I'm looking at a ruger American series rifle in a.308 .Does anyone have experience with the new series?

If your need is to acquire a centerfire rifle at an affordable price I would suggest that you would be better off with a quality used rifle than a new rifle of one of the current "leader" models offered by the larger manufacturers made to sell in discount and big box stores.

About a year ago, I bought a Ruger American Rifle in 243 as a truck/UTV/loaner gun. The first 4 shots from an old partial box of Winchester Power Points went into less than an inch.Then I tried a randomly selected load using 90 gr Speer Deep shocks and 4320. They also went into less an an inch. Load development over!

The rifle has since ridden many miles with me and taken deer, hogs , and 'yotes.

She ain't purty. But she balances well, shoots strait, and has a crisp trigger right out of the box. IMO, it's a great gun for the price

I think the only outstanding question on these types of rifles are if they are durable enough to last. Only time will tell.

I keep reading positive things about Ruger long guns......and it sure hasn't been my experience.....

I agree......find a used Remington 700 or a pushfeed M-70!

My friends, family and I have owned ,and still do, a fair Number of Ruger rifles. The only one that wasn't consistently MOA was a #1 in .223, but it wasn't far out. Maybe we're just lucky. roger

quote:

Originally posted by bartsche:
My friends, family and I have owned ,and still do, a fair Number of Ruger rifles. The only one that wasn't consistently MOA was a #1 in .223, but it wasn't far out. Maybe we're just lucky. roger

Roger.....my issues with Rugers wasn't just accuracy....usually it was acceptable....it was feeding, safety not working, stock warping, bolt not locking.....that type of stuff.......after all....there's more to a rifle than accuracy.....

The Rem 788 was superbly accurate...if only it would feed rounds from the clip!!!!!

No don't get me started on Savage.....

quote:

Originally posted by vapodog:

quote:

Originally posted by bartsche:
My friends, family and I have owned ,and still do, a fair Number of Ruger rifles. The only one that wasn't consistently MOA was a #1 in .223, but it wasn't far out. Maybe we're just lucky. roger

Roger.....my issues with Rugers wasn't just accuracy....usually it was acceptable....it was feeding, safety not working, stock warping, bolt not locking.....that type of stuff.......after all....there's more to a rifle than accuracy.....

The Rem 788 was superbly accurate...if only it would feed rounds from the clip!!!!!

No don't get me started on Savage.....

OK! all's warm and wonderful in CA except for Boxer and Fiensiien. And yes feeding with a #1 or#3 can be a real pisser but not if you kill them with one shot. roger

Any time someone wants a recommendations on a completely and reliably rilfe, regardless of caliber, it the Tikka T-3. They always shoot MOA and are very affordable. Get a t-3 Lite in .308 and you are set.

Some people just much attract bad rifles like a magnet attracts steel.

I've owned 3 Rugers over the years. Two M77s and a 10/22. I never had reason to regret those purchases. IMHO Ruger is the the best of the mainstream US manufacturers.

In fact, I have been so impressed by Rugers in the past that I once wrote to Sturm Ruger and Co and congratulated them on the beauty and simplicity of their designs. I subsequently received a reply, a very eloquently worded reply, from Bill Ruger himself. I was, and still am, absolutely chuffed about that. He didn't need to bother writing back to some fan boy in New Zealand but he did.

Just good things to say about Ruger rifles and they seem to be getting better.

quote:

Originally posted by mdstewart:
Any time someone wants a recommendations on a completely and reliably rilfe, regardless of caliber, it the Tikka T-3. They always shoot MOA and are very affordable. Get a t-3 Lite in .308 and you are set.

+1
The Tikka is still the best value out there in an out of the box accurate, dependable rifle.

quote:

Originally posted by subsailor74:

quote:

Originally posted by mdstewart:
Any time someone wants a recommendations on a completely and reliably rilfe, regardless of caliber, it the Tikka T-3. They always shoot MOA and are very affordable. Get a t-3 Lite in .308 and you are set.

+1
The Tikka is still the best value out there in an out of the box accurate, dependable rifle.

I've had three Tikka's and if they could be summarized: they are LIGHT and ACCURATE out of the box. The one modification that most people suggest is adding a Limbsaver or Pachmyer recoil pad. I would concur.

Having said that, though, I always end up second guessing calibre choices for Tikka and come back to the "medium" length cartridges: the 270 Win, 30-06, and 338 WinMag. There is no material advantage in a Tikka for choosing a "short cartridge." The actual action is the same. That means that the 30-06 and 308 use the same action.

So if choosing a Tikka T-3 (wood Hunter or composite Lite models), the cartridge choice does not need or benefit from a "short case." That means that a 260Rem, 6.5x55, 270Win and 7m-08 all share the same exact action, and it is a good one. The 270Win provides greater powder capacity than those other 3 and more flexibility within the same weight of action. The same situation prevails with the 30-06 over the 308Win.

