Hunting & Fishing GAP 7wsm Draws first Blood
- Thread starter jcann
- Start date
Good shootin'!!
NICE! Congrats man - my home state!
Congrats!!!
Nicely done. Looks like a good size one.
Nicely done and great shooting! Gotta love those GAP's!
Engine 22, you guessed it. We were hunting S.W. of Lamar on a 50,000 acre cattle ranch. There were two other groups of hunters I saw but there could have been more. This was my third time to hunt this place and so far I’m batting 66%.
Here’s the story I hope y’all enjoy it:
I sat up on a ridge overlooking a draw that was several miles long and about one mile wide. We had seen several groups of antelope run in this area and I knew the only way to harvest one was to leave the truck and sit on a ridge and wait for one to come into range.
Quality glass and range finder are a must when hunting antelope. I had the glass, Leupold but I didn’t have a good range finder. The Nikon 1000yd range finder I was using would only reach out to 572yds so I was limited to roughly a 600yd shot.
After I sat down on the ridge I took a wind reading which was blowing from my 3 o’clock anywhere from 3.6 to 8.7 mph, density altitude was around 5,300ft If memory serves me right. Using my range finder I developed a mental range card and kill box if anything happened to walk into it.
After about an hour of glassing I noticed a buck to my southeast moving west/northwest. He crossed path with a doe and yearling I had been watching but kept coming my way. After a while he slowly came into my kill box. Taking my time I reaffirmed distance to target (cacti I had ranged earlier) which was roughly 425/435yds, checking my dope chart attached to my rifle I dialed 6moa elevation and 1moa wind. Placing my rear bag under the stock I got a good cheek weld and loaded the bipod waiting for him to stop. He came to a stop, my crosshairs were behind the shoulder; I slowly squeezed the trigger breaking the shot; 0.48 seconds later the antelope was tits up dead failed by a 7mm 168gr Berger Hunting VLD with a muzzle velocity of roughly 2,950fps.
I really like these types of hunts but I'm going to have to break down and buy a Leica 1600B range finder.
I was shooting a Winchester M70 CRF action re-worked by GAP with a 26” MTU Bartlein barrel with Titan muzzle break bedded in a Manners T3 stock. Y’all are going to give me a hard time on the scope but I’ve had really good luck with it and it tracks great and hasn’t given me any trouble and the glass is quite good in my opinion. I’ve run it up and down/ left and right and it always returns to zero. It’s a Hawke 6.5-20x42. I’ve gone after steel out to 750yds and parts in-between and had great success with it.
I was shooting 62.3grs of H4831sc behind Berger 168gr Hunt. VLD, Winchester turned brass with CCI BR2 primers. I had a really good load developed with 180gr Bergers but had to go with the 168gr because I shot the 180’s up over the summer preparing for this hunt and couldn’t find them anymore.
On a sad note I missed out on some H4350 at Third Generation Shooter Supply which is down the road from me. Apparently they got some in while I was away hunting and sadly it’s all gone now. I use it for my son’s .260.
Last I checked these guys have 180's in stock...I picked up 500...
Berger Target Bullets (4) - Butch's Reloading
and they good people as well...
Nice area down there and nice buck!
Regards,
DT
Berger Target Bullets (4) - Butch's Reloading
and they good people as well...
Nice area down there and nice buck!
Regards,
DT
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