I was looking at the Ruger American Predator in .22-250 on their website today and pondering the plastic stock they've got on it.

Is that stock worth leaving on there, or should a buyer just plan on replacing it with something else?

It's a POS but works. Some folks don't mind them, some do. Start adding up what it'd cost to make it what you want and look at options. Those are known great shooters. Just live with it is the simplest. The stock plus Mag plus the trigger make me not like the model, I've tried, a few times.

They are not great but work great..at least for me. Mine are just shooters and plinkers and loaners.

Thanks. I'll have to pick one up and take a closer look, but it checks a couple of boxes - on paper.

My post from another forum......


So I bought this yesterday. Why??? I have no clue but it looks and feels cool. Can not wait to shoot it. I scoped it with a SWFA 30mm 1-4 SS . Very handy Ruger American Ranch Rifle in 7.62x39mm. With 125 Ballistic tips at 2500 fps with AA1680 it should shoot well.

Just another toy.

I restocked some RAR-Ps with Boyds laminated Heritage-style stocks back in 2015/2016. That added a full 16 ounces to the weight of the package, but the Boyds stock fit me better than the factory stock, so the negative aspect of the added weight was offset by the improved handling characteristics. But Boyds continues to increase prices and at some price point it might be more cost-effective to look at other options, like the Weatherby Vanguard2s. RAR-Ps in 22-250 have a 1-10" ROT barrel, so the longer, heavier, component bullets that are increasingly popular might be stabilize in a 1-10" ROT barrel.

I have also use the foam/elastic and foam/neoprene comb risers on RAR stocks. Before spending a couple hundred dollars on a different stock, I'd suggest spending $30 of a comb riser, I like the elastic ones better than the neoprene ones, as they seem to fit tighter.

The newer version is better(more rigid) than the original stock that came with the RAR 223 I bought 5-6 or more years ago. I'd go with it and see how it shoots.

I bought my 223 for a spare/beater rifle and it has performed well for that. The thing shoots great. Way better than it should for $300 out the door. Opened the barrel channel a bit and went with a lighter trigger spring.

I unridged this one, lipstick on an very effective pig. I guess it's just not just the stock, mag, trigger. I think the whole thing is chincy, like the finish. $300 OTD? OK, $400, $450, no way. But, threaded is nice touch, if going suppressed..... The RAR I like the feel of is the little one, the Ranch. Gawd, I have had a couple RARs I've sold NIB just because I don't like them. Not helpful, sorry.

Anyone able to measure the muzzle diameter ad let us know on the .308? Please and thank you. Be Well, Rustyzipper.

Buddy has the .450 BM in a Magpul, gotta admit it looks mean.
I'd change the factory bolt handle.

Lot of $ for what ends up still being a RAR.

Cheaper to just go w an AR15 in .450 BM

I've stiffened up two 700 ADL synth stocks and a Savage Axis, they worked well after that.
For comb/cheek risers, Kydex secured by Velcro is cheap and effective.

Only elitists don't like them...

I love my 243 RAP. Stock is ugly, but I use the gun as a truck gun, bad weather gun, etc. It won't replace my walnut/blued steel M70s, but it's fun to shoot and incredibly accurate, especially for the for the price! Handle one and see if you can live with it...

Says the guy that cashed in and bought Fieldcrafts!

Have the little 7.62x39 RAR. Got it cheap and cheap it'll stay. I've said it before, easy to make a budget rifle not so budget. You really have to try to hurt that plastic stock! But it shoots very accurately and is just about perfect for the Tamarack swamp I hunt in.

Yeah but, kept the RARs too.

The M77 plastic stock is one of the best on the market, the American stock is one of the worst. Never have understood why. It couldn't cost that much more to put something similar to the M77 stock on the American. They're both just plastic, after all.

Yeah, it's helpful. I was asking for these kinds of opinions.