The limit for the Tikka is the 338 WinMag. Two of my Tikkas have been 338WinMag and I think that they are excellent but they are also the limit for this rifle. Below is a picture of the Tikka rings when used building up hunting loads in the 338.



The rear of this front ring has been ripped back by the pin.
If that is not clear enough an upward view of the bottom of the ring shos the offending anchor pin.


As can be seen, the aluminum could not handle the recoil. The scope slid foward, ripping the stabilizing pin out of the back of the front ring. The problem was easy to solve by Warne steel rings. Sako makes a set of steel rings, too, but they are more expensive.

I share this while lauding the Tikka as a great rifle for its price among medium and light calibres. For "truth in advertising," the rifle is not designed as a platform for a bigbore. And while it offers smaller calibres like 243, 260, and 308, the action itself is just about perfect for the 270Win, 30-06, and 338 WinMag. It is perfect, as long as one is happy with an ultra slick , flawlessly feeding, push-feed.

Hmmm .... can we really describe a bolt action rifle (in this case the Tikka T-3) as being 'reliable' when it doesn't come with a Mauser-type non-rotating extractor? Maybe I guess, in comparison to other bolt actions of that type but not in absolute terms. Would you feel confident building a D/G rifle based on a Tikka action? Or put another way (cos there are some nutters about) would you feel confident you could sell a D/G rifle built on a T-3 action?

For lonewolf's question, the following was part of an answer

quote:

the rifle is not designed as a platform for a bigbore. And while it offers smaller calibres like 243, 260, and 308, the action itself is just about perfect for the 270Win, 30-06, and 338 WinMag. It is perfect, as long as one is happy with an ultra slick , flawlessly feeding, push-feed.

The Tikka is a great deer rifle and plains game rifle, it is not a dangerous game rifle, nor should it be proposed as such, nor was it being proposed up above. It's a 243 to 338 affair, with special emphasis on 2.5" cases since those are included for "free," without any weight penalty.

If a Tikka could be considered "completely reliable" (as claimed) I see no reason why it couldn't be used on certain types of dangerous game, and with complete confidence. But of course, because of the extractor type used on the rifle, it can't be considered completely reliable can it. So, it may be accurate and it may be 'a real honey' to shoot etc, etc, but that's not the same thing as completely reliable.

Starting with the Garand, isn't it true that pretty much all battle rifles have been push feed? Seems like a rifle designed for combat would be the ultimate DG rifle.

My qualms with the Tikka for dangerous game are the overal size of the action and its lightweight. I would not want to put a Rigby class cartridge in that action. Since I already use it for a 338WM, I suppose that I could go so far as to include the 375 Ruger and 416 Ruger. But since I'm partial to controlled-feed, I won't be thinking about either of those Ruger cartridges in a Tikka. If the Tikka engineers decide that the action is up to a 458Win, then we can relook at the question.

Just let the Tikka be what it is great at: it handles plains-game and deer-size game as a champion. It may be the most bang for the buck. And for reliability, accuracy is more important than whether a rifle is push-feed or controlled-feed. HOWEVER, for over-the-counter dangerous game rifles we have CZ and Ruger and Win M70 controlled-feed.

I bought a Ruger American .243 for my daughter to hunt with and was pleasantly surprised. Very good accuracy with a variety of factory ammo. She killed her first whitetail with it and I hunted with it whenever she was not with me and killed two more bucks. I have killed three coyotes with it in the last month at 300-350 yards. Seems to be a very good rifle for the price.

Don't you just love it when you ask a fairly simple straight forward question about a rifle, and a bunch of folks who have never used one start spouting off negative or completely unrelated comments? That's just great isn't it?!

thats why I throw them up and read just the ones pertinate to my question. Especially since I can get one for a reasonable price

quote:

Originally posted by ghostbird:
I bought a Ruger American .243 for my daughter to hunt with and was pleasantly surprised. Very good accuracy with a variety of factory ammo. She killed her first whitetail with it and I hunted with it whenever she was not with me and killed two more bucks. I have killed three coyotes with it in the last month at 300-350 yards. Seems to be a very good rifle for the price.

Was the length of pull OK, or did you modify it for your daughter?

I won a Tikka in .280 and thought it felt like absolute crap. Bolt was loose, stock was uncomfortable and had flashing sticking up that needed to be trimmed off. I never shot it.

On the other hand I have three M77's that are accurate and have never had an issue with, as well as a new Hawkeye. Again plenty accurate, no feeding issues. I also have 10/22's and a 10/22Mag along with mini-14's and have never had an issue with any of them.

I just bought my son a new Win M70 for graduation and think quite highly of it but it's more money.

If you just want a beater there are good used guns available quite often.