When I turned 12, my first hunting rifle was my grandfather’s Winchester 94 in .32 Special. I used that rifle for a couple of years until my dad got me a Ruger Model 77 in .30-06.
I still have that rifle today, 40 years later. The old 77 is still a great rifle and will handle just about anything I could ask it to do, especially in Pennsylvania. Except one thing: accept a suppressor. When I got a Griffin Sportsman Ultralight .36 suppressor I wanted a platform for it that I could use to hunt with in PA. I didn’t want to rebarrel or get my old rifle threaded. I like it how it is.
I started looking at my options and with 40 years of Ruger bolt actions under my belt it didn’t take me long to settle on another Ruger, this time an American Generation II Ranch rifle.
The Ruger American Generation II Ranch Rifle
I’ve had a Ruger American Rimfire for a number of years now and use it as a suppressor platform for my Surefire .22 suppressor. When I looked at the centerfire American rifles, I quickly dialed in to the 16-inch barrel Ranch Rifle. Since I wanted to use the new rifle with a suppressor, the shorter barrel would keep the overall rifle length down when the suppressor was attached.
Western Pennsylvania is largely covered in woods and rolling hills, so I wouldn’t generally have an opportunity for long shots, so I didn’t really need a rifle or caliber reaching past 500 yards. Realistically, any shots I’d make would be 200 yards and under, with the most likely ones being under 100 yards. A 16-inch barrel would be fine.
The Ruger American Generation II Ranch Rifle comes with a textured splatter finished synthetic stock equipped with a soft rubber recoil pad. The stock has a removable spacer that allows you to adjust the length of pull from 12 inches to 13.75 inches. It comes with a low comb installed for use with magnified optics but that can be removed for use with lower sights. Sling swivel studs are included, and there’s an optional weight kit for the stock available if you get one of the heavier recoiling calibers.
The 16-inch barrel is cold hammer forged. It’s medium contour and has spiral fluting for weight reduction. It’s fitted with a removable radial port muzzle brake. The barrel mounts to a “Power Bedding” integral bedding block that free-floats it for enhanced accuracy. The barrel, as well as the receiver and bolt, have a Cerakote finish.
The Gen II Ranch has a three-position tang-mounted safety and a Ruger Marksman Adjustable trigger. The bolt handle is oversized for easy manipulation and has a 70-degree throw to clear most scopes. You can even replace the bolt head if you want something different.
The Gen II Ranch rifle comes without iron sights but has a factory-installed one-piece Picatinny rail. It ships with one magazine. The MSRP is $729.00.
But What caliber to Get?
While the Gen II Ranch rifle looked like it would fit my needs well, I still had to decide on caliber. Ruger chambers the Gen II Ranch is a pretty wide array of calibers from 5.56mm to .450 Bushmaster. Considering my intentions for suppressor use, and the likely use scenario, I settled on the .350 Legend. I already had a .350 Legend AR rifle, and that’s why I bought the .36 caliber Griffin suppressor to begin with.
Pennsylvania isn’t one of those states that requires a straight-wall cartridge for hunting, but I’d used the .350 at SHOT Industry Day at the Range in the past and liked it. I ended up building the AR chambered for it, but you can’t deer hunt with a semiautomatic rifle in Pennsylvania. I do actually have a Kali Key straight-pull conversion for my rifle, and that is an option, but I’m used to a traditional bolt action.
The .350 Legend reminds me of a big .30 Carbine round, another rifle round I enjoy. It uses a .357 inch diameter bullet with weights ranging between 145 and 255 grains. Effective range is generally said to be 200 to 250 yards, which was fine for my purposes. Both supersonic and subsonic loads are available. It’s been around for 5 years now and is widely loaded, and ammo prices are pretty competitive. Better than .30-06 generally in fact. The .350 looked like a good fit for my intended uses, particularly with the availability of subsonic rounds for suppressor use.
Hands On
The Gen II Ranch rifle was both familiar to me from my previous Ruger experiences, and a little different at the same time. It had a solid feel and shouldered nicely. The 16 inch barrel made it a little quicker to the shoulder and faster pointing than my 22 inch barrel .30-06. Weight was 6.2 pounds without optic, which is really handy.
