Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Alaskan Big Game Rifle?

It’s always interesting in these “long-and-winding-road” threads to see the views from “here and there.”

If I were to back up and spend my serious hunting years in AK, it would be an easy choice for me at this point in time and having used a lot of cartridges, though certainly not all.

Without ‘splaining too many details, I love the .375, and would build (I’m a southpaw) an H&H at around 8.5lbs, scoped, slung, and loaded. I’d tap the receiver for 8x40’s, and epoxy those bases in for a low-range variable and seek to use the 250-gr TTSX or the 270-gr TSX. This set-up would answer all questions for me. I consider this old cartridge as The Mild Medium, good from near to far-enough.

Nothing against the 30/06 (I believe the overall most popular cartridge in AK) at all or any other person’s choice.

I'm a fan of the 338 win mag, but your 375 HH logic is sound for sure....

Rick is smarter than to mess with Vets, I have a lot of respect for Vets also .

My comment is very much out of context there and had nothing to do with vets. I was sarcastically referring to the etymology of buckshot and pete decided to take it literally.

Anyone who suggests a 375 or even a 338 as an ideal “big game” rifle for Alaska is either a glutton for abuse or has never hunted very often or widely in the state. I’m sure either one , in some configuration, might work just fine in certain circumstances, but there are are good reasons why so much more ammo gets burned 40-60 grains at a time than in the larger doses.... and it has next to nothing to do with the economy of the ammo itself.


Then again, I have somehow convinced myself that a single rifle is ludicrous and I have no serious explanation for owning the 3/8 caliber in quadruplicate.

I can't imagine anything better than a 20 - 22" bbl'd Stainless 30-06 with whatever bullet deemed appropriate for the game pursued.

Oh, ok, thanks for clearing that up.

I was a one-gun hunter for several years, and still are, although I have two rifles of the same caliber. From day one I liked the .338WM, so I stayed with it. But I have only hunted moose on the Elliott Highway, and tend to bypass bears since I eat what I kill and don't like bear meat. To me at least, any rifle from the .30-06 to the .375H&H is a perfect Alaska rifle, but the .338 is the one I chose. I could do very well with a .338-06 too, but there is nothing wrong with any of these. It's one of those things; the .30-06, .300WM, and .338WM are quite popular with hunters in Alaska. Then the .7mm Magum, and .375H&H. In reality, anything you are the most proficient with and use to hunt in Alaska, from a bow to a gun, could be your ideal hunting weapon or gun.

Since this old vet gets older by the day, maybe I should switch to a marlin .30-30, or even a 6.5 Creedmoor? Just kidding

Oh, c'mon. Where's the fun in sensible simplicity?

Ironbender,

My .338WM Ruger Haweye African has a 22" barrel, and express sights. Has a sort of dull-gray finish, and no muzzle brake. The stock is a McMillan Classic with a Decelerator recoil pad cut down at the factory to a 12-1/2" LOP. The thing is heavy (over 8 pounds empty), but no problems with recoil. I really like the looks of this rifle, regardless of caliber.

Yeah... a real buzz killer

I see you expanded the spec with a synthetic stock... I must be slipping, but I guess I felt it was a given. But it’s true, a lot of these 24hr chaps need stuff overexplained!

Well, if we're playing the Captain Obvious game.......

Perhaps I should explain...

While most hunting - or hunters anyway- seem to be focused along or near the road accesses, for obvious and practical reasons, the majority of the better hunting is found beyond road access points. For this reason and from this perspective, one can better appreciate that you either beat yourself up with the larger heavier rifles which magnums typically are in carrying them, or they beat you up when you fire them repeatedly in a more svelte configuration. Obviously if you are only planning to kill a single animal, the recoil of a lightweight 338 may not be a big deal. But i certainly don’t relish the thought of hunting wolves or caribou where several rapid shots may be necessary, especially when something like a 30-06 is well beyond the minimums for positive effect.

(I have probably carried and killed more with 1. 7mm-08, 20” ; 2. 30-06, 22”; followed by 6mm and 45-70 but then I’m starting to get more species specific in what I target.). I would very happily choose a 280 or 30-06 to do it all if I was insane enough to be such a minimalist.

Certainly.

In my experience, I’ve found — highly subjective I know — the 375 with a proper stock to be kinder than most 338’s I’ve had and shot, and including many of the 300 magnums I’ve shot. And in no more than 8.5 lbs; I’d even go 8 even with a classicly shaped stock with very little drop at the comb and a wide, tall butt pad.

I see it as a big cartridge without being a bad or punishing one with some consistent use and in my present minimalist state-of-mind, it can be used on anything with the 270-gr TSX or the 250-gTTSX right out to four hundred yards.

Anyway, I’ve noticed the older you get, the more opinionated you get, and occasionally you’re even right.

A properly fitted stock on both a .338WM or .375H&H tames recoil well, specially if both are on the heavy side. Mine works quite well. Besides that, when developing loads for it I shoot it numerous times until I get to the right one, but do so on a lead-sled

Just for practice without the lead-sled, I shoot reduced loads with lighter weight bullets, or just a .22LR bolt-action rifle of a similar design as the .338WM rifle I hunt with.

I resemble that! 😁

Was a reference to myself. 😉

Oh, I beg to differ. 😝 that’s a shoe that fits me well......too, then. 😏

Maybe youse fellers wear the same extrytuffs?!

Thinking more along the line of pumps...