Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Express Rifles and Big Bores Only Factory 416 Ruger dgx bonded chronograph:

New, 400 grain dgx bonded factory ammo. 416 Ruger Hawkeye African cut to 22.5”(getting rid of barrel threads).

3 shots over the chronograph:
2455 fps
2425 fps
2398 fps.

As usual, recoil is gawd dmn fierce from this scoped gun weighing only 8.4 lbs.

My 416 Ruger is one of the early Alaskan rifles that I put in a skeleton stock. 7.5 bare and 8.5 scoped. With the 400 DGX bonded it is a thumper for sure…

I am going to load it with the 350 TSX when I can get my hands on some.

Haverluk,

What kind of scope are you running? At this level of recoil, I'm running the Leupold 2.5x ultralight. Kinda nice having that scope a good 5 inches away from my eye brow....

Mainer,

I have a Leupold 4x in Alaska Arms QR rings at about 4" eye relief. So far, it seems to be holding up. I have a 2.5x on deck when needed.

I’d cut those threads off as well if I had that gun. My Taylor is 8lbs with scope, and 7.25 lbs with the peep. 400s at 2400 are certainly inspiring!

I picked up a standard Hawkeye synthetic stock to compare "felt" recoil to the skeleton stock. Both have Limbsaver pads on them for the LOP increase along with the other obvious reasons. The old zytels are as tough as they come and I appreciate their ugly utilitarian nature. I disliked the factory issued Hogue very much.

I will shoot a 3 shot group with the Zytel and then swap the barreled action into the Hawkeye synthetic and fire another group of three. We'll see if one noticeably thumps me less.

IME the boat paddle will kick harder. It won’t give like the synthetic, is pretty stiff.

I had one on a Mk II SS ‘06. I put a Limbsaver pad on it as the OEM pad was hard as a brick. I didn’t like the longer LOP and how it worked with scopes.

My son does EBay sales, sold it for $385. I bought a laminated Boyd classic for $150, drilled out the butt stock, cut off enough wood to take 40 oz down to 32 oz. I like it better than the Zytel. But the Boatpaddle is really tough.

DF

$750 purchase price here on the Classifieds, minus $385 sale of the Zytel plus $150 for the Boyd = $515.

Seller threw in two Ruger 30mm rings, which were sold for $35 each, so final net in this rifle is $445. Of course, I did a good bit of work, but I work cheap...

Good walnut in this stock. It's light, and the grain is perfectly aligned for a hard kicker. You can tell Ruger hand selected the right stock for the hard recoilers. They relieved the wood back near the tang, a little less the 1/16” gap around the rear areas of the tang and two crossbolts.



I personally like the paper thin red recoil pad. Boxing matches in the Army, or a brawl on the street, I always smiled when a man actually threw a jab with something behind it. This rifle's recoil is the only one that brings me ah smile......

My son bought one of the first 30-06 Rossi's that our now closed Gander Mountain got in. It was to be his one forever rifle. It probably weighed 5 and a half pounds. I loaded some 220 grain bullets for fire forming loads. I shot it 5 times and my arm went numb. He was able to shoot it a few more that 5 when it became too painful.

I can only imagine shooting that 416. I can see my shoulder blades clapping together and the screws from my 12 vertebrae fusion unscrewing. I'm not that tough anymore. I do like to read your stories.

With a lighter gun in a boatpaddle stock, I agree.

With a std wt. M-70 .416 Rem, factory walnut stock, not too bad.

Here is an old dude, post op complete right rotator cuff repair 5 yrs ago, off a standing bench. Hit the mute button to hear the gun speak.

I was shooting my bud's gun, getting him ready for Africa. He suggested sending this clip to our ortho surgeon, who is also a hunter. Bud had his right shoulder fixed by this same guy in New Orleans. Surgeon liked it.

DF

[img]https://i.imgur.com/H0EkQ2c.mp4[/img]

DF

[img]https://i.imgur.com/H0EkQ2c.mp4[/img]

Ouch !
One should hold onto the forend too.
Shooting a kicker like a rimfire is not cool.
That is why I have resolved to change the forend screw on my Ruger No. 1 .458 WM after every 100 rounds.

