So far my Alaskan has been wonderful. But it holds three cartridges in the mag, and I tried to press down a fourth one on top of the ones in the mag to get it to feed into the CRF. But that didn't seem to work, I was doing a search on here and it seemed that some just toss one into the chamber and press down the stack and the blade pushes over the rim. I tried this but it felt like I was pushing pretty hard and it didn't go, so I stopped. Was the Alaskan meant to have one shoved in the chamber and the bolt closed over top? I thought some CRF was meant to do it, but now sure about my Alaskan. Thanks.

Not a suggested practice w/ 98's, etc., but believe you can press side of extractor while shoving round in the chamber and perhaps spring out a bit for it to snap over the rim. That Ruger spring/extractor is stout and may take a bit of force to accomplish. Mausers you can fairly easy press on the side and it will permit snapping over the rim. Some say that if you force the Mauser extractor over the rim enough times, it will damage the edge????
Good luck.

Alaskan and the African 375 calibers in the Ruger Hawkeye should hold 3+1, my son's works just fine. How many rounds have you fired through it? Maybe needs broke-in. Are you shooting reloads or factory ammo? If reloads just make sure you size the case deep enough in the sizing die you have the shoulder of the case sized properly. If you still have problems send it back to Ruger.

Strawman419,
Just drop the 4th round directly into the chamber and close the bolt on it.
No problem. The extractor will snap over the rim.

The Ruger Mark II's and Hawkeye's and RSM's are all made to do that ... just like the Pre-64 and Classic M70's.

I do it. Everybody does it. No problem.

The unmodified M98 will not do it without some side pressure on the extractor as the bolt is closed. Not good if your extractor is made of pot metal. O.K. if good spring steel.

RIP is correct. I would be a little more adamant in deploring the practice of fiddling with the extractor.

Well I guess I was just babying my baby too much. It is my baby after all, saved my life the other day from that charging squirrel. After that experience I realized how good of stopping rifle it was. Ha!