Question for you guys. What is the velocity loss with the 20" vs the 23" African in the 375 Ruger?
I have a SS UL Hawkeye in 30-06 and it came with a 20" barrel. I like the gun alot. I lost about 100 ft/sec with most bullet weights compared to 24" 06's I've had. I get 2700 with 180's in the 20" and 2800 with most 24" - so what......
I've handled the Alaskan and it feels good. Your reports on recoil are encouraging. I've shot a few lighter 375 that were loaded up and they weren't all that fun for 20-30 off the bench.
............After I bought may Alaskan, and before I began reloading for it, I came across this link which I posted earlier on this thread.
www.gunblast.com/Ruger-Hawkeye375.htmYou`ll see the chrony results for about 20 loads using Quinn`s 23" barreled African test rifle.
I worked up to and duplicated a couple of the H4350 loadings Quinn listed. One load that I duplicated lost me only 67 fps (or 22.33 fps per inch). The other was slightly less averaging 64.5 fps (or 21.5 fps per inch).
That falls right about in line with the 100 fps (or 25 fps per inch) you were losing from your 20" barreled 30-06 vs the 24" barreled `06.
If someone likes the shorter and handier Alaskan and prefers the 20" barrel, any velocity differences between the Ruger African vs the Ruger Alaskan should not be an issue at all. Under any circumstance, there isn`t one thing that the Ruger African can do that a Ruger Alaskan cannot do.
