Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters OCTOBER: Ask John Barsness Questions About "SHORT AND LONG ACTIONS"

Late to understand what Ruger was doing, I just bought a Ruger 77 Hawkeye Compact Magnum in 338 RCM.

It has a 13" LOP and 20" barrel. It fits and swings naturally.

To say that I love it is an understatement!

It fits a niche for sure as a woods/stalking rifle.

The RCM cartridge and the overall length of the rifle make a great combo for woods hunting and I am sure that can be stretched out to moderate distances.

I don't need a high BC bullet and can't see any reason to compare it to 338 win mag velocity.
So what if it doesn't match the 338 WM.
This combo carries itself and speaks for itself as is.

To bad Ruger discontinued it. I am thinking of getting the 300 RCM in a No 1....or another 77.

I'm getting back into open sights for big game hunting and this rifle is a good fit.

http://www.realguns.com/archives/168.htm

The 338 RCM was one of the neatest Ruger rifles ever. Perfect bolt rifle for the woods.

Yeah, Bob, I'm thrilled to have connected to one in a classic wood/blue.

I expect great things from it and I wouldn't hesitate to take to Alaska.

If I lived where I needed that kind of horsepower and bullet weight I'd own one.

Alaska,BC, Alberta comes to mind. Everything from moose to whitetails and bears. I thought the rifle was very cool, well designed and well thought out.

Makes me wish I still had my 200-225 gr Bitterroots!

That's what I figured. I never understood why folks want to get hung up on a BC number when most never see the advantage of it. I don't even worry about distance to the lands. The Accubonds and Partitions that I shoot don't seem to care, either. I just load my Model Seven 7 SAUM to a COAL of 2.80" and let it ride. Lol


Thanks for the info.

SU35,

Yep, the .338 RCM is one of the best-designed short-action cartridges ever developed. Instead of trying to cram as much powder room as possible into the available space, they actually designed a short .338-06 (or maybe .338-06 AI), with dufficient neck length avoid the potential bullet-seating problems with some of the other SFBM's (Short, Fat, Beltless, Magnums). The moderate ballistics also result in moderate recoil in a compact rifle.

I handloaded a .338 RCM for an assignment a couple-three years ago and was pretty impressed. But it didn't take the hunting world by storm, apparently because there aren't that many hunters who really need (or even want) that particular combination of virtues. Which is pretty much true of most cartridges that somehow end up being categorized as "woods" or "timber" cartridges, just because they're not super-zappers.

N2TRKYS,

Yeah, a lot of hunters get hung up on numbers. Muzzle velocity was the biggie for a while, but these days BC is getting up there too. In reality, neither is a major factor for MOST big game hunting.

But they can be for some kinds of hunting, but even then some people obsess too much about one or the other. One of my upcoming columns (recently submitted) is about the balance between velocity and BC for longer-range shooting, and how to figure out where the balance point might be for certain kinds of hunting.

I look forward to reading it. Thanks for what you do.

I would be interested in this article as well, please advise what publication and issue it will be in.

Thanks.

It's going to be posted here on the Campfire, like this one.

I enjoyed the article!


Is this a typo?

"But the magazine would not allow longer, high-BC bullets to be seated well out, and while I could have installed a longer magazine box, I'd test-fired too many short-action rifles with longer magazines for short-fat cartridges that didn't feel very well."

I was thinking it should read "feed very well" since that's my experience.

Yep, that was a typo--and you figured it out!

I've long pondered that one and that article is one I look forward to!

I remember one article John did years ago on efficient cartridges. .257 Roberts was one of the best. I like a sectional density of around .246 give or take a little, and a muzzle velocity of around 2700fps. That combination will take pretty much any game I'd ever desire to take.

Good read John....

thanks as always....

best regards to you and the family...

Duly noted gents. We'll call that article next. November.

Thanks!

Great article. I mostly own short actions but I also mostly own moderate velocity cartridges based on the 308 (7-08, 308, 338 Federal). Those fit excellent. My 257R and 350 Rem mag can be a little tight but a vast majority of those bullets have ogives that work fine with short actions. None of those cartridges are trying to be barn burners in a short action. You make an excellent point about some of the short magnums trying to squeeze so much velocity out of a short action. If I want a magnum, I'd go long action for sure.

John, I'm curious, do you have the same high opinion of the .300 RCM that you do of the .338?

Haven't fooled with the .300 RCM, but no doubt it works well. But since we already have the .30-06 available in many lightweight rifles there isn't as much point in it as the .338 RCM.

Thank you, sir.