Forums.NitroExpress.com

Hello All,

I thought to share with you my latest "fun-gun" addition. I first found this cutie for sale on Auction Arms a few months back. After several bidding attempts that didn't meet reserve, and after several subsequent re-listings, the seller and I finally came to terms, and this cute little Custom Ruger No.1 Tropical followed me home to Wisconsin.

You may ask, "why?" When I first saw the Auction Arms advertisement, I immediately fell in love with the "look" of this rifle. The contradiction of its features is truly wonderful. You have the Sleek & Elegant Styling and Finish in the middle, which offset by the Harsh Monolithic Additions attached to each end - those being the Huge Muzzle Brake at the front end, and the Mechanical Shock Absorber System at the back end. You just can't stop looking at it. Its like watching a Beautiful, Graceful, Ballerina performing Swan Lake, while wearing a Football Helmet, and a pair of Russian Combat Boots. Those features, and knowing I could kill anything from Jurassic Park, made me want it.

This 600 is one of JD Jones' creations to put the power of a 600 Nitro Express, into a Custom Ruger No.1 Tropical. Although the 600JDJ caliber is actually a 577/600 wildcat, (577 NE opened to 600) the case capacity is exactly the same as a standard 600 NE with the head dimension being reduced by aprox. .035" and the case length being slightly increased with a smaller rim dia. So, why not then just chamber the rifle 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 produced back then, with less than 10 total built to date. Although the rifle was listed as "test-fired" only, the lack of even a trace of powder residue in any of the muzzle brake crevices, leads me to believe it was actually "unfired". It didn't remain so for very long.

First order of business was to get dies, brass and bullets on order. Bullets form Hawk were available, but with a 4 week lead time. They are on order. Dies were in stock from CH4D and have arrived. I found some A-Square 577NE brass, and it has also arrived.

Custom lead bullet molds are available in the needed .620 dia., but lead time was a factor, that being 2 - 6 weeks depending on the source. So instead, I purchased a used brass 58 cal mold on ebay for about $30. This was a 505g hollow base mold. I soon opened the cavity from .575 dia. to .620 dia. with my lathe. This project went well because in a hole this big, its easy to use a small boring bar and see inside the cavity as you're cutting. I removed the hollow base plug, and 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.

I had 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 which is a little under weight for a 600 which should be around 15 pounds. I added a 1.75-5X scope, which brought the weight up to approx. 10 pounds 4 ounces. With a cartridge in the chamber, It weighed slightly over 10-1/2 pounds. The scope that I added has a fairly long eye relief - a real must on a heavily recoiling rifle. I put together some test loads using 4759 and my 630g 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. Pressures seemed light with rounded edges of the F215 primers. The fired cases were easily extracted with no reisitance. 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 eaually well. If any of the other nine 600 JDJ owners rifle are out there, I'd like to hear form them.

--------------------
"You never pay too much for something, you only buy it too early."