I traded for this Ruger .375 African a few years back. I've never seen another like it. Every other Ruger African .375 I have seen has a 23-inch barrel. I have a Ruger Alaskan with a 20-inch barrel. I posted this question (and image) a couple years ago on another forum and one gentleman told me it could be a Davidson's special. Any ideas?
Ruger African .375
- Thread starter t165
- Start date
Try looking up the SN in this link. It may provide some clues.
https://ruger.com/service/productHistory.html
https://ruger.com/service/productHistory.html
CDNN cleared out a lot of the African models a few years back, as I recall, there were numerous non catalog iterations. Whether from Davidsons or Lipseys or one of the other numerous distributors, I couldn't say. This was just prior to the changeover to threaded barrels on the Alaskans, Africans and Guide Guns. I ended up with a LH African that I love for a bargain price.
If I'm not mistaken, as long as it can be assembled from stock parts, Ruger will do an exclusive run for a guaranteed order of just a few hundred (maybe 500?) units. This results in more dealer/distributor exclusives than you might see from other manufacturers.
Yours looks to me like a non stainless Alaskan in an African stock instead of the Hogue. As to who's special run, who knows...but it looks like a fun, handy rifle.
ETA: looking at your pic again, it may have been cerakoted. Most Rugers have a stainless bolt handle and extractor. I'm not well versed in all their models, and I'm sure I'll be corrected shortly, but I'm not aware of any 77 based rifles with a black bolt from the factory. But again, all bets are off when dealing with distributor exclusives.
If I'm not mistaken, as long as it can be assembled from stock parts, Ruger will do an exclusive run for a guaranteed order of just a few hundred (maybe 500?) units. This results in more dealer/distributor exclusives than you might see from other manufacturers.
Yours looks to me like a non stainless Alaskan in an African stock instead of the Hogue. As to who's special run, who knows...but it looks like a fun, handy rifle.
ETA: looking at your pic again, it may have been cerakoted. Most Rugers have a stainless bolt handle and extractor. I'm not well versed in all their models, and I'm sure I'll be corrected shortly, but I'm not aware of any 77 based rifles with a black bolt from the factory. But again, all bets are off when dealing with distributor exclusives.
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The S/N lookup dates the firearm to 2007. I never paid attention to the blackened bolt before. Nice catch.
The barrel on the 20-inch African is smaller in diameter than my Hawkeye Alaskan. It's not a big deal but I was curious just where/why my firearm was different. Thanks for your answers.
The barrel on the 20-inch African is smaller in diameter than my Hawkeye Alaskan. It's not a big deal but I was curious just where/why my firearm was different. Thanks for your answers.
