Ruger American Ranch Mini 30 Mags & Boyds Stock

[dfletcher]

I bought a Ruger American Ranch rifle that uses Mini 30 mags and ordered a Boyds American Ranch laminated wood stock as replacement. Things aren't going as planned ..... :x

The basics are drop in the "V" bedding blocks, attach the trigger guard. No problem there. Drop in the action. OK. The problem is the magazine "bottom metal" - when to put in & from which direction.

The magazine bottom is plastic and two piece. It has an inner sleeve similar to the metal box of a Rem 700 and an adapter "plate" with mag release. Near as I can tell it is "secured" by a small plastic tab on the rear edge of the inner part snapping in above a ledge on the rear V block. That's it, nothing else. The mag bottom is held to the box by three screws.

Has anyone assembled the American Ranch on to a Boyds and can tell me what works? I don't know, and there's no instructions, saying whether to install box first, then screw on adapter then action. Or whether to install the action then snap the whole mag unit in place from below. As is to be expected, the tab holding the rear in place is fragile and once the edge is mangled you're screwed.

 

[xtratoy]

I would guess the best thing to do would be to call Boyds. I have only used there stocks on Remington 700's. Good luck.

 

[mac66]

would love to see a photo of that stock when you get it all together.

 

[dfletcher]

Well, got it assembled - will try for photos later. The stock may not be intended for the Mini 30 mag version. This is the Boyds "Ruger American Ranch" with detach magazine and I bought the brown laminate version:

https://www.boydsgunstocks.com/product-configurator/

It was a PITA to get to assembleand I can't imagine Boyds deliberately setting it up this way. In case anyone else is inclined, this is how I did it -

Dropping in the "V" bedding blocks was easy as was attaching the trigger guard. The problem is the magazine inner box and "bottom metal" housing must be removed from the Ruger factory stock. The top and bottom are held together by 3 screws and must be separated to remove them from the factory stock.

To assemble on the Boyds you must drop in the rear V block and mag liner into the stock at the same time with the plastic clip resting atop the V block base. Turn the stock over & slide in the small plastic tab into the cutout that holds the front action screw. Use the one with the small protruding ledge on the squared edge facing the screw hole. Then drop in the front screw. You have to do this before attaching the lower half of the mag well housing (which holds the mag release lever) to the upper housing because the screw head is too large to clear the cutout of the lower magwell housing. Turn over the rifle and secure the lower and upper magwell housings together with those three small screws.

Put the front V block into the receiver. The front action screw is already in the stock. Turn the rifle upside down, drop the stock onto the receiver. If you don't set the front V block into the receiver and instead put it into the stock it's almost impossible to seat the receiver into the stock because the V block to receiver cuts tolerance is extremely tight and won't line up. A little wiggling is required even when first setting the block into the receiver and then the entire assembly into the stock. Wiggle & press to get everything to line up. Tighten the receiver screws, but not too much.

Having done all that, everything is tight and solid and works fine. Mags were a bit tight at first but a little sanding of the plastic magwell and they drop free easy.

I don't know if the stock I bought was meant specifically for the American Ranch "Mini" detach mags". Maybe not, now that I think about it. What I just described isn't in the Boyds instructions and taking apart the mag housing, reassembling as I did doesn't seem like a way to get best results. Still, everything fits and functions fine.

 

[SHOOTER]

Pics!?

 

[rangerbob]

I suspect the Boyds stock was set up for a Ranch rifle with a rotary magazine, not the rifle with the detachable box Mini 30 Magazine, which is a very recent release. Bob!! :?