The Ruger American Ranch is a bolt action rifle made in the US by Ruger. In 223, they take STANAG magazines and have a traditional AR-style magazine release. In Canada, they’re around $850 at the time of this writing. I have an older review on the Ruger American here and a lot of the findings there are going to be the same.
Specifications
- Available in 556, 300 Blackout, 450 Bushmaster, 7.62×39, 350 Legend, 6.5 Grendel
- 16″-ish barrels
- 3 lug bolt (60 degree throw)
- Muzzle threaded. Some come with a protector, some come with a muzzle brake
- Top picatinny rail for mounting a scope or red dot
- Some have camo
- About 6.1lbs
Shooting the Ruger American Ranch
The Ruger American Ranch is a fun gun to shoot. It’s light (~6lbs without optic or mag), and the short 16″ barrel throws fireballs with some ammo. Not much recoil to be had with 223, so it’s great for youth to shoot as well.
The magwell is a bit tight and without much of a bevel to it, it can be slower to reload than an AR15 or other rifles. The mag release is a bit shrouded by the stock so you only get half a button. It can be a bit picky on mags too: refusing to feed rounds properly if the mag tilts too much.
What’s this gun for anyways?
The Ruger American Ranch fits a pretty specific niche: it’s for people who want to re-use their AR mags and need a lot of firepower in a bolt action rifle. That’s kind of an odd combination and an odd niche.
Here in Canada, that might be people who are tired of the governments ridiculous bans and want something a bit less likely to get banned, but they still want to shoot 3 gun. I know a few people who have adopted the Ruger American Ranch since their AR15’s got unfairly banned.
Aside from that use case, I’m not sure. In any situation where you need more than a standard 4 rounds in a mag for fast and furious action, you’d probably benefit from going to a semi auto.
