# Ruger American Rifles



## Fowlmouth (Oct 4, 2008)

Anybody shooting one? Looks like they make it in .243 .308 .270 & 30.06 calibers. I held one tonight at the gun store but I'm not too sure I liked it, the clip was plastic and felt cheesy to me. Maybe they are decent guns for the price, I don't know. The recoil pad seemed to be pretty good, but the gun is very light in weight and you would need a good pad to absorb the shock. What do you guys think of them?


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## Bax* (Dec 14, 2008)

I personally have not held one or shot one so my insight is prob worth nothing, but I was reading in some magazine at the barber shop the other day and whomever the author of the article I was reading was, he was very impressed with the rifle's accuracy. He mentioned that he hasnt ever shot an economy rifle that could shoot under an inch at 100 yards. The whole article was about how great he thought Ruger's new toy was and that we should all consider getting one for back up rifles. Obviously this guy was stroking Ruger's ego probably because he got the rifle for free, but it was definitely a positive review.

My personal opinion is that I would want to wait until they have been around a bit longer. Then I will consider buying one. But until then, I would prefer to buy a Stevens 200 like this one http://www.impactguns.com/stevens-200-308-17748-011356177483.aspx purely because it is a tried and true model with lots and lots of reviews and accuracy tests. And heck, its really a Savage which we can all agree is a quality firearm (and its about $15 cheaper than the Ruger)


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## Gee LeDouche (Sep 21, 2007)

I've shot one in 30-06 and it was everything it was cracked up to be. Smooth, Accurate, lightweight and very economical. with a decent optic, this one shot sub MOA at 100. I would suggest this rifle over a savage, remington 770 or vanguard any day of the week.


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## High Desert Elk (Aug 21, 2012)

Got one for my nephew to use in .270 - good shooting rifle. Most big name guns out there are going to be good.


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## Squigie (Aug 4, 2012)

I've handled two of them. I don't like the ergonomics or texture/flutes on the stock.
I'm sure the action is fine, but haven't fired one.
It does seem like a good rifle, but...

I prefer the Marlin X7s.

I don't like the Savage, Stevens, or Remington "budget" rifles. Those companies took existing designs and cut corners until they could meet the price point they wanted. The result is a poorly designed stock, sloppy tolerances in the actions (and the stupid polymer bolt guide in the Remingtons), and poor fit and finish. In the case of the Remington, you don't even get a threaded barrel. It's merely pressed into the action.

Ruger and Marlin, however, designed their 'budget' rifles from the ground up. The focus was on designing a quality rifle that was not expensive to manufacture or assemble. The result for Marlin was a ****-fine rifle with a lot of hidden engineering, that only had its reputation tarnished when Remington took over production (and had serious QC problems for a while). So far, all reports on the Ruger American seem to be following Marlin's lead: a good rifle that was specifically designed to be cheap to manufacture (not a rifle that was compromised by cutting corners and lowering quality standards on an existing design).


If I could get over the funky ergonomics, the American would definitely be on my short list as a rifle for my son.
But... My Marlin XL7 (.30-06) hasn't printed a group larger than 1.5" (100 yards) since the barrel was broken in, and consistently averages 0.476" with one of my handloads and 0.494" with another of my handloads. Even with Winchester 168 gr BST factory ammo, it has never printed a group larger than 0.600".

I put a lot of time and energy into finding the right rifle, when I was in the market for one of the "budget" guns. I'm very glad I did. I never would have considered the Marlin, otherwise. In my opinion, it's still far superior to any other rifle in the 'budget' category.
It's very unfortunate that Remington raised prices on the X7s. They'd be selling a lot more of them, if they weren't so greedy. The current price on the X7s puts them up against more standard rifle offerings, rather than the budget lines.

Bottom line:
I rank the budget rifles as follows (best to worst, by manufacturer):
Marlin
Ruger
Weatherby
Savage/Stevens
Mossberg
Remington


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