I like the 20" barreled .416 Ruger M77 Hawkeye Alaskan in a canoe paddle stock too.
Hated the Hogue stock.
Mine weighs 5.5 lbs for factory barreled action, and the Zytel stock weighs 1.5 lbs, so
7.0 lbs for an express sighted .416 Ruger is almost as good as my 7.5# .458 WinMag with 23" barrel, on an M70 with #4 McGowen sporter contour.
I do add a slip-on pad to the canoe paddle stock for comfort and longer LOP so it is 7.25# before scope and ammo for the 20" .416 Ruger

I have a 24"-barreled Ruger No.1 .416 Ruger also.
It weighs 8 lbs-2 oz as it came out of the box.

The factory ammo is excellent.

Hornady DGS 400-grainer gave 2401 fps corrected to MV (2388 fps 5-yard) at 65*F in the 24-incher.
St.dev. for 20 shots was 10 fps.

Same ammo in the 20-incher at 77*F gave 2337 fps at 5 yards, MV corrected = 2350 fps,
and that was an average of 25 shots with st. dev. = 10 fps again.

I consider ammo excellent if st.dev. in fps is numerically less than the number of shots fired for the sample.

The 400-gr DGX ammo may be different, but supposed to shoot close to same POI, should be close to same MV.

Yeah, my bud was smart. He got me to load his ammo and sight in his big boomer.

DF

The boat paddle stock soaks up some recoil.
I've had one on my 458 since 95 and before that the rifle was a 338 Win.
I've shot over 2,000 rounds thru it as a 458.
I've taken the Wm Fowler muzzle brake off many times to compare recoil and muzzle blast.
Never yet had that rifle hurt me. Most of those were with the factory ribbed pad.
I've even shot it prone some. Express sights or 1-4 Leupold VX 2 .
Granted, I've never shot 550 or 600 gr bullets in it.
Never saw the need. 500s save deer meat just fine. And the trajectory was easy to use.
An 8 lb , wood stocked 416 pushing 400s @ 2450 would wake a guy up. But shouldn't be too bad.

My 1st 416 Rem had a 22" McGowan barrel . Was built on a 17 Enfield with a fiberglass stock. And Decilerator pad. Had a peep sight on it. Shot lots of hot 400 gr loads in it. 1st Barnes manual loads. It was ok. Had that rifle built the 1st year the 416 Rem came out.
I compared all rifle recoil to my 500 A-Sq. At that time.
All smaller carts that I shot were fairly mild in comparison

And 400's at 2,350 fps will get your attention, but sustainable...

Don't think a critter will know the difference.

DF

416 Ruger aboard, launching over beaver dams, looking for them bull moose.

Thanks for sharing the information. I find that pretty impressive from a handy sized rifle and cartridge.

The 20” Alaskan 416 Ruger, with a modification or two, is my favorite above .375 Rifle. As is the 20” 375 Ruger in .375 cartridges.
My 416, with the present scope weighs 1# 4 ounces more than yours. Shooting the 350 grain TSX bullets it is pretty civilized from the bench. I still have never chronographed this load. Wild ass guessing somewhere around 2400fps. It still thumps moose at my distances, and is what I consider very accurate.
One of these days, I will chronograph it and load the tipped versions that I have. The tipped ones definitely hold the velocity better.
That is definitely a lightweight boomer you have there !

Idmay375,
With all the shelves bare of common ammo, theres gobs of the 400 dgx bonded stuff in our local Alaskan gunstores in both 416 Ruger and 416 rem mag. I doubt I'll reload for the ole 416, with easily available horsepower like that.

Too much wind blown river silt, tracking beaver pond muck into boat, rain and snow this season.

Pulled the scope right off the 416, in favor of those rugged open sights!

It was so bad, the bore brush would pull a dust cloud of glacial silt out of the barrel every two days of hunting.

I hear tell that silt up there is tough on trigger mechanisms. Ruger 77 and ye olde Model 70 for the win!