New 416 Ruger
Ruger and Hornady have teamed up to produce the new .416 Ruger cartridge which will be available next year (2009).
The round is basically a necked up .375 Ruger and offers performance comparable to the classic .416 Rigby in a standard length cartridge. The Ruger M77 Hawkeye bolt action will be available chambered in this cartridge.
Hornady claim on their website that the 416 Ruger offers the same performance in the compact 20″ barreled Ruger M77 Hawkeye Alaskan as the .416 Rugby in a full length rifle.
416 Ruger cartridge delivers the same performance as the fabled 416 Rigby, but does it in a shorter 20″ barreled Ruger Hawkeye rifle that is extremely compact and easy to carry.
I am skeptical about this claim. It will be interesting to see what results firearm magazine writers get when they test the ammunition.
Ruger M77 Hawkeye Alaskan (20″ Barrel)
Ballistic infomation:
Click to expand.
Product Video (there are a couple of video snippets at the start of charging elephants being shot. Really crazy stuff!):
The .375 Ruger has proved to be popular and I think so could the .416 Ruger. The standard length action is a compelling reason to choose this cartridge over the .416 Rigby and .416 Rem. Mag.
More info at Hornady.
PS:
Take a 416 rigby and load it to modern steels,powders and brass and see if the new kid can keep up then. Cause with the rig you got capacity, and there is no replacement for displacement
Stump buster. If you got a lott you got a lot and this like any other phase of these new fandanglied marketing ploys shall also pass like bad gas. Take a look at how the 450 marlin was going to do great things. If a fella sits at his bench with some 45/70 brass,(a 150 year old cartridge) he can easily make the 450 look sad
Any facts on pressures for this round?
I thought this 416 cal/rifle combo would be a handy package to carry for Bear and Moose up here in the Canadian northwoods. I certainly didn’t NEED it due to having numerous big bore rifles in the vault already, including all the weatherby rds. This was just a nice package to handle. A buddy and I each bought one..(he for an african safari). Once we were able to locate the factory hornady ammo up here, appreciate our dismay when we found it would not reliably feed through the rifle, on either gun. These two rifles were replaced by Ruger with two new ones, so off to the range again. Guess what? Neither of the replacement rifles will feed this ammo either!!!!! Jams occur virtually every time the bolt is cycled!!
This is still to be sorted out by/with Ruger/Hornady, but four out of four rifles that will NOT FEED the only factory ammo available for them??? And billed as a Dangerous game rifle??!!
I think Not.
loren Chaplin
Canada
Here’s a link to a PDF from Hornady.
https://www.hornady.com/media_center/download.php?file_id=1685
Heath, thanks!
I picked up my 416 Ruger last week and got a chance to shoot it over the weekend. I was expecting WAAAY more recoil than the rifle produced. I didn’t shoot for grouping yet, just fired a few rounds at an empty plastic soda bottle sitting about 30 yards away (both shots hit the bottle, so I think it’s pretty much sighted in from the factory). This rifle is going to be a hoot to carry and use (Hopefully on Northern Territory Buffalo). I’m happy with this rifle and like it “almost” as much as my 458 Lott (My Lott has a special place in my heart now that it’s been to Africa and provided splendid performance on Kudu, Zebra and Gemsbuck with 350gr TSX bullets loaded to 2750fps).
So have they released this monster yet?
Heath, I am not sure, I have not heard anything.
A number of years back, I remember reading about the .425 Express(?) wildcat cartridge, which basically was a necked up .338 Win Mag that duplicated .404 Jeffrey ballistics. I don’t see why you couldn’t get Rigby performance out of a blown out standard length Jeffrey based case. Dakota has been getting .375 H&H performance out of the same size case without the benefits of “heavy magnum” propellants, which, from what I have seen, will give you .300 H&H factory load performance from a 30-06. The Rigby is a pretty tame round pressure wise if you can call anything that big tame. We know from Weatherby experience that the belted version of the Rigby size case can be safely loaded to throw a 400 grain bullet at 2700fps+. I can see where ammo availability would be an issue in Africa, but that is the case with many newer rounds I suspect.
Despite the gun presses apparent love affair with ruger and hornady’s big game chamberings, they are still not popular with those that live and hunt in Africa. Unfortunately I am not one of those lucky few, but I have had the opportunity to talk to a couple of ph’s about these rounds and this is the scenario that has been posed to me. Suppose I go through the rigamaroll of shipping a gun and ammo to Tanzania. well if the bag with my ammo in it happens to be lost I will be showing up with a worthless gun as these ruger rounds are not readily available on the dark continent. Shopping in Africa is a bit different than in the States. That is not to say that I wouldn’t love to have one of these guns and I definitely appreciate the low price of both the rifle and the ammo.
I have ordered my 416 Ruger but here in Australia it takes a few months before the latest gear arrives from the states.
I hunted africa this year with a 416 Rigby and I can tell you there is nothing quite like it. We developed loads pushing 330 gs custom bullets at 3000 fps from the Rigby. The GS Custom bullets have drive bands which go to the outside bore line while the rest of the surface hugs the rifling and far less less pressure is created. Accuracy from my CZ 550 was an incredible 2.25 inches at 300 yards. Everyman should be using these South African created gems. These bullets allow modern firearms to use high level loadings without creating extra pressure.
I will use this 330gn projectile and 100 grains of ADI 2209 in my Ruger Hawkeye when it arrives as my handy bush and back up gun. I anticipate that 2600/2700 fps should be achievable easily
I just know the hogs and buffalo in Northern Australia are just going to hate the Ruger Hawkeye 416.
Well, inasmuch as I already have the CZ 550 in .416 Rigby, I will go ahead and keep it. It is a great caliber and having it in a magnum rather than standard length action is no great problem.
What I have always wanted is something like what Ken Waters called the “.416 Express.” Waters used the belted .350 Remington Magnum case necked up to .416 caliber. It pushed a 300 grain Barnes X-Bullet at around 2200 – 2300 fps, IIRC. Waters put it in a short action bolt gun (a Ruger 77, to be exact), but I would like to see it in the Marlin 1895 lever action. Picture it – the .450 Marlin necked *down* to .416 caliber.
I am also a bit skeptical about the ballistic claims being made for this .416 Ruger. I suppose it is possible with modern powders and a really strong case. But I wonder if handloaders will be able to get to factory velocities with canister powders. I’d expect sort of the same performance that handloaders get with the 8mm Remington Magnum – its hard to get to factory ballistics with canister powders without starting to really worry about pressure.
I submitted this cartridge to AmmoGuide over a year ago, lol – great minds think alike – this will be a beauty with Hawk’s 500 gr RP bullet – SD is .413 MV 2160 ME 5179 TKO 64.18 should prove to be a hoot on Texas Rhino.