My friends at Savage are sending me a Savage 110 Apex Storm XP Package with a stainless steel, button rifled barrel to test in 6.5 Creedmoor. I requested this model because it is jam packed with features that costs well over $1000 and includes a Vortex Scope. They say it is ready for anything nature can dish out! We shall see…
FEATURES
Redesigned Model 110 rifle
Stainless steel button-rifled barrel
3-9x40mm Vortex Crossfire II scope, mounted and bore-sighted
Dead-Hold BDC reticle’s hashmark design reduces guesswork on holdover and windage
Vortex Hunter medium rings and one-piece EGW 0 MOA rail
The .375 Ruger was introduced in 2007 as a rimless standard length cartridge that is slightly larger in powder capacity and energy than the .375 H & H Magnum (a belted and tapered cartridge) , widely used in Africa all the way up to Elephant. Great on big Russian Boar with their protective shield!
The .375 Ruger cartridge is used on the same dangerous game with a shorter Ruger rifle bolt throw like the 30-06 and a Mauser action which reliably grabs the rim of the cartridge and chambers the round. And in North America the .375 Ruger is ideal for Brown Bear, Moose and Bison. It will throw a 300 grain bullet at around 2500 fps and 2650 fps with 260 grain Noslers, both achieving around 2 tons of energy at the muzzle or so.
The .375 Ruger is offered in the Ruger Hawkeye African with American Walnut and the Ruger Hawkeye Alaskan with a synthetic stock. I hunted plains game in Africa with the Ruger M77 in .338 Winchester Magnum and 250 grain Nosler Partitions, accordingly, I got acclimated to heavy recoil.
As an Outdoor Writer I wanted more experience with powerful cartridges so I purchased the Ruger Hawkeye African in .375 Ruger some years back.
What is to tame in the .375 Ruger? Felt recoil with the stock recoil pad originally provided was insufficient to tame full power recoil at a bench rest where I was locked into the rifle position for accurate shooting.
There are several pads that are available on the market today to reduce felt recoil by 50% or more. I use the Pachmayr Decelerator. It did not take me long to purchase and test a few. They tame the full power loads so much that I can shoot them in my T-Shirt.
The accuracy of my .375 Ruger in the M77 Ruger African Rifle is nothing short of exceptional, often regularly shooting sub-MOA groups. Nosler is my go-to bullet company. The AccuBond and E-Tip and Partition give me superior bullet construction delivering over 4000 ft-lbs (2 tons) of energy at the muzzle and like 2800 ft-lbs at over 200 yards.
Years back, at 50 yard a friend observed my very first shot with the rifle right out of the box with dangerous game loads. After placing a shot with a Leupold Scope on paper, he said, go ahead and shoot another. I shot the second round. He said, I missed the whole target. Shoot another… and I did. Missed that one too he said. So we went down range to find the three bullets in the same hole. My friend said, “Your keeping that rifle, Right?” I grinned a big smile.
So what else is there to tame? Well, this rifle cartridge, when hand loaded can be easily reduced in power to hunt deer and black bear if you like.
You can search articles here in NH Rifleman for more on the .375 Ruger reduced loads.
It is like owning a 38-55, a .375 Winchester, and a cartridge more power than the .375 H & H Magnum. Finally the Ruger is not fussy about bullets, it shoots them all very well and I can shoot all the way down to 220 grain bullets.
I have some 235 grain heads for deer. See the article below.
From a hunting perspective I think that a laser bore sight can be very valuable if you take it in the field with you! I had to experience my own stupidity on a trophy hunt and my rifle and scope gets knocked around or dropped. I was in Texas this past October on a Trophy Whitetail Hunt and banged my rifle and scope a bit. I missed a shot one evening on a very nice buck. Truth is, was it a banged scope or me as excited as i was. Or perhaps a combination of the two. There is another possibility as well, that my scope was dialed up so high that it was difficult to keep the crosshairs steady. In any event, I did not have a laser bore sight in my backpack to validate the scope. It was now night time. So I asked myself and my guide; “Should I take the same rifle out in the morning or use my backup rifle?”
The answer was to use my already proven back-up rifle.
But what if I had no back up rifle?
I would then have to wait for daylight and go to the range with the banged rifle scope to see what was happening and miss the critical dawn whitetail hunting.
