Ruger American Rimfire™ Review
Part 5 - Internal Features
August 29, 2013

Ruger American Rimfire Review

In this part of the review, I show the internal features of the Ruger American Rimfire™ bolt-action rifle.  Although I may not comment on every photo, I have provided them for your own study.  Remember that clicking on any photo will bring up a high resolution photo showing the finer details.

 

The barreled action assembly is removed from the rifle as a single assembly.  This assembly is made up of three primary components; barrel, receiver and trigger assembly.

Figure 1
Ruger American Rimfire Review

The barrel appears to be tightly fit into the receiver and pinned in place.  The flat surfaces forward of the pin are where the V shape of the bedding block makes contact with the receiver.

Figure 2
Ruger American Rimfire Review

The trigger assembly is also pinned to the rear of the receiver.  The receiver appears to be made from a round stock and measures about 1.062" in diameter.

Figure 3
Ruger American Rimfire Review

Figure 4
Ruger American Rimfire Review

In the photo below, you can see how the safety button is hooked to a link that is attached to the safety shaft.  Switching the safety button will then rotate the safety shaft.

Figure 5
Ruger American Rimfire Review

At the front of the trigger housing is a set screw that you use to adjust the trigger pull weight.  Threading the screw clockwise (in) will increase the trigger pull weight and threading the screw counterclockwise (out) will decrease the pull weight.  Approximately six full turns represents full travel of the screw and should allow for an adjustment range from approximately 3 to 5 pounds.  On this rifle, I was able to adjust the pull weight down to a crisp 3.3 pounds.

Figure 6
Ruger American Rimfire Review

Figure 7
Ruger American Rimfire Review

There is a hole (window) on both sides of the trigger housing that allows you to see and lubricate the sear and trigger contact surface.

Figure 8
Ruger American Rimfire Review

The bolt appears to be made up of a combination of alloy steel and stainless steel parts.  There are no locking lugs on the front of the bolt, therefore the bolt is locked in place by the camming action of the bolt handle against the receiver as you close the bolt.  The round curvature portion of the bolt measured about 0.680" in diameter.

Figure 9
Ruger American Rimfire Review

Figure 10
Ruger American Rimfire Review

At the front of the bolt, you can see the extractor, firing pin and positioner spring.  The firing pin has a square surface above the actual pin.  This square surface contacts the receiver when dry firing to prevent damage to the chamber entrance.  The positioner spring holds a case in position as it is extracted from the chamber.  The extractor actually carries the forces during extraction and the positioner spring keeps case flat against the bolt face until the case is flipped off by the ejector.

Figure 11
Ruger American Rimfire Review

These next few photos give you a good look at the composite (polymer) stock.

Figure 12
Ruger American Rimfire Review

Figure 13
Ruger American Rimfire Review

Figure 14
Ruger American Rimfire Review

Figure 15
Ruger American Rimfire Review

The forward sling swivel stud is screwed directly into the composite material and this is common on many stocks.  The stock is hollowed out under the barrel area to reduce weight.

Figure 16
Ruger American Rimfire Review

These next two photos shows the stock with the bedding block and magazine latch housing installed and then removed.  I believe these items (block and housing) are made from die cast aluminum.  The V shape of the bedding block indexes the rotational position of the receiver and the lugs take all the recoil forces (which are not much on rimfire rifles).  The curved shape of the upper surface on the magazine latch housing mates with the curved portion on the lower rear of the receiver.  The magazine latch housing then acts similar to a pillar of metal which is held firm in place inside the stock.  Ruger refers to this method of bedding as their Power Bedding®.

Figure 17
Ruger American Rimfire Review

Like I said in Part 4, I was able to easily pull the magazine latch housing out of the stock.  It took me a little coaxing (a good thing) to pull the bedding block from the stock and I would not recommend you doing this on your rifle.  You want the bedding block to stock to be the tightest fit possible and each time you remove the block, you could potentially be reducing the tightness of the fit.  There are brass bushings located at both of the stock bolt holes.  There are also two curved slots (circled in red) on each side of the stock.  These slots are used to index the magazine latch housing in place.  The forward slots are for use with the .22LR caliber and I bet the rear are for use with the .22 WMRF.

Figure 18
Ruger American Rimfire Review

The rear of the stock had another potential attachment hole location.  This location is not currently used with the recoil pads provided with this rifle, and I wonder if Ruger has plans for it in the future.

Figure 19
Ruger American Rimfire Review

The photos below are of the low height recoil pad.  This pad is all polymer, except for the single nut used with the rear sling swivel stud to bolt the recoil pad in place.

Figure 20                                                    Figure 21                                                  Figure 22
Ruger American Rimfire Review   Ruger American Rimfire Review   Ruger American Rimfire Review

These next photos are of the bedding block.

Figure 23                                    Figure 24                                  Figure 25
Ruger American Rimfire Review   Ruger American Rimfire Review   Ruger American Rimfire Review

These last photos are of the magazine latch housing assembly.  This assembly contains the magazine latch, magazine plunger and ejector.  These components are held into place with a single pin.

 Figure 26  
Ruger American Rimfire Review

Figure 27                                             Figure 28                                          Figure 29
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 Figure 30  
Ruger American Rimfire Review

 

Thoughts

Other than the surface finishes on the die cast aluminum parts, the inside condition of the Ruger American Rimfire™ looked good.  Although this rifle does build from features from other rifles, there was still quite a bit of new design work that had to go into this new stock, receiver and bolt.

For more detailed photos and commentary, make sure you check out the other parts of this review and feel free to leave comments on my Reader's Comments page.  The following links are provided to help you see other parts of this review. 


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