Ruger's New Gen II American Bolt Rifle: Review

The popular Ruger American Rifle has been updated to meet the needs of modern hunters, and it's feature-packed at a great price point.

August 09, 2024 By Joel J. Hutchcroft, Editor-in-Chief

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One of my shooting buddies, who shall remain nameless, really likes Ruger’s American Rifle. I don’t know for certain exactly how many he owns, but it’s a lot. And they’re chambered for a wide variety of cartridges, everything from .224 Valkyrie to .450 Bushmaster. He’s gone so far as to have some of them rebarreled to some rather obscure (even obsolete) cartridges. Now, he’s probably not your typical rifleman, but his appreciation for the bolt-action Ruger American Rifle is pretty common. From the day it was first announced about a dozen years ago, the American Rifle has been extremely popular with hunters and shooters. In all its various configurations, it’s always been a very good value. Big news from Ruger for 2024 is that the platform has been updated, and according to the company, these improvements are what customers have been asking for. Ruger is calling the new version Generation II, and the first configurations to receive the updates are the Standard and the Ranch models. Shooting Times received a Standard Gen II chambered for 6.5 Creedmoor to evaluate for this report.

New Features

ruger-american-rifle-gen-ii-02 — The 6.5 Creedmoor Gen II Standard American Rifle weighs 6.5 pounds and is 41.25 inches long with the length-of- pull spacer installed.

One the most noticeable changes to the Gen II rifle is the stock. Instead of the plain black synthetic of the previous Standard American Rifle, the Gen II Standard has an improved stock. Most importantly, the new stock is more rigid and ergonomic. It’s finished in gray with black splatters, and it features a removable low comb riser and a removable length-of-pull spacer. With the spacer in place, the length of pull is 13.75 inches. Without the spacer, the length of pull is 12 inches. Other length-of-pull spacers and different-height comb risers (medium and high) will be available for purchase through the shopruger.com website. The stock also features Ruger’s patented Power Bedding integral bedding block system that positively locates the receiver and free-floats the barrel; a wide, soft-rubber recoil pad that progressively collapses to reduce felt recoil; and steel sling-swivel studs.

Also new to the Gen II is an intuitive, tang-mounted, three-position safety that prevents inadvertent bolt opening while allowing the rifle to be unloaded with the safety engaged. The “Fire” position is all the way forward, and in this position, a red line at the rear of the safety button is visible. The middle position prevents the trigger from being squeezed but allows the bolt to be operated so that a loaded cartridge can be removed with the safety engaged. The third position (all the way to the rear) locks the bolt from being raised and prevents the trigger from being operated. White lines ahead of the safety button indicate each of the “Safe” positions. Moving the safety button from position to position is both audible and tactile. Speaking of the trigger, the rifle utilizes Ruger’s Marksman Adjustable Trigger, which has a safety blade integrated into the mechanism. The trigger pull is user-adjustable from 3.0 pounds to 5.0 pounds. Right out of the box, our sample’s trigger pull averaged 4 pounds, 8 ounces over five measurements with an RCBS trigger pull scale. The highest measurement was exactly 5 pounds, and the lowest measurement was 4 pounds, 4 ounces, and that indicates good consistency. The pull was smooth, and let-off was crisp.

ruger-american-rifle-gen-ii-03 — The Gen II Standard rifle’s detachable AI-style magazine holds three rounds. The magazine release is a lever type located at the rear of the magazine well.

I wanted to see how accuracy was affected with the trigger pull as it came from the factory, so I didn’t adjust it. You will see later that I achieved very good accuracy with the rifle, so as far as I’m concerned, the 4.5-pound pull did not have any adverse effect. For anyone who wants to know the procedure to adjust the trigger pull, I’ll direct them to the operator’s manual because it has very detailed instructions. I’ll just say here that the barreled action must be removed from the stock to adjust the trigger, and there are good instructions on how to do that in the manual as well. By the way, the manual also presents detailed information on how to remove the stock’s length-of-pull spacer and the comb riser.

Other Features

The Gen II American Rifle has a lot of other great features. The full-diameter stainless-steel bolt is CNC machined and has three locking lugs and a 70-degree throw. The threaded bolt handle comes with a round anodized knob installed, but the threads allow easy customization of the knob. The Standard rifle’s detachable box magazine is made of a synthetic material, and it holds three rounds. For our 6.5 Creedmoor-chambered Standard rifle, it’s an AI-style magazine. The magazine release is a lever type that is located under the receiver immediately behind the magazine well. It pushes forward to release the magazine. As our photographs show, the Gen II Standard has a Picatinny rail on top of the receiver (which makes scope installation fast and easy), and the rifle has a spiral-fluted barrel. The receiver and the barrel are finished in Gun Metal Gray Cerakote. The Standard rifle’s barrel is 20 inches long, cold-hammer-forged, and medium in contour. The 6.5 Creedmoor muzzle is threaded 5/8-24, and it comes with a removable radial muzzle brake installed. The twist rate for the 6.5 Creedmoor rifle is one turn in eight inches. Of course, the twist rate varies depending on the chambering, and so does the muzzle thread rate. Ruger says this allows the mounting of common muzzle devices for the specific caliber.

ruger-american-rifle-gen-ii-04 — Also new is the Gen II rifle’s safety. It is a three-position, forward-to-fire mechanism. The middle position prevents the trigger from being operated but allows the bolt to open for unloading a chambered round with the safety engaged.