The splatter finish stock has a positive texture for a solid grip which should work well in wet or cold conditions. It’s not overly aggressive though, and comfortable to use. It’s got a great recoil pad too. The .350 is no thumper but the recoil pad is still a nice touch. My .30-06 has a hard plastic buttplate. The other nice thing about the soft rubber recoil pad also snugged into the shoulder nicely and didn’t slide around. The rifle stayed put when you got behind it, even under recoil.
Another nice touch is the ability to adjust the stock length. This is great for customizing the fit of the rifle to the shooter. It’s also nice to be able to swap out depending if you’re shooting in warmer weather, or going out in the winter and will be wearing heavy clothing.
My old 77, and most other bolt guns I’ve used over the years, had a fixed length of pull. You dealt with it, found another stock, or had a gunsmith cut them down if they were too long. I don’t think I ever had one that was too short.
I like the return of the tang safety to the American series. My old 77 was a two-position tang safety, and that’s basically what I grew up shooting with. I wasn’t a fan of the bolt-mounted safety on the M77 MK IIs. I’m sure it worked fine, but it wasn’t what I was accustomed to.
The new tang safety on the American has three positions. Fully to the rear is Safe, where the bolt is locked in place and the safety is engaged. The middle position keeps the safety engaged but lets you work the bolt for loading and unloading. Fully forward is Fire mode, where you can work the bolt and shoot normally. I think the tang safety is pretty intuitive and doesn’t require you to break your firing grip to use it.
The Marksman Adjustable Trigger was another big upgrade from my old rifle. I was familiar with it from my American Rimfire, and it’s a great factory feature. It lets you set your trigger between 3 and 5 pound pulls, to your tastes. Not having to hand stone your trigger, take it to a gunsmith, or buy an aftermarket trigger saves you money, and lets you keep the factory integrity of your rifle.
The Gen II Ranch rifle feeds from a standard AR magazine. It has a push button magazine release mounted forward of the trigger guard, on the right side of the stock. When you look at it, you can see that it actually uses an AR mag release button. The .350 Legend comes with a 5 round magazine, although it will accept any .350 Legend AR mag.
Optics
The Ranch Rifle Gen II comes with a Picatinny rail installed, but no optics or iron sights. With the barrel length and caliber choice I made, I decided on a Low Powered Variable Optic (LPVO) for my testing. It would be good for brush hunting, and work out to the effective ranges of the caliber.
I had a Winchester Supreme 1-4x24mm optic on hand for testing and decided to use that. I realize I risked creating a rift in the time space continuum by mounting a Winchester optic on a Ruger rifle, but I decided to risk it. I grabbed a set of Weaver rings and quickly mounted the scope. I bore sighted it at home.
The LPVO was a good fit for the .350 Ranch Rifle. It didn’t add any unnecessary bulk or weight to the rifle. The rifle was quick to the shoulder and fast to get on target, especially on the lower power settings.
The glass on the Winchester Supreme Optic was clear and reticle crisp. It uses a nitrogen filled tube and Second Focal Place (SFP) reticle, so the reticle stays the same size when you switch magnification settings. The knurled dial was easy to use to switch between powers too. MSRP on the 1-4×24 that I was using is $264.99, which is quite reasonable.
Range Time
I made a few trips to the range with the American Ranch Rifle through late Fall and Winter. I really enjoyed the handling characteristics of the rifle. It had a smooth bolt, and the large bolt handle made it easy to manipulate either from the shoulder or when shooting from a rest at a bench. The safety is positioned so that you can engage or disengage it easily without breaking your firing grip.
I left the trigger at the factory set weight, which was right around 5 pounds. I could have set it lighter, but it was better than my old rifle and felt pretty good to me. There’s a bit of take up, and then a crisp release.
I sighted in with Browning 124gr weight supersonic loads. Thanks to my bore sighting I was on paper right away, and dialed in quickly. I shot a variety of bullet weights and loads primarily from Browning, Hornady and Winchester. The Winchester Super Suppressed loads were the heaviest at 255gr weight.
