Ruger American Ranch 5.56

[FergusonTO35]

I've always thought it would be neat to have a bolt action rifle that uses AR mags and Ruger now makes one, the American Ranch. Nodak Spud also makes military style sights for it, which I strongly prefer for carbines. The fun store has one in stock, I'm going over there with some gun equity on Tuesday to see about striking a deal on it. Anybody have experience with this carbine?

[buckwheatpaul]

I have one in 300 Blackout. Love the rifle overall....I am having a little problem with a very stiff bolt when picking up a new round from the MagPul or Military mags.....it is accurate and my rifle is still pretty new and might be stiff until I get to fire some more rounds through it......

[Adam20]

i got one in 300 BLK, I bought a 5rd metal remington ar mag that works nice and does not hang down a lot.
Thank you to the op for posting about sights, i just sent a email to them to be put on list when they start making them for 300 BLK

[Cargo]

Skinner has an elongated scope rail for standard or scout scope configuration that has built in iron sights and aren't caliber specific. The sights on the Nodak Spud version might be better but for me the scope is my primary and the irons are for emergency back up.

http://www.skinnersights.com/scope_mounts_31.html

[marlin39a]

I’ve got one of the first production Ranch 5.56 with the flush 5 rd magazine. I load 60 gr V-Max bullets. It is lightweight, and accurate. A perfect walking varminter rifle.

[dverna]

Good luck with making a deal on the gun you want.

I like the idea of using a cheap AR magazine but I have never liked magazines that extend past the stock on a bolt action rifle. I wound up with a Howa mini-Mauser and a Ruger M77 for my bolt action .223's. You will love carrying that little rifle around. A gun does not need to weight 10 lbs to be accurate.

[FergusonTO35]

Thanks guys. I'm already a fan of light .223 bolt guns, have a Zastava 85 that is really sweet. It's blued and walnut and still in outstanding condition, so I would rather have an inexpensive matte finish and synthetic rifle for daily use and on the tractor. I'm going to use sights exclusively on the RAR whereas the Zastava works better with a scope.

[FergusonTO35]

Got the sights ordered, hopefully the fun store will approve of my offerings tomorrow.

[FergusonTO35]

And, got the carbine home! Just waiting on my sights to show up, 'sposed to be here thursday.

[crackers]

I have a 300 I tried in a laminated stock and the weight and balance was just off. I have to say the fugly factory stock is perfect for the Ranch series.

[WinchesterM1]

I’ve got 2 RAR in x39, one predator in 6.5 Grendel 1 RAR 450 bushmaster 1 in 300blk(AR mag) and one In 5.56 AR mag. so yeah I like them a lot!! Great guns my X39s shoot 1/2 MOA with Wolf polyformance ammo at 100 yards and will hold 3-4” at 400!

You cannot go wrong, I shoot the 69gn SMK with BLc2 out of my 5.56

[Three44s]

Good luck with making a deal on the gun you want.

I like the idea of using a cheap AR magazine but I have never liked magazines that extend past the stock on a bolt action rifle. I wound up with a Howa mini-Mauser and a Ruger M77 for my bolt action .223's. You will love carrying that little rifle around. A gun does not need to weight 10 lbs to be accurate.

That’s me as well about long overhangs below the stock of bolt guns.

My daily driver is the Ruger Compact in 223 that uses the flush rotary magazine. It does not load as slick as an AR Mag but it as flush as flush can be and it does feed well. It beats the Devil out of me why Ruger discontinued the Compact In .223. I sure am glad I got mine!

From my perspective I guess the dividing line is hunting vs defense. Hunting, I want a flush Mag but in defense I would greatly prefer an AR Mag and the under hang be danged.

If I know I may need to be “defensive” I am going to grab something defensive and in a light caliber I would be reaching past a bolt gun though.

Three44s

[FergusonTO35]

Managed to take the carbine out for a test drive today. In spite of the gusting wind and my frozen fingers it did pretty good. This is a very comfortable gun to shoot, Ruger did a great job on it. It feels way better than any AR I have tried. The trigger is maybe 5 pounds and has zero creep, I think I'll leave it as is for now. Final group of the session was 2" at 65 yards, which will probably get better as the barrel breaks in and I figure out what load it likes.