Initial chambering offerings for the Gen II Standard American Rifle include 6.5 Creedmoor (as tested), .204 Ruger, .223 Remington, .243 Winchester, 7mm-08, .308 Winchester, and .450 Bushmaster. According to the company, coming later in 2024 will be .22 ARC, 6mm ARC, 6mm Creedmoor, 6.5 Grendel, 6.5 PRC, .270 Winchester, 7mm PRC, .30-06, .300 Winchester Magnum, .350 Legend, and .400 Legend. The other new introductory Gen II model, the Ranch rifle, comes with a 16.1-inch barrel and a three-, five-, or 10-round magazine, depending on the chambering. The stock is Flat Dark Earth with black splatters, and the barrel and receiver are finished in Cobalt Cerakote. Initial chamberings include 5.56 NATO, .300 Blackout, 7.62x39, and .450 Bushmaster, with .22 ARC, 6mm ARC, 6.5 Grendel, 6.5 Creedmoor, .350 Legend, and .400 Legend slated to be available later in 2024.

Range Report

ruger-american-rifle-gen-ii-05 — Joel used an Arken EPL-4 4-16X 44mm scope for testing the new Gen II American Rifle. It features a 30mm tube, resettable zero-stop turrets, and an illuminated reticle. It is backed by a lifetime warranty, and the MSRP is $449.99.

I reasoned that most shooters who choose the new Gen II American Rifle will most likely be using it for hunting, so I test-fired a selection of 6.5 Creedmoor factory ammo that’s intended for hunting big game. The bullet weights ranged from 120 grains to 143 grains. The loads were chronographed with a Competition Electronics ProChrono Digital chronograph placed 12 feet from the gun’s muzzle, and all velocity data shown are averages of five rounds. The accuracy results are averages of three, five-shot groups for each loading fired from a benchrest at a distance of 100 yards. As you can see from the accompanying chart, four of the five loads averaged 1.00 inch or less, with the overall average for all five loads coming in at 0.94 inch.

My best accuracy with the new Gen II rifle came with the Federal Fusion 140-grain ammo. It averaged 0.75 inch. That load produced an average velocity of 2,560 fps, with an extreme spread of 37 and a standard deviation of 15 fps. The next best accuracy was with the SIG SAUER Elite Hunter 130-grain Expansion Tip ammo. It averaged 0.88 inch. Its average velocity was 2,568 fps, with an extreme spread of 33 and a standard deviation of 13 fps. Third place in the accuracy race went to the Hornady Precision Hunter 143-grain ELD-X ammo. It averaged 0.95 inch. That load produced an average velocity of 2,551 fps, with an extreme spread of 37 and a standard deviation of 20 fps. With an average of 1.00 inch, the Browning 120-grain BXS ammo came in fourth place accuracy-wise. That load produced an average velocity of 2,577 fps, with an extreme spread of 45 and a standard deviation of 16 fps. And bringing up the rear as far as accuracy went, the Winchester Deer Season 125-grain Extreme Point ammo averaged 1.13 inches. That load produced an average velocity of 2,625 fps (which was the highest velocity of the bunch), with an extreme spread of 42 and a standard deviation of 18 fps. As you can see, the SIG SAUER ammunition produced the lowest velocity extreme spread and standard deviation, but all of the factory ammo produced more than acceptable extreme spreads and standard deviations.

ruger-american-rifle-gen-ii-06 — The American Rifle’s bolt has three locking lugs and a threaded bolt handle that allows customization of the bolt knob. The barrel length of the Gen II Standard rifle is 20 inches. It is cold-hammer forged, spiral-fluted, and threaded. It comes with a removable radial muzzle brake installed.

I’ll mention that I used a brand-new scope brand (to me) for this report. It’s Arken Optics, and the scope I installed on the new Gen II Ruger American Rifle is the EPL-4 4-16X 44mm FFP model. The company says EPL stands for extreme precision light, and the EPL family of scopes is the company’s lightweight hunter version of its Extreme Precision scope series. This scope has a 30mm tube, resettable zero-stop turrets, and an illuminated VHR reticle. (VHR stands for variable hunter reticle.) As the model designation indicates, the reticle is located in the first focal plane, the objective lens diameter is 44mm, and the magnification range goes from 4X to 16X. The illumination is powered by a CR2032 battery, and the red reticle has six brightness settings with “Off” positions between each one.. The scope is constructed of strong and rugged aluminum, and the Japanese ELD glass lenses offer low dispersion.

The scope is parallax adjustable from 10 yards to infinity, and it has an eye relief of 3.6 inches. The field of view is 30 feet on 4X and 7.5 feet on 16X at 100 yards. The scope is waterproof and shockproof, and it’s backed by a lifetime warranty. It is 13.2 inches long and weighs 23.8 ounces. It came with rubber lens covers, and I installed the company’s accessory power-ring throw lever (MSRP: $39.99), which made switching the power setting quick and easy. I also used Arken Halo scope rings (MSRP: $69.99). During my sighting-in session, I took a little extra time and made note of how precise the adjustment changes were. The company says they are in 0.1-Mil increments. That’s equal to 0.36-inch increments at 100 yards, and I found that at that distance, point of impact tracked precisely when I did the math correctly. The clicks are audible and tactile. The performance of this scope was excellent, and at an MSRP of $449.99, the price is excellent, too. After working with the new Gen II Ruger American Rifle, I think the friend I mentioned at the beginning of this report is going to like the new version even more than he does the first generation. I think he’s going to be buying Gen II rifles in any and every chambering he doesn’t already own, and I wager a lot of you will be, too.