Ruger American Ranch 7.62x39mm

[K.Mooneyham]

Hello All,

Recently I was able to (finally) buy a Ruger American Ranch in 7.62x39mm. I have been looking for one, on and off, for at least a couple of years now. I had heard good things about them, so I set my sights on acquiring one when I came across one. I found it at a small gun show in the San Antonio area while visiting relatives this past weekend.

The stock is FDE polymer, and rather light-weight. It came with the Picatinny rail preinstalled, but no irons. The barrel is threaded, and I am going to put an A1-style flash hider on it (videos online show it throwing fireballs). One five-round magazine is all Ruger ships with the rifle.

So far, I have made a few "accessory" purchases for it, to include a set of Warne Maxima low scope rings, the Ten Point Gear paracord sling, and a slightly nicer buttpad from Limbsaver, along with two additional magazines (Ruger-brand 10 and 20 rounders).

Due to circumstances, I have only put 10 rounds through it so far. I shot an initial five on Monday into a dirt mound at ten yards just to see how it felt. Today, after installing the Bushnell AR Optics 1-4x24 scope that I already had on hand, and "zeroing" with a barrel laser at 15 yards down the hallway, I took it back out to the dirt mound, along with five old "mini" Dr. Peppers that had expired. And, at 15 yards, on 1 power, five for five hits. I know, not much of a test, but I really just wanted to confirm rough zero on the scope. It's sort of raining up here by the Red River, so I didn't want to stay out in it for long.

Some folks in online videos have had good results shooting pretty decent groups out at a hundred yards, even with cheap steel case ammo. Some reported light primer strikes on a couple of rounds, but all ten Tulammo 123 grain HPs I fired so far went bang, and had nice, solid strikes. I'm looking forward to a weekend with nicer weather so I can get out the bench. So far, I really like this handy little rifle!

[AF-Odin]

Nice purchase. I am looking for one in .223, but hard to find.

Send some of the rain south.

[The Annoyed Man]

That’s a pretty nice rifle! I looked at them myself, but I’m never again going to buy a right-handed bolt gun, and Ruger doesn’t offer a left-handed version in this model. My exception would be to get it in 6.5 Grendel rather than 7.62x39 (same parent cartridge case)…if they made one.

I really want to get something in a sub-7mm caliber, and I keep dithering between 6.8 SPC, 6.5 Grendel, and 6.5 Creedmoor. One of those calibers in either the Ruger American or Gunsite Scout, left-handed, would be very attractive to me. But they don’t offer either model in one of those calibers, dedicated to southpaws, so I’m probably going to end up building myself an AR platform rifle in one of those calibers.

Anyway, I love what you’ve done here, and I am jelly.

[K.Mooneyham]

That’s a pretty nice rifle! I looked at them myself, but I’m never again going to buy a right-handed bolt gun, and Ruger doesn’t offer a left-handed version in this model. My exception would be to get it in 6.5 Grendel rather than 7.62x39 (same parent cartridge case)…if they made one.

I really want to get something in a sub-7mm caliber, and I keep dithering between 6.8 SPC, 6.5 Grendel, and 6.5 Creedmoor. One of those calibers in either the Ruger American or Gunsite Scout, left-handed, would be very attractive to me. But they don’t offer either model in one of those calibers, dedicated to southpaws, so I’m probably going to end up building myself an AR platform rifle in one of those calibers.

Anyway, I love what you’ve done here, and I am jelly.

Thank you. Yeah, it seems that Ruger is trying to keep the cost down while still offering good value for the money. The number of calibers available is limited on the Ranch subseries of American Rifles: .5.56x45mm, .300 Blackout, 7.62x39mm, .350 Legend, and .450 Bushmaster, IIRC. I hope you're able to get what you want eventually, I can already tell this one is going to be a lot of fun.

[K.Mooneyham]

Well, I went out with my portable bench and attempted to dial in the rifle today. We're having a "heat wave" of 95 degrees combined with some high winds, 25 gusting over 35 mph. Despite that, I'm okay with how I did, for now.

The first two targets, left to right, are at 25 yards, and the third target is at 50 yards. All shot with the scope at 4x. All the ammo used was steel case Tulammo 122 HP, so pretty cheap stuff. Not great, but again, the wind was really doing a number on me trying to stay steady. I was firing almost directly north with the wind out of the southwest, so off of my left shoulder. I also put a few shots onto some 10-inch round steel targets at 50 yards with the scope dialed to 1.5x, all hits. I believe I can shoot this better if I can get some time on a low-wind day to do some fine-tuning, and use some better ammo. It was still a good time, though.

Oh, and I also put the A1-style flash hider on it, seemed to tame the report of the rifle slightly...and it looks cool, too.