Ruger American GenII

I bought an American Ranch in 450 Bushmaster when it came out. After a 200 plus round range session shooting cast bullets the thing literally fell apart it went back to Ruger five times until it got replaced. The trigger pins and bolt stop pin pulls hogged out after 200 rounds. The magazine kept falling out every other shot and the scope came loose three times because the scope base wasn't properly machined and was barely touching the receiver accept for the edges. The last draw was that the casings wouldn't eject after the 4th time back. Some of these issues never got addressed or caught by Ruger customer service when it was there for other repairs.. Ruger told me they were entry-level guns meant to be shot about 60 to 80 times in their entire lifetime by the average entry level consumer and not made for Target shooters or professional Hunters that was direct from the mouth of a Ruger customer service representative to me. Their customer service is great though they let me pick whatever rifle I wanted or pistol and told me I would have to pay a little bit more if I picked a premium. Since I already had the dies in brass I picked the Gun Site Scout and had to pay $110 out of pocket. It's been sitting in my safe ever since for the last few years just cuz I still have a bad taste of the American in 450 Bushmaster. I do have an American in 22 Winchester magnum that shoots a third of an inch groups with Vmax at 100 yards I love the thing to death but the stupid bolt opens up if a fly farts on it. I wouldn't buy another American if it was given to me. Ruger customer service is A plus but the American line quality is horrible. I have alot of other high dollar Rugers that are great. I had 3 buddies with the go wilds and a ranch like mine. They all went down the road with similar issues. Another buddy has one in 30-06. I bedded the scope rail and smoothed out the machining on the bolt so the zipper sound is gone. Very accurate like all the 450BMs were. Haven't heard if he still has it. He hasn't put 2 boxes of ammo through it so I'm sure it will last a while. My guess is the Steven's 334 will be stiff competition for them if someone makes a cheap replacement trigger for them or they copy the ruger or savage accutrigger design.
 
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Seen a couple of these today. One was the grayed stock version in 204, the other the tan stocked version in 223. Both listed at 599.99. I didnt take them down from the rack but they did look better and maybe "beefier" than the 3 I currently have. This was in Grandury Texas. Just and fyi post.
 
Dultimatpredator said:
I bought an American Ranch in 450 Bushmaster when it came out. After a 200 plus round range session shooting cast bullets the thing literally fell apart it went back to Ruger five times until it got replaced. The trigger pins and bolt stop pin pulls hogged out after 200 rounds. The magazine kept falling out every other shot and the scope came loose three times because the scope base wasn't properly machined and was barely touching the receiver accept for the edges. The last draw was that the casings wouldn't eject after the 4th time back. Some of these issues never got addressed or caught by Ruger customer service when it was there for other repairs.. Ruger told me they were entry-level guns meant to be shot about 60 to 80 times in their entire lifetime by the average entry level consumer and not made for Target shooters or professional Hunters that was direct from the mouth of a Ruger customer service representative to me. Their customer service is great though they let me pick whatever rifle I wanted or pistol and told me I would have to pay a little bit more if I picked a premium. Since I already had the dies in brass I picked the Gun Site Scout and had to pay $110 out of pocket. It's been sitting in my safe ever since for the last few years just cuz I still have a bad taste of the American in 450 Bushmaster. I do have an American in 22 Winchester magnum that shoots a third of an inch groups with Vmax at 100 yards I love the thing to death but the stupid bolt opens up if a fly farts on it. I wouldn't buy another American if it was given to me. Ruger customer service is A plus but the American line quality is horrible. I have alot of other high dollar Rugers that are great. I had 3 buddies with the go wilds and a ranch like mine. They all went down the road with similar issues. Another buddy has one in 30-06. I bedded the scope rail and smoothed out the machining on the bolt so the zipper sound is gone. Very accurate like all the 450BMs were. Haven't heard if he still has it. He hasn't put 2 boxes of ammo through it so I'm sure it will last a while. My guess is the Steven's 334 will be stiff competition for them if someone makes a cheap replacement trigger for them or they copy the ruger or savage accutrigger design.
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I had very similar issues as you with American 450 BM and 22 Mag…I gave up on the BM quickly and sold it…I tinkered with the 22 Mag for over a year. I got sick of the bolt opening every time I climbed my tree stand amongst other issues. Sold that and bought a CZ 457 that I have zero complaints with.
 
