Ive had 2 Ruger Americans, a Ranch, and this Magnum, and spent quite a bit of time with a standard American, and Ive liked all of them. The American actions are at this point my favorite cheap actions, and the rifles are generally my favorite cheap rifles.
The do have some things that can be made better with a little work. Polishing the bolt, and using a grease on it, gets rid of the zzzzirrt sound and feel they have as they cycle.
Opening up the lip on the front of stock removes the most common touch point.
The triggers tend to be pretty good, my RARs was excellent. The one on my Magnum was a little longer and kinda gritty compared to the others I've used. Disassembling, cleaning, and light polishing removed all the grit, but the pull is longer than I prefer. I still haven't come up with a good way to adjust engagement on the stock trigger.
Anyway, the one thing that I've not been able to remedy is the feel of the stocks, they just don't feel good to me. My RAR and the standard American are both light enough that it didn't really bother me, the Magnum on the other hand is heavy for an American at 9ish lbs scoped, and I really didn't like the stock feel on it.
So to remedy that I had one of the sellers on eBay order a stock from Boyd's for me. Reason I went that route, is ordering direct from Boyd's cost me an extra 20 in shipping and handling.
The stock arrived yesterday, and I happily tried to dry fit everything.
Turns out the inletting on the stock was close to perfect, but the corners on the inletting for the recoil lugs and magazine well we're rounded. I had to spend about an hour cleaning up the corners to get the action and lugs to fit together correctly, and for the magazine to go in and out smoothly. Since I was going to all the effort I decided to put pillars under the lugs to help with keeping tension and not squishing the stock.
After getting it all epoxied up, I installed a short section of rail on the front, and used 5/8" cable stops to extend the lop about 3/4"
The rail is from the forend of my AR build and has two rounds studs on the bottom that fit into Keymod holes and a socket for a qd sling swivel. I used a 3/8 forstner bit to relieve the stock for all three. Then made a new screw hole for the rear attachment screw, and ran the front thru an existing sling swivel stud hole, and into a block of hdpe.
The cable stops just act as spacers for the factory pad, if I find issues with it I'll probably just fit a 1" pad.
My one major complaint about the stock is the rear of the stock doesn't follow the profile of the action. I'll probably fill it a bit and profile it later if it really bugs me.
List of parts in the build. Most were covered in a previous thread, the stocks really the last piece of this puzzle.
Ruger American Magnum in 7mm Remington.
Boyd's Pepper Laminate ProVarmint (guess tacticool, wasn't cutting it) stock. 3/4" spacers, and 3" section of Keymod rail.
Vg6 Precision 762 Gamma muzzle brake, mostly cause it looks cool, tho the recoil reduction is nice for range use. I also have a linear compensator that it wears while hunting.
Athlon Argos 4-20x50 with ahmr1 reticle. Sitting in Warne rings, on the stock rail.
Knock off Atlas Bipod....tho hopefully I'll be able to replace it with the real thing before too long.
The do have some things that can be made better with a little work. Polishing the bolt, and using a grease on it, gets rid of the zzzzirrt sound and feel they have as they cycle.
Opening up the lip on the front of stock removes the most common touch point.
The triggers tend to be pretty good, my RARs was excellent. The one on my Magnum was a little longer and kinda gritty compared to the others I've used. Disassembling, cleaning, and light polishing removed all the grit, but the pull is longer than I prefer. I still haven't come up with a good way to adjust engagement on the stock trigger.
Anyway, the one thing that I've not been able to remedy is the feel of the stocks, they just don't feel good to me. My RAR and the standard American are both light enough that it didn't really bother me, the Magnum on the other hand is heavy for an American at 9ish lbs scoped, and I really didn't like the stock feel on it.
So to remedy that I had one of the sellers on eBay order a stock from Boyd's for me. Reason I went that route, is ordering direct from Boyd's cost me an extra 20 in shipping and handling.
The stock arrived yesterday, and I happily tried to dry fit everything.
Turns out the inletting on the stock was close to perfect, but the corners on the inletting for the recoil lugs and magazine well we're rounded. I had to spend about an hour cleaning up the corners to get the action and lugs to fit together correctly, and for the magazine to go in and out smoothly. Since I was going to all the effort I decided to put pillars under the lugs to help with keeping tension and not squishing the stock.
After getting it all epoxied up, I installed a short section of rail on the front, and used 5/8" cable stops to extend the lop about 3/4"
The rail is from the forend of my AR build and has two rounds studs on the bottom that fit into Keymod holes and a socket for a qd sling swivel. I used a 3/8 forstner bit to relieve the stock for all three. Then made a new screw hole for the rear attachment screw, and ran the front thru an existing sling swivel stud hole, and into a block of hdpe.
The cable stops just act as spacers for the factory pad, if I find issues with it I'll probably just fit a 1" pad.
My one major complaint about the stock is the rear of the stock doesn't follow the profile of the action. I'll probably fill it a bit and profile it later if it really bugs me.
List of parts in the build. Most were covered in a previous thread, the stocks really the last piece of this puzzle.
Ruger American Magnum in 7mm Remington.
Boyd's Pepper Laminate ProVarmint (guess tacticool, wasn't cutting it) stock. 3/4" spacers, and 3" section of Keymod rail.
Vg6 Precision 762 Gamma muzzle brake, mostly cause it looks cool, tho the recoil reduction is nice for range use. I also have a linear compensator that it wears while hunting.
Athlon Argos 4-20x50 with ahmr1 reticle. Sitting in Warne rings, on the stock rail.
Knock off Atlas Bipod....tho hopefully I'll be able to replace it with the real thing before too long.
loonwulf. about time i see a boyds stock i like. how do u like the Athlon what does it compare to. have u worked up a load yet for it. like to see one off those cows wacked with this.
. cameraland is in ny and we have to pay 8.25% tax still good price tho
