If you’ve been eyeing the Ruger American Ranch rifles, specifically the ones chambered in 7.62x39mm, you’ve probably noticed that Ruger opted to use their own proprietary magazine from the Mini-30 rifle. While no one seems to be complaining about reliability with the Mini-30 magazine, there have been complaints online that AK pattern magazines aren’t an option for owners of the Ruger American Ranch rifles. One man, Mr. Brandenburg, has begun to offer his services in converting the Ruger American Ranch rifles to accept AK magazines.
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Currently, Mr. Brandenburg primarily focuses on this conversion to accept Magpul’s polymer AKM magazines, however, he’s capable of hand fitting Ruger’s magazine well to fit other types of AK mags as well. In the following video, Mr. Brandenburg describes the service he offers and stresses that customers should only send in their Ruger American Ranch stocks, and not the barreled receiver since he does not have a Federal Firearms License (FFL) to receive firearms through a parcel service.
For anyone interested in Mr. Brandenburg’s magazine conversion, he’d prefer potential customers to contact him via his email address, [email protected] to discuss pricing since the work needed can vary depending on which AK pattern magazine is being accommodated (some take more hand fitting than others). For anyone that’s not familiar with the cost difference between the Mini 30 and AKM magazines, Ruger’s Mini 30 magazines cost $32.95 for 5-round mags, and $42.95 for the 10 and 20 round magazines, compared to the Magpul AK magazines that cost $15.95 for 10, 20, and 30 round mags.
Feel free to visit Mr. Brandenburg’s YouTube channel, Andres Fueurcastle, to see his functioning conversion during some load testing for accuracy. Thanks to Mr. Brandenburg for letting us share his work with TFB!
For any 7.62×39 Ruger American Ranch rifle owners out there, what are your thoughts about this conversion to utilize AK Magazines? Are you considering making the change, or are you happy with the factory magazines from Ruger? For anyone that’s been thinking of getting this rifle, does this conversion make it more appealing?
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