Ruger American Rimfire

[Potsy]

So I got tired of waiting on a T1X and found what I thought was a decent deal on a slightly used Ruger American Rimfire with the heavy-ish 16.5" barrel. Blued model. Crappy (but not terrible feeling) green plastic stock. It came with an absolute junker of a scope on it (I trash canned it), but I did take it to the range, and with blurry crosshairs and a blurry 1.5" dot, I managed a 10 shot 1.5" group with some ancient CCI mini mags and a 10 shot 2" group (6 in one ragged hole, 4 outliers) with some Federal Auto Match. Both at 50 yards.
Had a couple of extraction failures early on, but that seemed to straighten out as shooting went on.
So the rifle at least seems like it's trying. Looking forward to shooting it with a decent scope and better ammo.
Was looking at the MCARBO or Wesbaun trigger spring kit and the 25MOA DIP rail to start. Probably put an Athlon Talos 4-14 on top.
I thought I'd float the barrel as the stock is pressing on the bottom of the barrel at the front and try to stiffen up the forend.
Will eventually stick a TBAC .22 Takedown on it.
Any tips or tricks as far as rifle tuning or ammo?

Thanks!!!

 

[B y r o n]

I'd hold off on free floating the barrel for now. I just got back from the range earlier today. A friend was working with a Ruger American in .243. He free floated the barrel and it was shooting all over the place from past range trips. He added some ammo box cardboard under the barrel where he removed the factory pressure point and bingo, accuracy was back. I know all guns are individuals but I think you may get better results from trying better ammo or different brands that may shoot better in that gun.

 

[AZ Dan]

It may sound odd, and if weight isn't a concern for you, but I've taken to filling the hollow Ruger stocks on my American Ranch 5.56 and Rimfire models with a mixture of epoxy and airsoft bb's. Adds about 1.5lbs of weight and gets rid of the hollow sound. If your forend is the same as mine, it's got a diamond pattern that can also be filled with epoxy to make it more rigid.

I loved my Savage FV-SR, but the magazines can be a dumpster fire. Ruger really knocked it out of the park with the American Rimfire. My next rifle will be the 16.5" threaded model, and I'm going to add some of the Williams peep/globe sights to it for a little extra challenge.

Save your money on the McCarbo...I don't know how they get away with charging over $15 to ship you a $0.03 spring. Go find a click pen that has a spring the same diameter, and put that into your Ruger. Or go to Ace Hardware and find a lightweight spring to fit...cut it to the same length as the Ruger spring. Problem solved. You can Venmo me the $12 I just saved you.

 

[Longshot231]

It is never a good idea to use a spreadsheet to keep track of the costs of a rifle make-over.

Item	Cost
Ruger American Rimfire Rifle	$ 214.49
Boyd's Rifle Stock	$ 224.75
Galdes Armory Extended Bolt Handle and Knob	$ 96.98
Vortex Viper PST Gen II 3-15X	$ 1,016.00
Vortex Switchview Scope Lever	$ 60.00
Vortex Rings	$ 80.00
Vortex Scope Level	$ 37.61
EGW 60 MOA Scope Base	$ 90.71
Timney Trigger	$ 148.64
Leather Sling and Swivels (Estimated)	$ 80.00
14 each Extra 10-round Magazines	$ 236.81
Tandemkross Magazine Bumpers	$ 179.65
Williams dovetail blank	$ 8.96
Cut down and thread barrel	$ 75.00
SIG 22LR Suppressor	$ 600.00
Total	$ 3,149.60

Call me an idiot for spending that much on the rifle but I really like it now.

 

[Potsy]

Dang. That pic almost makes me regret selling mine.
Really like that stock and knob!

I put an Mcarbo kit in my trigger and got it down to 1.5lbs. Did the 25MOA rail and Warne steel rings holding the Athlon 4-14.

The best group it ever shot was .8” for 10 at 50 yards with Eley Contact, but my biggest gripe was I felt like I had to death grip the rifle to get it to group at all.

Not a bad little rifle, it just needed more weight. Tripped it a while back, need to grab a Tikka at some point now that they’re being seen in the wild.

 

[Longshot231]

Dang. That pic almost makes me regret selling mine.
Really like that stock and knob!

Thanks. I’ve only shot CCI SV Suppressor 45 grain*, through it. The groups are about 1/2-/34 inches at 50 yards.

*EDIT: I was typing too fast and should have said that I shot the 45 grain stuff through the rifle.

It’s a nice rifle to carry through the woods. The two biggest improvements for accuracy are the Boyd’s stock and the Timney trigger.

Cutting down the barrel did not affect the muzzle velocity much.

When someone buys an RAR they are getting a barreled action. Everything else is trash.

I’ve done makeovers on three other RARs. Including mine, the plastic stock’s magazine well was molded incorrectly. I could only chamber the first round. The bolt pushing the first round in the chamber also pushed the magazine causing it to tilt forward.

So when chambering the 2nd round the bullet would jam up against the breech face of the barrel - EVERYTIME!

So if anyone buys a cheap RAR, that’s only the initial expense.

Yes; I know, I should have bought a Vudoo. However, note in my list of expenses that the scope and suppressor were the most expensive items.

 

[Bluedog82]

That center group is 10rds of CCI SV at 25 yards. This was shot with gusty winds in fading light and done rather hastily. Needless to say, I’m super impressed!