I bought a SOCOM762 for my Ruger scout rifle. Light weight magazine fed 308 with a 16” barrel; what’s not to like?
I had a local gunsmith install the surefire flash hider about a month before I received the stamp for the can. He used the surefire shims and installed it properly.
When I got the can I noticed that it was really tight going onto the mount. I mean REALLY tight as in needed to be hammered onto the mount with a rubber mallet. After that, I got exactly one “click” on the ratchet before it wouldn’t budge. Getting it off was another nightmare altogether.
I thought this was strange, so I called surefire before I did any shooting. Their rep told me that as long as there was at least one “click”, it was good to go. They suggested that firing a few rounds would loosen things up.
No big deal, I thought, I’ve had tight mounts before. Off to the range I go!
I fired a few rounds without the can to ensure stability. I was using setpoint subsonic ammunition. No problems at all.
Trying to be discreet, I pulled out the mallet, got the can onto the mount, tightened it to the single click, loaded a single round into the magazine, aimed and fired.
Thunk.
Can flies 20 yards down line.
First shot through it. Ever. Not happy.
So I waited for the firing line to go cold and trundled down to my poor can. Closer inspection revealed that the round kissed every baffle on the way out and struck the end cap. It was actually not too bad and if I had the can for a while I would not have been so upset, but the fact that it happened on the very first round really pissed me off.
So I packed up and went home. The next day I opened a service ticket on surefire’s site. Someone called me a few hours later and we spoke about what happened. They agreed to fix the can under warranty. No arguing, no fighting, no looking for out-of-warranty loopholes. Color me impressed.
I sent the can in not expecting too much. A few days later the tech calls me and tells me the can is ready but they are not comfortable sending it out to me just yet. Apparently the can and the ratchet mechanism were fully in spec and I should not have had this issue. They suspected the mount may be the problem and asked me to send it to them. Unfortunately, the smith used rockestt and I wasn’t really in the mood to start messing with it. I explained this to them and they agreed to have me send the whole rifle in to them. It would be at my expense, but I figured it was worth it to be 100% sure everything was perfect.
In the meantime, they returned the can to me. It looks absolutely brand new. I can’t find any evidence that it was worked on, even with a magnifying glass. I am very impressed.
I sent the rifle in and a week after they received it I got a call from the tech. They were stumped as they had the same problem I did. They tried other cans and they all had the same issue. They removed the mount, installed a new, verified mount and had the same issue.
So they turned their attention to the barrel and this is where it gets interesting… apparently the tapering profile of the Ruger scout rifle is not that tapered. It is too thick towards the shoulder, which caused the mount to swell, making a true lock impossible.
They did not want to work on Ruger’s barrel, so instead of messing with it they created a custom mount just for little ‘ol me, which you can see at the bottom. I thought this was much nicer than a "Send it to Ruger" stance they could have taken.
I took it to the range today and everything is now perfect.
So…
What I did right:
1. Had the mount properly installed by a qualified gunsmith, but it can be argued that he should have noticed the issue at first.
2. Called surefire to confirm mounting issue BEFORE I shot it.
What I did wrong:
1. I did not first try another can from my dealer to rule out what could be bad.
2. I did not think that the barrel may be the issue.
3. I trusted the first rep's advice even though it went against my better judgment.
4. I did not document enough. I do not know the name of the rep I originally spoke with. If I needed to prove I spoke to someone first, that would have helped.
Lessons learned:
1. Measure measure measure!
2. Surefire warranty service is truly outstanding.
Hopefully this will help anyone looking to mount a suppressor to a Ruger Scout rifle…
