Looking for thoughts on Ruger American Gen 2 6mm ARC

[CZ527 Guy]

I see these Ruger Gan II are just starting to be released in 6mm ARC. What are your thoughts on this offering hitting the market?

[grayfox]

Kinds mixed feelings for me. I've seen and heard lots of feedback that the gen 2's are real cheap, worse even than the originals.
The salesperson in the store yesterday said he's heard a lot of bad vibe on them.
I did, however, see one briefly at the range the other day, and it seemed to be ok (308), cycled smoothly, the guy shooting it liked it and planned to get a chassis though. It did seem to group ok as well.
I do wonder if the gen 2's will fit in the after-mkt stocks etc. Which is important to me if I were to get one. Some comments that the safety on the tang differs from gen 1, so maybe they won't fit.

So, personally not sure in general.
Interested in other folks' thoughts however.

[grayfox]

OK, I gotta update this post, b/c I stopped in to my local SProtsmanss and they had both the grendel and 6Arc. I was able to cycle the action several times, and it is much smoother than the gen 1's, maybe a little sicky, just a little, if you lift up on the handle wile drawing it back, but that is not my natural pull anyway. The botl was pretty smooth, and there wasn't the sipper sound when coming back thru the action at the rear.
I also looked inside at the barrel, and Ruger has scooped out the lower approach to the chamber (kind of a single-big wide feed cone), I had not seen that in the gen 1, so maybe the round will cycle into the chamber better than my gen 1 grendel. The mag still rocks a bit back and forth, but they have it lined up to that scoop-out enough so the round should feed up into the chamber. There still looks to be a bit of a "jump" from that scoop area to the actual chamber/barrel face, but Idk if that makes a difference in feed ability or not. I wasn't able to cycle a round of course, and didn't have any snap caps...

Bottom line, I'd give it at least a B+ now for a small cal rifle.
Anybody out there that has one, would be nice to hear your thoughts on them.

Guess as of now, I won't categorically rule them out, the gen 2's, like I was doing earlier.

Edit to add, the stock is stiffer than the gen 1's, it will flex just a bit, but you have to put some decent stress on it right at the tip of the fore end. It didn't seem to want to contact the barrel any for what I did to the stock in torquing on it.

[Newmexican]

I'm very interested in the Gen 2 Predator in 6mm ARC. A Gen 1 Predator I had in 6.5 Grendel was a half-inch gun without really trying.

[Newmexican]

Well, after reading Ruger's spec sheet on the Gen 2 Predator in 6mm ARC, they went with a 1:7.7 twist barrel. Why on earth? My only interest in the round is with 95-grain to 115-grain bullets.

[Newmexican]

Using Berger's twist rate calculator, the 1:7.7 will be fine for 105 grain VLD bullets, but marginal with the 115.

[ReddyToGo]

I own a Gen 1 in 6.5 Grendel, the Predator model and never did experience the reported issue with bolt zipper. I did have the mag feed issue with no single load capability but these were fixed in 5 minutes by removing 2 coils from the mag. I also modded the trigger spring and got it down to 2lbs which is still adjustable when I hunt with it. I run it at 3lbs when hunting. This gun shoots incredible. I am very happy with it, hence the reason I stayed with the Ruger when looking at other calibers.

I do have 2 Ruger Gen 2's and I am very happy with both of these. One is 6.5 Creedmoor which was my primary hunting rig this deer season. Very enjoyable gun to shoot, very accurate and relatively light for the caliber. It uses the AICS style mag and I have not experienced any issues with it at all. Very satisfied with it. Ruger did make a lot of improvements over the Ruger Gen 1.

I have just recently got a 6mm Ceedmoor Ruger Gen 2 however, I have not shot it yet. I know the OP questions were directed more at 6arc but outside of the barrel twist rate, most if not all my Ruger experiences would be the same. I don't think you would see any differences.

Regarding the stock or from a chassis standpoint, everything is interchangeable with the Gen 1. No issues with the tang safety or anything.

For me cost was a major factor in my decision and if this is also a factor for you, there's only a few that can compete with it. The Savage Axis II XP may beat it in cost (some models are currently discontinued) and the Howa 1500 are about the only ones relative to cost that you could compare it too.

