I took the MIGHTY 375 Ruger Alaskan to the range today, along wiht a friends 300 RUM and my 300WSM.
Here are the rifles:
.375 Ruger, Ruger Alaskan. 1.5-50x20 Vari X III
300WSM, Built by Bill Leeper on a blueprinted Mdl 70 action, Smith barrel, Bansner stock, 2.5-8 x 36 Vari X III
300 RUM, Remington 700. Powder coated, trigger and action work done. Offensive muzzle brake installed. 6-24 Bushnell Elite 4200
Using 260gr Accubonds, Hornady brass, Federal 215M primer, H 4350 I worked up to a load, using Hornady lab data for the 20" barrel and 270gr bullet which topped out at 83 gr. I went up to 84.
At 100 yards, 8 shots of varying powder charges from 78-84 gr went into 2.25" or so. One shot was an unexplicible high flyer, right in the middle of the charge range, which leads me to believe that it was shooter error. Including the flyer, I had 9 shots inside a 2.6" group.
No doubt a trigger job would improve my group size. Even though this is a "decent" factory trigger, it's still a far cry from good. It has a wee bit of creep, and shooting alongside of the other 2 rifles, it was very apparent.
Other than that, it's a reasonably pleasant rifle to shoot, and seems accurate enough. I'll probably end up with a load of about 83.5gr.
I also loaded some 200GR Sierra FP bullets, using 40gr H 4895, same cases and primers. This is a low recoil load, and I could esssentially see the bullet hit the target at 5o yards. It's accurate enough to pop the heads off of grouse with, which will be it's intended job. (as well as cheap plinker)
Here is the 200gr load:
I also was shooting my friends 300RUM. It's a lefty and I found it very difficult to shoot. The cheek piece is on the other side, the bolt handle in front of my face, and the stock just felt wobbly on the sandbags. Contrasted to the Ruger or my 300WSM, (which fits me like a glove) this damn rifle was a hassle to shoot. It seemed unbalanced to me.
I was also working up a load for him, using 180gr TSX bullets, Remington cases, Fed 215 primers and IMR 4350.
In this case, I shot 8 rounds, and ended up wiht a 7 shot group of 1.35" and the highest powder charge-82.5gr- was a flyer, indicating that we were at the end of the accuracy line. That opened the group to 8 shots, 1.8".
I imagine I will end up with a charge of 82 gr, which is the maximum from the Nosler Manual. And he wants me to figure out how to remove that damn muzzle brake!!
I had brought along my 300WSM just to shoot for the hell of it. I had 4 rounds of 180gr Nosler partition/ H4831, 1 180 gr Failsafe factory load, and 1 round of 168gr TSX, H4350.
I shot a nice .77 group with 3 NP's, which is abut normal for this rifle and those bullets.
Then I shot the 4th NP at the bottom target square, and it looked as if it would have landed within the first group, had I sent it to that target. The I shot the Failsafe and it went right into the middle, and finally the TSX was down and to the left. Al in all a 1.5" group from 3 seperate powder charges, 3 distinctly different bullets. I thought that not bad at all.
***No loads were chronoed do to faulty chronograph. When I get my new one, I'll try it out. By Hornady data, a 270gr bullet with 83gr H 4350 in a 20" barrel rifle like mine was 2650-fps, which makes sense.
Here are the rifles:
.375 Ruger, Ruger Alaskan. 1.5-50x20 Vari X III
300WSM, Built by Bill Leeper on a blueprinted Mdl 70 action, Smith barrel, Bansner stock, 2.5-8 x 36 Vari X III
300 RUM, Remington 700. Powder coated, trigger and action work done. Offensive muzzle brake installed. 6-24 Bushnell Elite 4200
Using 260gr Accubonds, Hornady brass, Federal 215M primer, H 4350 I worked up to a load, using Hornady lab data for the 20" barrel and 270gr bullet which topped out at 83 gr. I went up to 84.
At 100 yards, 8 shots of varying powder charges from 78-84 gr went into 2.25" or so. One shot was an unexplicible high flyer, right in the middle of the charge range, which leads me to believe that it was shooter error. Including the flyer, I had 9 shots inside a 2.6" group.
No doubt a trigger job would improve my group size. Even though this is a "decent" factory trigger, it's still a far cry from good. It has a wee bit of creep, and shooting alongside of the other 2 rifles, it was very apparent.
Other than that, it's a reasonably pleasant rifle to shoot, and seems accurate enough. I'll probably end up with a load of about 83.5gr.
I also loaded some 200GR Sierra FP bullets, using 40gr H 4895, same cases and primers. This is a low recoil load, and I could esssentially see the bullet hit the target at 5o yards. It's accurate enough to pop the heads off of grouse with, which will be it's intended job. (as well as cheap plinker)
Here is the 200gr load:
I also was shooting my friends 300RUM. It's a lefty and I found it very difficult to shoot. The cheek piece is on the other side, the bolt handle in front of my face, and the stock just felt wobbly on the sandbags. Contrasted to the Ruger or my 300WSM, (which fits me like a glove) this damn rifle was a hassle to shoot. It seemed unbalanced to me.
I was also working up a load for him, using 180gr TSX bullets, Remington cases, Fed 215 primers and IMR 4350.
In this case, I shot 8 rounds, and ended up wiht a 7 shot group of 1.35" and the highest powder charge-82.5gr- was a flyer, indicating that we were at the end of the accuracy line. That opened the group to 8 shots, 1.8".
I imagine I will end up with a charge of 82 gr, which is the maximum from the Nosler Manual. And he wants me to figure out how to remove that damn muzzle brake!!
I had brought along my 300WSM just to shoot for the hell of it. I had 4 rounds of 180gr Nosler partition/ H4831, 1 180 gr Failsafe factory load, and 1 round of 168gr TSX, H4350.
I shot a nice .77 group with 3 NP's, which is abut normal for this rifle and those bullets.
Then I shot the 4th NP at the bottom target square, and it looked as if it would have landed within the first group, had I sent it to that target. The I shot the Failsafe and it went right into the middle, and finally the TSX was down and to the left. Al in all a 1.5" group from 3 seperate powder charges, 3 distinctly different bullets. I thought that not bad at all.
***No loads were chronoed do to faulty chronograph. When I get my new one, I'll try it out. By Hornady data, a 270gr bullet with 83gr H 4350 in a 20" barrel rifle like mine was 2650-fps, which makes sense.
Last edited:
