Ruger American Predator Moss 308 Winchester Bolt-action Rifle Review

uger came out with their low cost American line of rifles a few years ago and because they were all lighter sporter mode rifles we initially had no real interest in them. It was about a year subsequently their introduction that they announced a new model in their American Rifle lineup called the Predator, which featured a "heavier" weight barrel that was even threaded for a suppressor or muzzlebrake, all at a very low cost. These rifles were advertised as being made in the USA and and then we had hope that perhaps a very low cost rifle might be available for long range shooting, or fifty-fifty a BOPR manner rifle. So we waited for them to become available so nosotros could do an evaluation. And we waited, and waited, and waited for over a year. Finally, earlier in 2016 they finally became widely bachelor and we ordered one up for evaluation here. Unfortunately, when it arrived, nosotros were immediately disappointed. The barrel may be "heavier" equally advertised, but "heavier" does non mean heavy. The barrel is merely slightly thicker than their sporter barrel profile, at least we are assuming it is since that is how they advertise information technology. We here would classify information technology as a sporter barrel. That was a let down, just we had the rifle hither, so we figured we would run it through the tests anyway just to see how information technology did.

Right off the bat, the first matter that came to mind when nosotros started looking at the burglarize in detail was "cheap". The stock is molded from plastic, which is considered synthetic, and you can hear the hollow sound of it when you tap on the buttstock. In that location is too a squishy prophylactic recoil pad that does absorb some of the recoil. The comb of the stock where your cheek rests is not elevated and has a sporter style shape to it. The rifle is non advertised as whatever sort of tactical rifle, but is billed as a predator burglarize to be used for coyote hunting and the such. Typically predator rifles are similar to a varmint rifle with heavy barrel, but perchance with a smaller profile stock for lighter weight. The Ruger Predator rifle seems to be more sporter and equally such the stock is very sporter like. This theme continues up through the pistol grip too as it is thin and swept back, doing away with a vertical style grip. The green colored plastic stock does have a semi-rough texture to it to assistance provide friction to agree your cheek in place when firing. The pistol grip also has some triangle similar raised designs to it for added gripping surface.

In forepart of the pistol grip the stock is molded into a trigger baby-sit, removing that split function of the burglarize and reducing manufacturing costs. Provided the plastic can hold up to the abuses of field use, information technology should work fine, though later on-market stock makers will now have to deal with providing a trigger guard as well. At the lesser of the pistol grip at that place is a plastic cap with the rugger logo on it. This cap doesn't provide any functional use and its not really noticeable, simply nosotros thought we would mention information technology anyway. The stock maintains its sparse contour through the activity area as well and located directly in front of the trigger guard is a detachable box magazine, which we would not look to find on a lower priced rifle like this. The magazine is a rotary box magazine which should surprise no ane equally Ruger has been making rotary magazines on their x/22 rifles for many decades. The magazine for the American Predator rifle reminds us of the 10/22 design but on a larger scale. The magazine only holds four rounds, and it detaches merely by pulling the lever at the forepart of the mag back toward the rear and so removing the magazine from the rifle. Information technology is a simple system and since all of the moving parts are independent on the mag, it means the stock remains simple and more affordable to manufacture. The magazine well consists of nothing more than a smooth sided opening being molded into the stock. That is information technology, in that location are no other parts to manufacture. It was no surprise that the magazine is fabricated of plastic besides.

