I was fortunate enough to have a chance to peruse Greg Rodriquez' original draft for the ST article...it was quite interesting:
"It’s no secret to those who know me that I am a huge fan of the .375 H&H...it took me a while to warm up to the .375 Ruger that Hornady introduced back in 2007. In fact, I was inclined to ignore the upstart medium bore altogether until Ruger sent me a then-new Hawkeye African rifle and Hornaday supplied me a caseload of .375 Ruger ammo to play with free of charge. The only condition was that I would need to write a glowing report on the new rifle/cartridge combo.
"The Hawkeye African won me over from the start. It looked okay, handled okay, and went bang when I pulled the mediocre trigger. It had sights and Ruger rings included. It didn't fall apart during my test.
"I came to appreciate the new cartridge’s ballistics. This was easy since they are essentially identical to .375H&H ballistics. The shorter, fatter case fits easily in a model 77 Ruger action and thus justifies its existence, especially since the Ruger bean-counters axed their true Magnum action. These ballistics have accounted for virtually every species on earth for the last century or so, but I am curiously amazed at how well they kill stuff with this free ammo.
"If I had to find one thing to complain about with the cartridge, it would be the scarcity of factory loads. Maybe sufficient brainwashing of the masses will result in more sales and therefore more factory loads becoming available. Some loads are very accurate, some aren't. This is a phenomenon that I have never encountered before...perhaps I can squeeze another article out of it later.
"A client recently used my rifle to take a fine Zimbabwe tusker with the Barnes solid. A single shot was all it took, though he wisely paid the insurance. I must contrive to make this sound incredibly impressive, despite this same scenario having been repeated hundreds or thousands of times during the long service life of the original .375H&H cartridge.
"Buy one of these guns. I like free stuff. I want more of it."
It's a huge relief to know that we have unbiased, objective reports available to us, published by individuals like Greg who have nothing to gain by being anything other than totally honest. These folks tell it like it is. Inaccurate rifles, uncomfortable stocks, new cartridges that are simply redundant copies of older ones, reliability problems, poor designs, substandard durability and materials...we see all these flaws, and many more besides, all being exposed to the buying public and thus saving us from spending our hard-earned money on tons of useless crap that might otherwise tempt us. We owe these individuals our heartfelt gratitude...so when an enthusiastically positive review like the one above appears, we can rest assured that it can be believed without question.
Thanks, Greg (and Gatehouse, too!). My check is in the mail.
