Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Ruger American opinions???

I bought a NEW Ruger American in 308 last fall, because I had heard good things about them and I got this one at an unbelievable price. Got it home, put a round in the chamber and then TRIED to close the bolt. I had to try 4 different types of factory ammo before I could find one that would close the bolt with me using EXCESSIVE FORCE. Forget the reloads that I had already cooked up for another 308 I owned, bolt wouldn't close on them either.

I took it back to the store and complained, so they sent it back to Ruger. Did they do anything to it??? Nope, sent it back to me and said it was fine. Guy at the gun store agreed it was the worst bolt he had ever seen as far as closing and said "go shoot the sh*& out of it!" Yeah that's what I want to do buy 5 boxes of shells @ $30 each to break a bolt in.

Worst experience I have ever had with a gun. I own 4 or 5 other Ruger guns but the is really left a sour taste in my mouth and made me not want to ever give them a dime again. Sorry to rant and maybe I just got a bad gun, but they sure didn't take care of me.

Best I can see the only issue is that they are a Ruger.

I have one in 270. Dont' recall how many years now. Won the gun. Sits in the box, never taken out. Just can't stand Ruger or 270 to boot. But I don't sell guns... a problem I have.

I keep promising myslef to drop the cash on a cheap Zeiss and set it up and load up some 100 rounds of something and zreo it and have it on hand as a loaner, beat up truck gun, back up etc.... I mean much as I hate the 270, its a pretty much all around good round in the end. Can't see much that wouldn't work with a 110 TTSX out of it.

I may be stepping in it here, but...

As previously mentioned, I have a Ruger American in 22 Magnum which is accurate with premium ammunition and functions perfectly.

A few weeks later I bought a second Ruger American "Predator" in 22-250 which is exceptionally accurate, but will not feed from the magazine. I contacted Ruger with my complaint and had another magazine within days... Same problem. The rifle will not feed from the new magazine.

I believe this magazine is designed for the 22-250, 243, 7-08, and 308. When loading 22-250 cartridges, no matter the bullet shape/ogive/COAL, the second or third round pitches forward causing the rounds underneath to do the same, hence they will not feed. Using the very same magazine and loading 243, 7-08, 308 cartridges produced no pitching forward.

Obviously, it has something to do with the 22-250 cartridge dimensions. I have tried numerous factory loads and handloads...

Swearing off Ruger Americans lasted until I ran across a Ruger American "Ranch" rifle in 300 Blackout. This rifle feeds everything with no problem and is equal to or less than MOA with almost any load I feed it. The fit and function is very good.

you need to look up the 223 magazine extension thread.
I would bet you have the same problem with your magazine as many others do in 223,the magazine lips are too tight.
Our 22-250 RAR has no feed problems that I have seen,by the way.

Was waiting to get my second one in hand before posting in this thread but based on a big sample of two now, I really like'em. Had a right hand .243 and it was a great shooter. Sold it when Ruger introduced lefties and finally got a LH .22-250 this week.

All you do is take it out of the box, take it apart to clean it and turn a little screw to get a very crisp 3 1/2 lb pull with no overtravel, then put it back together. Mount a scope and go shoot.

I happen to like the ergos and the ribbing on it feels grabbier than a Tikka stock. The new ones have cross hatched reinforcing in the forend and it is sufficiently stiff. This one happens to have the barrel well centered in the channel so I did get lucky on that.

One of the big reasons I like them is because I'm tired of throwing money at rifles chasing two or three tenths of an inch worth of grouping ability. Took the .22-250 out this morning for the first pressure series, 14 three shot groups with three different bullets and two different powders. Best group of the day was .334", absolute worst was 1.72" but two of those were .331" apart. With all bullets at .010" from the lands most of the groups were 2 together and 1 apart telling me I need to seat deeper. But even with that, six groups were between the .4's and .6's and the rest scattered in the .7's up to a bit over an inch. Basically the rifle is telling me it really wants to shoot, the loads just need a little seating depth adjustment. I'll go out on a limb here and judging from initial indications predict that this rifle will settle down into the .4's to .6's on a regular basis. For a $338 dollar rifle with no modifications of any kind I'm okay with that.

There are "better" factory rifles out there, certainly. Some will shoot better out of the box and a whole bunch of'em are fancier. But I've owned a lot of factory rifles that shoot a lot worse with horrible triggers in comparison, and after throwing mucho bucks at them they end up with triggers and accuracy only as good as my two Americans, maybe.

I'm tired of throwing money at rifles with iffy results. For the price/performance ratio I think these Americans are great.



BTW, those groups were with unsorted, unfired Prvi brass. Have to get them all fireformed and neck sized plus sorted for concentricity to take those variables out of the equation.

That's a good way to put it!

Been working with my new left hand American in .22-250 for a couple of months now and can only reiterate that quoted statement.

Using the cheapest .22 bullets on the store shelf, Hornady 55 gr. Spire Points with cannelure, the rifle seems to have settled in the .6's for 5 shot groups. Note that is five shots, not three. It is lightweight and you have to really pay attention to bench and shooting technique, but while occasional three shot groups are internet worthy* and sometimes I'll throw a shot way out of the group due to bad form, in the long run .6's for five shots is what I can expect. Going upscale a bit with V-Max's or Sierra Matchkings will shrink that maybe 10 to 15 hundredths but my whole paradigm for the rifle is cheap, uh, I mean value performance so it gets fed the less expensive bullets.

