I just bought the American .223. It seemed like the price was too good to pass. It has some nice features like crowned target barrel, steel bedded action, weaver style 2 pc. mounts, and a recoil pad.
It has some bad features like flimsy stock, cheap looking mill marks on receiver, lack of a decent feeder ramp to feed bullets into the barrel from magazine, crappy rotary magazine that won't feed the last cartridge EVER. And Ive never encountered this before, but the when I was wiping down the quart of gun oil leaking from every orifice I noticed the barrel almost seemed "not round" as in it had a wavy feel to it from the action down to the crown. The barrel has two small spots that didn't get fully blued.
Overall opinion is this .223 American would make a great first rifle, plinker or decent hunting rig but if you are looking for consistent MOA accuracy look elsewhere.
I topped mine with the Vortex Diamondback 4-14x40 cuz it was on sale. I guess I got what I paid for as I am not too pleased with the scope either.