I spoke to someone at Ruger and the barrel is the same diameterbut she told me they hadimproved the standard forthe the level of accuracy you should achieve out of one and had rounded the edges and refined it overall. Made it more user friendly.I think they are all ranch rifles now with the rings and better sights than the ones that use to come on them. The front sight looks like an m1 carbine type sight. Here are some pics of the new ones.