Wildcats In Africa - Brief Article

Guns Magazine, Nov, 1999 by Jon R. Sundra

As I write this its the July 4th weekend and I I've got just two weeks before I leave for Africa. My destination is the Selous Reserve in Tanzania. I hope to wring out a couple of new rifles I've just put together.

We'll be searching for a good elephant and for buffalo so I'll be carrying an H-S Precision Professional Hunter rifle chambered in a wildcat that consists of the 300 Rem. Ultra Mag opened up to .375.

I'm also sure to see an antelope or two, so for that I'm bringing a second rifle based on a Ruger No. 1. A couple of months ago I sent the action to Mike Ruggiero's Broad Creek Rifle Works to have it barreled in John Lazzeroni's 7.21 Tomahawk, stubby little number based on a drastically shortened .416 Rigby case Essentially; it is, a .28 caliber version of a 22 or 6mm PPC. At 2.8" overall this car cartridge is designed to cycle through short actions.

Of course, with a single-shot rifle like the Ruger, the overall length of the cartridge and bullet seating depth present no problems. The advantage of the short, squat case is that it burns propellant more efficiently and thus yields a bit more velocity per grain of powder, just as the PPC's and Remington BR's do.

The 7.21 Tomahawk, for example, has a case capacity that's only 3 grains. more than my 7mm JRS wildcat (based on an improved .280 Rem, case), but 6 grains less than the belted case on which the 7mm Rem. and Weatherby magnums are based. Despite its smaller boiler room, the Tomahawk will push a 150 grain bullet 3,150 to 3,200 fps from a 24" barrel. With the spout on my No. 1 being 26", I could expect more than that, but I'll be perfectly content with 3,200 fps, thank you.

Thus far I've worked with only, two powders, the two that Lazzeroni recommends: Hodgdon's H-4350 and Alliant's Re 192 I've been to the range just four times and have tried four different bullets: Barnes' 140 gr. XLC, Nosler's 150 gr. Partition and Ballistic Tip, and Hornady's 154 gr. Spire Point. Predictably, the best accuracy has been turned in by the Nosier Ballistic Tips, but the 154 gr. Hornady is not far behind and has actually turned in the smallest single group at .85".

Both powders have produced similar accuracy, but the Re 19 will probably turn in the highest velocity, however I have yet to reach what I feel is a safe working maximum for either. At the moment, I'm up to 64.0 grs. of H4350 for 3,110 fps with the 150 gr. Nosier Partition, and 67.0 grs. of Re 19 for 3,155 with the same bullet.

The rifle itself is pretty neat. Ruggiero fitted a Pac-Nor stainless barrel and replaced the original Ruger scope mounting rib with one made by Talley that fits flush with the barrel the entire length of the rib. Not only is it meatier than the Ruger rib, it is held on by five screws, rather than four, and they're of larger diameter.

Since I've always felt that the ring spacing on the No. 1 was far too narrow, I had Ruggiero move the mounting position of the front scope ring forward to where the ring span is 5 3/16, which is just enough to accommodate the full body length of a Leupold 6x42 scope.

Other tweaking procedures included thinning and Swiss-cheesing the ham- mer to substantially lighten it, and installation of a stronger mainspring to quicken the lock time. The original trigger has been replaced with a Boyers externally adjustable one that's set at a crisp 2.5 lbs.

At the front of the forearm hangar Ruggiero welded a 1" long tongue-shaped extension, then threaded it for a Delrin-tipped Allen-head machine screw that bears against the underside of the barrel. A tiny access hole drilled into the rearward-angled sidewall of the forearm bolthole allows an Allen key to be inserted and the tension against the barrel adjusted without disturbing the forearm. This allows me to adjust the dampening pressure on the barrel and thus tune the gun to a specific load.

Lastly, the original safety thumbpiece has been replaced with a custom job recessed in a notch milled into the floor of the receiver tang.

It's one cool No. 1!