My Favorite Rifles Look Like They Were Made In The 1950s Part I

Stuck indoors, a serious snow storm blowing outside and me under the influence of an annoying flu, I’ve been entertaining myself by going over a new Ruger full stock that replaces a CZ full stock that was recently sold. The CZ 550 was well done; clean metal and wood work, good fit and finish, the hog’s back stock was comfortable at the bench and the walnut’s color and grain were exceptional. Over a period of six or seven years, the 6.5×55 Swede put in many hours at the range during handload development and for recreational target shooting. This use also uncovered the rifle’s limitations, or at least attributes that did not tract to my preferences and/or applications.

The CZ’s Bavarian style stock, with its dramatic geometry and hooked pistol grip, was bulky. This added nonessential weight and made scope eyepiece to eye alignment a bit of a stretch. The stock’s highly figured grain was too pretty to drag through Maine brush. The CZ 550 action was a bit bolt stroke clunky, from cartridge pickup at the magazine through to chambering. Finally, the 6.5×55 Swede, while an exceptional cartridge was a bit too light for my purposes. Yes, I do realize that Swede’s routinely hunt what can be very large Scandinavian moose with the 6.5x55mm, but the same folks also put mufflers on cows and monitor the methane level of their accumulative flatulence. Let’s just say that the Swede’s decision making ability has become somewhat suspect. Run cows! Run!

My Ruger full stock…

The slender Ruger stock and somewhat truncated barrel brought rifle weight down by a full pound and its truncated barrel reduced overall length by three full inches. The minimal drop comb and one inch shorter length of pull make it quick to the shoulder and coming to sight alignment much more natural. The Ruger has dark, colorful, contrasting walnut stock with end to end sweeping grain flow and a look a lot like rubbed oil, poly finish. Barrel, receiver and bolt are all nicely finished blue/black finished alloy steel.

Like the CZ, the Ruger has receiver reliefs to accommodate proprietary scope rings, only this time they are Ruger Proprietary.The Ruger’s bottom metal is more refined; enough to be quite sturdy and function reliably without adding bulk and weight to the rifle. The floorplate release is embedded outside the front of the trigger guard. The Ruger safety is three position – on, bolt locked, on bolt free, off to fire.

Even though the Ruger and CZ are both controlled round feed bolt actions, the Ruger action is much smoother and the bolt better supported throughout the bolt’s throw. Overall, the Ruger rifle has better balance and its compact size make it to be easier to shoot from any position, including standard. Its more compact form makes it a better fit to the dense Maine woods.

I really can remember a time when metallic sights were the primary and scopes were an accessory for special circumstances involving multi football field distances, which brings me to one of the things I like about this International model. The rear sight is adjustable for both windage and elevation and it flips down, forward, to get out of the way of a scope’s objective lens. The ramped front sight is fixed with a flat brass bead. For most Maine and other New England hunting, that should about take care of sight needs. For folks who anticipate longer shots, or just like using a scope as an enhancement, the International incorporates the Ruger proprietary ring system. Supplied with 1″ medium height rings. 30mm diameter and various heights are available.

The 275 Rigby cartridge

In Europe, the CIP defined 7x57mm is not the same cartridge as the CIP defined .275 H.V. Rigby, even though the .275 H.V. Rigby if often attributed with taking the metric out of the 7x57mm to gain broad acceptance  within the U.K. and with its trading partners. They are very close dimensionally, with the Rigby close to the 7x57mm minimum dimensions. In the U.S., under SAAMI homologation, there is no .275 Rigby and the 7x57mm SAAMI sporting cartridge dimensions more closely aligns with the CIP .275 H.V. Rigby. The Ruger is chambered for American produced SAAMI specification 7x57mm ammunition and 275 Rigby ammunition, both of which are made to the same dimensional specification.

Left, the 7×57 Mauser. If you squint your eyes, and wave your open fingers in front of them while staring at the picture, you will see the .275 Rigby versions of the same. The round has existed in military form since 1892, and as a sporting cartridge in the U.S. with a Winchester petition of SAAMI going back to the 1930s.

The 7×57 Mauser holds approximately 5 grains more powder than the 7mm-08 Remington and 8 grains less than the 280 Remington. With an operating pressure 10kpsi lower than the other two, the 7×57 Mauser is a pretty softly loaded factory round. It is interesting that the 7mm-08 Remington bullet weight spread standards are 120 grains to 140 grains where the spread for the 7×57 Mauser is 139 grains to 175 grains. The original military load was a 173 grain FMJ.

Would I use the 7×57 Mauser for Maine deer, bear and moose hunting? Absolutely. If Bell could use the cartridge .labeled 275 Rigby to put down 1,000 elephants, I may not want his fan mail of today… kindergarten artists’ drawings of sad elephants with “lock him up” titling, but I could not reject the evidence of power.

And now….

I did not intend to write a piece on this rifle. I thought I’d ease into it after a month or so of range time, however, it was communicated to me that I needed to do something more than blowing my nose and playing with my new rifle. So I am going to press on and work Part II, a display of factory ammo and then a Part III rife with handloads. The specifics will be a surprise to all of us.