Hey guys,
Just curious, what do y'all think about the Ruger Alaska vs the Ruger Africa in 375 Ruger? Wanting to pick one up for Nilgai hunting here in Texas. - and if I get really mad at a pig...

I'd love to have an Alaskan but they are tough to find at a descent price. I used my Sako 375 H&H (among other guns) in Alaska. It's a popular rifle. Lots of people are happy with a 30-06 though. Just depends on what you get used to. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's a necessity by any stretch.

Biggest (only?) difference between the two being Alaskan is SS/Synthetic vs African in Blued/Walnut.

Up here, with the humidity, it is an obvious choice that the Alaskan is going to cause less hassle with moisture, stock warping etc.

I have the 375 Ruger Guide Gun. It is the newer version of the Alaskan. Used it on a damage control deer hunt last December with factory 270gr. load. Got 2777fps average with the chronograph. Now I am hand-loading a 300gr.Nosler Accubond traveling 2590fps. with a 3/4" 3-shot group at 100yds. Also hand-load a Woodleigh 350gr. PP bullet traveling 2391fps. with a 1" 3-shot group at 100yds. Going to use the 300gr. Accubond load on my elk this year.

I only know the Alaskan versions are hard to find these days and some aren't a fan of the stocks since they attribute bad accuracy to them. I've also heard the walnut stocks on the Africans have split behind the tang under recoil. I've not heard anything or experienced anything negative about the Guide Gun versions.


700xcr,

I saw somewhere else that your 300gr Accubond load is 78.5 gr RE-17. If you don't mind sharing, what is your powder and charge for your 270gr and 350gr loads? I have the same rifle and love it. In the next week I'll be testing some RL-15 and 17 ladders under a bunch of the 270 gr blemished bullets Midway had on clearance a while ago.

..............Own the Ruger Alaskan, so I guess I'm partial towards the Alaskan. Have bench fired a friends African.

You can go with either. But I consider the Alaskan for your use to be the better pick for handling and overall abuse.

I happen to be a fan of the very grippy Hogue stock. Many are not. Absorbs recoil better imo and is not prone to stock cracking like the Africans have been. Have not heard if Ruger ever solved that problem or not.

Good luck.....

........Anybody having accuracy issues from their Hogue stocked Ruger Alaskans?.....Never from mine.

I've not heard of any problems with accuracy on these rifles. Phil Shoemaker uses one of these and has done some work on the stock to trim it down, looks nicer too. Might check with him.

I'd never buy a blued/wood rifle for use here in Alaska.

Plenty of other places in Alaska that aren’t southeast however.

While I prefer stainless for the worst conditions-type hunts, there are certainly plenty of hunting opportunities here where blue/wood works fine if you enjoy those sorts of tools. The rifle on the right has seen quite a bit of country and is minus bluing from some edges and corners only due to use:



That said, even the stainless stuff isn’t immune when you’re barely 100 feet from the surf, even if you’re keeping things under cover.



This was the under side of the weapon. It was lying on top of the smokehouse, but protected from the weather. The top side was fine.

Nice Numero Unos Kilk

The 270gr. load was the factory Hornady. I load 78.5grs. of RL-17 with the Nosler 300gr. Accubonds and 73.0grs. of RL-17 with the Woodleigh 350gr. PP. COAL on both bullets are 3.385". Using Winchester WRLP primers. I use a Lee factory crimp die too.

lots of folks here using wood blued rifles , do they hold up as well on average ? No , but ugly rifles kill stuff in Alaska just as well as anywhere else.

No lie! I ran across a guy on POW about ten years ago hunting with an older Remington 700ADL in .243 that was more brown than blued. Perched atop the receiver/rear of the barrel was a beautiful Tasco scope in Weaver rings, no bases of any sort, attached to the rifle with numerous wraps of duct and electrical tape. He'd killed more than one deer with that POS...

Chris

my alaskan is working great in yukon.

And my Alaskan is working great in British Columbia.

All the reports from people who have the Ruger Haweye in both Alaska and Africa versions is that they are quite accurate out of the box. A coworker has one in the Africa version in .338WM, without the muzzle brake. It's a very good-looking rifle, and I will probably buy one like it (in .338WM). However, I will probably replace the walnut stock with a synthetic one for hunting in Alaska.

In the interior where I hunt, there is no trouble with blue or black finish and rust, as long as you clean and lubricate it, but wood stocks are not always the best during moose season since it often rains.

Hey Guys, I feel like I should apologize for my accuracy comments from before about the Hogue stock. I recalled reading 1-2 reports of poor accuracy until they had changed it out to a McMillan stock. And sure enough, after trying to track those posts down again, I can't seem to find them. Such is the nature of hearsay.

I honestly can imagine why the hogue stocks were causing accuracy issues and am actually a fan of them generally.