Ruger American or Savage Hog Hunter

My vote goes to the Ruger American.

Inexpensive, but does a great job. Ruger customer service cannot be beat.

The Hog Hunter is fairly compact, but a tank. They call the barrel profile a "medium", but it's actually fairly heavy. My .338 Hog Hunter's muzzle is just about the same diameter as a 12 gauge barrel. It's thick. It also needs some weight on the back to balance it out, so it is compact and points great, but it's heavy.

Savage, you can upgrade it later if wanted!

What do you plan to do with it? Is weight as important as compactness? Or is it meant to generally be a lightweight, minimal rifle?

Of those two I'd get the Savage. But...and feel free to laugh at this suggestion, or me for making it...have you considered the MVP Patrol .308?

http://www.gunsamerica.com/blog/gun-review-mossbergs-mvp-patrol-7-62mm-308/

I was going to get a Savage hog hunter, mostly as an inexpensive threaded .308, but the MVP has some features I like.

Advantages:
* It takes M14/m1a and .308 AR magazines, in addition to the factory mags. I already have plenty of magazines.
* 16.25" threaded barrel.
* Iron sights and picatinny scope rail.

Disadvantages:
* It costs $100 over either gun mentioned.
* Mossberg brand

It is positioned more as a competitor to the various scout rifles, but the price is closer to the hog hunter than the gunsite scout.

If it's not something you're carrying a lot, then I can't recommend the Hog Hunter enough.

Take some of those cast boolits, stuff them in an old sock and shove them in the stock. That heavy barrel with such a light stock balances horrendously out of the box. I put a handful of 230gr bullets in the stock and balanced it right out. Helped tremendously.

lawboy said:

I am not feeling the Mossberg. Does not make me excited in any way.

Click to expand...

Yeah, the Mossberg name nearly kills any excitement for me too.

If not for my desire for a cheap .308 to hang a silencer on, I wouldn't have looked at any of these. If not for the shared magazines on the MVP I wouldn't have looked past the hog hunter.

Having handled all three, and knowing the MVP does nothing for you, I say go Savage.

The sights are surprisingly nice.

Having owned the Savage Hog Hunter in the past, I would definitely recommend it. In fact I want another one pretty badly (should never have sold my first one!).

One of my hog guns is a CZ550 in .308. A well made rifle in a great caliber at a reasonable price. My other hog hunter is a Browning BAR in .338 WinMag. Never got an argument from a hog when using the .338. The .308 is cheaper to shoot and practice with so it is my go to rifle for pork. It's also a lot easier on the shoulder.

My Ruger Predator is still under 7 lbs as shown. The Hog hunter is well over 7 lbs naked. I paid $399 for the Ruger, the Hog hunters I've seen have been $75-$125 more



The 1st try at 200 yards with the Predator. So far at 100 yards I've yet to fire a 3 shot group that didn't have all 3 holes overlapping.



I obviously chose the Ruger. It is just as accurate, if not more so, costs, less, and is much lighter. Scoped the Savage is at least a full pound heavier than my 300 magnum, can't see the point of a carbine that heavy.

If Ruger made the Predator in 7mm-08 I would be looking at one real hard.

You asked about 2 particular rifles. Of the two you mentioned, I would take the savage. The Ruger just felt cheap. But if I may, I'd like to throw the T/C Venture in the mix. Not much in the way of upgrades like the savage, but it doesn't really need any.

And Ventures have a $75 rebate through December, I believe.

Ruger American Predator. Threaded, lighter, less expensive.

Do you need the threaded muzzle?

My advice is go handle both rifles and see which one fits you the best.

I'd go with the Savage. But I am biased because of the aftermarket support of the Savage. Both are fine rifles for the money. Weight doesn't bother me, my go to hunter is 12#. Like DesertSmith says, handle em both.

If you don't tinker, go with the Ruger.

If you do tinker, go with the Savage.

The American isn't at all bad for the money. And Ruger made a few upgrades to them also, for one thing the magazine has been improved, it now has a steel follower, something that Ruger did at no charge, and without being asked to do so when I sent one of mine in for a repair that had nothing to do with a manufacturing issue BTW. Ruger also replaced the stock without being asked to do so, and the new stock is more rigid and is flawlessly floated from the action all the way to the end of the fore stock.

I recently shot a 4 shot group that was just under .75" with it at 100 yards, and a couple other impressive groups, and that was with the stock trigger. Which the stock trigger has a bit to be desired. But it can be modified fairly easily for those with the skill. But I didn't want to dink with it and ordered a Timney for $130 from Brownell's, and am confident groups will be more consistent since my biggest issue was the heavy creepy pull I had to deal with.

OTOH, I wouldn't be at all hesitant to go with the Savage either. I like them, and they will no doubt tune up nicely, and they probably need a bit less tuning than a bargain American does.

GS