In that location is a low molded into the stock at the front of the magazine well to let access to the magazine release lever and once you get used to where it is located, it becomes like shooting fish in a barrel to operate, though a bit different than what most might be used to on a tactical rifle. Once more, it is very much similar a 10/22 magazine, so if you take experience with x/22s, it'll feel more than natural. The forearm of the stock maintains the thin sporter profile with no widening of the forearm to allow a more than stable shooting platform. The meridian of the forearm even pinches in, though nosotros are not certain why across aesthetical reasons and maybe it saves a few grams of weight. Some more of the triangle manner raised gripping texture is present there as well, but across that, the forearm is pretty standard fair. There is just a unmarried sling stud, and one in the rear, and so if you plan to employ a bipod, then the sling would need to be attached to the bipod itself. It does demand to be mentioned that while there is no aluminum bedding cake, the stock is of sufficient stiffness to let the butt to be free floated all the way dorsum to the lockring/action. The butt remains free floating even when using a bipod or sandbag up front. The stock does take two Five shaped small blocks in the stock that sit in two machined grooves at the bottom of the action to mate the stock to the action in a way that allows the action to exist properly aligned in the stock. Ruger calls this the Power Bedding integral bedding block organisation, but across hands aligning the stock to the action, they probably human activity more like pillars than a bedding cake. This system does allow for a gratis floated barrel and it can exist considered similar to doing a ii indicate bedding on a wood stock.

Protruding out past the rear tang of the activeness is a 2 position safety. When the bolt is cocked the rubber can exist pulled to the rear to embrace the cherry-red "F", placing the rifle in a rubber position. When the safety is engaged the trigger tin be depressed but the rear striker on the commodities is not released to engage the firing pin. While in this condom condition, the bolt can still be cycled in order to remove a circular from the bedchamber while keeping the rifle safe. Movement the rubber frontward, exposing the ruby "F" and the rifle is prepared to fire. The trigger itself is a blade style trigger, significant there is a "rubber" blade that protrude through the center of the trigger that must exist pressed during the trigger clasp in order for the trigger to allow the rifle to fire. Nosotros are non huge fans of this manner of trigger, simply a number of rifles utilise them now and they take become a part of the industry. The extra means of liability protection that this trigger organization enables, allows manufacturers to transport their rifles with a lighter weight trigger pull, which is a good thing. Unfortunately, the trigger on this Ruger is not that light, breaking at iv.25 lbs. Fortunately the triggers are adaptable from 3-v lbs, yous only demand to remove the stock then utilise a small Allen wrench to accommodate the weight of pull via a single gear up screw at the front of the trigger mechanism. Though we noted that when we lightened this trigger, it seemed to innovate some creep into information technology, which there are no adjustments to fix.

The activeness has a hex shape to the superlative profile with the sides cut flat. There is a bolt release button on the left mitt side of the action that fits affluent to the activity until the bolt is pulled to the rear which causes the rear portion of the button to protrude upwards allowing the operator to depress it and so pull the bolt from the rear of the action. It works well, though it can be a scrap hard to depress if wearing thick gloves. As was mentioned earlier, the action has groves machines into the bottom of it that mate upward to the aluminum Five blocks mounted in the bedding surface area of the stock. The action also has a few pressure release ports on the sides in the instance of a catastrophic failure to aid protect the shooter. The rifles likewise come with a unmarried slice aluminum picatinny manner rail, with zip cant, mounted at the mill.

The bolt is a three lug design which allows for a short rotation stroke giving plenty of clearance for the scope likewise as allowing for quicker bolt manipulation. The bolt handle is turned down and slanted back toward the shooter as just near all modern rifles are today. The bolt knob is a pocket-sized traditional shaped round knob finished in black. The rear shroud is fabricated of plastic, though information technology is unlikely it would ever come under heavy abuse to where it might fail, but it is something to be enlightened of. The bolt body is really a bit unlike than normal equally it is a very thick body that steps downwards at the very front where the bolt lugs and face are located. There is 1 grove cut into the left manus side of the bolt where the commodities release lever slides and guides the bolt. As was mentioned, the bolt has iii lugs, versus the normal two constitute on Remington, Mauser and Winchester actions, and located on front of one of those lugs is a M16 way clip extractor with a plunger located on the opposite side of the bolt face. This provides a good positive extraction and appears that it will agree up well over prolonged use. The entire commodities body is in the blank metal, where the plastic shroud and bolt handle are blackness.

