disappointed with it.
The good:
The grip angle and position is much better.
The compartments in the grip and on the cheek riser is nice.
Sling mounting points on one piece instead of split between the takedown.
It weighs much less. Combined with the weight and better grip ergos it is much more pleasant to move quickly with at least in dryfire.
The meh:
The magwell area is smooth on all sides which doesn’t allow any attachment of magwells. Ok, I could drill in and attach a custom magwell somehow. I knew that going in to it.
The bad:
The mag release is a bit better than the OEM but not by much….and they made it proprietary. So any aftermarket ones or custom ones I have designed and printed are not compatible. It’s not just different mounting method, it’s a larger size, so I can’t use the OEM one. I don’t love that but I could live with it.
The forend. Basically I feel like this was optimized to pack and then take a couple shots - not to regularly shoot. The forend is too short for my liking - way shorter than where my hand wants to hold.
Then it has the 2 mlok slots on each side for mouthing a light….but they are so far back. I prefer a simple light with a tail cap button. But mounting a light in either spot doesn’t work great and now I need to hold back even farther than where I want to hold. I could extend it out with a light bar maybe but it still barely puts it out far enough and bar would still be where my hand wants to hold.
I’d rather have seen something like this:
I would have much rather have had the forend much longer like the OEM stock and have the mlok slots be further up. I would rather sacrifice the packed size and have a much more shootable rifle. Plus, it could have been made so it could be packed with a G17 mag instead. The rifle is not a featherweight so I don’t see a huge advantage of the smallest packing size.
Just my opinion.
I’ve already converted it back to the OEM stock for now. I’m not sure if if going to try to find a better light mount solution and design a new magwell or just sell it off.
