Savage brush hunter .338 win mag???

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MISportsman

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New member from Michigan here. I've been reading for a couple of years now, but just joined. I know this is a loaded question to ask a bunch of gun guys, but with my taxes I was going to buy a ruger super blackhawk 44 mag, buy every time I go into my lgs I'm drawn to this savage brush hunter in .338 win mag like a magnet. Do I buy the blackhawk, or the savage that seems to be calling me???
 
New member from Michigan here. I've been reading for a couple of years now, but just joined. I know this is a loaded question to ask a bunch of gun guys, but with my taxes I was going to buy a ruger super blackhawk 44 mag, buy every time I go into my lgs I'm drawn to this savage brush hunter in .338 win mag like a magnet. Do I buy the blackhawk, or the savage that seems to be calling me???
Well, I'd buy the Ruger Super Blackhawk 44 Mag because I already have a Winchester 70, 338 Win Mag. Besides, I'll bet the 44 Mag is lower priced, isn't it? If it isn't, it will be once you buy a decent scope for that 338 Win Mag.
BTW, not trying to be a wise guy here, but "Brush Hunter" is a silly name for a rifle. Who in the heck hunts "brush" with a rifle?:p
 
FWIW....I had a friend that had a Super Blackhawk .44. If you’ve never shot one, the grip style puts your middle finger right behind the trigger guard. It beats the crap out of the front side of your middle finger.

I have a Ruger Bisley .45 Colt. It’s great to shoot, and can be hand loaded to stronger than.44 mag levels. Dunno if the Bisley is available in .44, but if so I’d highly recommend it
 
It beats the crap out of the front side of your middle finger.
No it doesn't, not everyone. As I've mentioned in many other threads, my 5'2" 120lb wife has had 3 Ruger Super Blackhawks. She still has one of them, but she wore two of them out by running tens of thousands of full-house 44 Magnum loads through them in her IHMSA days. And those squared-off trigger guards never once beat on her middle finger.
As a matter of fact, I too had a Ruger Super Blackhawk 44 Mag with the squared-off trigger guard. It never banged on my middle finger either.
 
Who in the heck hunts "brush" with a rifle?
Took me a minute to catch the humor in that. :thumbup:

I like the rifle, not the cartridge. It is only available in 338 and 375 Ruger. It is intended for going into brush to finish off a wounded big bear. Not something many of us will ever do. If you need one for that then go for it.

The "Hog Hunter" is basically the same rifle in blue, but available in cartridges more useful for most people.

https://www.savagearms.com/content?p=firearms&a=product_summary&s=57020

Nothing wrong with the Ruger Blackhawk, but if I need to carry a handgun that big I'd much rather just carry a carbine similar to either of the Savage rifles.
 
FWIW....I had a friend that had a Super Blackhawk .44. If you’ve never shot one, the grip style puts your middle finger right behind the trigger guard. It beats the crap out of the front side of your middle finger.

I have a Ruger Bisley .45 Colt. It’s great to shoot, and can be hand loaded to stronger than.44 mag levels. Dunno if the Bisley is available in .44, but if so I’d highly recommend it
The new super blackhawks I've looked at have a rounded grip instead of the squared off one they used to
 
thought about that. That would probably cost me an extra weekend visiting the in-laws to approve that with the wife lol
Hey, we do what we have to. I can't tell you how much (not money) my second gun of 2020 will cost me, mainly because I haven't broken the news to my better 7/8ths...
I can say it will be costly.

The hunting rifle is great if you need one. The 44 revolver is great for any reason, you can hunt with it too. And shoot cans, expired produce and clutch it tight when you watch western movies. That rifle won't love you back, she'll only leave you with a sore shoulder and a bunch of butchering work. Do the right thing and get the one you'll never want to sell.
 
Took me a minute to catch the humor in that. :thumbup:

I like the rifle, not the cartridge. It is only available in 338 and 375 Ruger. It is intended for going into brush to finish off a wounded big bear. Not something many of us will ever do. If you need one for that then go for it.

The "Hog Hunter" is basically the same rifle in blue, but available in cartridges more useful for most people.

https://www.savagearms.com/content?p=firearms&a=product_summary&s=57020

Nothing wrong with the Ruger Blackhawk, but if I need to carry a handgun that big I'd much rather just carry a carbine similar to either of the Savage rifles.

This is excellent, well reasoned advice. As pointed out, 338 Win Mag is a lot of cartridge. Good for big bears but more than we need for most anything else and pretty darn punishing.

That 110 Hog Hunter looks great. I prefer a lever gun myself and my rescue Savage 99E in 308 Win will be my new tool, but the Hog Hunter has got it going on.

I really enjoyed this review:

https://www.guns.com/news/review/essence-of-swine-savage-hog-hunter
 
In terms of "brush" guns, I have a Savage Model 99 "Brush Gun", chambered in .358 Winchester that I have used to hunt the brush, heavy cover and cedar swamps in Michigan for the past forty years or so. It's a great handling rifle chambered in a "drop dead now" deer hunting cartridge.

Welcome to The High Road, MISportsman!
You are exactly right. I already have a marlin guide gun .45-70 for a brush gun, and if they make a better one for the purpose I'd be hard pressed to find it. I think the draw to the .338 is the vision of being on Kodiak Island tracking a monster bear
 
I often find myself in conundrums like you are in now. All through my twenty’s I thought about getting into a .35 Whelen. I have a few Mauser actions that could be built into one. But the older I get the more I realize that the 30-06 is about the upper limit for me to actually enjoy shooting a rifle instead of sighting in and leaving it. And the things I hunt aren’t very big. A .338 Win Mag would even be more outlandish to have in my case.
 
I'm an admitted recoil weenie, but I don't find .338 WM level recoil fun at all, and I don't think most other folks do either (also not a big fan of Salvages). .44 on the other hand is fun to shoot with a sufficient handgun, even moreso if you load and can dial it down a bit. My go-to plinking load in my 629 is 240gr @ 1,100 fps, but even full power loads 300 fps faster aren't too bad.

For carrying around the woods, a .44 in a chest rig is much less obtrusive and handier than any carbine, although admittedly less precise.

I'd buy for an actual use and purpose you have as opposed to a "maybe someday" use. Better to have a few guns that you like and shoot often than a bunch of safe queens taking up space waiting for someday.
 
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