For 2 or 3 hundred over the Ruger, you can get the Savage 110 Switchback (which is a long action BTW). The Savage 110 action, in my opinion, suffers from a hard bolt lift so I ruled it out early.

I do not believe you can go wrong with the Ruger, or which ever you choose.

Regarding barrel twist, I currently do plan to see how the 110 SMK shoots (1.3" in length) in my 6arc gas gun, but it does have a 1:7 twist. If interested I will post the results.

[cuttingedge]

I just bought the Gen 2 Predator yesterday. I'm in CO so I can't pick it up until Wednesday afternoon.

I will agree the mag fit seems a bit sloppy. Hopefully it won't cause any issues, but I'll be able to speak to this in a few days. The bolt on the 6 ARC version of the Ruger American Gen 2 is not as smooth as the more "standard" calibers due to machined cut aways on the underside of the bolt. It's not bad, but certainly noticeably less smooth than the models with the totally round bolt body. Also, the bolt won't close on an empty mag, I'm certain the cause is the AR 15 style mag. I wouldn't at this point call this a negative or positive at this point, just an observation.

My initial sight session will be with factory ELD-X and Hornady Black. I have some Hornady Match also, but my 20" AR shoots the ELD-X better than the Match. I'll chime back in once I get to the range.

[grayfox]

I personally have had several ruger gen 1's in grendel, AR style mags... and the issue I had with them was inability to properly chamber the round. But thinking back, I think it was mostly the ones with shorter OAL's, like a 90 TNT I was hand loading as well as the Federal factory TNT's. The longer 2.260-ish ones would feed better but you need to be firm on the the forward push. So perhaps the gen 2 (I have a couple but not in AR style mags) could feed those ok. Most of the ARC loads of interest should be 2.220+, the 105 Black is the stubbier of the 3 hornady factory's, 'course you could always roll some of your own. The duramag (blue follower) will allow longer OAL than some of the steel-ish ones like Elander or ,,, I forget the other styles. There's also the amend2, double to single stack, some folks are liking them.

[cuttingedge]

I took my Ruger American Gen 2 6 ARC to the range today. I had Hornady Precision Hunter 103gr ELD-X, Match, and Black. It did not like the ELD-X at all, which surprised me because my 20" AR shoots it very well. After some break in, it did shoot the Match and Black 3 shot groups under an inch, but not as under as I would have liked. I may be able to do a bit better using a bipod instead of my Caldwell bags. I will give it a go next time out. 

It came with a 10 round Duramag, and I had some ASC 10 round mags. It fed better with the Duramag than the ASC mags. It did feed with both, just smoother with the Duramag. The last round in the ASC required a sort of double pump to feed it. I'll be the oddball here in wishing it had a hinged floor plate or proprietary mag designed specifically for it. I'm not intending on doing 10 round mag dumps with the thing. 

I'm going to do some reloading for it in the near future and see what I can come up with.
       

[cuttingedge]

Update on the Gen 2 6 ARC. I need to ammend in my previous post, the ASC mags work better. There is a sharp lip on the supplied Duramag that was putting a pretty good sized scratch on the transition of the brass. Hopefully I will still be able to use them. 

The Hornady factory stuff sure does make for a very dirty barrel. I'm wondering if it was the 105gr Black, and the black stands for dirty barrel very quickly. The accuracy has picked up some with shooting. I'll post a couple of targets from my last session. It still does not group the 103gr ELDX well at all. The flyers are probably me. 

           

[grayfox]

On those mags, look at the front edge over which the cartridge travels during the strip and feed. I lowered mine by about 0.120" with a dremel b/c for the 6Arc geometry they tend to either scrape like yours, or get blocked from feeding, the edge of the case mouth hangs up on that front edge (there's some thread on this issue on here). You can then round that edge with a small file or some sandpaper. I think I'm using lowered front edges on all my 6Arc mags, no matter which rifle I'm shooting. There's a spot weld even farther down on the mag front to hold everything so shouldn't be an issue just getting that edge out of the way.