New Ruger Rifle

[TwoRivers]

Ruger engineers have been busy. Besides a number of new .22 RF pistols, Ruger has just announced a new bolt action centerfire rifle, the "Ruger American Rifle", in both short (medium) and long action. (Hope that doesn't mean the end for the M77.) Three-lug bolt, and rotary magazine, tang safety; and with a stainless steel bedding plate in the synthetic stock. No integral scope mount bases. No price yet; other information, or pictures. Ought to go to the ShotShow to see it. Apparently an entry-level rifle, but should be a nice one, coming from Ruger. Can't wait to get my hands on one. Which may take a while, judging by past Ruger announcements and deliveries.

[Baljit]

Ruger makes really good RF firearms like 10/22 and SR 22, i have both those rifles now thay announced other new toy, cant wait to see new toy by Ruger.

Baljit

[winnie_the_pooh]

Is this the rifle that you are talking of?

[youtube][/youtube]

[xl_target]

I've had good luck with Ruger Rifles. My 10/22 is a jewel. It has never had a gun related issue. Of the thousands of rounds that I have put through it in the last 27 years, only a few have failed to fire and all those and be traced to the ammo. It is not ammo selective and will feed, fire and eject almost anything. The rotary magazines are engineered so well that even though I have never cleaned them, they continue to function flawlessly. It is built so well that even after all the use that I have got out of it, I will be able to give it to my grandchildren.

If my 10/22 is a gem, my M77 is a diamond. From the Classic American shape of the walnut stock, the deep, deep blue of the heavy barrel to the massive claw of its Mauser style bolt, it is a testament to the manufacturing techniques that made American made products so desirable in the 1960's and 1970s. The tang safety is right under the thumb where it should be. With my handloads, the gun is also incredibly accurate and has a crisp, fully adjustable trigger.

You don't, however, see many custom guns built on the Ruger action, even though it is a very robust action. Unlike the Remington M700 and the Winchester Model 70 actions, it is not as easy to bed the Ruger action so many people have shied away from using it to build a rifle. In my opinion, the M77 Mk2 was a much cheaper version of Bill Ruger's bolt action rifle and they were plagued with accuracy problems and a very mediocre trigger.

The new "American Rifle".
As far as the integral mounts and rings go, while they were solid and immovable, one ran into problems if you wanted to scope your gun with anything other than the one inch American tubes. Because they came with proprietary mounts and rings, not many aftermarket manufacturers made stuff for them. So for many people, the Weaver scope bases will be a welcome change.
The Tang safety will be much appreciated.
The new bedding system will be welcomed by people building custom rifles and the new trigger is a long overdue change (Thank you Savage, for starting this trend)
If the rotary magazine is as reliable as Ruger's other rotary's, it should work out fine.
As for the three lug bolt; nice short throw on the bolt but I never have hit my scope with the bolt handle of my two lug bolt M77.

I found that Jeff from Gunblast received and reviewed the new rifle. With an MSRP of $445, it should be very popular. For an out of the box rifle, Jeff had very good accuracy with factory ammo. If Ruger can maintain that in production, they will have a runaways success on their hands.

I was going to post the Gunblast video but Winnie beat me to it.