A laser bore sight device is made by several manufacturers.
I have seen Jim Shockey advertise the Site-Light SL-100. But seeing is believing. I will try to hunt and field test one of their models here this spring.
They make three models. The SL-100 is cost effective at $99 dollars via most retailers. The SL-150 is $160 or so. The SL-500 is military grade at over $200 and can be seen out to 100 yards.
I have successfully hunted and called in Bull Moose in New Hampshire with a friend several years back. It was not a trophy bull with a 50 inch rack and not even a 40 incher. His body was full grown but small in the antler department. But it was a bull and he was mine. Of course I had some rudimentary skills in vocalization of a bull and having seen dozens of videos of callers work their magic with hands pinching their nostrils and making a cow like sound of another bull grunting behind an imaginary hot female cow moose.
The bull moose is much like a whitetail buck in that they also grind antlers on trees and destroy bushes to let others know that they are big and mean.
So I did the same, smashing trees and shaking bushes so hard that my partner though I had lost all my marbles. And I used some cow moose in estrous to scent down wind.
It all worked!
But if I were on a real trophy hunt, I would have let him pass as just a young’un.
Not a great rack, but he is on the wall in my home and it makes me happy that he is a New Hampshire Moose.
A Newfoundland Hunt is in the works! See my earlier article below.
I am heading to Newfoundland for a trophy bull this September with the same friend except we are going to have to pass on lesser bulls.
Honestly, I think I have good basic skills to hunt these giants but I want more skill sets before I go.
Accordingly, I am looking for expert hunting advice that I can use out in the field besides my very limited moose hunting experience. Yes, my moose guide should be very expert too.
I think I found a book that collects all that wisdom from dozens of hunts below.
This book covers moose from Alaska, across Canada and Newfoundland. With many Newfoundland hunts which I find very helpful.
The book covers all aspects of the hunt, preparation, weapons and 100 years of field experience and great moose calling advice. I highly recommend it!
One item that I will purchase for the hunt is a laser bore-sighter for my backpack. I dropped my last scoped rifle in the field and shot confidence went down hill. Luckily I had a back up rifle.
On this trip my baggage will be very limited in a light aircraft so I can’t even take a hard case.
I chose the PSE Thrive 400 Crossbow with a 4×32 illuminated scope to test because of my PSE knowledge over decades of quality compound bow manufacture and its use by friends in 3D archery. This crossbow utilizes reverse cam technology and, very modest cost MSRP ($449) yet high level of CNC machined quality. I was hopeful that it would be accurate too.
If you do your homework you can see that the cost of the best crossbows were over $1000 dollars. If that was all there was to choose from, I would have to pass on them.
For the broadhead test, I shot it with a Muzzy 4 blade 100 grain and it was the same point of impact as the 100 grain field points.
On Safari years back, I successfully hunted African Gemsbok and Red Hartebeast with these Muzzy broadheads. I love’em!
Now, on with the test with broadheads on wild boar at “Skinner Bog” in Maine; owned and operated by Jeremy Bilodeau. I have hunted Russian boar previously with Jeremy with my TC Encore Rifle in 30-06 Springfield. It is a very family friendly hunt and where Jeremy is also my friendly guide.
We rode Jeremy’s 4×4 down a snow covered trail and parked. Jeremy said, “These boar can be anywhere so load your crossbow.” Reaching in my pocket for the string loader device I was able to get my foot in the stirup and pull the 175 lb needed to load the bow. You have to use your back muscles and finally your arm muscles to load it. It is not an easy pull but wow does it shoot a fast bolt (arrow) at around 400 fps.
I noted how firmly the PSE Thrive crossbow held the nocked arrow and broadhead as I moved through the woods. I like that!!
We sat in a blind for an hour waiting for them to come to some food and even used some hog squealing to call them but to no avail.
We decided to use the “go to them mode.” I took the quiver off the bow and asked Jeremy to hold it. Jeremy noted that the quiver broadhead cover was coming loose, (the only thing we found that could be better) some adhesive should fix that.
Below we spotted them!
We began a stalk on some boar napping in the cold morning sun. Suddenly they heard us as the snow crunched beneath our feet. They nervously awoke and began to scatter. These boar are younger but still hefty in size from 100 to 250 lbs.
