Discussion Forums

Calin Brabandt

I recently acquired an old JC Higgins Model 50 (FN Mauser action / High Standard barrel) from a friend in 270 Win. It's a sub-MOA shooter so I no longer have a need for my sub-MOA 270 Savage Axis II XP. After reading DrTHunder88's 300 Win Mag "Maxis" conversion contributions to the SavageShooter forum, I'm interested in converting my Axis to 475 Ruger.

Other than the fun of it, my motivation is to obtain an "over-powered" rifle for hunting small-ish whitetail on the property I recently acquired as my family's home (no Texas whitetail monsters where we live). I'd like to increase shot forgiveness and decrease the likelihood of a whitetail taking a dead run off of my property.

After finding Nathan's website and this forum, I'd like to hear opinions about the value of a longer barreled 475 Ruger out to 300 yards on whitetail vs. my 22" barreled 30-06 or 20" barreled 338 RCM. From Nathan's excellent summary of the limited number of 475 bullet offerings (I handload almost exclusively), I wonder if I will be much better off with the appropriate 475 cal. offerings (235 gr. Speer Hotcor or 250 gr. Sierra Game King) compared to the greater selection of "frangible" 30 cal. bullets for my 30-06 (Amax or DRT even?) or somewhat lessor selection of appropriate bullet offerings in 338 (but including the 200 gr. Hornady SST) for my 338 RCM. I think Nathan's opinion would be that I'll be better off, but it's hard to ignore his near complete positivism in his review of 30-06 load options and performance!

In a nutshell, I recently learned about the autonomic plexus from Nathan's teachings. Will a 475 Ruger improve my chances of leveraging it or hydro(static/draulic) effects to drop whitetails where they stand (out to 300 yards)?

BTW, I first considered a 35 Whelen Axis conversion, but the expense and machining required to fit a new bolt Savage 110 magnum bolt head to my Axis bolt is minimal so I started to dream about the 475 Ruger instead. On the other hand, I have thousands of 30-06 cases in "inventory" that I could neck-up to 35 Whelen and absolutely no 475 Ruger cases ($$$ :( ) yet.

Thanks for any advice, thoughts, and inputs!

-Cal