Brought Home a New One

[357cyrus]

Well, I did it again. I had the hankering for a compact all weather bear gun with plenty of wallop. Had to have something that hurled bullets bigger than .308, and with magnum power to reach out a bit. It wasn't easy to put all those requests together, but wound up with a Savage 116 Alaskan Brush Hunter in 375 Ruger. Seems to fit the bill nicely! Loading up my first box of ammo tonight, and hopefully I'll get the sights set this weekend. Having some technical difficulties w/ pics , but working on it!

[357cyrus]

capable of over 4500 ft/lb of energy... Though I'll probably tone it down a bit!


Quite a bit smaller than my 7mm mag, and just a bit bigger than my Rossi 92.


375 Ruger vs. 30-06.... 300gr Gameking vs. 165 Partitions!

[Ranch Dog]

Lordy! So... you going looking for bear?

Is that Rossi your 480 Ruger?

[357cyrus]

Yes, Sir. Thats my line up when i go bear hunting from our camp in PA. Got all the bases covered now. The 7RM on the left is for when the weather is nice (no tracks) and I'll be sitting up on the ridges where shots could get out to 200 yards or more. The 375R in the middle is for when the rain/snow/cold gets bad and I'd prefer to be moving around all day. And the lever action 480R will be for pushing the brush on days we decide to do drives. I only get to chase Yogi two days a year, so i'm out sun up to sun down, no matter what.

[akuser47]

Dang your packing artillery. Keep us posted to your first range trip.

[357cyrus]

Will do. According to QuickLoad a little over 2500fps should be max with that 20" barrel. My plan is to load 20 rounds of a "starting load" @ about 2200fps . And that should be somewhere between a 30-06 and 300 win mag in the power department. If I can hit decent with them out to at least 100 yards, I don't see the need to load any warmer. Those big honking 300 Gamekings should still hold 2500 ft/lbs out to 150 yards. Hell, a 308 barely beats that at the muzzle!

[62chevy]

Nice looking line up you have 357cyrus.

[Fyodor]

Nice little artillery you've got there.

[357cyrus]

Keep us posted to your first range trip.

Finally made it to the range with the 375Ruger last night. That thing is a thunder pig!!! I loaded up 20 rounds of a starting load with Reloader 19 just to get it sighted in, and figure out what its doing over the chronograph. Using 300 grain Siearra Gamekings, they were still pretty stout at 2185 fps and just short of 3200 ft/lbs. I just ran the numbers through a recoil calculator and recoil energy was at 38 ft/lbs, which is a little more than double what my 7mm Rem Mag gives me with near the same muzzle energy. I'm not sure I wanna take that 300 grain bullet too much faster. The load does compare pretty well to what they say Teddy Roosevelt deemed "Big Medicine" for lions and such with his 405 Winchester. Eventually I'll try some "lighter" bullets more suitable for elk/moose, and with another pound worth of scope, might tone down the recoil a bit. As is, this Savage Alaskan Brush Hunter with irons sights should be one hell of a bad weather bear gun.

[Ranch Dog]

It sounds impressive and no doubt Savage knows how to build a great rifle!