Yep, you read the title right, in two e-commerce orders you can have a much more functional Ruger American rifle. It would be down to one if Brownells carried Anarchy Outdoors products!
Earlier this year I wrote up the Ruger American for Athlon Outdoors and at that time Magpul was still delayed with their Hunter stock. I made do with a MDT chassis for the article. For that article I mounted a Vortex Diamondback Tactical FFP scope, VG6 compensator, and a Timney trigger. Everything from that article except the Vortex I got from Brownells.
After I submitted that article the Magpul stock shipped, just my luck. I decided to make another round of upgrades to the rifle to really set it off. I started with looking at what Brownells had available and decided to order the Magpul Hunter stock in gray along with the cheek piece riser kit to allow me to get that perfect fit. I added a Magpul QD sling socket to the front MLOK sections and added a MLOK Magpul bipod up front.
Click the links below to get parts at Brownells:
The Hunter stock really does stiffen the gun and gives you multiple fitment options. The stiffness comes from the integrated aluminum mini chassis embedded into the stock. With the MDT chassis I could flex the unit while loading the bipod. With the Hunter stock everything stays stiff. The Hunter stock has plenty of clearance around the barrel to allow the barrel to free float for accuracy.
I found the interchangeable cheek pieces fantastic to get the rifle to fit me perfectly without fiddling with adjustable pieces. I also liked the spacer system for length of pull. I found the right combination of parts and now it’s a set and forget deal.
One downside of the high cheek piece is usually not allowing the bolt out of the action. You have two choices in this situation, you can undo the cheek piece and slide the bolt past it or you can simply rotate the bolt around as you move it rearward. With the upgrades I did the bolt knob barely squeeks by the scope but it does clear, and once cleared you can simply remove the bolt as normal.
I swapped the Vortex to one of their Viper PST Gen2’s while I was making all these changes. While I was installing the scope onto the 20MOA rail I added Vortex’s rubber flip caps so I didn’t have to worry about losing the bikini cover that it comes with. I also added their throw lever, which allows for fast magnification changes on the fly.
After getting all I needed from Brownells I continued my Google-Fu searching for American upgrades. During one such session I stumbled onto Anarchy Outdoors. I hadn’t heard of them before this, but their website was impressive. They offered many unique products I hadn’t seen before. I quickly contacted them to get some American parts headed my way.
What arrived was impressive, I was able to replace the one piece bolt handle with integrated knob into a two piece design that let me screw on a larger bolt knob. The handle is available in silver or black, I chose to keep it simple with black.
To make the swap easy I also received their firing pin removal tool. It was very helpful to get the firing pin taken apart and put back together.
I chose their simple black sphere model, but if you want more flair they offer different models in different finishes.
They also produce a really neat metal bolt shroud to replace the flimsy plastic one that comes with the rifle. It comes in Titanium or Aluminum, and you can even get custom laser engraving if you choose to. I went simple again with black anodized aluminum.
Installation was easy as the part already comes off during the bolt handle upgrade process. Anarchy Outdoors offers a ton of products for the American so be sure to poke around on their site when you click the links below.
See the bolt handle upgrade here.
There you have it, two online orders and a few days later you’ll be able to turn your bland Ruger American into a practical, functional, capable long range rifle.
Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links and if you go through them to make a purchase I will earn a commission. You will not pay any more for going through my links. I link these companies and their products because of their quality and not because of the commission I receive from your purchases. The decision is yours, and whether or not you decide to buy something is completely up to you.
Do you have any groups from before and after the upgrades?
What size vortex scope mounts did you use on the viper pst gen 2 ?