I have started to play with my Ruger Alaskan in 375 Ruger. The rifle is new and has never been fired (yet).

I loaded some dummy loads for the rifle to check feeding. All dummy rounds were made with Hornady DGS, which does have a bit of a flat meplat to the nose, and loaded to the listed OAL. This length appears excellent for eventual crimping in the bullet cannelure.

My first round fed from the magazine was quite difficult to chamber. It appeared to angle and bind before jumping to the extractor. I have attached a couple of photos of the round at this point of resistance.





I have cycled the dummy rounds about 100 times and this did much to smooth things out. It feels like a new rifle. But, there is still a hint of resistance at this point in the process.

The issue only seems to arise with the first round which feeds from the right side of the stagger. The second and third rounds feed much smoother.

I don’t really feed any burrs on the fee rails. The feed ramp is relatively smooth.

I have only limited experience with Rugers and with CRF’s in general. Is this terribly abnormal? Would the issue most likely be the feed rails? Looking at it in action, it appears to me that the extractor is just tight or the mag is too wide on this side. Is this reasonable? I have also attached a pic of the feed rail. One can see the copper traces, which seem a bit excessive?



As you can see, the cases are being scratched a bit. I have seen this before and wonder if it is just a consequence of the CRF.

I was just wondering if this is all outside of normal and needs some gunsmith TLC or if this just a break-in period and normal behavior for CRF. As noted, after 100 or so cycles, it is doing MUCH better and I would not be scared to hunt with it.

Thanks!

Brass isn't good at removing metal unless it's in the form of a lap. The bottom of the extractor should be slightly beveled and polished to help guide the rim of the cartridge into position. You have to use metal tools for this. Also, cartridges containing big flat bullets may need to emerge from the feed rail a little sooner than a standard pointed projectile. A gunsmith knowledgeable about such things should be consulted before removing any metal from the rails yourself.

Contact Ruger by phone, follow-up in writing and send them the rifle and dummy to show the problem. Once contacted they will normally send you a pre paid box with shipping instructions. While you can likely fix this yourself, I would put this one back on Ruger. Once you monkey with it Ruger will claim you damaged it.

I recently bought a used 416 Alaskan - with very little use. It had/has the same problem. I removed some metal from the rails at an angle from the bottom to smooth them out and relieve some of the pressure on the cartridge. The rifle came with a free box of 400 grain hornadys - with flat noses. I think the problem with the 416 would be even worse than for the 375 due to the wider flat at the nose. From the internet reading I've seen at least one other 416 with the same feeding problem so it must be common.

I loaded some Speer mag tips - they feed a lot smoother. I've improved the feeding quite a bit, but it still scratches the brass a bit when loading.

I also found that its real easy to collapse the neck trying to get a good crip on the bullet. Apparently brass is a bit soft, or whatever. Found that with 3 down and one in the chamber, by the time the first 3 have been fired the bullet on the last cartridge has been pushed in a little. I'm going to try seating the bullet first, then crimping separately to see how that works. With the mag tips feeding is now entirely adequate. Still a bit stiff with the flat nose bullets.

The cartridge has to make a fairly sharp upward movement during feeding in a short distance - this no doubt adds to the difficulty.

The nose of the flat bullets dig into the feed ramp, aggravating the problem.

The rifle is accurate - first load with H4895 gave good results. A while back Jeffe recommended the Nikon 2x7 scope on a different thread - its cheap, but I was surprised - crisp view, actually has 1/4 in click stops (compared to the Leuopold VX-1 that doesn't). I think I've found my black bear rifle.

Phil

I and 2 of my buddies have the 375 alaskans and we have not expeirenced this...But we shoot the 270gr soft point hornady and barnes..They all feed well with these, however I just recieved my box to send my 416 alaskan back because its doing exactly what yours is doing.. I am told by alot of people it is the bullet and the melpat that causes the majority of the problems with the alaskan but still you should be able to use factory rounds so I would send it back..