By Sportsman’s News Pro Staff
Choosing to hunt dangerous game like bears, cape buffalo, and lions is an entirely different commitment than chasing deer, elk, or antelope. You can go from being the hunter to the hunted in the blink of an eye. Any major mistakes can cost you your life and the lives of your hunting companions. So, picking a rifle with this theory in mind makes you take the smallest details into considerations. You want a gun that is going to be there for you when the moment of truth is upon you and you definitely want a highly dependable gun in your hands in the event that your hunt starts to get a little western.
Weather resistant, reliable and compact, these are the 3 traits that I would use to describe the Ruger Alaskan. I recently took this rifle and put it to the test on a black bear hunt in Alaska’s Prince William Sound. The rifle I took was chambered in the .375 Ruger and to say it is a power house in a compact package would be an understatement. The rifle shot the Hornady 300 grain DGS Superformance ammo into a 1 “ group at 100 yards and it only dropped about 10 inches at 300 yards when zeroed at 200 yards all the while packing 4,700 ft lbs of energy at the muzzle. I feel that a lot of the accuracy this rifle achieved is due to the great LC6 trigger. It broke clean and the weight of pull was perfect for this type of rifle which was set at about 3.5 pounds. I chose to mount a low power 2-7 scope with plenty of eye relief for this rifle and I would recommend an eye relief of at least 3.6 inches for this stout recoiling rifle. Anything less than this will have you crying as well as bleeding.
The recoil is manageable because the total weight of the rifle, scope, mounts, sling, and fully loaded magazine is right at 10 pounds. The rifle comes with a set of 1” mounts and the bases are machined into the receiver, this is great as it makes for a solid mounting system and saves you a few bucks. In a case where the scope fails or if you just prefer open sights the gun is equipped with a express style V rear sight and large white front site bead that provides quick and accurate target acquisition. We didn’t use the open sights for any of the testing, but they held up extremely well with the tough conditions Alaska threw at us.
Another feature that I really appreciated was the great extractor. In a dangerous game gun it’s nice to know you have positive control of each round and that the gun will cycle smooth and fast when needed. The three position safety that Ruger is known for is a must on a dangerous game hunt in my opinion. Being able to load and unload the gun with the gun still on safe is an added safety measure in wet and cold conditions as well as the unstable actions that go on in a boat which provided me with an extra sense of security.
The weather on this trip really put the rifle to the test as we received rain almost every day of the week. As is typical of hunting in Prince William Sound we spent a lot of time glassing and then once a bear was spotted we would jump into a small skiff and head to the beach to gain a closer look. Between the rain and salt water this gun was exposed to, the stainless steel finish held up great with a quick wipe down of oil each night. The 20” barrel really makes it a great gun for transitioning from boat to skiff and it does not get hung up in the thick Alaska underbrush. Another great feature on this rifle is the Hogue OverMolded stock; it is perfect for wet weather and can take the abuse this type of a hunt can dish out. Overall, this gun is super quick handling, extremely reliable, and very accurate.
Although I can’t report that a large bear was taken and he went down in his tracks, I can report that we looked at many bears and my Ruger Alaskan .375 was by my side at all times and earned my respect as a solid weapon of choice for my dangerous game adventures. The “Alaskan” is a great name for this rifle because Alaska will put every piece of your equipment to the test of its life and Ruger has put together a piece of equipment that will be on every one of my dangerous game hunts for years to come.
