What rifle for Alaska

[Garandimal]

One advantage of the 35 Whelen is that I don't have to buy brass. I literally have five gallon buckets of once fired LC brass, from the days when I drew DCM ammunition at matches. So, I neck 30-06 cases up. I found that necked up cases had a high crack rate unless I annealed the things:

View attachment 844737

I believe accuracy improved, but I don't have objective evidence. Case life improved after annealing. I annealed in the inky shadows of the garage, holding a case in my finger tips, a blow torch on the neck, and dropping it into a pan of water before any redness was revealed. This took about three seconds. I made over annealing mistakes, where the neck tension would not hold a bullet. Live and learn.

First firing I lubed up the cases, what you see in this picture is either vasoline or hair gel, which is vasoline with a perfume.

View attachment 844738

Greasing the case, particularly the neck and shoulder, prevented case side wall stretch. Instead of the case neck grabbing the chamber, after which the case sidewalls have to stretch to allow the base to reach the bolt face, these cases simply slide to the bolt face, and the shoulders fold out. A minimum amount of grease is desirable, I have had the rare occasional shoulder dent, which is removed on the next firing. After firing I have a case which is stress free and perfectly fireformed to the chamber. Due to the slight shoulder on the 35 Whelen I size the case so that when the bolt is closed on the case, there is absolutely no forward or backward movement to the bolt, I do not bump the shoulder back to make clearance in the chamber, the case is an exact fit, just short of a crush up. I have had misfires/hangfires in the 35 Whelen and I am of the opinion that insufficient firing pin protrusion, weak mainsprings, and excessive shoulder clearance, insensitive primers were aggravating factors, along with the slight shoulder of the case.Removing the case clearance, replacing firing pins and mainsprings, using Federal primers dramatically improved ignition consistency. Federal primers are the most sensitive primers on the market, at least, that is what they were advertised as being. I do not want an insensitive mil spec primer in this application. A bud recommended chambering my custom rifle as a 35 Brown-Whelen,to have an more abrupt shoulder, and there may be something to that.

Being able to use cheap 30-06 brass is an advantage to the 35 Whelen, in my opinion.

Was gettin' ready to do all that w/ a .338-06/.35 Whelen.

Then I went w/ the 9.3x62mm and $20/box PPU ammo w/ annealed cases.

"Ba-da-Bing!"... once-fired (in my chamber) annealed brass.

So I'm lazy. Sue me.






GR

 

[Llama Bob]

Penetration depends on multiple factors SD being one of them. The 9.3 has a good reputation as does the .375.

A .470 NE with a 500 Gr round and an SD of over .3 does not.

The other relevant factors are projectile rigidity, retained weight, and for solids meplat size and sharpness. Impact velocity mostly impacts rigidity for reasonable impact velocities.

In general though penetration-oriented softs are similar in those regards. The same SD and projectile construction in a .470NE will penetrate roughly as deeply as any other cartridge. There's more difference in solids - highly rigid wide sharp meplat solids like Northforks and Cutting Edge outperform round nose steel jacket solids by a large margin.

 

[H&Hhunter]

The other relevant factors are projectile rigidity, retained weight, and for solids meplat size and sharpness. Impact velocity mostly impacts rigidity for reasonable impact velocities.

In general though penetration-oriented softs are similar in those regards. The same SD and projectile construction in a .470NE will penetrate roughly as deeply as any other cartridge. There's more difference in solids - highly rigid wide sharp meplat solids like Northforks and Cutting Edge outperform round nose steel jacket solids by a large margin.

Which is the beauty of a double. You can shoot any shaped bullet you want because you don’t have feeding issue.

From my personal experience I have to say though that with similar shaped bullets at similar SD at similar velocity a 480 gr .458 and a 300 Gr .375 definitly out penetrate a 500 gr .474 bullet. These are on length wise body shots on cape buffalo. I’ve got some square nosed 500 gr monolithic solids for the .470 but haven’t used them on any thick skinned DG yet.

 

[.308 Norma]

300 win mag, 30-06, 7mm, and .338 are what everyone I know uses

7mm what? Between me and my wife, we've had 6 different 7mms - (2) 7mm-08s, 7mm Rem Mag, 7mm Wby Mag, 7mm IHMSA and a 7mm Mauser.

 

[MCMXI]

You can always tell a true rifleman because they know how to mount a scope. As low to the bore as you can get!

Maybe this is semantics but ....

You know I have a lot of respect for you @H&Hhunter, but I'm going to disagree with you on this. A scope should be mounted with optimal eye relief and in such a way that the shooter can get a proper and consistent cheek weld while having his/her eye centered in the exit pupil. It just so happens that with many stocks that were originally designed for iron-sighted barreled actions, a good check weld means that the scope needs to sit as low as possible. I have more than a few rifles that have the center of the scope tube 3" above the bore axis while still meeting the requirements that I mentioned, and those rifles shoot, not just at 100 yards but way out past 1,000 yards.

 

[H&Hhunter]

Maybe this is semantics but ....

