The two bullets Sundra’s experimented with so far are the 400-grain Hornady roundnose and the 350-grain Barnes’ Triple Shock. At far left is the 400-grain Barnes, which he decided was too long.

For my second trip to the range I loaded up 20 rounds of that same 75-grain load of Reloder 15 to see what kind of accuracy I’d get. With big bore rifles like this, two-inch groups at 100 yards is more than adequate, but this rifle had no trouble averaging three-shot groups of 13⁄8. And that’s with the very first load I tried.

I have since experimented with what I feel is the most versatile bullet you can ask for in .416 caliber: Barnes’ 350-grain Triple Shock X Bullet. Because X Bullets retain literally 100 percent of their weight, a 350-grain bullet should theoretically penetrate as deeply as a conventional or even a bonded core bullet of greater weight. Also, being of a spitzer configuration, it has a ballistic coefficient of .521, which is comparable, for example, to Hornady’s 7mm 154-grain SST spire point boattail.

Again working with Alliant Reloder 15, 75.5 grains produced 2,570 fps in my 22-inch barrel, with a trajectory so flat that it makes 300-yard shots just as possible as with a 7mm or .300 magnum.

What’s really amazing is that that particular load is 8.5 grains less than the maximum load listed in the Barnes’ manual for the .416 Remington Magnum. And the 75-grain load for the 400-grain bullet is the average starting load for the .416 Remington. Talk about efficiency.

Could there be a .416 Ruger in the near future? I think so. Or for that matter, a .338 or 8mm, a .30 and a 7mm. It’s just too cool a case for it not to be used as the basis for other calibers. And all would have the same benefit claimed for the .375 Ruger; namely, they would all provide belted-magnum performance and then some, from a standard length action.