I thought to share with you my latest "fun-gun" addition to my Dangerous Game Rifle collection. I first found this cute little rifle for sale on Auction Arms starting a few months ago. After several bidding attempts were made that didn't meet reserve, and after several subsequent re-listings by the seller, the seller and I finally came to terms, and this little cutie came to live with me here in Wisconsin.
You may ask; "why" did I want this? Well, when I first saw the Auction Arms advertisement for this rifle, I immediately fell in love with the "look" of it. The strange contradictions of its features is truly remarkable. On one hand you have the Sleek & Elegant Styling and Finish of the rifle, offset by the Harsh Monolithic Additions attached to each end - that being the Huge Muzzle Brake at the front end, and the Mechanical Shock Absorber System at the back end. Once you start, you just can't stop looking at it. Its like watching a Beautiful, Graceful Ballerina performing the Swan Lake ballet, while wearing a Football Helmet, and a pair of Russian Combat Boots. Those unorthodox features, and knowing I could kill anything from Jurassic Park, made me want to own it.
This 600 is one of JD Jones' creations from about 15 years ago. JD wanted to put the power of a 600 Nitro Express, into aa affordable Custom Ruger No.1 Tropical. Although the 600JDJ caliber is actually a 577/600 wildcat cartridge, (577 NE opened to 600) its case capacity is exactly the same as a standard 600 NE, but with the head dimension being reduced by .035" and the case length being slightly increased with a slightly smaller rim dia. So, why not then just chamber the Ruger in 600NE? That extra .035" barrel wall thickness and the smaller rim dia., adds a lot of strength to the finished rifle.
I inspected the rifle carefully when I received it. It was a Ruger Tropical from the year 2000, built by SSK Industries in 2001. It was only the 4th 600 JDJ rifle back then, with less than 10 being built to date. Although the rifle was listed in the ad as "test-fired" only, upon inspection, the lack of even a trace of powder residue in any of the muzzle brake crevices, leads me to believe it was actually "unfired". However, it didn't remain so for very long.
My first order of business was to get dies, brass and bullets on order. Bullets from Hawk were available, but with a 4 week lead time. They are on order, and waiting. Dies were in stock from CH4D and they have arrived. I found some A-Square 577NE brass, and it has also arrived.
Although custom lead bullet molds are available in the needed .620 dia., there was a long lead time of 2 - 6 weeks depending on the source. So instead of waiting, I purchased a used brass 58 cal mold on ebay. This was a 505g hollow base mold. I opened up the cavity from .575 dia. to .620 dia. with my lathe. This project went well because the cavity in this bullet mold is very big. Its easy to use a small boring bar and also see inside the cavity as you're cutting. I removed the hollow base plug to increase bullet weight, and I enlarged each of the bullet's 3 bands to .624 dia. When finished, the mold cast a flat base 630g bullet in .622 dia. This would be perfect for fire-forming the cases, and developing a "fun load" for plinking, if you can say "plinking and 650g bullet" in the same sentence. Proper bullet weight for this 600 caliber is 900g.
I had obtained a few sample bullets from Hawk which I also loaded. They are shown below along side a standard .308 Winchester cartridge for comparison. This rifle weighs-in at just a tad under 9-1/2 pounds. Quite a bit light for a 600 Nitro which should weigh over 15 pounds. I added a 1.75-5X scope which brought the weight up to 10 pounds 4 ounces. With a cartridge in the chamber, it weighed just over 10-1/2 pounds. I sure hope the recoil reducing features make up for the missing 5 pounds. The scope I added has a very long eye relief - a real must on a heavily recoiling rifle. I put together some test loads using 4759 and my 630g cast lead bullets lubed with liquid alox, and headed for the range.
The trip to the range resulted in 25 nicely fire-formed cases ready for a second go-around, and a mild headache. Pressures seemed light with the F215 primers showing rounded edges and cases being easily extracted. However, I must admit that I underestimated my starting load for fire-forming. What I thought would be a mild load, actually chronographed at 2000 fps with the little 630g bullet. This equates to just over 5,500 ft/lbs of muzzle energy and about 10% more powerful than a factory .458 Winchester Magnum. I'm sure glad this little cutie has "ugly" at both ends.
With an intended "Full-House" load of 1900 fps with a 900g bullet, I'm hoping everything goes equally well. If any of the other nine 600 JDJ owners rifle are out there, I'd like to hear form them.