You know I have a lot of respect for you @H&Hhunter, but I'm going to disagree with you on this. A scope should be mounted with optimal eye relief and in such a way that the shooter can get a proper and consistent cheek weld while having his/her eye centered in the exit pupil. It just so happens that with many stocks that were originally designed for iron-sighted barreled actions, a good check weld means that the scope needs to sit as low as possible. I have more than a few rifles that have the center of the scope tube 3" above the bore axis while still meeting the requirements that I mentioned, and those rifles shoot, not just at 100 yards but way out past 1,000 yards.

Agreed, I just see so many scopes mounted way to high for no reason. But yes it’s all about eye alignment with proper cheek weld. A Properly mounted scope that comes naturally to the eye makes for a fast handling scoped rifle. IMO to many hunters now days focus on only the long range aspect of a scoped rifle and completely destroy the handling characteristics of a hunting rifle because of it. The “art” of rifle handling is being lost with all of these long range set ups. How many hunters and or rifle shooters practice snap shooting or off hand shooting at all anymore?

That’s kind of where I was going with the whole low mounted scope comment.

 

[Garandimal]

Agreed, I just see so many scopes mounted way to high for no reason. But yes it’s all about eye alignment with proper cheek weld. A Properly mounted scope that comes naturally to the eye makes for a fast handling scoped rifle. IMO to many hunters now days focus on only the long range aspect of a scoped rifle and completely destroy the handling characteristics of a hunting rifle because of it. The “art” of rifle handling is being lost with all of these long range set ups. How many hunters and or rifle shooters practice snap shooting or off hand shooting at all anymore?

That’s kind of where I was going with the whole low mounted scope comment.

A few old motorcycle tires and some cardboard? ...are invaluable.




GR

 

[Alaskan Ironworker]

7mm rem mag is the only 7mm anyone I know uses.

 

[H&Hhunter]

A few old motorcycle tires and some cardboard? ...are invaluable.




GR

Spoken like a true riflemen sir.

 

[Offfhand]

I just see so many scopes mounted way to high for no reason. But yes it’s all about eye alignment with proper cheek weld. A Properly mounted scope that comes naturally to the eye makes for a fast handling scoped rifle. IMO to many hunters now days focus on only the long range aspect of a scoped rifle and completely destroy the handling characteristics of a hunting rifle because of it. The “art” of rifle handling is being lost with all of these long range set ups.

I agree completely. Here are a couple of my rifles built by Griffin & Howe, on M-70 Win actions: a .300 and .375 H&H Magnums. Both have seen successful Alaskan service. Note the very low scope mounting, which makes aiming quick and natural. The G&H quick release side mount provides another important factor not mentioned in this thread about rifles for Alaskan hunting: the ability to quickly remove the scope and use the open sights. If a scope is going to fail, it probably will in Alaska.

 

[Cocked & Locked]

Several years ago I was in a gun store in Eagle River Alaska (Boondock Sporting Goods). First thing I noticed were many green and yellow boxes of Remington Core-Lokt ammo in lots of different calibers.

I asked a guy behind the counter what caliber rile and ammo did they sell the most of. His answer was, .30-'06.

That being said, if I was going to AK today to hunt and had to take a rifle from my safe it would be my Remington 700 Classic .35 Whelen. If I was going to buy one to take it would be a .375 H&H.

.35 Whelen




Probably would take the .45-70 as a spare.

 

[Gordon]

A .375 H&H will do it all up there. My final rig was (and is ) a Winchester 1999 M70 Stainless Ultimate Classic in a Brown Precision Classic stock with a 1.5-6 Leupold Varix 3 with heavy duplex in a low Dead Nutz Game Reaper mount . The only way it would be better is if it had iron sights with a bomb proof QD scope mount . However my setup has been trouble free in Africa and there. A 30-06 would do it too , the trajectory of the o6 and the .375 are very similar . . A great three gun battery is a .223 ( or .22 rimfire magnum) a 30-06 and an 870 3" short barrel with choke tubes.

 

[Flatbush Harry]

When I used to travel more to fish and hunt, I built an "Alaskan" rifle using a Rem700 XCR II barreled action in .375 H&H glass-bedded in a Bell & Carlson Weatherby stock (I like the high comb and right cast-off for hard-recoiling rifles), with a Timney 508 trigger to replace the factory trigger. I also added Leupold QD bases and rings, two sets of rings to allow me to use both a 1.25-5x20 scope for bear country and a 3-9x40 scope for elk. The rifle was superbly accurate (the .375 H&H cartridge is a very accurate round) and effective on elk with Federal Premium 260 gr. AccuBonds, and presumably effective on bear with 300 gr Hornady DG solids and expanding. I never got to find out, for which I was grateful.

 

[If1HitU]

I doubt i'd ever go to Alaska,but if I did go i will go with my Marlin 1895CB 45-70.

 

[adcoch1]

If I went to Alaska today I'd take my Tikka t3lite ss 30-06. Some 150 grn Sierra game kings for light jobs and some 180-200 grn partition or solids for the big stuff.

If I had a little time I'd finish wringing out my 35 whelen and take that. From 125 grn pistol bullets up to 300 grn solids, it has a lot of versatility...