Well, what to do if you have a whole bunch of AR15 magazines and lots of .223/5.56 rounds that you can't use. After thoroughly researching which bolt action rifle would be suitable to substitute for my AR15s, I decided to pull the plug and purchase a Ruger American Ranch in 5.56 cal using AR mags. After some more research, I decided to give Dante the business and was not disappointed (free shipping didn't hurt either). Canada Post was slow but came through just fine. I don't blame them too much what with the covid 19 problems for most businesses. First impressions where pretty good. There are a ton of reviews on the net so I'm not going into that much. Things I like are the compact size, decent trigger, threaded muzzle, 60 deg bolt throw, AR style mag release and of course the ability to use AR mags. The stock is functional and surprisingly solid. I checked whether the barrel was free floating and it was, no issue there. The trigger is crisp but a little heavy. I adjusted the trigger down to the lowest setting and it feels good to me. I don't have trigger gauge but I estimate it's around 3 lbs. The things I didn't like were the bolt stiffness when cocking the bolt and the mag release that was partially covered by the stock.
It also tended to pinch my trigger finger a bit due to the sharp edge on the stock when pressing the mag release. None of these things were a show stopper and being a tinkerer, I figured I could make some improvements. First, I removed the barrelled action from the stock, then I reshaped the stock area where the mag release is using a round file and sand paper.
This was a huge improvement. Not only does it look better but it's a lot more functional.
While I had the stock off, I decided to add a picatinny rail to the bottom of the fore stock. I like to have the option to add a QD mount for my bipod on the fore end and don't want to fiddle with mounting the pod on the sling swivel stud. I just had a pic rail with the correct mounting screw holes in my goodies drawer. The spacing worked out perfect with the internal stock webbing (2.375") and the existing stud hole. All I had to do was drill a hole in the right place and mount the pic rail.
After reassembling the rifle, I got to work to smooth up the bolt cocking issue. All I did was to cycle the bolt a few hundred times while I was watching my favourite TV show (The Unit). This got rid of a lot of the roughness but I was not totally satisfied. I took the bolt shroud off and applied a few daps of moly grease to the bolt camming surfaces. Note that there are 2 camming grooves you need to do this to. These two actions made the bolt cocking very acceptable.
I also had a muzzle brake in my goodies drawer and decided to install that as well. It's not that a .223 cal rifle recoils a lot, but it is a light rifle and I compete in CQB matches so I want minimal recoil to stay on target for fast follow on shots.
Here is a detailed picture of the Harris bipod mounted on the rifle.
Finally, I mounted an old Bushnell Tactical 10X scope on the top rail using Burris Signature Z-Rings.
Initial grouping is very promising. I used an existing batch of reloads I worked up for one of my AR15s, using 55gr VMAX bullets and 26.8gr of Varget. The largest group was 1.13MOA and the smallest was 0.63MOA. Out of 8 5-shot groups, 2 were slightly over 1 MOA and 6 were sub-MOA. All groups were fired from the bench using the bipod and rear bag at 100y. So, now comes the challenge to find the best loads for various bullets. Having a 1:8 twist, this rifle should be good for bullets from 40gr to 80gr. IMHO, this rifle has a good potential for CQB and Ganderite's sporting rifle matches.
It also tended to pinch my trigger finger a bit due to the sharp edge on the stock when pressing the mag release. None of these things were a show stopper and being a tinkerer, I figured I could make some improvements. First, I removed the barrelled action from the stock, then I reshaped the stock area where the mag release is using a round file and sand paper.
This was a huge improvement. Not only does it look better but it's a lot more functional.
While I had the stock off, I decided to add a picatinny rail to the bottom of the fore stock. I like to have the option to add a QD mount for my bipod on the fore end and don't want to fiddle with mounting the pod on the sling swivel stud. I just had a pic rail with the correct mounting screw holes in my goodies drawer. The spacing worked out perfect with the internal stock webbing (2.375") and the existing stud hole. All I had to do was drill a hole in the right place and mount the pic rail.
After reassembling the rifle, I got to work to smooth up the bolt cocking issue. All I did was to cycle the bolt a few hundred times while I was watching my favourite TV show (The Unit). This got rid of a lot of the roughness but I was not totally satisfied. I took the bolt shroud off and applied a few daps of moly grease to the bolt camming surfaces. Note that there are 2 camming grooves you need to do this to. These two actions made the bolt cocking very acceptable.
I also had a muzzle brake in my goodies drawer and decided to install that as well. It's not that a .223 cal rifle recoils a lot, but it is a light rifle and I compete in CQB matches so I want minimal recoil to stay on target for fast follow on shots.
Here is a detailed picture of the Harris bipod mounted on the rifle.
Finally, I mounted an old Bushnell Tactical 10X scope on the top rail using Burris Signature Z-Rings.
Initial grouping is very promising. I used an existing batch of reloads I worked up for one of my AR15s, using 55gr VMAX bullets and 26.8gr of Varget. The largest group was 1.13MOA and the smallest was 0.63MOA. Out of 8 5-shot groups, 2 were slightly over 1 MOA and 6 were sub-MOA. All groups were fired from the bench using the bipod and rear bag at 100y. So, now comes the challenge to find the best loads for various bullets. Having a 1:8 twist, this rifle should be good for bullets from 40gr to 80gr. IMHO, this rifle has a good potential for CQB and Ganderite's sporting rifle matches.
