Micro-7 or Ruger American Rifle Ranch?

[johnny-bravo]

I started off like most, had my mind set on one rifle when someone comes allong and talks bad reports about said gun then offers another rifle. Now im looking up both and trying to decide what i want to get, I had my mind set on the Micro-7 and still leaning towards it as it has a couple features that the Ruger does not. I like how the barrel is nitride coated in and out, it has the bigger torx screws on the rail and the adjustable cheekpiece. The torx screws are not really that big of a deal but my dislike from what i have read is the barrel is not free floated as to where the Ruger is. I dont mind paying the extra for the Micro and i can later have the barrel free floated but i did notice in some of the videos some people looked to have a hard time with the micros bolt, looked difficult for them (herky jerky) as to were the Ruger looked smooth.
Im sure there are many threads on this but i wanted to get real hands on opinions
Thanks in advance
J-B

[N2130N]

I've had both.

The Micro seven all day!

I sold my Ruger American as fast as I could get a buyer. Just too cheap & plastic for me. You can easily see the Ruger is an economy rifle when compared to the Micro.

My Micro has served me faithfully over three years & several thousands of rounds. It does not get babied, it is my go-to everyday rifle. Once out camping an ice storm blew in during the night & my Micro was literally frozen solid come morning. It took a minute to melt the action with my lighter, checked to make sure the barrel was clear (thank goodness it was) & shot a squirrel with it half an hour later for dinner.

[rimshaker]

Gotta chime in for RARR here. I use it to hit 6" steel plates and 4" orange clays at 320 yds all day long. Suppressed with a Saker.
Even with a heavy can on the end, the barrel is still easily free floating.
Accuracy is just phenomenal and consistent. Was easily getting sub-MOA groups when zeroing at 100yds.

The Micro is definitely higher quality and has more features, but it's also double the price tag. Perhaps save the extra $$ towards a high end scope.

Either way you can't go wrong. Both can be tack drivers given the right scope and accessories.
Just don't forget to clean/degrease the scope mount, and use blue Loctite on the screws.

[johnny-bravo]

I've had both.

The Micro seven all day!

I sold my Ruger American as fast as I could get a buyer. Just too cheap & plastic for me. You can easily see the Ruger is an economy rifle when compared to the Micro.

My Micro has served me faithfully over three years & several thousands of rounds. It does not get babied, it is my go-to everyday rifle. Once out camping an ice storm blew in during the night & my Micro was literally frozen solid come morning. It took a minute to melt the action with my lighter, checked to make sure the barrel was clear (thank goodness it was) & shot a squirrel with it half an hour later for dinner.

The Micro-7 was my original choice but I have heard of them having some issues, one was with extracting but i guess there is a lemon here or there, just hate to put that much money into a regret lol

[Netpackrat]

If I wanted a 300 bolt gun, I would look for a used Savage in .223 to rebarrel.

[thecameraman79]

Neither. I went with the Rem 700 in 300BLK and haven't looked back. I picked it up used off of gunbroker for a decent price. I've only had it to my indoor range once so far to "test fire" it to make sure their weren't any issues since I had a 7 day money back guarantee and shot my 220 SMK sub reloads from my AR I was able to shoot a 3 shot .085" group at 25 yards. The first 2 shots were in the exact same hole. The very next group I shot with the same load was a 3 shot .183" group at 25 yards. I know they aren't 100 yard groups or anything but it was all that I was able to get to and I plan on getting it out for some more accuracy testing after I officially get it.

It's a bit heavier then the two you mentioned. If you don't plan on taking it on long walks hunting then I highly recommend it.

[cdynaco]

i did notice in some of the videos some people looked to have a hard time with the micros bolt, looked difficult for them (herky jerky) as to were the Ruger looked smooth.

I wasn't impressed with the feel of the Ruger bolt on a 30-06 RAR at the store. I assume the action would feel the same on the Ranch.

[KTMRacer]

At first glance the Ruger won't impress. Cheapo stock, odd ball scope rail and krappy mag.
Look a little further, like the cost and accuracy, I can overlook some of its flaws. Whole lot easier for me to be rough with it knowing my marginal investment.
$397 OTD (compact)
$29 Nikon clam shell style rings.
$129 Nikon Omega BDC ML scope.

[Whole Bunches]

I have both. Some Micro7's had feeding problems (I did with mine) due to Remington stopping putting in a spacer in the magazine to hold the follower spring in place like they used to put in the Model 7. Remington sent me the spacer when I called them.

I can hold my RARR's (Ruger American Ranch Rifle) easier than the Micro7 for shooting off a bench...I don't know why, but suspect it's because the Micro7 fore end is more rounded/slimmer.

My Micro7 bbl is not free floated. RARR's are free floated but sometimes come with the side of the stock touching the bbl...fix with some sanding of the stock.

My Micro7 is VERY picky about stuff screwed onto the muzzle, often giving crappy groups with suppressor mounts and suppressors. Through experimenting, I found it shot fine with a screw-on Crux Ark30 suppressor. My RARR's don't care what's screwed on the muzzle and even shoot better with a suppressor mounted.

Liked my RARR so much that I bought a 2nd. One with thermal for night hunting; one with 2-7x scope for day hunting. Have taken game with both of them. Oh, 3 deer with my Micro7 with one shot for each.

I like the detachable magazine in the RARR...makes it easier to load and unload when night hunting hogs and coyotes without spilling ammo. For daytime hunting, I see no advantage. I have a total of 4 mags for my 2 RARR's; no failures with any of the mags.

Both my Micro7 and RARR's had failures to fire with hard cup Wolf/Tula KVB223M and KVB223EM primers that fire fine in my AR's. No failures to fire with CCI 400 and Wolf/Tula standard primers KVB223. I've not tried any factory ammo or other primers.

2 friends that bought RARR's in 300BLK (higher serial numbers than my highest numbered one by about 10,000, in the 60,000 range) had failures to fire factory and hand loads. One was told by Ruger to only send in the bolt; turn around was about 1 week, and his RARR fires fine now. The other was told to return the entire rifle; it's on it's way back now (2 week turn around), but hasn't been received yet.

The scope rail on the RARR does not meet picatinny specs due to uneven notch spacing. None of my ACOG picatinny mounts would fit nor would my 2 thermal sights. EGW makes a replacement true picatinny spec rail for the RARR that's also a little longer for more flexibility, which I bought for use with thermal sights that attach to a picatinny rail. Regular moveable scope rings should fit fine on the factory rail. Ruger advised me they were looking at changing the rail, as they've had complaints, but I've heard nothing further from the RARR engineer who said he'd send me the redesigned rail when the change has been approved and in production.

RARR advertises an adjustable trigger. Both mine were in the upper 4 pound range as received. Turning the pull weight adjustment screw all the way down still gave in the 4 pound range. Taking about 1 1/2 coils off the trigger spring brought the weight into the 3 pound range and eliminated all creep...I'm happy with that result.

Micro7 bbl is 4140 with nitride treatment. RARR are cold hammer forged 4140 with no nitride treatment. In Internet wisdom, the Micro7 bbl should last longer due to nitride treatment. I measure bore (throat) wear in all my Blackouts and keep records on same. Both my RARR bbls are wearing Slower so far than the Micro7 bbl with the same type of shooting cadence (no more than 5 rounds and let cool), go figure???

Me, I'd choose the RARR. If I think of anything else, I'll post. Or ask if you have any questions.

[johnny-bravo]

$397 OTD (compact)

Where?
The only place I have found one was on auction at gunbroker, i work at a gun shop and we are not able to even order one because its currently unavailable