Ammo

There’s a new cartridge on the block, and it’s one cool customer. Built to fulfill the desires of the classic .270 Winchester shooting crowd while meeting the demands of today’s long-range shooting and hunting protocol, the brand-new 6.8 Western steps into the arena and doffs its ten-gallon hat.

From time to time, Ruger produces the rifles in chamberings more suitable for hunting African plains game and big game elsewhere. The newest of these is the Ruger Hawkeye African chambered in 280 Ackley Improved. For my money, Ruger knocked it out of the park with this gun.

That 10-pointer was one of the first whitetail deer ever taken with the new 6.8 Western centerfire rifle cartridge from Winchester and Browning. He won’t be the last.

If you put a premium on killing big geese dead, you need to think long and hard about saving your pennies and investing in a case or two of this lethal load.

Bullets have evolved considerably since their first use from homogenous pure lead to homogenous copper and brass. Along the way, velocities have increased from a few hundred feet per second (fps) to a few thousand feet per second. For the most part, hunters have strived for complete penetration on whatever game animal they are pursuing.

While I gathered information and advice from different people throughout the last several months, from lifelong Alaskan residents to gun writers, I tried to follow the old adage: Get the best you can afford.

Smaller calibers and cartridges kick less. They tend to be accurate and are certainly easier to shoot well. Loaded with a premium bullet they penetrate deeply and create a devastating wound channel. They do everything a big, hard-kicking caliber can do, right?

Even though they’re pigs, they still deserve a humane death, besides, the less time you spend looking for a hit pig is more time spent looking for more pigs!

The Ultralight Hunter was designed for hunting, but the author believes the rifle would be equally adept in a home-defense role loaded with the right 300 HAM’R ammunition.