My only RAR was a rimfire. It arrived with the triggerguard broken completely off during shipment. They sent me a new stock, but how much more would it cost to make that guard a separate piece, even if plastic, and eliminate that weak point? $5 maybe? I have an AW Hawkeye that cost me $600 new. Makes more sense to me than putting lipstick on an RAR, as do Howas that come with a decent hinged floorplate.

Yah, it's all good. Have you handled them? I was no, then maybe, then OK, then no over the years. Cheap accuracy is something desirable though. Good luck.

Yah, it's all good. Have you handled them?

I was NO WAY NO HOW when they first came out, literally laughing. Then, as positive reports came in, I turned to maybe, then OK I'll try it, then back to NO, over the past several years. Darn little field time as I just don't like the rifle. The scallops on the forearm are gross, to call that American? What the hell American stock was like that? Put it in a classic shaped slim stiff stock, even just the same poly, it'd be closer to serviceable, like the Kimber Hunter. Duhhhh Ruger.. Still have a 223....

Cheap accuracy is something desirable. Good luck.

I liked the Marlin X guns better and would have preferred if Ruger had put the RAR barreled action into a stock that was like the Marlin, along with the Marlin's blind magazine. I don't care for detachable magazines on bolt action rifles, don't need the magazine capacity and don't care for a magazine that protrudes below the stock.

Preach it! Amen! Oh yah! Hallelujah!

I have the RAR in the .223 compact model. It's a right handy little rifle.

kwg

I have 3 of the Predators in 223, 6.5 CM, and 308. Paid $389 OTD each. I'm not gonna say they are 1/2 MOA all day long, but sub 1" groups at 200 are pretty common. I don't even bother shooting them at 100 anymore. I can't recall ever shooting a group over 2" at 200 yards.

I've thought about upgrading to a better looking stock, but anything I'd be interested in is $300 and would be 1/2 lb heavier. They shoot just fine in the stock they come in and if I've got $700 to invest in a Ruger + stock there are better $700 options.




The detachable magazine is the key to the accuracy at a budget price. The Ruger uses an action with a solid top that is much stiffer. Plus a massive bolt. The enclosed action requires a detachable magazine, no other way to load it. Plus traditional internal magazines make it harder and more expensive to get extreme accuracy. Not that it can't be done, but it adds to the cost and complexity of the rifle. Using detachable magazines is cheaper and easier to manufacture and eliminates one problem.

It took a while the magazines to grow on me, but once you figure out the advantages they offer and the cost savings I can live with them. Most of them use flush fit 4 round magazines. They do not protrude below the stock and offer no mag capacity advantage. But that is an option on some of them.

Good write up.

I have 2, one in a 17 HMR and 1 in the 1:8 twist .22-250 special run for Whittakers. I seldom use them. The 17 is an expensive plinker, but the rifle is fine for what it is, I just dont shoot that caliber that much. The 22-250 has never been fired by me yet. Had it a few years. One of these days I will shoot it. They are a little too cheap feeling to me to purchase, when I can get used Tikka rifles for $400 or $450 and even the new T3x Superlights for under $600 on sale at Sportsmans. I much prefer the Tikka to the cheaper rifles of all brands.

I've had 3 RARs and 20 RAR-Ps. Have thought about buying a RAR-Ranch Rifle in 6.5G or 7.62x39, but have never gotten around to it.

I still have 2 of the RARs, one of the 1-8" ROT 22-250s from Whittaker's special limited run and a Cerakoted limited run in 6.5CM.

I still have 16 RAR-Ps in 204, 223(x3), 22-250, 243(x2), 6CM, 25-06, 260(x3), 6.5CM(x3), and 308.

Most of mine have flush fit magazines that don't protrude below the stock, but Ruger seems to be moving away from them and toward the AR-style magazines. Of the 17 different RAR-Ps listed on the Ruger site, 8 come with flush fit magazines and 9 come with AR-style magazines.

