Well, I got one the weekend before Thanksgiving, and I wasn't even looking for one at the time! My best friend called me a few weeks earlier and wanted to know if he could go deer hunting with me. Of course he could, but he'd never been hunting before, and had no deer gun. We both live in Ohio, so not just any gun is legal. I still had my 12 gauge 870, a CVA muzzle loader, and a Marlin 1894 SS .44 mag that I'd been using these last several years since it became legal.
Unfortunately, the Marlin seemed to throw fliers a lot, despite trying 6 different bullets and several different powders, so I decided to sell it and get something else. After some research I'd decided to go with a stainless CVA Scout in .44 mag, since I've got almost 1000 cases and a ton of bullets for the .44 magnum. Went to a local gun shop, and after handling the CVA, the owner handed me a Ruger American in .450 Bushmaster. Deep down inside, I immediately knew I was going to have to own one. I tried talking myself out of it, after all, I couldn't let all those .44 mag components go to waste, the only other .44 I had was a 4" 629.
I didn't want to saddle my buddy with a muzzle loader, or a hard kicking slug gun for his first hunt, but man, that Ruger felt so good! After thinking about it for a few days, I sold the Marlin, and bought both the CVA and a Ruger ($330 & $440 and I already had scopes for them). The Ruger American only weighs 5 1/2 lbs, handles like a dream, and just plain feels great! The CVA, claims a weight of 5.8 lbs, and handles really good, but when I put it on my postal scale, I was shocked to see it actually weighs 7 1/2 lbs.. unscoped! Anyway, you asked about the Ruger, not the CVA, so I'll throw out some random things I've learned.
In the few days between buying the Ruger and leaving for my annual southern Ohio pilgrimage to deer hunt, I did some tweaking on it. First I measured the trigger pull out of the box. It was 4 1/4 lbs, and backing the adjustment screw off all the way only brought it down to 3 3/4 lbs. After some buffing of parts did nothing more either, I did some internet research. Then I cut a coil. It did nothing. Then I cut another, either 3/4 or 1 more (can't remember which) and it came down to 2 1/2 lbs, with the screw backed off. Close enough.
I didn't care for the sound the bolt made when working it, so I after some research, I worked the bolt somewhere around 1500 times. It didn't do much, it maybe was a little slicker, but still made the annoying sound; so I did some polishing with some fine grit sandpaper and buffing compound. I like it much better now.
I didn't have time to develop loads for both guns, so I bought a couple boxes of factory loads, go it on paper, shot a decent group, and worked on the CVA and .44 loads. I was in a rush with working up a load, setting up two stands, and celebrating Thanksgiving with my sister paying a surprise visit, so I didn't put the calipers to it, but it was pretty decent.
Also, the recoil was more than I expected. Not brutal, by any means, just really snappy. I also found it very easy to sweep my off hand as I fought for balance on southern Ohio sidehills while deer hunting with that short barrel. It did fit inside my blind really well, but it also rang my ears a bit with the brake, which I should have removed when actually hunting. I noticed the blast kind of knocked off some black specks on the inside of my blind after the shot. I was successful, nothing noteworthy on effectiveness, but it is a really cool rifle, and I love being able to use a bolt action in Ohio.
I found that I needed a lot of cheek riser to line up with the scope, so I bought a soft black drawer liner from Walmart, and folded it up until I got the right height- it took about 5/8's" to do it- and black electric-taped it to the stock for the hunt. I've been researching what I'm going to do on a more permanent basis, and am thinking I'm going to attempt to build something up on the stock and paint it myself- which will be a first for me.
I also think the 13 3/4" length of pull is too long for me to work the bolt right, and the bolt takes a pretty fair amount of force to operate, I guess because of the 70 degree lift. So, I just installed a 1.75" bolt handle from Glades Armory yesterday, and I like it much better. I've never been a fan of those big ugly shifter knob things, but this one isn't too bad. While I'm working on the stock, I'm going to attempt to shorten the length of pull by about 1/2" too.
One of the things I've done in the last 10 or 15 years, is move to all stainless guns whenever possible. This one wasn't available that way, so I'm going to ship the barreled action off to Mahovsky's Metalife next. While watching a video on here the other day, I saw a table full of guns in .450 Bushmaster with Randy Brown, the guy who got the ball rolling with Ruger. Start at about 16:40 here..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6ThHiZ5PxI&feature=youtu.be. At any rate, I learned that there are special versions available from him. Had I known that, I'd have gotten it in stainless with a slightly longer barrel to start with.