I was extremely impressed with how the Ranch Rifle shot in .350 Legend. First off, it’s an extremely pleasant round to shoot. Recoil is mild. Maybe on the lines of a .30-30 with the supersonic loads. Certainly way less than my .30-06. With the heavy subsonics it was down right pleasant to shoot. The muzzle brake and big soft recoil pad certainly helped. The muzzle brake didn’t seem to produce a horrible blast with the .350 Legend either. My dad used to have a .300 Weatherby Magnum with a muzzle brake. Being next to him when he shot was like getting hit with a concussion grenade every time he pulled the trigger. No worries of anything like that with the Ranch in .350.
Accuracy wise, I couldn’t ask for better out of the Ranch rifle. My 25 yard sight in targets were all ragged one hole groups. Point of impact varied a bit depending on bullet load. Moving out to 100 yards, my groups opened up a bit, but not much. With the scope cranked up to 4 power most of my groups were under 1.5 inches. And typically closer to 1 or 1.25 inches. I suspect I could have improved on that a bit with a higher magnification optic, but that’s a my eyes issue, not a gun issue.
Loading and unloading the rifle is easy with the AR mags. The rifle comes with a 5 round magazine and I had a few 10 round mags on hand from my .350 AR. I generally loaded 5 at a time for bench shooting regardless. 20 round mags are also available if you want them. The fact you can engage the safety and still work the bolt to eject a loaded round from the chamber is nice too. You couldn’t do that on my old rifle.
Quiet Time
I made my next trip to the range after I received my Griffin suppressor. When it came time to mount the Griffin I had to remove the muzzle brake. I brought a wrench with me since I planned on doing this at the range. Although I appreciated how the muzzle brake worked, I’d plan on just leaving a thread protector on so I could mount the suppressor as needed without having to use a wrench to go back and forth with the muzzle brake. I did a few shots without the brake for comparison and didn’t notice a huge difference in blast. Again a testament to the mild nature of the .350 round. Point of impact seemed minimally affected as well.
One thing to note on the American Ranch is that while it’s .35 caliber it uses 1/2x28mm threading, rather than 5/8x24mm, which is more common on .30 something caliber bores. I had both sized adapters for my Griffin though, so that wasn’t an issue.
With the Griffin installed, my barrel length increased from 16 inches to 22 inches. About the length of my Model 77. The Griffin only weighs 10.4 ounces ounces as well, so it didn’t add much overall weight or make the Ranch rifle too muzzle heavy.
The addition of the suppressor negated the minimal blast the .350 Legend had, and even with supersonic loads easily dropped things to a hearing safe level. I thought the Ranch Rifle was pleasant to shoot before, but it was literally a “wow” moment shooting suppressed. It was more significant when I switched to the 255gr subsonic loads. Suppressors never really get “movie quiet” but man, the .350 Legend with heavy subsonics and the Griffin suppressor were close. This was by far the quietest and most pleasant centerfire rifle round and suppressor combo I’ve ever shot.
What’s the American Ranch Rifle Good For?
I don’t like to gush over anything like a fanboy, but this particular combo worked extremely well for me. The Ranch Rifle is well built, accurate and handy to shoot. The Winchester Supreme LPVO proved to be a good fit for the package. The .350 Legend round was pleasant to shoot, and worked particularly well suppressed.
If you live in one of the states that requires a straight-wall cartridge for hunting, this setup would be ideal. It would work great for mule deer and at least smaller black bears like we have in Pennsylvania. Guys hunt those with .30-30’s and even .357 magnums, so the .350 should be fine. I think this setup would really shine on hog hunting, though, and that’s something I’d like to try with it at some point.
If you’re in need of a solid, well appointed compact bolt gun you need to take a close look at the Generation II Ranch Rifle. If the .350 isn’t the right for for you that’s okay, because Ruger offers a half a dozen other choices so you have plenty to choose from. The Ranch Rifle has an MSRP of $729.00, but street prices seem to sit just below $600.
When you consider the performance that you get out of the rifle, that really isn’t bad. You could spend less, but you may be missing out on features like the adjustable stock, muzzle brake, and adjustable trigger. That’s not even taking into account the cerakote finish, custom finish on the stock, and the great ergonomics and accuracy potential. I had some options when I looked for a new bolt action rifle, but I’m glad I decided on the Ruger American Generation II Ranch Rifle in .350 Legend.
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