i think i'll call her "Rejiggered"
last november i had a few stalks on wolves that frustrated me. they'd give me all day at 1200-1500 ayrds, but once i got inside 1000, they just dematerialized- poof! gone! no trace...
it got me thinking about getting a bigger gun. i talked to a local shop (Powderhorn- now Schnee's, they've remodeled & merged) about it & was offered a great price on a savage 111 in 338LM. i thought about it for a couple weeks, then went ahead & asked them to order one. it came in & i was busy, so i didn't actually pick it up until late April. that was about the time that Midway had the Vortex 5-15's on sale, so i grabbed one & mounted it up. a buddy has a 110BA, so i traded for a box of 300 smk's from http://www.southwestammunition.com/ and ordered a box of 300 smk's & a box of 250 smk's from Chad at http://www.dallasreloads.com/ to try out in it.
well, as luck or whatever would have it, when we took it out to shoot, the damned thing wouldn't chamber a round. i had it sent in to Capitol Sports for some warranty work. about a week went by & i called to see how it was doing. just a simple matter of a mounting screw on the picatinny rail being too long- whew! i like easy fixes.
then i took it out to Logan to zero it. bad juju! with the 300 smk's from SW Ammo, i got a 3 shot group of more than 1 1/2" at 100 yards. in looking at it i could see that the forend was warping into the barrel when it heated up. as it cooled, the stock settled back away from the barrel. decision time- do i try to offload it, or void the warranty on the stock & rejigger it myself.
i took it home & widened the barrel channel, drilled out 2 channels in the forend, stuffed 2 sections of carbon arrow shaft into the channels on each side of the aluminum bedding block, then filled the whole mess with epoxy.
i'm pretty glad i did.
100yd 3 shot group with the 250 smk's from Chad:
obviously the gun doesn't like these. i was starting to wonder if i'd made a mistake by rejiggering the stock...
300 smk's from SW Ammo:
ok- not worried anymore!
300 smk's from Chad:
the first two were tight, then i jerked the third. i could feel myself drifting when the trigger broke, just couldn't get the message to my finger in time to stop the shot.
thank you Savage for making an affordable 338 with good accuracy potential.
thank you Mike & Chad for sending me good ammo (notice how the POI is within 1/2" between your 300gr loads?).
and of course thank you to the hide for filling my head with information & providing a place to meet folks who know their shit.
time to put together some dope
last november i had a few stalks on wolves that frustrated me. they'd give me all day at 1200-1500 ayrds, but once i got inside 1000, they just dematerialized- poof! gone! no trace...
it got me thinking about getting a bigger gun. i talked to a local shop (Powderhorn- now Schnee's, they've remodeled & merged) about it & was offered a great price on a savage 111 in 338LM. i thought about it for a couple weeks, then went ahead & asked them to order one. it came in & i was busy, so i didn't actually pick it up until late April. that was about the time that Midway had the Vortex 5-15's on sale, so i grabbed one & mounted it up. a buddy has a 110BA, so i traded for a box of 300 smk's from http://www.southwestammunition.com/ and ordered a box of 300 smk's & a box of 250 smk's from Chad at http://www.dallasreloads.com/ to try out in it.
well, as luck or whatever would have it, when we took it out to shoot, the damned thing wouldn't chamber a round. i had it sent in to Capitol Sports for some warranty work. about a week went by & i called to see how it was doing. just a simple matter of a mounting screw on the picatinny rail being too long- whew! i like easy fixes.
then i took it out to Logan to zero it. bad juju! with the 300 smk's from SW Ammo, i got a 3 shot group of more than 1 1/2" at 100 yards. in looking at it i could see that the forend was warping into the barrel when it heated up. as it cooled, the stock settled back away from the barrel. decision time- do i try to offload it, or void the warranty on the stock & rejigger it myself.
i took it home & widened the barrel channel, drilled out 2 channels in the forend, stuffed 2 sections of carbon arrow shaft into the channels on each side of the aluminum bedding block, then filled the whole mess with epoxy.
i'm pretty glad i did.
100yd 3 shot group with the 250 smk's from Chad:
obviously the gun doesn't like these. i was starting to wonder if i'd made a mistake by rejiggering the stock...
300 smk's from SW Ammo:
ok- not worried anymore!
300 smk's from Chad:
the first two were tight, then i jerked the third. i could feel myself drifting when the trigger broke, just couldn't get the message to my finger in time to stop the shot.
thank you Savage for making an affordable 338 with good accuracy potential.
thank you Mike & Chad for sending me good ammo (notice how the POI is within 1/2" between your 300gr loads?).
and of course thank you to the hide for filling my head with information & providing a place to meet folks who know their shit.
time to put together some dope
