Rifle Review: Ruger American Scout Rifle in 5.56

[Gus]

Hello everyone,

Recently I bought a Ruger American Scout Rifle chambered for good old 5.56.

The main reason I wanted it was because I wanted a good rifle with open sights. Plain and simple.

The Ruger scout rifles based on the Model 77 action were good, but were always just a bit out of reach for me. Then Ruger came up with their American series in Scout rifles.  These were quite a bit less expensive.

Anyway, after a couple of discounts along the way, I bought this rifle for $736 at a shop in Belle Fourche.

Like the Gen 1 Americans from Ruger, the Gen 2 version takes regular AR style mags.

Next, the Gen 2 version has what amounts to AR style open sights. As it turns out, for the front sight, I like it very much. in the box it comes with a front sight adjustment tool for elevation. As for the rear sight, uh, no. It's a bit of a clunker.

My initial impressions at the Spearfish, SD range was VERY positive!  This rifle is a good one. My impressions are as follows:

1. Accuracy: A+
2. Ease of operation: C
3. Sight Picture: C+
4. Trigger: B+
5. Barrel: Solid A.  Hammer forged. Ruger makes GOOD barrels! This one is not exactly a heavy barrel, but it starts off rather heavy and is stepped down to a more 'sporting' taper.
6. Muzzle: AR flash hider style.
7. Open sights: C-
8. Twist is 1 in 8

The rifle is not heavy, maybe 6 or 7 lbs. Overall length: 37". Sight Radius: 20" 



Now to the tests.

I shot a variety of ammo through the rifle. Some factory ammo and some reloads of mine.

I will start off with the most surprising of all: 62 grain M855 from Winchester. At least at 100 yards, this rifle LOVED this ammo. I fired a two, five-shot groups with this ammo and both went, get this, 1 MOA with the Ruger open sights. Call it luck, call it happenstance, but it happened. Velocity average was 2980 fps, from this 16.25" barrel. I'd call that rather effective.

Next best is Federal 77gr BTHP (Sierra): Av Vel: 2483 fps. Averaged right at 1.25 MOA (again with the open sights)

After that the following all averaged between 2 and 3 MOA at 100: Hornady 75 BTHP, IVI 55 gr, PMC Bronze, and a couple of handloads of mine featuring 68 gr Hornady BTHP and a 75 grain Hornady BTHP.  I'm a bit crestfallen that my handloads were not as accurate as M855.   

I shot a couple of 100 yard tests (AQTs) with this rifle. When working through the COF in stages 2 and 3, the rifle is NOT smooth and easy to operate. whether it is simply a breaking in process, or, that's just the way it is, the rifle's action is clunky and rough at best. But, oh, the accuracy....the dang thing is as accurate as you can hold it.

So....Back to the Ruger factory rear sight.  I am decidedly not happy with the construction of it: in short, the  thing is plastic: knob and flip up aperture. Sight Picture? Well, rather pedestrian. As to repeatability: Sketchy. If there is anything that I have learned in my 50+ years of shooting it is this: never be afraid to ADJUST YOUR SIGHTS!!!!! As I went left and right with the adjustments, this rear sight did not come back to my original zero.  Can't trust it! With that in mind, I dare say this Plastic sight, and its bearing detents, did not hold up to my changes in windage when I did my testing. I had to re-zero more than once. The rear sight just isn't repeatable. Unfortunately, this did not surprise me.

What to do?

 To improve that, I looked to my stock of Tech Sights. Tech Sights makes a version of rear sight for Keltec.  It looked like the perfect candidate to bolt on to my new Ruger rifle. With a wink and nod to my rant above: I really, really, really LIKE Tech Sights! 

I happened to have one in my possession and I immediately sought to modify it and make it work on the Ruger American Scout.  A bench grinder did the trick (see the pics).

I ground off the excess steel under the Keltec sight and made it a Ruger American sight.  It worked perfectly. Tech Sights are all steel and are nicely repeatable for their windage adjustments.

I have shot this sight several times now on this rifle and I love its sight picture and repeatability.

More to follow regarding this rifle, my exploits with it in SD, and my Little Range on the Prairie.

Gus

[LDB415]

6.6 pounds according to the Ruger site. That's one of the rifles on my short list. Interesting report. Did you have to change/modify the front sight after installing the Tech sight?

