Opinions Please Ruger American 7-08

[TCLouis]

Caliber is set so this young man's gun will be comparable to his brothers.

What can one tell me about the gun . . .

Good

Bad

[fatnhappy]

I can't tell you about the rifle, I don't own one. I can tell you about the caliber: an excellent selection. My son will be legal this year and the caliber he's been practicing with is a 7-08 in a tang safety ruger. Fully loaded, scoped and slinged it's a 9 lb rifle and a real pussycat.

As far as the rifle is concerned, at least 2 members here have had issue with short chambered ruger americans in .308 win.
Blammer (DJ) was one of those individuals. It might be worthwhile to hunt down the threads and judge for yourself.

here's one link http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?234465-Ruger-American-in-7-08&highlight=ruger+american

My last parting thought, I let a friend's son borrow my 7-08 last year. Based on how well it performed, he bought a ruger american for his son last month. I gave him a set of chamber gauges when he picked out the rifle and there are no issues chambering factory ammo. Our first scout meeting of the year is tomorrow night so I expect I'll receive a report.

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h152/lhsjfk3t/IMG_7908_zps4a79d0cf.jpeg

[Bzcraig]

I have an American Compact in 308 (recently purchased) fired 80 rounds of factory and reloads and so far have been pleased. If I were to do it again, I would have gone full sized.

[tdoyka]

my dad and i have two remington model 7 in 7-08. its short and light and kills deer with authority. although i've used it in heavy brush, however i shot a doe 225+/- yards and she didn't take a step. i've handloaded the 139gr hornady flat point with a charge of imr(can't remember)4320 or 4350. although i have used it in a while, my dad uses his.

i'm going to have to say you got a real good gun!!!

[fatnhappy]

my dad and i have two remington model 7 in 7-08. its short and light and kills deer with authority. although i've used it in heavy brush, however i shot a doe 225+/- yards and she didn't take a step. i've handloaded the 139gr hornady flat point with a charge of imr(can't remember)4320 or 4350. although i have used it in a while, my dad uses his.

i'm going to have to say you got a real good gun!!!

You and I both! I had a model 7 in 7-08 as well. The chosen load for both my rifles is a max load of 4350 and the 139 grain hornady flat based spitzer (#2820). By max load, I mean 6" drop tubes and the load was still compressed. It is "book" and indicator safe.
I've had equal success with other powders beneath that bullet, notably RL 19 and W748.

[Bullfrog]

I just picked up a set of dies from a member, mostly to help him out, but also to get a 7-08 for my youngest. I am not certain on which brand I will pick and might even get a TC barrel for my encore to start. I am partial to Ruger and would like to hear the opinions on the American as well as the Rem 7

[Petrol & Powder]

I can't speak directly to the rifle but the 7mm-08 cartridge is an outstanding round.

[tdoyka]

for the past 20 years i said it a much better round(7-08) for taking deer. this is coming from a guy that started out with a 30-30 and then moved up to an 30-06. the 7-08 is a much better deer round cause it can be light, easy to shoot and you(i) can track the bullet the instant it touches a deer(from 15 yards and up). i've always found that i couldn't do that with my 308 rem 760, but i can do that with my 270 win ruger #1 and my customized '98 mauser in 7x57.
my 7-08 in rem m7 is nothing but a walnut stock, trigger done by a local gunsmith and a swift 4x. my dad's has a walnut stock and a swift 3-9x. each gun uses the same load, 139gr hornady fp with 40.0gr of imr4320 that both guns shoot out 1/2 - 3/4" at 100 yards. there's nothing special about the rem m7, except it kills deer with authority.

[Petrol & Powder]

I've always preferred short actions over long actions and the 7mm-08 is one of the best of those short actions. There's a good selection of excellent bullets available and many have good ballistic coefficients. I've read that the cartridge is popular with silhouette shooters largely due to its flat trajectory, low recoil and excellent accuracy. The flat trajectory of the 7mm-08 makes it very forgiving when range estimations are difficult or a little off. A rifle chambered in 7mm-08 can be made relatively light and still have minimal recoil. The rifles can be very handy and yet the cartridge is extremely effective on deer sized game. It may be the ultimate deer rifle/cartridge combination.
I know several experienced hunters that exclusively use the 7mm-08 for deer and I've never heard a negative comment about that cartridge. I've loaded ammunition for some of them and have shot those rifles as well. My experience is that the 7mm-08 is capable of excellent accuracy.

