I grew up in Eastern WA and have lived most of my adult life in the South, but have never hunted deer.  My dad didn’t hunt so it never was something I did, although I’m a firearms enthusiast.

I’m hoping to start next year (currently in Korea) so I finally bought the first of several bolt guns.  After going back and forth, I bought a Ruger American Predator 18”.  It seems like a good mix of value and quality (with the Predator barrel).

I ordered a MagPul Hunter stock to make it a little more ergonomic without a crazy chassis.

I’ll let you know how it functions when I get home to shoot it.  I reload so I plan to roll my own.

I have one.  Solid shooter, there is a learning curve with the mags.
Factory mags won’t lock in fully loaded with the bolt closed, only open.   My Magpul mags however,  when inserted on an open bolt,
Can easily be inserted too far, and the bolt won’t close.  Two handed affair to get one back out.

Solution is load the factory mag with the bolt open and the magpul with it closed, or just be careful when locking in the magpul.
Really not a big issue.

Damn accurate for a cheap rifle.  Mine is a 6.5 CM.  The brake is pretty effective too.  I’ve shot it a lot with and without the brake, the 6.5 is a easy shooter with no brake, but with it is ridiculously light recoil.

My rail mount screws were loose out of the box.  I pulled them, degreased and locktited/torqued them.    There is a plastic jig for putting the trigger group back in, helps line up the mag catch.  Pretty useful, it should be in the box with the gun.

I did a year in the ROK.  As a grunt, I was going to the 2d ID,till the Honor guard detachment at Yongsan pulled me for duty there.
Probably before you were born

This was going to be a mid range elk gun, and might still be, but I had my 300 WM braked this fall, and it is nice to shoot now.  It was pretty hard on the shoulder before.

Thank you for serving.

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Thanks for the info on the mags.  If I like this setup I will likely buy another one in 6.5CM and 30-06.  Cover all of my bases, plus it’ll be fun to work up loads for them.

I’m 41, so it’s possible that was before I was born, but usually I’m the old guy around most of these people.  Ha!

Not as young as I thought lol.   I was there in 78.  I heard Yongsan is no longer a US base.    My gig over there was good, got to see everything from the DMZ to Pusan and Jeju island.  Good times .

Those magpul mags work in 6.5 and 308.

I’d say you made a good choice. The .308 at normal distances is about the perfect deer cartridge in my humble opinion.

I’ll buy more cartridge if I ever go out West again.

I have clobbered some elk with the lowly .308.   They are just as dead as with my 300wm.

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@DVCER

Impossible!  And it’s a black rifle!?!?

Yep, plenty of power.   One cow and that bull have fallen to that AR.
One more small bull to a bolt gun in 308.
I would pretty much hunt with my AR, but it is a pig, over 10 lbs, and gets heavy .
Most of my elk are taken under 100 yards in the timber, 308 is plenty there.

That is a nice rifle OP. I have a RAR in 7mm-08 and it is very accurate. Really impressive accuracy for the price.

I've been hunting with a similar rifle since 1993...  It's a 20" Remington Model Seven.  I suspect your new Ruger will be considerably more accurate than the Seven has been...  Do yourself a favor: Do not "overscope" this handy little rifle...  Leupold's VX3i 2.5-8x is about perfect.  A huge 4-14x 30mm tube monster scope will unbalance the rifle...

If you are had loading, I do have a recommendation:  Think about a fairly soft, easy to expand bullet like Nosler's Ballistic Tip.  I've shot just about every bullet on the market out of the Seven, and take game with a fair number of them.  In. my experience the 20" barrel on my rifle typically gives me speeds of about 2600, 2650 with a 165 grain bullet.  That isn't blazing fast.   With a bullet like the Ballistic Tip, I get fantastic performance. In the vast majority of cases my deer literally drop on the spot.  When I've used other bullets, typically cup and core bullets like Hornady Interlocks and similar, I do get dead deer.  Unfortunately, they do run about an average of 70-100 yards before piling in dead.  And this is with a faster 150 grain bullet as well.  I wouldn't want to use the 165 BT at speeds of 2900,  3000, fps +, but at the sort of modest 18 and 20" carbine speeds, it works wonderfully.