[Gus]

6.6 pounds according to the Ruger site. That's one of the rifles on my short list. Interesting report. Did you have to change/modify the front sight after installing the Tech sight?

I had to adjust the front sight up four clicks as the Tech Sight rear is a tad taller than the factory Ruger rear sight.

On my next post about this rifle I'll include some load data and chronograph results.

Gus

[ItsanSKS]

the rifle's action is clunky and rough at best

Could you elaborate a little more on what you find clunky/rough about the action?

[Gus]

the rifle's action is clunky and rough at best

Could you elaborate a little more on what you find clunky/rough about the action?

Hi Eric,

Good to hear from you!

Out of the box, with the magazine the rifle came with, the rifle was hard to operate in the rapid fire stages. Because the Spearfish range is only a 100 yard range, I did a 100 yard AQT of sorts: the SR1 target at 100 yards and then doing stages 1, 2, 3 and 4 of our Appleseed AQT. My trouble was in stages 2 and 3: I found I had trouble sending the bolt forward. The bolt itself had (emphasis on HAD) some little burrs along the length of the bolt sleeve. That was hanging things up. Next, again in rapid fire, I had trouble lifting the bolt in stage 3 prone position. Bolt lift was very stiff and, I think due to the burrs on the sleeve, I did not send the bolt forward smartly enough to ensure positive feeding.  I had several FTFs with both handloads and factory ammo. I only had trouble with FTFs in stage 3.

So that is how I came to think of the action as clunky and rough.

After getting the rifle back to my camper, I spent ten minutes smoothing out the burrs with some emery cloth. Imagine the sound of trumpets in the distance! What a difference.

Next thing I have learned: Magazines.  The rifle comes with a Magpul PMAG 10.  Holy moly does it have a strong spring in it. The resistance I feel working the bolt is significantly more in comparison to an older 10 round steel magazine.  Night and day difference. I'll send pictures of the two mags in a bit.

I shot the rifle a couple days ago and after smoothing out the burrs and overall breaking in, the rifle is much more pleasant to shoot.  I have been having fun shooting SR1 targets at 100 yards, but using Appleseed's stages and time limits for a 40 round course of fire. Will send a pic of my latest target.

That Tech Sight that I put on has been very good. I now have confidence in my rear sight adjustments. The Ruger rear sight was very coarse: 1 click equaled 3 to 4 MOA changes in windage! And it wouldn't return to zero. It had to go. I like the front sight. It is all steel and though it too is a bit coarse, I'll work with it. Each click on the front sight is 2 MOA per click and they are consistent.

I have been using some gunslick black grease to ease the break in process. It too has made a difference. I really like it on the locking lugs of the bolt: It stays where it needs to be. I have been a believer in gunslick grease on the locking lugs of bolt actions for over 40 years. I use it on all of my bolt guns to include the two XP-100 pistols.

At this point I have 300 rounds through the rifle and it has come around. Also, I'm sure I'm getting better at operating it as well. To that end, the last time I shot the rifle, I was sharing space at the range with a fellow shooter. He was an interested spectator as I shot the rifle in seated and prone. When I was done he came over and said,"You're one of those real rifle shooters".    Most shooters just don't get into the sling and hit the mat these days.  So I talked to him about Project Appleseed for a while. Was a fun day.

Gus

[Gus]

Here are some of the velocity results I'm getting with this rifle:

Factory


PMC Bronze 55 gr FMJ  Avg: 2759 FPS, High: 2806 Low: 2727  SD: 29
Winchester M855 62gr  Avg: 2967 FPS, High: 3011 Low: 2931  SD: 33 for some reason this rifle loves this ammo.
Hornady match 75gr BTHP Avg: 2420 FPS, High: 2442 Low: 2417 SD: 13

Handloads

Winchester 55gr FMJ/ 22.0 gr Varget/ CCI 400 / LC brass. 2497 FPS  SD 21 This is a very mild load.
Hornady 62gr FMJ/ 24.0 Benchmark/ CCI 400/ LC brass.  2815 FPS  SD 29
Hornady 62gr FMJ/ 24.5 748/ CCI 400/ Winchester brass  2594 FPS  SD 24

Gus

[Dmthomp32]

This is a great review and very helpful. I've been interested in these rifles as well. Still torn between this and a CZ 527. Sounds like the Ruger is more than capable of being great just might need a little love.