Ruger Maximum Pics
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The Ruger Maximum cartridge was a collaboration between Remington and Ruger. Now, there is some controversy over this next statement...............It was originally conceived by Elgin Gates as the .357 Super Mag back in the '70's. (I may get into that later) Designed to give .44 mag down range performance with much less felt recoil. The Ruger Max was produced from 1982 through 1984. A total of 16,314 completed guns and/or serialized frames were produced. The gun/cartridge was designed for 158gr. and HEAVIER bullets. Personally, I feel 158gr. is too lite, but............there were people out there loading 125gr. bullets with fast burning powders trying to drive them at Mach 4.2.......not a good idea. The first issue was top strap cutting. It does occur, but after a 1000 rounds or so it abates. The killer is forcing cone erosion. The original forcing cone was 5 degrees, later changed to 11 degrees, which did help. Once all this came to light, including various rumors and/or fact of trade in/buy back programs, and, the poor reviews and comments unknowing gun writers like Bob Milek, Ruger cancelled the project. Ruger DID actually "scrap" over 5000 Maximums. The Max is a great cartridge when loaded with 180gr+ bullets and slow burning powders like 4227. I shoot 180, 200 and 220 cast with gas checks on top of 18-19 grs. of 4227. With Probably less than 11,000 of them in public hands, and the fact that they are a great platform for conversions, there are fewer and fewer of them that are "pure" collectables. Coogs.
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