Nosotros already expressed our disappointment at the beginning of this review in the fact that the barrel was a "heavier" sporter profile and not a true heavy barrel. According to our caliper, the bore of the 18″ barrel at the muzzle is simply .725″, where as a Remington heavy barrel is .820″ on a 26″ and .850 on the 20″. The barrel reminds united states of america a lilliputian of the thinner profile Steyr SSG-69 PI barrel, then we decided to measure out that barrel and it came in at the same .725″. But the Steyr barrel felt and looked heavier, and and so we recalled that the Ruger butt was only 18″ long, where as the Steyr was 24″. When we measured the Steyr barrel at 18″ of length it was .820″ diameter. So what makes the Ruger butt appear thinner, which it is, is that it tapers downwardly quicker, going to .725″ in only xviii″ of length. If the same contour were to exist used on a barrel that was 22″ or 24″ in length, then information technology would likely have a "heavier" wait and feel to the butt profile, being very similar to the Steyr. That heavier weight likewise would provide additional stiffness and would reduce the heating time of the barrel when firing multiple shots.

The barrel is mounted to the action using what appears to be a similar setup to the Roughshod and other lower cost rifles using a lock ring setup to easily establish the proper caput spacing. This system saves machining labor which in turn saves price. A surprising feature is the threaded barrel and it is not merely surprising considering its on a low toll rifle, but more and so because information technology is on such a thin contour butt. If it is to be used for a muzzlebrake then its understandable, only to apply information technology for a suppressor would be surprising. It is certainly doable, and has been washed, just putting all that weight out front end on a thin sporter butt volition cause dramatic point of impact shift, though it should be repeatable so it tin be compensated for. The rifle comes with a thread protection cap too. The entire butt, and the activeness, are finished using a matte bluing that appears to be good quality.

The overall feel of the burglarize is like a light weight hunting rifle. Without optics it only weighs 6.2 lbs, which is extremely light for a tactical rifle. The light weight is a upshot of the cheap plastic stock, and the short 18″ sporter weight barrel. The fit and finish of the rifle is crude when compared to higher end sniper rifles, simply for the low price point of the rifle, it isn't bad. The cheap stock is perhaps its biggest shortfall in terms of the cheap advent of the rifle. It is short and handles fairly well, equally you would expect from such a small and calorie-free hunting rifle. Just nosotros needed to find out how the rifle performed in gild to draw any sort of overall conclusions.

For our tests we mounted i of our test mule scopes, a Leupold Vari-10 III half dozen.v-20x50mm that had seen a good life mounted on a police sniper burglarize for a number of years. We use this scope often on our test rifles and it mounted upward quick using a pair of Leupold Mk4 steel 30mm rings on the provided Ruger one piece rails. For the shooting portion of the exam we had very favorable atmospheric condition conditions with lx degrees F, overcast and very mild winds from ane-3 mph. If you are non familiar with the tests that nosotros perform on our rifles, go ahead and read about them on the how we test page.

For our 100 yard accurateness tests, nosotros brought out four dissimilar 308 loads: Federal Aureate Medal Match 168gr, HSM M118LR (equiv) 175gr, Swiss-P Match 168gr, and some Sellier & Bellot M80 147gr. The results of these tests are listed below.

Ammo	Boilerplate	Best
Federal Gold Medal Match 168gr	i.749″ (one.670 MOA)	1.635″ (1.562 MOA)
RAUG Swiss-P 168gr Friction match	0.746″ (0.713 MOA)	0.548″ (0.523 MOA)
HSM M118LR (Equiv) 175gr	0.713″ (0.681 MOA)	0.400″ (0.382 MOA)
Sellier & Bellot M80 147gr	1.089″ (ane.040 MOA)	0.688″ (0.657 MOA)

