By Joe W Gorman
Ruger’s 20” 6.5 Creedmoor SFAR. What a game-changer of a rifle!
AR-10s were big and cumbersome when I first handled one some 40 years ago. I did not follow their advances and was content with 5.56 ARs and if I needed to shoot 7.62 NATO well, I had a M-1A. Enter Ruger’s Small-frame Autoloading Rifle (SFAR). The SFAR offered a traditional AR sized rifle with a .308 Winchester punch. The SFAR features an adjustable gas block, a free-floating handguard, 5R rifling and it takes P-MAGs.
I was instantly a fan. So much so I bought two SFARs! When Ruger released the SFAR in 6.5 Creedmoor, how could I not get one to those too? I have a 6.5 Creedmoor Ruger Precision Rifle that I’ve hit prairie dogs at 825 yards with, and I am a fan of the round.
All my SFARs have proven themselves to be reliable and practical rifles. They are not precision rifles, and they were not held out to be. That said, I could routinely get them to shoot around MOA with ammunition they liked.
My 6.5 SFAR with a factory Magpul Precision Lite stock showed a fondness for Hornady American Gunner 140gr BTHP and Hornday 120gr ELD Match ammunition and typical group sizes would be just a hair over MOA! Not bad, eh?
But of course, I can never leave well enough alone. I set off to make the SFAR even more consistent and handy with just a couple of tweeks. The goal of the upgrades I had in mind was to get the rifle to consistently group sub-MOA at 200 yards, improve the charging ergonomics and equip the rifle with a scope that allowed shots on small targets out to 500 yards or so.
HB Industries SFAR ProStock Handguard
HB Industries offers handguards specifically for the SFAR, in both a carbine and a rifle version, and for this project I chose the 20” rifle version. These handguards are constructed from 6061 Aluminum and are hard coated with MIL-A-8625 Type 3 coating. Installation requires only removal of the factory handguard and replacing it with the HB Industries handguard. There is no cutting or other fitting required. The HB Industries handguard has a cutout to accomidate Ruger’s dust cover pin.
The HB Industies’ ProStock. It’s super simple to install, requiring no modifications to fit on a SFAR.
The HB Industries ProStock handguard offers increased clearance for the factory gas regulator and increased stiffness. There is more real estate for adding accessories on the ProStock too. The HB Industries ProStock does add about 4 ounces to the rifle but in return shooters will appreciate the solidity of the handguard.
The HB Industries’ ProStock SFAR Rifle handguard allows easier access to the factory gas regulator.
With the HB Industries ProStock handguard in place, I added a Magpul M-LOK bipod mount for when I want to run a Harris bipod.
Timney AR Impact Trigger
Truth be told, the trigger that ships with the SFAR is actually a pretty good trigger. Ruger claims they break at 4.5 pounds and that’s about where my trigger pull measurements were. Alas, I’m a sucker for a good trigger and I wanted to add a Timney. For any AR, the Timney upgrade is about a 10-minute job, start to finish, and the reward is a crisp trigger pull at whatever weight trigger you select. The Timney Impact trigger is a great field trigger that breaks at 3-4 pounds. The Impact trigger I have breaks at 3.5-pounds.
Timney’s Impact AR trigger. It’s a big improvement for any AR!
For this project, I wanted to keep the goal of “lightweight hunting rifle” in mind and I think a 3.5-pound trigger is ideal field weight for when my heartbeat exceeds 220 bpm because I spot a fat coyote slow walking at 300 yards and I don’t want something too light.
Radian Raptor SL Charging Handle
Radian’s ambidextrous Raptor SL charging handle is a smooth operating and low-profile design. Made from 7075 aluminum and MILSPEC anodized, the Raptor SL provided an easy way to charge the SFAR without adding bulk.
The Raptor SL
The sleek Raptor SL provides excellent purchase of the charging handle, when there’s a scope eyebell in the way, without protruding too much.
Radian’s Raptor-SL handle worked out great. Not bulky or clunky, but it made it easy to charge the SFAR
Vortex Viper PST Gen II 2-10X
Vortex makes a rifle scope for every imaginable situation. Per the goals of this project, I needed glass that offered good low light performance, moderate optical magnification and relatively light weight. I settled on the Vortex Viper PST II.
Vortex’s excellent Viper PST Gen II held in place by Vortex’s 30mm Pro Cantelever mount
The 2.5-10x magnification and the 32mm objective bell, with the EBR-4 illuminated reticle (MRAD) allows me to see 8”x12” steel targets at 700 yards and the high-quality XD low dispersion glass and XR lens coatings will allow me to see Wille E Coyote from hundreds of yards out in the field and more importantly for me, in low light in the woods when my longest shot might be 125 yards and I’ve dialed the magnification down to say 6x. The Viper features a 30mm, one-piece aluminm body and is adjustable for parallax.
Long days spent testing the SFAR build. Someone’s got to do it.
I mounted the Viper in a Vortex 30mm cantelever mount and found the sight picture to be very crisp and the eye box forgiving enough for me to get on target quickly.
Vortex’s EBR-4 MRAD. The reticles are illuminated for use in low light!
Bench Time
I had assembled my improved SFAR and sighted, roughly, and set out to see what results I could get.
Hornady’s American Gunner 140gr worked really well in the SFAR as this 100 yard group demonstrates.
I had several flavors of ammunition from Hornady on hand. 6.5 Creedmoor is sort of a Hornady thing, so, yeah Hornady it is.
Hornady’s American Gunner 140gr turned out to be the least expensive ammunition of the types tested. WIN/WIN!
I tested the American Gunner 140gr, the Varmint VMAX 97gr and the Superformance SST 129gr to see how well they did at 100/200/300 yards.
Hornady’s Superformance 129gr SST ammunition is screaming fast and accurate too.
Most of the testing was done at 200 yards as that is a handy zero range in Iowa. I also tried the 147 ELD match ammunition that routinely shoots 1/2moa out to at least 300 yards through my RPR but the SFAR did not seem to care for that round.
Hornady Varmint 97gr VMAX makes small varmints literally disintegrate at 250 yards and under.
I must say, with the ammunition I ended up using for testing, the results far exceeded my expectations. Every load type shot average sub-MOA groups at 200 yards.
Wrap Up
Full disclosure, when I started my testing I had access to 300 yards, but I only had the American Gunner ammunition on hand. When I got the other two flavors of 6.5 Creedmoor ammunition, I was limited to my 200-yard range. Be that as it may, the results speak for themselves. I will bring this gun along with me to our late summer South Dakota ShootORama and see how she does at 800-1200 yards, because out there, I can.
A sub-2” group from 300 yards with a 6.5 AR. Yes please!
This is a long way to say, I have a gun that can ring steel from a long way away and even after the mods, she only tips the scales at 10 pounds. My rifle also prefers the reasonably priced American Gunner ammunition! What’s not to love?
200-yard Accuracy Results
| Ammunition | Avg Muzzle Velocity | Avg 3-shot Group at 200 yards**Measured center to center |
| Hornady American Gunner 140gr BTHP | 2635 fps | 1.2” |
| Hornady Varmint 97gr VMAX | 3120 fps | 1.6” |
| Hornady Superformance 129gr SST | 2890 fps | 1.9” |
Leave a Reply