The PSE Thrive is not heavy and is easier to carry than I anticipated. I like the stock of the bow and its camo. It handles well.
The snow crunching beneath our feet awakened a pig pile of these oinkers and they slowly scattered around in the forest.
One of them stepped from the group and turned broadside at around 30 yards!
The trigger of the Thrive is a crisp 4 to 5 lbs!! Excellent!!!
At the shot, the crossbow recoiled slightly and the bolt was headed for the boar so fast that we could barely see a blur.
It hit the boar with a slap sound and the boar ran slowly up the wooded ridge. We approached where the boar was hit and found the arrow and broadhead embedded solidly in a tree behind the boar. It was a solid hit and a pass thru shot. We saw that the boar was walking slow and bleeding. The shot was further back than I liked so we hurried crunching snow beneath our feet hoping to intercept the boar for a second shot in the video clip below.
The Muzzy 4 blade passed through him like a hot knife through butter. He still ran some more! The blood trail was huge and wide. You would have to be blind to miss it! The boar ran a good 50 yards before piling up.
These wild boar are tough and so is the PSE Thrive! What a great test and a great crossbow for a great cost effective price for many hunters! I have seen it on sale too!!
A crossbow such as this can add to your hunting season in many states. I give it another A. Just glue the quiver cover on and you are good to go.
This week my twin brother Rich took his 300 Blackout to The Blue Rooster in Arizona and put some wild oink in the freezer on the cheap. Wild pigs abound and are sizable. Hunt Cost; $299
Rich and wife Ruth are retired and living nearby so this was a local treat for him. Like me, he handloads, so he had some loads already worked up. The 300 Blackout is a great semi-auto round for larger game and bullet weights that are normally 110 to 130 grain but can be much higher. Energies are well over 1300 ft lbs and good medicine for wild boar and wild pigs.
Accommodations are very wife and family friendly says Rich.
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Moose are the largest deer in North America. Most sportsmen and women hunt moose for several reasons. First and foremost is that , in my case, moose hunting is an Adventure in the Wilds of Canada! And moose meat is absolutely delicious. An adult moose can provide more than 300 lbs of boned venison for your family. A bull moose with its great antlers is a spectacle that deserves taxidermy and display perhaps over your fireplace or in your game room in remembrance of the hunt. As for me, I can afford a bucket list Newfoundland Moose Hunt in the $6000 to $7000 range and get a great representative “wallhanger” of the species too.
Newfoundland Moose (Alces alces americana) are plentiful, there are over 130,000 just in Newfoundland alone. Being such large adult animal in the 850 to 1200 pound require lots of delivered bullet energy for penetration in the sizable heart/lungs area (the size of a 10 inch paper plate) with the right bullet construction at the right angle to cleanly harvest them.
The most critical component of all is shot placement! No caliber, cartridge or energy can substitute for correct shot placement. Period!
Whatever you ultimately decide to hunt moose with, you have to be comfortable and accurate with it under field hunting circumstances, no red spot target to aim at here, and the hunter is filled with adrenaline, and heavy breathing making your scope crosshairs wiggle like a worm. A monopod, bipod or tripod rest will aid greatly here.
I have said before in a recent article, that you can kill a moose with your deer rifle given some understanding of delivered energy at a given distance and shot angle such as broadside or slight angled away. Some Fish and Game officials ascribe to 2500 ft-lbs of energy as a guideline for the a full grown largest adult Bull Moose who may tip the scales at 1200 plus pound live weight category. Using the .270 Winchester, 30-06 Springfield and 6.5 and 7mm calibers will work with good shot placement but not at the recommended energy. If you have a larger caliber you shoot well then I recommend you use it. Put them down faster with larger calibers. I highly recommend a 180 grain bullet or higher from a 30 plus caliber rifle, if you shoot them accurately, such as the 30-06 Springfield, 300 Magnums, .338 Win Mag and 375’s. The 7mm Rem Mag in 175 grain works fine but personally, I’d rather a larger cartridge-caliber as I can handle the recoil. These bullets have higher sectional densities above 0.25 for maximum penetration. A great article to read is from Chuck Hawkes. https://www.chuckhawks.com/sd.htm
Below cartridges I handload, among many others are the .375 Ruger, 30-06 Springfield, and the 6.5 Creedmoor. I like the .375 Ruger over the 30-06 for moose because I can handle the recoil and shoot it very well. A Pachmayr Decelerator recoil pad cuts felt recoil in half.
