Rifle hunter,
I find my Ruger African 416 to be smoother and better finished than my stainless 338 RCM. The trigger was better. The bolt lift to cock the rifle is also easier in the blued steel African model.
Have you tried necking up up 416 Ruger to 458? Might be easier. Fire forming 458 stuff would be brutal
This is what I suspected, that the chrome-moly Ruger actions are smoother. I also have a stainless 338 RCM. I would like to neck up the .416 Ruger case to .458, but I just don't think there is enough shoulder to headspace properly unless virtually all the taper is taken out of the case, which may create other problems. The 404 Jeffery case is slightly wider than the Ruger case. I also don't want to go to .423 as it's a bit of an oddball caliber. I once had a black and blue shoulder after load development of a .458...sort of character building , I suppose!
