Ruger's M77 Hawkeye African Series Part 2

This next fall, I expect to have a great hunting season. To that end, I embarked on a controversial program  that is based on a little known concept of eating reasonable amounts of everyday food and moderate levels of exercise. The program is simple and only involves some very basic math and some goal setting.

A good Internet calorie calculator identifies current calories consumption levels and provided two calorie reduction levels; fat burn calorie levels and severe fat burn calorie levels. Good nutritional information sites provide enough information to layout a healthy menu. Add in some patience, persistence and discipline and a couple of pounds will fall away each week. Finally, knowing a goal weight provides the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel and it allows a person to layout a menu consistent with sustaining that new weight. No starving involved, no bad food, no temporary diet. It is a way to change your typical body weight.

Above is a picture of two servings of one of my favorite weight loss program dishes. Light oatmeal bread French toast, cooked on a griddle, doused in lite syrup with three links of Lite Brown N’ Serve Sausage. 336 calories. I drink coffee black, no sugar.  No sacrifice needed, even when you want to treat yourself to something special, if you are willing to really examine the goals and the choices. It’s a lot like developing handloads, you research and pick the components you like, then try to get them to work well together.

Good shooting, good looking and low in calories…

OK, I liked the Ruger in Part I and there is nothing that has occurred since then that would alter that opinion. The African carries the same attitude and appeal as my 375 H&H Express rifle right down to the stock cross bolt and sturdy metallic sights. The Ruger M77 Hawkeye African is a gun that instills confidence… a hunting rifle with intuitive feel and, I might add, it is a fine looking firearm.

I’m not sure what the M77 Hawkeye African chamber options signify. An end to short magnum cliché cartridges? An end to the “proper” 375 H&H cliché express rifles? Traditional cartridges for a traditional rifle? A new pragmatism hitting the industry? Unlike us, cartridges don’t grow old and slack off. The .338 Winchester Magnum is as much of a flat shooting bone crusher today as it was in 1958, there are more high performance factory loads than ever before and it is an excellent cartridge for the handloader.

I like 0.338″ bullet cartridges, particularly those of larger capacity, for the reasons noted in Part 1. Subsequently, I have a bullet inventory that is comprised of current production as well as those that have been out of production since… March 6, 1836.

(L – R 338-378 Weatherby Magnum, 338 Remington Ultra Mag, .338 Winchester Magnum, .338 Ruger Compact Magnum, 325 WSM… which is actually an 8mm Magnum)

These are some of my favorite o.338″ bullets for magnum applications. The second from the left is out of production, but it was included because I could never get them to group smaller than the state of Texas with any other 0.338″ cartridge and because I have like… 9 million of them I purchased on sale. I thought a couple hundred feet per second less velocity from the .338 Winchester Magnum might make a difference and give me a great load for a bullet that… is no longer manufactured. Humor me, I’m old.