Ruger American Ranch barrel swap?

[Joel]

Has anyone ever swapped barrels on the Ruger American rifles, or had it done? I know they have the barrel nut on the exterior like a Savage, is it as easy as using a proper spanner of some sort (although I don't see relief cuts for one)?

Wondering because of the idea of just swapping barrels on a rifle that is too old to accept the new stocks and AR mag setup. Say, a 300 BLK barrel onto a current 223

 

[surfclod]

I'd be curious about this as well, would be nice to put a long heavy barrel (maybe in 204 Ruger) for the gopher patch in the summer.

 

[JJ-65]

Made my own barrel nut out of a split coller welded to a piece of flat bar. Powdered rozin and a piece of typing paper and you are good to go.

 

[Joel]

Wow, JJ-65 thats awesome

 

[jparent]

I know my gunsmith made up a wrench to take mine off to shorten it. What I would really like to do is find prefit 300 Blackout barrels for less than the price of a rifle….

 

[Restoule]

A remington action wrench works. The od of the action is 1.35" and use a pipe wrench on the nut. The barrel threads are 1 inch 16 tpi, if you're worried about marking the nut, I would get a new one. That way in the future Barrel changes are a breeze. But the barrel wrench idea with rosin would work great too. And Saves the factory nut.

 

[JJ-65]

Given that the 1” 16 tpi is the same as Tikka t3 barrels have, Tikka take off barrels can be use to rebarrel an American with the use of a machined collar between the action face and the barrel shoulder. Something to ponder if you have already buggered the nut with a pipe wrench. This is what I do with Sako A-11 actions that need a fresh pipe.

 

[Restoule]

It's funny you suggested that. I just put a benchmark 7mm08ai barrel from a tikka on my RAR. I machined a "tube" to fit over the tenon essentially moving the shoulder. Surface ground it to length getting the right headspace. The concern I had was the depth of the bolt face being different, but with the RAR bolt there was .008" clearance when bottomed on the gauge.

 

[SHELL SHUCKER]

If one has not the tooling to make a barrel nut wrench, then this be a good option.
https://www.littlecrowgunworks.com/store1/Ruger-American-Lock-Ring-Wrench-LRW-p106089776

 

[Joel]

If one has not the tooling to make a barrel nut wrench, then this be a good option.
https://www.littlecrowgunworks.com/store1/Ruger-American-Lock-Ring-Wrench-LRW-p106089776

Cool! Thank you!

 

[Gatehouse]

If anyone is rebarreling from .223 and wants to sell their factory take off barrel for a reasonable price, please let me know.

 

[Big JD-From the hills]

Does the ruger American work well with the short .300blk cartridge?

 

[jparent]

Does the ruger American work well with the short .300blk cartridge?

They make a factory 300 blackout... used to sell them in Canada... haven't seen restock in ages....

 

[SHELL SHUCKER]

Does the ruger American work well with the short .300blk cartridge?

They shoot well in .300 blk and I've got dies & brass ready to go IF & WHEN any dealer up here gets some in. The supply chain issues really F'd up things & the US gobbles most of the goodies before a wee smidgen gets to us folks.

 

[AntiKhaos]

They make a factory 300 blackout... used to sell them in Canada... haven't seen restock in ages....

Haven't seen a restock ever. AFAIK the 300blk model was a Cabelas exclusive in Canada.
I don't recall anyone else selling them factory new. Never seen the 300blk model get restocked.
None of the other models/caliber seem to have the same issue.

Gave up after a while and overpaid for a used one.

 

[SHELL SHUCKER]

Haven't seen a restock ever. AFAIK the 300blk model was a Cabelas exclusive in Canada.
I don't recall anyone else selling them factory new. Never seen the 300blk model get restocked.
None of the other models/caliber seem to have the same issue.

Gave up after a while and overpaid for a used one.

Me search be over. I just bought one in very good shape from Epps. It has the flush fit, 5 rnd mag setup which I prefer. Can hardly wait fer it to land in me mitts.

 

[mudgunner49]

Wilson Combat has a replacement barrel in .300 HAM'R with headspace "go" gauge, barrel nut, barrel wrench for 1/2" torque wrench, barrel and nut are black Armor-Tuff coated - all for $249 USD. If you're not shooting sub-sonics the HAM'r with it's 1-13" or 1-15" twist makes a lot of sense as it gets a few hundred feet per second over the BLK with similar bullet weights (2500 vs 2150 for the 125). I thing that the 1-7" or 1-8" twist of most of the .300 BLK barrels I've shot really limit performance of the supersonics.

Next time they go on sale I'm grabbing a couple...

 

[Big JD-From the hills]

That 300 hamr might actually work in my savage that has a 300blkout bbl on it.

The issue I have in the "project" I have is the case is too short and falls off the extractor/bolt face before it clears the ejection port.

Another downside to the 300 is it requires Spitzer bullets. Cast flat points don't have much of a chance to enter that small chamber vs say a .308. It's really too bad as I have a very nice mold from noe that makes bueatiful bullets.

 

[JJ-65]

Pull the ejector out and lengthen the back of the pin slot to let the ejector stand out further to fix the ejection problem stemming from the short case

 

[mudgunner49]

That 300 hamr might actually work in my savage that has a 300blkout bbl on it.

The issue I have in the "project" I have is the case is too short and falls off the extractor/bolt face before it clears the ejection port.

Another downside to the 300 is it requires Spitzer bullets. Cast flat points don't have much of a chance to enter that small chamber vs say a .308. It's really too bad as I have a very nice mold from noe that makes bueatiful bullets.

The HAM'R is longer than the Blackout, I don't know if it's enough to make a difference for you, but it may...