.375 Ruger, 30-06 Springfield, 6.5 Creedmoor
Try to stay under 200 yards. I will likely use my Ruger African M77 in .375 Ruger. I shoot it very well, and it does perform, delivering a 260 grain Nosler AccuBond with 2800 ft-lbs of energy at 200 yards. If I had to reach further with a good rest, it can. Still got to wait for the right shot though, and great shot placement! See Lungs and heart outline below with red dot shot placement.
Shot placement is the real hero here.
I believe, on average, there are many more moose in the 850 pound class than the 1200 lb class. At 2500 ft lbs of energy your .270 Winchester also has a muzzle energy of 2500 ft-lbs so you need your moose at the muzzle? I don’t think so but an 850 lb moose you need around 1800 ft-lbs and that gets you out to 200 yards.
You can’t put a moose on a weight scale before you shoot’em.
I arrived at the 1800 ft-lb at 200 yards using the ratio of bullet energy to harvest over the animal weight. Example: It takes 1500 ft-lbs to cleanly kill elk. Bull Elk on the hoof weigh in at 600 to700 lbs. I used this ratio to solve for energy needed with a ballistic calculator for a 140 grain .270 bullet at 2800 fps.
I cannot stress the use of a rest of some kind enough. Like a Bog Pod or Primos Trigger Stick. They are worth every penny!
In the Newfoundland bogs you are often in brush that may block your shot here and there. Patience is a virtue! Just like deer hunting!
Bullet Construction – for heavy game should be rugged and hold its weight while penetrating. Bonded, Fail Safe, and Partition or Specialty Copper bullets do a great job at maintaining weight as they mushroom and penetrate. I am a Nosler Partition and AccuBond fan though there is a new .375 caliber 260 grain solid Gilding Copper E-Tip(TM) I will test. Both have served me well on Wild Boar, Moose and Bison already.
We have exceeded our goal of 60,000 Views this year. The largest viewership goes to the USA with Canada as second largest but we have seen viewers from Africa, Australia/ New Zealand, Britain, Europe, Japan and South America.
On Cartridges we wrote about the 6.5 Creedmoor this year and sang its praises as a fine hunting cartridge and the bullets fabulous Sectional Density and compared it favorably with the .270 Winchester.
We tested the Weatherby Vanguard Weatherguard in 6.5 Creedmoor and harvested deer with it using Nosler 129 grain LRAB’s at 100 yards. When hit in the vitals the deer dropped in just a few feet with complete pass thru’s.
I wrote extensively about the Leupold VX-6 Scope and highly recommend it for long range shooting. It is larger and more powerful than necessary for hunting New England but for a well traveled hunter it is perfect. Just be careful to not zoom so close, at say 100 yards, that you lose field of view and becomes subject to unsteady crosshairs, especially when you don’t have a solid rest at high power above 10x, I learned that lesson!
We talked about Scent Control and the new Ozone producing products. Love them!
We worked with Sig Sauer Academy and tested the P320 and took one of their courses. I like the P320 very much. Their Intermediate Handgun skills course was excellent!!
I also tested the SIG Echo 1 Thermal Reflex sight and found that it worked well if you have lots of pigs/wild boar and night-hunting.
I joined QDMA this year and very pleased so far. They spent lots of effort on CWD education this year. Use their education to age whitetail bucks and harvested a mature 4.5 year old 11 point 144 3/8 Boone and Crockett buck in Texas at Wildlife Systems Rocky Creek Ranch with my TC Encore 50 Cal. Muzzleloader. And spent time with my friend Larry Weishuhn there.
We tested and purchased Lab Radar for Doppler bullet Chronographs. Expensive but life long use justified the price.
We are testing the PSE Thrive 400 Crossbow ( see the December article) at this time and should have more on it soon.
In total we wrote nearly 100 articles in 2018 and looking for more fun and Product Testing n 2019.
And more on the ATV ARGO for remote hunting big game in Canada….
