Reviews / Firearms

Sharps Bros Heatseeker Chassis Review — Ruger American Ranch (6mm ARC)

The Verdict

I knew I was going to be a fan of this damn thing — it's an amazingly built chassis.

The Heatseeker turns a bare-bones Ruger American Ranch into a rifle with real ergonomics: AR stock, AR grip, M-LOK everywhere, and it goes together in under ten minutes with basically four screws. I've been telling John at Sharps Bros for a while that we had to get one on the channel, and it lived up to it. My only real knock is that beavertail AR grips won't fit — that's genuinely all I've got.

/The Rundown

Another product from Sharps Bros — you saw the Echelon grip module we covered, and today it's their Heatseeker, a chassis for bolt-action rifles. They make it for a bunch of different guns: Remington 700, Savage 110, Ruger 10/22, and more. Mine is set up with the action and barrel from my 6mm ARC Ruger American Ranch, because you guys know I'm a huge 6mm ARC fan. Just be buyer beware — get the right chassis for the right gun, because a Savage 110 action ain't going in a Ruger American chassis.

The chassis itself is machined from 6061-T6 aluminum and comes in at just over a pound — like 1 pound 3 ounces. It takes an AR-style buffer tube assembly (or a 1913 rail assembly if that's more your speed), so I ran a Geissele buffer tube with an MFT Battlelink Minimalist stock. It also takes an AR grip; I threw on an old-school A2 because I love those things. Up front there's a 14-inch handguard that bolts on underneath, adds about 11 ounces, and gives you a full spread of M-LOK — I mounted my Magpul M-LOK bipod, though we shot off the tripod today since I forgot my shooting mat.

Assembly is stupid easy. I am not the best gunsmith in the world, and this took me less than ten minutes: two screws to pull the action and barrel out of the Ruger, two screws to drop it into the chassis — with little triangle pieces making sure you get the metal-on-metal contact you need — then the handguard bolts on underneath. I didn't even have to pull my scope, because it was mounted to the pic rail on top of the Ruger. Castle nut, stock, one bolt for the grip, and boom, done. (Yes, I noticed on camera I had the castle nut on backwards. Sue me.)

At the range we zeroed at exactly 100 yards with Hornady Black, running the Athlon Midas Tac Gen 2 4-16x44 up top and the Athlon app for my ballistics. First two shots were a little right and a little down, a few adjustments later we were sitting on the X, then we pushed the target out to right about 200 yards and everything felt really, really good. This wasn't a test of the Ruger's accuracy or the scope or my shooting — we even joked about going down to see how shitty the shooting was — this was about the chassis, and the chassis made the whole gun better.

That's the real story: ergonomics. Having an actual grip to hold onto and an adjustable AR stock to snug up beats the standard Ruger American Ranch setup, where you've got no adjustability and nowhere to put your hand. Between the flat-shooting 6mm ARC, a rifle line known for being very precise, and this chassis, the whole setup is just amazing.

One more thing on Sharps Bros: everything they make is super high quality, made in America, small business. They did our Echelon grip module, they just released RXM grip modules, they've got P365 grip modules — and they make knives now, which I didn't even know. The Mean Streak they sent has become my EDC. If you want me to nitpick a negative on the chassis: AR grips with a beavertail — your Magpul K2+, your Daniel Defense style grips — won't fit. Only non-beavertail grips. Other than that, I am hard-pressed to find any issue with this build at all.

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