I appreciate the advice and insight.  I need to buy a new Chronometer when I get back in the States.  I really look forward to working up loads for this rifle.

I was thinking a 2.5-10 Vortex.

308 is more than enough out west.

But GD will tell me that I need a 338 Lapua or something, bro...

GD will also tell you that you need to mount the Hubble telescope on that .338!

While I don't own one, I know a few guys that are very happy with their ruger americans.  I will also agree with these guys that .308 is plenty unless you need an excuse to buy another gun.........

If I like this setup, I may just buy another one in 30-06 or something.  Otherwise, .308 will be it for a while.

I'm not an expert, but I am a big Randy Newberg fan.  If you watch his videos on youtube, he and his guys use .308 and 7mm08 on almost every hunt.  They kill tons of Western game with those two calibers.  So much so that 7mm08 is called 7mmHT on his website/forum.  

This year was my first hunt out west.  I used a .300WM because I got it from a guy under the "agreement" of using it for a moose and/or elk.  Otherwise, I would have been perfectly comfortable lugging my .308 out there.  

Again, plenty of "gun", unless you want an excuse for another.......

I don't have the Predator model But I do have an 18" stainless steel Ruger American in 308Win.  It's as accurate as my Remington 700 SPS Varmint and cost almost half as much.  It looks ugly as all get out but I honestly don't care.  I throw it on the front of the Quad and go.  Don't care if it's raining, snowing, or dusty as hell.  For a $300.00 rifle I don't mind if it gets dirty.  

My rifle shoots the 165 Sierra Game Changers a little over 2700fps and will group them slightly above or below 1/2 MOA depending on how well i'm shooting that day.

Nice.  I’m looking forward to shooting this when I get home next month.

Nice.  I’m looking forward to shooting this when I get home next month.

Congrats.  Nice choice...

Two things to consider...

1) Rolling your own.  Try a few different bullets.  Remember EVERY bullet has a impact velocity "sweet spot".  If you impact speeds are close to that sweet spot, performance will be stellar.  Its a 308 Win with a 18" barrel, so velocities will be very very different from a .300 Mag out of a 26" barrel.  Many of the premium bullets are designed for high impact speeds.  A Barnes TTSX comes to mind.  It is phenomenal, especially out of the magnum cartridges...  Stuff it in your little 308, and you should expect to be disappointed.  It will not go fast enough to operate like it should.  I've hunted with a 20" 308 since 1994, and tried a lot of different bullets on dozens of deer.  I see my most spectular and decisive drop-right-there kills with a 165 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip at about 2600 fps.  It is a soft, easy to open bullet.  I would not use it at high speeds, since it WILL fail.  However, at my modest speeds and ranges that are usually somewhere between 50 and 130 yards, it is fantastic.

2) Scope matters.  Buy quality and do not over scope.  Its a 308 Win with a 18" barrel.  Its not a 800 yard rifle. Don't buy an 800 yard scope (some ridiculous 4 to 16x scope).  The rifle will be unbalanced, excessively heavy and the field of view will be too tight.  Try a lower power optic.  I've used a 1.75-6x since '94. I find it perfect.  Leupold's VX3 in 2.5 to 8x is excellent too.  You CAN reliably take deer at 300 yards with 6x power and have no issues.  However, you often cannot find that buck in the brush at 27 yards with the narrow tight field of view on a high power scope.

As for quality:  Deer move most at first light and last light.  Cheap scopes loose a lot of light to reflection on each lens.  A good scope has higher quality glass in the lenses, and better antireflective lens coating.  As a result, its 25 minutes past sundown, you're in the woods, and its dark  and you've got a nice 8 pointer and you cannot find him in the scope because the scope isn't trasnmitting enough light.  You need a better scope.  

It doesn't need to be a $600 scope.  A $300 Leupold VX3 will get it done all day long.  A $199 Walmart special will let you down.

Should be sufficient.

Love mine. For any realistic application of .308, that should be plenty of scope.

You'll only have trouble with it being FFP at low power at close range.

I really think they could have saved some engineering and cost by doing 5x as the low.

I got home this past weekend and assembled this Ruger.  I really like the stock, although it's obviously heavier than the floppy one that comes with it.  The Optic is probably a bit much for use for only hunting, but it's kinda an all around bolt gun at the moment.