The first obvious point that we will talk well-nigh is the fact that this Ruger hated the Federal Gold Medal Lucifer ammo, which is very odd. The Federal GMM has long been the gold standard of match form ammo that all others are compared against, but for this rifle, it was the dog of the group. Non a single group came close to going under i MOA which had usa worried that the functioning of the rifle was not going to be good at all. But then we switched to the Swiss-P ammo and it is every bit if it was a completely different burglarize. It was the reverse with this ammo, there was non a single group over i MOA and information technology was a pillar of consistency. The Ruger has a ane:ten″ rate of twist which ways it should handle the heavy weight bullets, including heavy sub-sonic loads, with whatsoever problems. So we were curious to run across how the HSM M118LR ammo would perform with the 175gr bullets, and it did not disappoint delivering the best grouping, and average, of the bunch. Though the M118LR was not as consistent equally the Swiss-P with some wider groups starting time past the tight ones. Finally, with the S&B M80 ball ammo, the rifle did not practise also bad, averaging just over 1 MOA and out performing the Federal GMM by a wide margin. We are still baffled every bit to why the rifle will not shoot the GMM and nosotros have to think it is this burglarize just and should not be indicative of all the Ruger Predators. The accurateness performance of the rifle at 100 yards was great at all, especially for the price point and we would have to say it outperformed our expectations.

For our 300 yard rapid fire head shot examination, we decided to go with the more consistent Swiss-P ammo over the HSM as we tend to favor adept consistency when possible. Consistency Equals Accurateness. And so we ready the Figure 14 target upwardly at 300 yards, adapted our scope upwardly 5 MOA and prepared for the engagement. The 3 shots took u.s. 23 seconds to fire, which is a decent fourth dimension, simply nosotros were slowed downward bringing the rifle dorsum on target. The lite six pound burglarize and short 18″ barrel atomic number 82 to a rifle that bounced effectually with a good amount of muzzle flip when fired. Even when setup nicely behind the rifle to endeavour and mitigate recoil, information technology still hopped effectually causing a delay locating and aligning with the next target. The sparse forearm also contributed to this as information technology is not a stable platform even when on a sandbag and a bipod is likely a meliorate option. The short bolt rotation did aid with rapid bolt manipulation though. The accuracy at 300 yards in a rapid burn engagement opened up a fiddling over the 100 yard results, which is to be expected. The grouping measured 3.818″ (1.216 MOA) and was nicely centered on the head.

300y Head Target Test
Time Score (23 secs)	31.iii
Accuracy Score (1.216 moa)	37
Energy Score (1635 ft-lbs)	25
Total	93.3

The rifle is very low-cal which contributes to a stiff recoil for a 308 rifle, though it does help when carrying the rifle in the field. The cheek weld is likewise right on blank plastic and the recoil, muzzleflip, and strong plastic contributed to a sore cheek when the firing was done for the twenty-four hour period. The trigger reach is long on the rifle which for those shooters with smaller easily it may be a bit more difficult to get a good trigger squeeze. The commodities feeds smooth from the magazine and we had no failures to feed or problems with the mag. Simply we besides noticed that y'all cannot single feed the rifle purchase just dropping a unmarried circular into the magazine area and then pushing the bolt forward. You lot must feed from the mag, or offset the round into the sleeping accommodation using your hand before closing the commodities. During our firing, we also noticed one of the shortcomings of a sparse barrel profile, it heats up very fast and becomes very hot without a lot of rounds fired. Every bit barrels oestrus up, the metal moves and it can negatively effect accuracy or cause a bespeak of impact shift. Nosotros did non notice any of these traits, simply the quickly heating barrel all the same caused u.s. some business.

So what are our thoughts on the rifle? Well, keeping it in perspective, we have to remind ourselves information technology is a LOW budget rifle. Information technology feels low budget and nosotros do not expect the plastic parts to vesture particularly well over fourth dimension. But the accuracy is there and we did not find any major faults that would preclude it from be used if needed. If Ruger were to ever put a true 18″ heavy butt on the burglarize, or keep the same "heavier" profile butt and lengthen information technology out to 24″, and so I recall they would accept a more enticing proposition for us. At that indicate we would consider information technology a mod version, and cheaper, of the Steyr SSG-69 PI, rotary magazine and all. But as it is now, even with the decent accuracy, we are not besides excited well-nigh it. We really wanted to be as we have a new conceptual thought we are working on and we wanted to use this burglarize for it. Possibly if they practise the 24″ version we'll give information technology a whirl.

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