My 22 win mag just shoots way too to good pawn it off so deal with the stupid bolt opening all the time. I have an 452 ultralux SE in 22lr that’s an absolute tac driver. Wish I had one in WinMag.
 
I guess Ruger pretty much described the difference in a budget rifle and a quality upper end rifle. They just aren't made for high volume shooting. Its just to bad that the price you pay for a budget rifle isn't actually budget these days.
 
My 22WMR American shoots that tight too…

First three shot group at 100 yards with 30 grain vmax. I shot a second three shot group at .314”!





The next damn I tried was Winchester 30 grain 2250 ft./s varmint tipped ammo I don’t even know if they make it anymore? It shot nice but I had a lot of fails to fires due to bad primers sent them into Winchester and they confirmed it.

This was the first three shot group with Winchester at 100 yards. I shot another group of three that was .687 after this.



I paid $199 for the gun on sale at Cabela’s. I was tickled pink at the time when I bought it. I still am because it’s super accurate but it sure doesn’t feel any more expensive than $199 gun. I can tell you that. I call it my dollar store quality throwaway rifle. That shoots really good. I pretty much have summed up all American rifles that way..

I took it out the other day and shot four squirrels all freehand. I must’ve bumped the magazine release or something goofy happen, because the darn magazine fell out of it and was shooting single shot all afternoon. I called Ruger and asked them if I could buy a magazine and they sent me one so they’re customer services A1 still but the quality in their low end stuff is less than desirable. Hopefully that’s why they redid the American because they knew there were a lot of issues with it, I just wish they would have an upgraded three positions safety for the rimfire that I could get so the bolt doesn’t come open from the wind of a flea fart.





The two Headshots were at 60 yards freehand. The fox squirrel was running full throttle up a tree at a little over 100 yards, and I put the crosshairs on its nose, and I hit him behind the shoulder. Same with the other gray, that you can barely see a hole poked behind the shoulder. That little gun is attacked driver. I love it, but I would’ve loved to pay three times as much for it if it was a lot better quality build.

I put an EGW rail on it abs my LTR so I could toggle my night vision on and off both of them. To be honest, I’ve never used that night vision ever. lol



ruger has made them all shoot that great that’s pretty common from what I’ve seen with four of my buddies rifles and mine. The problem is is the cheap soft pot metal they use in the actions and everything else on the gun. It just doesn’t hold up long-term as I found out on several of them.
 
I have the American gen1 and am very happy with it. Here’s the first 3 shot group I tried in .308
 

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William Suter said:
Just my opinion. But when the Ruger American first came out, it was cheap. It had a reputation of being pretty accurate for a budget rifle and a new shooter could get a decent shooting rifle for not a lot of money. Then the customization started. New stocks, triggers, pre-fit barrels........... Then Ruger started adding some of this to their rifles and the prices went up. Now the Gen II comes out and they added a few more improvements, which I admit, look good, but the price went way up this time. I think they priced themselves out of the "Budget Rifle' market. After buying the rifle and adding optics you could be well over $1000 and to a new guy that isn't budget. And you can still buy a new Savage Axis with a cheap scope for $400. Like I said it just my opinion.
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did they stop making the Gen1 configuration? or is this just an additional product to add to their lineup?
 
And he's making a living doing what he wants, when he wants, and how he wants. Looks like he has a great family too.

Wish I was as perfect as some of you guys ...............
 
Hidalgo said:
And he's making a living doing what he wants, when he wants, and how he wants. Looks like he has a great family too.
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I've got no problem with him doing what he wants to do. Heck he's doing better than I am.

That said, in this day and age , drama sells . If it's your thing ,enjoy. If it's not ....."Get off my lawn !":LOL:
 
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cropdamage said:
I've got no problem with him doing what he wants to do. Heck he's doing better than I am.

That said, in this day and age , drama sells . If it's your thing ,enjoy. :D
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Drama? I don't see that at all. I think it's just his personality coming through. Like everything else, I try to decipher things and take away the stuff I find interesting or informational. And you have to admit he does a lot of things that are informative.
 
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