The Ruger American Rifle is a bolt-action, magazine-fed rifle chambered in 5.56mm, 350 Legend, 300blk, 450 Bushmaster, and, for our review, 7.62x39mm. This version of the American Rifle ships with a 16.12-inch barrel with a 5/8x24-threaded muzzle. For the majority of my time shooting the Ruger, I used a SilencerCo Saker ASR suppressor, as it made the gun very pleasant to shoot and easier to hear hits on steel at a distance.
The Ruger American Rifle stock is made from tan polymer, which free-floats the barrel and keeps the entire gun very light and handy. And I hope you like tan because aside from a handful of distributor exclusives, that's the only color available. The good news is that if you want something very specialized, companies like Boyds make some incredible stocks for the gun.
Heading back to the receiver, the Ruger features an integral Picatinny rail on top for mounting optics. In testing, optics designed specifically for the AR-15 are somewhat uncomfortable when mounted on the Ruger American Rifle since they sit a little too high. This necessitates a 'chin weld' instead of a cheek weld, which complicates obtaining a proper sight picture. I found that a compact LPVO like the Vortex Viper 1-4x24 coupled with low pair of rings like my Night Force 30mm rings really makes for a handy, natural-pointing firearm. Using only a four-power optic on a hunting rifle might seem odd, but given the limited effective range of 7.62x39mm, it works very well.
Speaking of this caliber, the 7.62x39mm version feeds from Ruger Mini-30 magazines and ships with a single five-round example in the box. This might seem limited to shooters like myself, who normally enjoy more tactical weaponry, but the Ruger is meant more for hunting than anything else; These limited capacity magazines ensure that it is legal anywhere hunting with centerfire rifle rounds is permitted. And since the magazines were originally designed for the Mini-30, the Ruger American Rifle uses the same paddle release as the original host gun.
For testing, I ran the included magazine and a friend's 20-round Mini-30 magazine, and both functioned flawlessly. On a side note, shooting a bolt-action rifle with a 20-round magazine is incredibly fun, as it almost feels like you'll never run out of ammo.
Continuing backward, the tan polymer stock is topped with a rubberized polymer buttpad to reduce felt recoil, which in testing was totally unnecessary, as the gun was very soft shooting.
0:00 Intro
0:06 7.62x39mm History
0:40 Modern 7.62x39mm Guns
1:05 Ruger American Rifle 7.62x39mm Features
1:20 Barrel Length and Thread Pitch
1:37 Ruger American Rifle Stock
1:57 Picatinny Optics Rail
2:35 Ruger American Rifle Magazines
2:55 Hunting Applications
3:06 Magazine Paddle Release
3:30 Recoil Pad
3:45 Ruger American Rifle Reliability
4:10 Suppressor Issues
4:25 Ruger American Rifle 7.62x39mm Accuracy
5:12 Ruger American Rifle Worth it?
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