If I Had My Druthers…Which Ruger American Ranch Rifle Would I Druther Have?

The other day a friend of mine (who happens to be a farmer) and I were talking guns, and he told me that he really wants to get a Ruger American Ranch rifle to keep in his farm truck. Nowadays everybody has his or her own idea of the perfect “Truck Gun,” and this discussion really got the wheels turning in my head. Despite being a bolt action rifle, the Ruger American Ranch rifle would be a fantastic truck gun for a Mississippi farmer who will primarily be shooting wild hogs and coyotes, and probably deer during the Mississippi modern gun season, but what cartridge offered in this particular rifle would be optimal? I asked him what cartridge he was thinking about getting, and he wasn’t sure at that point. The next day I dove into the rabbit hole of cartridge options in the American Ranch line and the ballistics of the ones that interested me and that I thought would be best. The cartridges that are available in the Ruger American Ranch are 450 Bushmaster, 7.62×39, 5.56 NATO, 300 BLK, 350 Legend (offered in Standard and Compact sizes), and 6.5 Grendel. There was also a special edition in 204 Ruger, but for the purposes of this hypothetical truck gun and needing something more optimal for deer and hogs, the 204 Ruger is out.

Thinning the Herd…

I gave several cartridge options the ax right off the bat. The 450 Bushmaster is a cool cartridge from what little I know about it, but for such a small rifle I don’t really want shoulder stomping recoil. The 7.62×39 and 300 BLK are some of the most fun cartridges I have ever shot at the range, but I personally do not like either for hunting. Will they kill any of the animals that I listed earlier? Yes. Are there better options offered in the American Ranch line? I think so. I know I probably just made a bunch of folks mad for not considering their favorite cartridge, but hang in there.

I know I knocked them both, but the 7.62×39 and 300 blackout were the only chamberings they had at Academy when I stopped in to browse. Not a good picture, but I did like the feel of this little rifle.

Rifle Specs…

After culling the herd, I was left with the 5.56 NATO, 350 Legend, and 6.5 Grendel. These three are all very different, and for different reasons I feel that each would make a great cartridge for a Mississippi farmer’s truck gun. Now before we dive into each cartridge, let’s look at the specs of the rifles in these chamberings. The 5.56 NATO comes with a 16.12 inch barrel and has a 10 round magazine, the 350 Legend comes with a 16.38 inch barrel and a 5 round magazine, and the 6.5 Grendel comes with a 16.10 inch barrel and a 10 round magazine. All three rifles come in at 6.1 lbs, and all three have threaded barrels. There are plenty of other cool specs on the rifle, but for the purpose of this blog post these are the most important

5.56 NATO

The 5.56 NATO was appealing to me for a few reasons. Let’s make one assumption right off of the bat: .223 Rem factory ammo would be what I would shoot out of this rifle. For those who do not know, you can shoot .223 Rem ammunition out of a 5.56 NATO chambered rifle, but you cannot shoot 5.56 NATO out of a .223 Rem chambered rifle. According to backfire.tv, the .223 Rem cartridge is the second most popular rifle cartridge (behind the 22 LR), so ammo availability would be a major reason to choose this chambering. The .223 Rem is also known for being a flat shooting cartridge to sane hunting distances as well, which could come in handy for shooting at a coyote or hog running across a bean field. At 250 yds, a 55 grain Barnes TSX FB bullet will drop 8.12 inches, will be traveling at 1998 fps, and will have 487 ft-lbs of energy.

Three good monometal options I would not hesitate to use if I were to have this rifle in 5.56 NATO.

350 Legend

The 350 Legend hasn’t been around very long, but it has become pretty popular in the straight wall cartridge states in the Midwest. Winchester claims on their website that the “350 Legend was designed for deer hunting out to 250 yards.” I plugged in some data on the 150 grain Winchester Deer Season XP load to a ballistic calculator app, and at 250 yards out of a 16” barrel the bullet will drop 17.66 inches, be traveling at 1429 fps, and have an energy of 680 ft-lbs. I know during the pandemic you could buy just about as much 350 legend ammo as you wanted, and I still see it on the shelves now. Ammo availability shouldn’t be a problem with this cartridge.

