Ruger American Ranch - 5.56 AR
- Thread starter RifleDude
- Start date
About a year ago I tried to buy one of these to find only the Ruger mag version seemed to be available in Canada. Not knowing if they would be available with the AR pattern mags in Canada I went with a Savage Model 110 Scout in .223 with the 16.5" barrel The stock on is definitely much better than what is supplied on the Ruger with both adjustable length of pull and replaceable cheek risers as well. Not a stock I would consider replacing as some seem to be doing with the Ruger.
It also comes with Williams adjustable peep sites and a muzzle brake.
It uses the AICS pattern mags. Initially I was disappointed it didn't use the AR pattern mags, but the ability to seat bullets out further than what an AR mag allows is an advantage.
It feeds very smoothly out of the AICS mags. I did find the mags a little loose in the mag well and possible to insert too deeply into the mag well. My solution wasn't elegant, but a small tag of duct tape on the top front edge of the mag snugged up the fit and eliminated the issue completely.
The pic rail on the model I got is set up for a long eye relief scope. Since I already have a Rem 700 Heavy barrel in .223 with a 6.5 to 20 x Leopold scope, my plan was not to duplicate it's role with a high magnification scope on the Savage. I sighted it in with the supplied peep sites and then put on a 2 MOA Vortex Crossfire Red Dot sight. With the limitations inherent with a red dot at longer ranges, I am still able on most days to shoot 5 shot groups into 1.5 to 2 inches at 100 yards which is about as good as you can do with a red dot...and 61 year old eyes.
Without the bulk of a scope it is a light and very handy rifle to carry.
They are probably about $200 above the Ruger price wise, but with much better stock, a supplied muzzle brake, very good Williams peep sights and a beefier bolt handle, the difference in price seems reasonable.
20210125_112542 by Mark Gordon, on Flickr
20210125_112555 by Mark Gordon, on Flickr
I was going to buy one of these savage rifles to do the same. A handy rds equipped rifle I could grab or tote along with me for the chance coyote.
Having AICS pattern magazines was actually what I was looking for, as my target rifle 223 uses them as well.
The magazine being able to over insert kind of disappointed me, that doesn't happen on my magpul/rem700 for instance.
In the end, I picked up a cz 527 carbine late last year to fill the roll as a short range/walk around coyote gun.
Although I think a light weight low power scope will be mounted instead of a rds.
Has anyone come up with a decent set of iron sights for these babies.
aka - mini scout rifle configuration
,,,, and before anyone says it, I would like a set of irons and a scout mount.
I know they are available, but is there anywhere in Canada like doveguns in the USA?
aka - mini scout rifle configuration
,,,, and before anyone says it, I would like a set of irons and a scout mount.
I know they are available, but is there anywhere in Canada like doveguns in the USA?
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hello i really like that muzzle brake, any idea what brand it is ? thanksWell, 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.
First step would be to determine which style of Gen1 stock you have. Only the very early ones do not allow swapping to the AR-magwell. There is a thread in the stickies pertaining to Ruger American magwell-swaps, and it explains how to determine what you have and what you need, complete with pics.
