Versatile Precision 5.56 Rifle on a Budget
Jan 4, 2016 14:17:19 GMT -5
Patriotic Sheepdog, 4track, and 2 more like this
Post by matt on Jan 4, 2016 14:17:19 GMT -5
I had a coupon and a pile of gift certificates from Christmas/my birthday to our local farm store that also happens to have one of the best gun counters I've ever seen. Their prices are excellent (rivaling Bud's Gun Shop on most items) and their ammo often beats online prices on premium hunting ammo at least.
They have great prices on Ruger American Rifles so I picked up one in .30-06 to replace my 30-30 for deer and, almost on a whim, also picked up a Ruger American Ranch in 5.56. I knew these rifles had a great reputation for accuracy thanks to Ruger's CHF barrels and their new v-block stock set up. The .30-06 is pretty boring. It's just a cheap deer gun that will serve my purposes well enough but I was taken off guard by how cool the little 5.56 Ranch rifle is.
Ruger makes several .223 options in their budget bolt-action American Rifle line but only one with a 5.56 chamber - the Ranch model. It features a heavier than sporter weight (like a medium profile) 16" hammer forged barrel with a 1 in 8" twist that comes threaded from the factory. It weighs about 6 pounds before optics and generally feels great when shooting off hand. It feeds from 5 round rotary magazines and comes with a really high quality scope rail already installed.
It is basically made to be a compact, lightweight varmint rifle that would also work well as a truck gun or even a deer rifle where legal (and with sufficiently small bodied deer) - a "ranch" gun. To that end it is small, light, and VERY accurate. I am seeing 3/4" groups (and better in some cases) with PP 75 gr. and similar performance with Black Hills Blue Box 75 gr. ammo. Hand loaders I know are seeing groups approaching 1/2" with regularity.
The rifles comes with a good quality action length optic rail attached. It is a Weaver rail in spite of what many gun writers say. It will not accept picatinny accessories. I mounted an Aimpoint R1 on it just for fun and it was actually a pretty neat little package not unlike a "Scout" rifle. I also tried a 1-3x Weaver and that was very light and compact (and affordable). Any 1-3, 1-4 or 1-6x type optic would work well. I settled on a Vortex Diamondback 2-7x that I already owned and put it in Talley 1 piece rings to keep the weight down. It is a very handy package. This is the type of rifle that would be at home with almost any optic.
If you have a suppressor, this thing would be amazing given how quiet bolt actions can be when suppressed. Additionally, Ruger did their homework when they designed the barrel profile for this model (and the longer American Predator models). It is heavy at the action but tapers over most the length of the barrel to the flash suppressor shoulder which is roughly the same diameter as a gov't profile AR barrel at flash suppressor shoulder. It's heavier than the sporter weight barrels typically found on rifles like these but still reasonably light weight - obviously designed to support a suppressor. The result is a sub 6 pound rifle with more than enough beef in the barrel to support the weight of a suppressor.
Initially, I wasn't really interested in a 5.56 bolt-action since I have several AR-15s that could fill the same role as a light hunting rig. However, once I started down the path of building a hunting specific upper to mount my 2-7x35 scope on it quickly became obvious that there was no way I could build an AR-15 as light, accurate, and compact as the Ruger American Ranch rifle for the same or even twice the price because these handy little buggers only cost $350!
This is a very cool little rifle for $350.
They have great prices on Ruger American Rifles so I picked up one in .30-06 to replace my 30-30 for deer and, almost on a whim, also picked up a Ruger American Ranch in 5.56. I knew these rifles had a great reputation for accuracy thanks to Ruger's CHF barrels and their new v-block stock set up. The .30-06 is pretty boring. It's just a cheap deer gun that will serve my purposes well enough but I was taken off guard by how cool the little 5.56 Ranch rifle is.
Ruger makes several .223 options in their budget bolt-action American Rifle line but only one with a 5.56 chamber - the Ranch model. It features a heavier than sporter weight (like a medium profile) 16" hammer forged barrel with a 1 in 8" twist that comes threaded from the factory. It weighs about 6 pounds before optics and generally feels great when shooting off hand. It feeds from 5 round rotary magazines and comes with a really high quality scope rail already installed.
It is basically made to be a compact, lightweight varmint rifle that would also work well as a truck gun or even a deer rifle where legal (and with sufficiently small bodied deer) - a "ranch" gun. To that end it is small, light, and VERY accurate. I am seeing 3/4" groups (and better in some cases) with PP 75 gr. and similar performance with Black Hills Blue Box 75 gr. ammo. Hand loaders I know are seeing groups approaching 1/2" with regularity.
The rifles comes with a good quality action length optic rail attached. It is a Weaver rail in spite of what many gun writers say. It will not accept picatinny accessories. I mounted an Aimpoint R1 on it just for fun and it was actually a pretty neat little package not unlike a "Scout" rifle. I also tried a 1-3x Weaver and that was very light and compact (and affordable). Any 1-3, 1-4 or 1-6x type optic would work well. I settled on a Vortex Diamondback 2-7x that I already owned and put it in Talley 1 piece rings to keep the weight down. It is a very handy package. This is the type of rifle that would be at home with almost any optic.
If you have a suppressor, this thing would be amazing given how quiet bolt actions can be when suppressed. Additionally, Ruger did their homework when they designed the barrel profile for this model (and the longer American Predator models). It is heavy at the action but tapers over most the length of the barrel to the flash suppressor shoulder which is roughly the same diameter as a gov't profile AR barrel at flash suppressor shoulder. It's heavier than the sporter weight barrels typically found on rifles like these but still reasonably light weight - obviously designed to support a suppressor. The result is a sub 6 pound rifle with more than enough beef in the barrel to support the weight of a suppressor.
Initially, I wasn't really interested in a 5.56 bolt-action since I have several AR-15s that could fill the same role as a light hunting rig. However, once I started down the path of building a hunting specific upper to mount my 2-7x35 scope on it quickly became obvious that there was no way I could build an AR-15 as light, accurate, and compact as the Ruger American Ranch rifle for the same or even twice the price because these handy little buggers only cost $350!
This is a very cool little rifle for $350.