Plenty of 350 Legend ammo to choose from at the moment

6.5 Grendel

The 6.5 Grendel is another cool option for the Ranch rifle. At 250 yards, a 123 grain Hornady SST bullet will drop 11.34 inches, be traveling at 1985 fps, and have 1076 ft-lbs of energy. The picture below is the only 6.5 Grendel ammo I have seen on the shelves in awhile, but at the time of this writing Midway USA has 8 different factory loads in stock.

Things to Consider…

Let me throw a few caveat’s in here. First of all, I have ZERO experience killing any animals with all of the cartridges mentioned in this post except for one doe I took with a .223 Rem. My choices are based almost exclusively off of hypotheticals, however I have spoken with people that have successfully harvested animals with some of these cartridges and, unfortunately, lost animals with others. Second, there are many factory ammo options to choose from with each of these cartridges, but I chose the ones that I would be most likely to use. Third, I took each muzzle velocity of the mentioned factory loads off of the manufacturers’ websites and subtracted 200 fps. Hornady and Barns used a 24 inch test barrel, so I subtracted 25 fps per inch decreased from 24 inches to 16 inches. It’s not an exact science, but I feel it will give us a conservative estimate of muzzle velocity. Winchester gives the muzzle velocity for the 150 grain Extreme Point bullet out of a 16 inch barrel on their 350 Legend FAQ page. Fourth, I plugged the ballistics data into Ballistic: Advanced Edition app. Fifth, I based the drops off of a 100 yd zero because it’s easy and most people I know do not zero their deer rifles for maximum point blank range. Also, if you wanted to zero the 123 grain 6.5 Grendel load at 200 yards, you would be almost 3 inches high at 125 yards. If you zeroed the 150 grain 350 legend load at 200 yards, you would be over 3.5 inches high at 150 yards. I personally would rather worry about holdover vs holdunder (I think I just made that word up) if I am trying to hit a pig or coyote at 125 or 150 yards. Lastly, this “truck gun” would obviously not be shot from a truck, as that is illegal in Mississippi (as I’m sure it is in most states).

I Can Only Pick One…

After looking at the rifle specs, ballistics, and other factors with each of these cartridges, I narrowed it down to two. I had to eliminate the 350 legend. If I knew everything I was going to shoot was within 150 yards, I feel like the 350 Legend would be a no-brainer. I don’t put all my chips into the energy basket, but the energy of the above mentioned 350 Legend load drops below 1,000 fps somewhere between 125 and 150 yards, and the velocity drops below 1800 fps after 125 yards. What the 350 legend has going for it beyond that point is that it pokes a big hole in an animal, but with lower sectional density and anemic velocities, I really don’t know that I want to bank on the cartridge. The final two were the 5.56 NATO and the 6.5 Grendel. I initially leaned pretty hard to the 5.56 NATO mainly due to ammo availability and the flat shooting capability of the cartridge. I had a change of heart, however, after I started looking at the ballistics of the 6.5 Grendel compared to the 5.56 NATO/.223 Rem. At 250 yards (which is probably getting close to the max effective range of this rifle for deer or hogs in any of its chamberings), the above mentioned 6.5 Grendel load has almost the same velocity and twice the energy as the above mentioned .223 Rem load. That 123 grain SST bullet has a much higher sectional density, so you will more than likely have better penetration than most .223 Rem bullets at that distance. And the winner is…..6.5 Grendel. I really feel that for the purpose of this rifle and the possibility of shooting at a big old bean and corn fed buck at 250-300 yards, the 6.5 Grendel is the best option of the chamberings offered. I’m not sure what my buddy will go with, but honestly this would be an awesome rifle to have in any of its chamberings as long as the shooter understands the chosen cartridge’s limitations and strengths.

Bonus Hypothetical…

If I could get Ruger to chamber this rifle in a different cartridge of similar size (i.e. will fit in AR-15 platform), what would it be? It would have to be the 6mm ARC. Using Hornady’s ballistic calculator on their website and adjusting the velocity of the 103 grain ELD-X (Precision Hunter) to 2600 fps, at 250 yards this bullet is still cooking at 2187 fps and has 1094 ft-lbs of energy. At 350 yards the velocity is 2034 fps and is holding on to 946 ft-lbs of energy. That is VERY impressive for such a small cartridge. Maybe Ruger will offer this cartridge for the Ranch rifle in the future, but if you want this rifle right now there is no shortage of good options to choose from.