Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Comments on Ruger American

I avoided the cheap plastic wonders for years. They dont have the features of a serious alaskan hunting rifle.

In hypocritical fashion, I caved at $100 for a like-new RAR scoped with a 2-7 redfield revolution.

I thought about them RARs for a few years after a young kid took his first caribou with one. They were so broke, i loaned them my truck, boat motor, even the hunting jacket off my back.

They had maybe at most, a half box of 180 grain partition ammo. Gun survived the nasty muddy-water environment like a boss. The kid was so starry-eyed and proud, i didnt have it in me to sht on his rifle or talk-down on it:



Here are my thoughts on a RAR 308 after overcoming my uppity ignorance:

The box trigger has an opening to blast some cleaner on the critical sear to trigger engament. So kind of a "hybrid open/box trigger". It took 60 seconds, to get that trigger to 2.5lbs with no parts required.

I purposely loaded a dummy round with a bullet too far out. I crimped the fk out of the case with a lee crimp die. Bullet almost got stuck in the rifling. I reamed on the bolt handle. Neither the bolt handle, nor the ectractor broke. It extracted like a boss.

The stock is sleek at the pistol grip, with some slight swelling towards the grip cap end. The swelling fills the palm and your grip doesnt slip down stock.

Though cheap, the ergonomics are far nicer than the dog-sht hogue that came on my old 375 ruger alaskan. Its also nicer than the clubby, dog-sht bell an carlson that came on my cz-550. It was an uncomfortable, short grip-angle, clubby and slippery on the b&c.
For cheap plastic, the american has good ergonomics.

The fast 1:10 twist of the mirror-finish barrel will stack 200 grain hot-cors into a single hole. It outshoots ANY rifle ive ever owned.

The weight was exactly as advertised at 6.1 lbs. That, is fkn light! A real short-action, unlike the tikkas.

I left the gun outside all winter, never had a SINGLE malfunction.

The two position safety means nothing, as all Alaskans hunt with an empty chamber. The bolt will be closed when its time to run a round into the chamber and take aim at moose, caribou or bear.

In spite of the do-nothing gibberish heard on 24houcampfire against the RAR's, would i hunt with one in Alaska?

Absofknlutely.