Ruger American Strength?

[Scout21]

Does anybody with knowledge of mettalurgy and firearms design have any idea how strong a Ruger American is? How does the strength of the action stack up against its contemporaries? I would imagine that with the three lug full size bolt as well as Ruger's reputation of excellent investment casting it would be stronger than most other common bolt action rifles.

I don't intend on doing anything that would require an exceptionally strong rifle, I'm simply curious.

 

[3Crows]

It is apparently strong enough. You do not hear of Ruger investment cast rifles receivers blowing up. Whatever you are worrying over is not a thing. Now, you may not care for the resulting product, because there will be mold lines that would not be present on an entirely forged but otherwise similar product. Two different processes, each with a different resulting look when finished. Both adequate to the task.

 

[Varminterror]

Ruger uses a modified American action for 338Lapua in the RPR, and they have a 300wm in the American receiver… Ruger doesn’t have a reputation for engineering with a thin design safety factor, certainly to the contrary.

 

[someguy2800]

The receiver on the ruger american is not investment cast, its milled from bar stock.

 

[adcoch1]

The Ruger American action is a departure from more traditional Mauser style bolt actions, designed to make machining less labor intensive than the old classic designs. It's not a corner cutting design strength wise, just cheaper and quicker to build. The bolt lugs are as large, if not larger than classic action designs. It's strong enough, just not as attractive as classic designs. And they work. Somebody will blow one up someday, but it won't be due to normal use...

 

[Varminterror]

Rem 700’s (and dozens of clones), Savages, Ruger Americans, Winchester XPR’s, etc are all tube type actions. Mauser and Winchester fans wag their fingers at these production-efficiency-focused designs and pretend they bring lesser strength, but millions on millions, if not billions of rounds downrange from these actions over the last few generations have proven they hold up even to magnum power cartridges without issues.

 

[Riomouse911]

Hmmm. Unless you are looking to build an 80,000 psi 6.8x51 round using the two-piece cartridge cases, you’ll be ok with any SAAMI pressure-spec cartridge out there.

Stay safe.

 

[Scout21]

Appreciate the responses so far guys, but I think I should clarify what I was asking. I'm curious how strong the American action is in comparison to other actions. I'm making no statement on whether it's better or worse than other actions, nor am I concerned about it not being strong enough for my needs.

 

[dcloco]

If milled from bar stock, very strong (depending on flavor of bar stock, of course).

But, it seems that Ruger has been investment casing for some time.

High Quality, Low Price: Ruger American Rifle Review - Shooting Times

Ruger’s Investment Casting Technology? | The High Road

 

[Varminterror]

Not for nothin’, but making a few dimensional observations.

Ruger Americans share the same OD as R700’s, but have less meat removed in the inside. Meaning the thinnest part of an American action is thicker than the thinnest part of an R700. The American bolt body is also larger diameter than the 700 bolt, and the pass through, solid bolt handle is attached more securely than the welded wrap around handle of the R700 as well. Again, sharing the same action outside diameter, the R700 uses a larger diameter barrel tenon than the American, again, removing more steel in the R700 than the American. The American has a notably smaller ejection port than the R700, again, removing less steel from the body of the action.

Just food for thought in this comparison…

 

[stringnut]

How strong is the action? You’re really asking a question that cannot be answered without an extreme amount of knowledge of engineering and metallurgy. You’re also going to need to know the exact alloy used to get started. No one is going to tell you that.

Two options. Buy one of each of the rifles you want to compare and measure the surface area of the locking lugs, the diameter of the receiver , thickness of the the lugs , and thickness of the receiver over the thinnest area. The one that has the most material in any of these areas is likely the strongest. But, maybe not, as you have no idea what the alloy is. No manufacturer is going to tell exactly what they use.

Next is to buy one of each and load ammo progressively hotter until something gives up. To get any type of statistically valid numbers you will probably need at least 10 of each rifle.

I know this sounds a bit snarky, and it is, but I really just mean it in fun. There are so many variables that we just can’t make certain comparisons with the info we have.

If it helps m buddies oldest son has one in 308 and it shoots very well. Have loaded 150 gr bullets up to max with a couple of different powders and all seems good.

 

[Scout21]

How strong is the action? You’re really asking a question that cannot be answered without an extreme amount of knowledge of engineering and metallurgy. You’re also going to need to know the exact alloy used to get started. No one is going to tell you that.

Yeah, I figured it would be difficult to say with any certainty. However I do know that there are some guys out there that go through all of the work to determine how strong some guns are, even blowing them up, Elmer Keith style. I was hoping I could piggyback off of somebody else's work as I'm not too keen about loading hotter and hotter until something "gives up", you know?

 

[Varminterror]

you have no idea what the alloy is. No manufacturer is going to tell exactly what they use.

On the contrary, MOST firearm manufacturers do reveal the alloy they use for their receivers. Most modern carbon steel/blued rifles are made from 4140 - including both the R700 and the American (published by Ruger directly on their product page).

 

[stringnut]

On the contrary, MOST firearm manufacturers do reveal the alloy they use for their receivers. Most modern carbon steel/blued rifles are made from 4140 - including both the R700 and the American (published by Ruger directly on their product page).

You are right. A quick search of 4140 steel shows a huge amount of information. Machining and heat treating can have a large effect on the final product. Way over my head. May be great fun for an engineer.

 

[Varminterror]

May be great fun for an engineer.

I am, and it is.

I do know that there are some guys out there that go through all of the work to determine how strong some guns are, even blowing them up

Life is actually a lot easier these days than it used to be, without going to the extremes of empirical destructive testing. It takes a little know-how and a little software cost, and a little time to measure and model products, but it’s much, much easier to do FEA and structural integrity simulations today than it was only a handful of years ago.

A dude can model an action in something like Solidworks and run FEA’s, and look for failure modes to see which design will fail first as bolt thrust and chamber pressure increase, and even go a step further to correspond those with Quickload pressure predictions for a given cartridge design and ballistic performance metrics.

In general, most folks claim a rule of thumb of 100% design factor for most firearms. Even living on a 50% design factor, you can punch out pretty quickly a projection for comparative strength. As an example - we look at action designs which are chambered for magnum cartridges, which offer discrete parameters for maximum chamber pressure, minimum bolt face thickness, and minimum barrel tenon thickness… pairing maximum forces with minimum material thicknesses, and kinda work backwards from there.

 

[rust collector]

Don't they use copper crushers, piezo or other types of strain gauges to develop maximum pressures when designs are in development? We don't have proof houses as the europeans do or did, but there must be some way to make company lawyers confident in the safety margins.

 

[someguy2800]

Appreciate the responses so far guys, but I think I should clarify what I was asking. I'm curious how strong the American action is in comparison to other actions. I'm making no statement on whether it's better or worse than other actions, nor am I concerned about it not being strong enough for my needs.

You will run out of brass strength long before you run out of action strength.

 

[OrangePwrx9]

Does the Ruger American have a controlled-feed action??

 

[tominboise]

No, it is push feed.