And that ain't bad in my book for a rifle that cost me $348 delivered ,including FFL dealer fee, and has had absolutely no tweaking beyond turning the little trigger screw. No bedding, no polishing, no spending 50% of the rifle cost replacing parts; just out of the box, adjust trigger and shoot.

It's lightweight, I like the ergonomics, the trigger is fine and it shoots better out of the box than almost all of the "Flagship" rifles from the various companies in my collection. The only other rifle that shoots like this OOTB is a Tikka which cost twice as much.


One note on the .22-250 version - I have also experienced the problem listed above with the middle two rounds nose diving while feeding. It seems to be an idiosyncrasy of this shorter and more sloping round in a magazine designed for .308 based cases since my other .243 American with the same magazine size/design never had this problem.

But the fix I found is easy, just don't feed them slowly and they feed fine. If I push the bolt forward quickly - not lion charging panic quickly but with no hesitation or slowness, i.e. normal speed - they don't have time to nose dive so they feed into the chamber perfectly. I've put some 400 rounds through the rifle by now and have proven this over and over. Feed the two middle rounds slowly and you get a FTF, feed them at normal speed and they feed perfectly every time. FWIW, the first and fourth rounds will always feed okay. Rounds single loaded on top of an empty magazine feed fine as well.

Some may point to this with glee as a condemnation of the whole line, but in my mind it's just the way it goes and is limited to this one chambering being stuck in a .243/.308 based magazine. I had a custom rifle that wouldn't reliably feed rounds from the right side of the magazine, still have a $2000 custom rifle that wouldn't eject reliably without some polishing of the ejector slot and a "world's perfect bolt action design" that wouldn't reliably eject the 2nd and 4th rounds in the magazine. And their triggers were no better and they didn't shoot any better than this American (or not even as well). Stuff happens. And I'm happy to report that the bolt handle on my American has not fallen off...


Bottom line is my original opinion has only been reinforced by this second example: For the price/performance ratio I think these Americans are great.













*internet worthy - that 3 shot group that random chance puts into one ragged hole, a picture of which is then posted with the assumed inference that this happens all day long.

I have encountered several of .22-250's (and .250 Savages) that didn't feed particularly reliably, and were much more expensive rifles, including customs. That sort of body taper isn't used in designed many modern cartridges, with good reason.

I have a 250AI that will feed anything, including empty AI formed brass without a hitch. Unformed loaded 250 Savage ammo though will at times bobble.

Which is fine, because it's an AI first

My Ruger American Predator functions well, is very accurate... and has way to much of a plastic tupperware feel for my tastes...

Just picked up a 300 blackout American Ranch this weekend. Everything was great, except the throat is LONG. BT ammo as a .2" jump to the lands as far out in the case as I feel comfortable, but should work well with the barnes 150 gr tsx fn. We will see how it shoots this weekend. I really like the feel and handling of this gun, topped with a leupold 2-7. Also, I am going to have to get a timney at some point, the trigger has a fair amount of creep.

I reworked the trigger on one, did away with the 'accutrigger' type blade. It is a shade over two pounds now and nice, plus the cost was about 20 minutes of my valuable time.

I have a standard length in .243 and want to get a youth stock. Would you get the compact stock from Ruger or buy a Boyds and cut it down? I like the no-hassle of the Ruger option, but I think the added weight and stability might be better for a younger shooter. Thoughts?

I bought another one this evening. When did Ruger stop offering the free cheek pad?

Probably after lots of people started buying RAR's.

Got any pics of test targets with ammo detail?

My 6.5 RAR Creedmoor puts 140's, 129's 120's into the .5's. Shoots Partitions, TTSX, horn sp or boattails, Amax, all the same. Gonna try some 100gr stuff just for chit's and giggles....

My RAR .22lr? Easily the best rifle purchase I've ever made. No bedding, no trigger job. Just outta the box awesomeness.

Todays count...
3 head shots @ 58 yards from a crook in a crepe myrtle..
36gr minimags.
RAR, 3-9x40 redfield.
My recently widowed 83 year old next door neighbor is very Happy with the ruger.

My regular 30-06 functions and shoots well, it has a vx2 3-9x40 and it is very lightweight with a tiny minimalist sling.

My only complaint is that it is so light the barrel floats, shakes and wiggles more than any rifle I can remember. I've taken to using the sling to provide stability even with a decent rest. None of my other rifles have that particular issue and so far 4 or 5 friends and relatives have noticed the same thing. I'm considering adding one of those little limbsaver harmonic deal to see if that changes the balance.

Well the first time out with the ranch in 300 blk didn't go so well. About 25% failure to fire with light primer strikes. I am using new pnw brass with 125 gr bys and remove 7 1/ 2 primers. The primers were getting a slight dimple but not enough to set them off. Retrying the round would set it off about 1/2 the time. Very disappointing, and not sure where to go from here. Tried the fireformed brass with just primers when I got home and the failure rate was even worse.