338/375 Ruger is up and running!

Alright, I got the Savage Striker all put together in 338/375 Ruger. Today I finally got a chance to shoot it and the results?.................

Initially, dissapointment. There just wasn't enough recoil. ;D Honestly, I love it. I had to fight off the other guys at the range because everybody wanted to shoot it! The Muscle Brake kept the recoil down to the level of a 357 Mag in a heavy revolver. My 10" Contender in 7mm TCU has more recoil. Just don't stand to the side of the person shooting it! :o That sucker will ring your ears like you wouldn't believe.

I took a few different loads out with me on this trip. The first load was a 250gr Hornady Interlock over 75.0gr of H4831sc. I used this load to zero the scope (it only took 3 shots to be dead on at 100yds). These were grouping around .75" while I was breaking in the barrel.

From there I started working with the 225gr Accubond. I started at 78.0gr H4831sc and worked up to 82.0gr in 1gr increments. At 82gr, there were still no pressure signs, and the primers look just as good as the 78gr loads. The brass came out of the chamber perfectly clean with no carbon build up. The only problem was that the groups were very erratic. I decided check the tracking on the scope (Burris 3-12x handgun scope) to see what happens. Sure enough, I could move the scope 4" to the right and it wouldn't move. Then I'd fire a second shot, and the POI would jump 3" to the right. Dead scope means the end of load development for today. >:( I'd like to try and re-shoot some of the loads that I tried today. I know that they'll shoot well once the new scope is on there.

I also have some 225gr TTSX bullets loaded up to test. Those will also have to wait until next time.

The good news is that I got a new scope today. I'm going to try a Leupold VX-3L 3.5-10 on there now. If nothing else this scope has a lifetime warranty. I might need it. ;)

I'll give some updates when I get out with the chronograph. I'd like to see just how fast the 225 are actually moving.

Andrew

I can't believe that nobody replied to this topic. This caliber is very exciting to me! Have you done any more work with it? Any updates?

I got the new scope mounted and sighted in, and I've tested all of my loads with the 225 TTSX and reshot the 225 Accubonds. The TTSX is the winner. I'm getting 1" groups at 100 yds off of the bipod. This is good enough for me right now. I sighted it 1.5" high at 100 yards which put me dead on at 200. I haven't run any of the loads through a chronograph yet, but this trajectory makes me think that I'm getting close to 2750-2800fps. That's better than I expected.

Deer season started up on October 15, so I put off my range work until the end of the season and hit the woods. Didn't see anything, but the I put on a lot of miles with the Striker in my rifle pack. I carry it in the pack with the muzzle up so that it's even with my shoulders. When I found what looked like a good spot to setup, I'd pull the Striker out and it was ready for action. It's no where near as fast as having a rifle over your shoulder, but that's why I carry a revolver (either the 10' 45-70 BFR or a 6.5" S&W 610) in a shoulder holster. Just in case something pops up along the trail. ;)

Now for the bad eews. About 4 weeks ago while sighting in all of the handguns for deer season, I felt a sudden pain in my right hand (this was while shooting a 4" Redhawk 45 Colt with moderate loads) I packed up for the day and went home. By the next morning my hand was pretty swollen. When the swelling didn't go down after 3 days I went to the doctor. As it turns out, I fractured one of the bones in my hand. But that wasn't the bad part. On the X-ray the doctor showed my the 3 old fractures in my hand, and a number of compression fractures in my wrist. He said he's only seen damage like this with long time boxers. :o The advice he gave me was to stop shooting the big guns immediately. Nothing over a large framed 357 Mag.

Soooooo, I'm in the process of selling off some of my more interesting and fun guns so that I don't just do more damage. The 45-70 BFR is pretty much the gun that did me in, but that won't go until the end of elk season. I even had to sell my Dan Wesson CCBT 10mm that I used as my primary carry gun and move to a full sized steel framed Kimber in 45. But lucky for me the Striker isn't going to be one of them. I'll add some more weight to it if I need to, but I think it will be alright if I only shoot 10-15 rounds at a time. The Striker has just shown me that I can still have the horsepower that I want, without all of the recoil. I just need to reduce the number of shots that I fire in a session.

Andrew

If I'm not mistaken, John Taffin, King of the big bore revolver, had a similar issue. His doc told him to either have the bones in his wrist fused together or quit shooting big bore handguns. I think you can guess what he did. That's his livelihood though. I would have done the same thing I think.

I have some of the same damage from shooting the Big Guys for the past 40 years. Had to figure out a braking system so I could still enjoy.

True, this is an exceptional cartridge combination that should do anything the 340 Weatherby will do and do it in an affordable case. Sometimes it helps to answer P.M.'s.

Neal

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Originally Posted by ctrout

I can't believe that nobody replied to this topic.

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I'm still trying to comprehend firing a 338/375 with one hand !!!! :)

I missed it. busy with work that week. 340 weatherby hummm

You ever get a chance to fire a striker or XP do it, there no where near as bad as your anticipating. Unless you have a bad wrist like ED Bell. Big secret is just hang on and don't try to muscle it down. just keep enough control on it to not let go or hit your self.

As Greg said. Use a good brake and do not try to muscle the recoil.

The video is of something larger than the 340 Weatherby and as you can see the recoil isn't any big deal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oi8kwZw-h6A

Neal