I don't know if the detachable magazine is the key to accuracy at a budget price. The conventional blind magazines in the Marlin X guns and Savage 110 family were known for their out of the box accuracy. The Marlins X guns were always budget priced rifles and the Savage 110 family always had a budget prices option somewhere in the line, either branded as a Savage or a Stevens or, in rarer cases, as a house-brand.

I would agree that RAR-Ps have earned a reputation for accuracy, but accuracy is only one aspect to consider when exercising the decision making hierarchy.

I still like the Marlin X guns better and think that they were a superior platform when compared to the Remington 783 that replaced them. But like the old Yamaha motorcycle ads said; "Different strokes for different folks".

If it wasn't for the 14" twist in the .22-250, they'd be a lot more interesting to me.

Tikka makes a 1-8" twist 22/250


https://www.eurooptic.com/Tikka-T3x-Lite-22-250-Rem-224-1-8-Rifle-JRTXE314R8.aspx


https://www.budsgunshop.com/product_info.php/products_id/100638

Well, that is a surprise. The R8 isn't on the Tikka website I looked at.

Thanks.

Been looking at a RAR with the threaded muzzle in the green stock with new style box mag chambered for 6 Creedmoor. They want $470 and I guess it just seems like too much $$$ for what you get. Especially so when you see nice quality used guns for a lot less. It's the 6 Creedmoor that is the attraction not the rifle. MB

One day a Ruger product designer said” We need a $300 hunting rifle”. The American Rifle concept is born.

Yeah but I haven't seen one for 300 in a long time most seem to be between 370/500 MB

I bought a slightly used RAR-P in 6CM out of the free classified ads on this site back in 01/20 for $365 delivered to scratch that itch myself. The rifle is accurate with the Federal 107 grain Sierra Matchking factory loads that I've shot through it and with a comb riser installed my right eye aligns with the ocular lens of the Bushnell 10x40 scope that I installed on it. I don't know what I'm going to do with it in the near term. I'm not going to the Rosebud to shoot pdogs this year, 'cause none of the rest of the regulars want to go.

Hear you loud and clear 260 what I really need to do is find and xs-7 in 243 wear the barrel off it and rebarrel with a tight twist ss 24" length on 6 Creedmoor chambering. JB did a review of a 6 Creed back in Dec of 18 in the Handloader mag with the old style mag. He didn't mention any negatives, but the whole article lacked the enthusiasm for something he really likes. Maybe I ought to just finish wearing out my old 243 700 bdl's barrel and do the 6 on it.
MB

You might find a Savage take-off barrel that would be an easy barrel swap.

EDIT: I think that I was a ad for an EABCO Savage 110 specs barrel in 6CM for around $250.

No complaints really, I know what it is and just shoot the chit out of it! Accurate and cheap, now to just find the ammo for it!

Still know of a few Marlin XL7s on the shelf. One stainless and a couple blued.

They were about $299 (probably a promotion) at Dicks about 5 years ago. Of course they raise the price after the demand shot up. Last I checked , Ruger wants to make a profit.

I got my Ruger American Predator in .223 a little while back for $359
Haven’t shot it much yet, a little bit with a 4x Weaver and it shot ok.
Just topped it with a 3.5-10X Leupold. We’ll see how it shoots this weekend.
I don’t mind the stock so much. And I like the compatibility with AR magazines. The 3 RAR’s in .308 that we have had in the family have all shot great.

The stock is a flimsy POS and butt ugly. However it is the most accurate rifle I own. For those of you who chase MOA you know that the last thing you want to do to a real shooter is change anything. I simply could not abide the ugly black plastic (an aversion I picked up serving in the US Army). I still did not want to change the stock so I sent it of to have it hydro dipped in a burlwood pattern. At least now if not aesthetically pleasing it is tolerable. The bonus being it still shoots lights out (1/2-3/4 MOA) with Hornady 180 grain SST bullets.