New Ruger American Scout rifle!

M77 > American, all day everyday.
I have had a GSR and a Ruger American. I liked the GSR and agree it’s in many ways ‘nicer’. But, objectively why would it be better than the American?

Reliability? My GSR and another I was aware of had feeding issues with certain mags. If you ran the bolt slowly the cartridge would pop out of the mag ahead of the extractor and get pushed into the chamber with no extraction. You were buggered unless you could free the chambered cartridge. My American fed perfectly. I like Mauser style CRF actions but that’s mostly a biased preference. I think its touted superiority is more lore than real.

Accuracy: out of the box the American was more accurate. The GSR was mediocre until I bedded it.

Trigger: both rifles needed the return spring replaced but the LC6 trigger out of the box is poor for what became and almost $2000 rifle. The American trigger is not worse.

Safety: I think the M77 safety is mechanically superior. The American is ergonomically better on the tang.

Sights: haven’t seen the American’s irons so can’t compare.

Durability: the M77 is robust. The bottom assembly plastic might be less so over time, don’t know. The American has easy to find and replaceable mag assemblies and stocks, but they are ‘cheap’. But I have not read of any chronic durability issues on the American. Are it’s parts like extractors, cocking piece, firing pin, springs etc. prone to fail?

As a tool for shooting and a ‘practical carbine’ I think the GSR was aesthetically ‘nicer’ but couldn’t make an objective case for it being better.
 
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Durability: the M77 is robust. The bottom assembly plastic might be less so over time, don’t know. The American has easy to find and replace mag assemblies and stocks, but they are ‘cheap’. Haven’t read of any chronic durability issues on the American.
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This video shows how tough it really is. A guy pushed a 308 bullet through a 270.

 
I sold my GSR because it had feed issues and I found it annoying to deal with, but a new American Scout might be interesting. The price might be a bit more appealing than the $1800-1900 dealers want for the GSR these days.
 
What a neat little scouting arm.

I like the site/rail combo overall. The recess for the rear sling stud is novel but non traditional. Their butt pad is interesting and probably effective.

A 16” barrel would take a bit getting used to, I see the appeal and have no real world experience but expect it to be a noisy little thing with that muzzle brake. The brake seems redundant especially for 7.62x39 and adds back the length you were trying to loose.

The fit and finish looks mediocre at best, then I look at the chamfer on the edges of the front and rear site. The plastic looking stock has a big seam at the rear on the web link.

It doesn’t look like a finely crafted arm, but I’d suspect it cycles smoothly and groups as well as most other modern arms do.

The long top rail is also novel, its overall length requires more fasteners and therefor more rigidity, they even profiled the barrel for the rail instead of adapting another model.

It looks like the rear site might be fastened with one screw (hard to tell) and although I approve of the modularity of being able to remove for scope clearance as needed, a flip up that would sit flush in the rail would be better.

At the end of the day though, someone is gonna love that thing. For me, a 30-30 with leverevolution ammo will perform at about the same as 7.62x39, be lighter to carry, hold as much ammo, and a marlin is easy to put a scope on and a 94 is simpler to pack. So that has more perceived value as a plinker/hunter rig for someone who likes to get to the range, and the bush. I do dig it though.
 
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