[Blammer]

I have a Ruger American in 7-08, and in 308, and in 243.

The 7-08 is a fine shooter with jacketed bullets and my handloads. I have set it up for my son to shoot deer with this fall. He's 86 lbs, so he thin as a rail. The recoil is not too bad for him as he's not a fan of it. I think you'll find it to be a good gun.

It has a nice factory recoil pad on it, the trigger pull is good. Not to heavy for young shooters and not too light as to make the adults nervous when the safety is flipped off.

You may want to look at getting another magazine, just because.

The rifle is light wt, and the bolt is easy to work. Ammo feeds like it has eyes. Empties eject nicely no matter the bolt speed.

I found that the forearm is of good size for smaller hands.

[murf6656]

I bought my 9 year old son a Ruger 77 compact 308 this year. He's been shooting 5 rounds about every day from the off hand and sitting position with 170 grn cast bullet loads at about 1600 fps. He will probably hunt with a 125 grn jacketed load at 2500 fps that we worked up. Recoil is equivalent to a 100 grn. 243 factory load. We looked at the American compact, and while I'm sure it would be fine. I couldn't bring myself to buy him a rifle with that much plastic on it.

[hicard]

I purchased my compact SS Ruger American awhile back and just got to take it to the range yesterday and I have a few questions. I was using reloaded 144 GR FMJ bullets using LC brass and a charge of 42.5 grs of IMR 4895. I blew primers out on the 1st two rounds I fired and the second case stuck in the chamber and had to be knocked out with a steel rod. I was very confused at this as I loaded a middle of the road load. I wonder if something is wrong with the chamber? I unloaded all of my loads and have reloaded them with 41 grs of IMR 4895 and will try to go to the range this afternoon. I believe that the thicker LC brass in combination with the FMJ boat tail military bullets created excess pressure. I am also going to take a factory box of Federal 150 gr loads to see how they do. Any thoughts on this?

[murf6656]

If its a 308, your load sounds plenty light even in LC brass. I don't think FMJ boat tails should cause any pressure problems.

[hicard]

Thanks for the reply murf6656. It is a 308 Win. I tried my lighter loads this evening. They are 144 GR fmjbt's with a charge of 41 GRS of IMR 4895 and still got some blown primers and stuck bolt at approx. 2400 fps velocity. I then tried factory Federal 150 gr jsp's at 2775 fps (surprised to get that high velocity in an 18" barrel) with no problems. I got blown primers with my 150 gr jsp's with 42.5 grs of IMR 4895 also. I brought my Winchester model 70 featherweight and tried the problem loads in it without a hitch, they fed, chambered and shot great. I can only blame the Ruger American 308 with military LC cases. My next step is to try minimum loads, maybe 37 grs of IMR 4895 and see what happens. I hate to reduce a 2700 fps gun to 2200 fps but I guess that is my only choice, other than factory ammo.

[C A Plater]

I have 3 Ruger Americans. One in .22 rimfire I got because I could get one with a threaded barrel for suppressed shooting. I was impressed enough to get another in .22-250 and the third in 300 blackout. I have 2 other "value" rifles, a Axis SS i 308 and a Stevens 200 in .243. The Stevens trigger was terrible and I hated the stock and since I got it as a donor action for a .250 build the only thing I kept was the receiver bolt and magazine follower and spring. The Axis had the original trigger which was replace and the stock had too much flex in the forearm for my tastes. I understand the current models have a better trigger installed. I put a Boyd laminate stock and am now happy with it. The Rugers have much less flex and the trigger is decent with some adjustment. I will probably not do anything with the stocks any time soon as the are pretty well designed as is. There are some simple fixes to take the trigger down for more precision shooting but not bad right out of the box. Accuracy seems on a par with some of the better factory rifles. Some do not like the rotary magazine but I have no issue with them.

[CPL Lou]

Wish Ruger would chamber it in 260 Remington !

[Smoke4320]

The Ruger American in 7-08 is a great shooter and awesome deer cartridge