I'm liking this!
I picked up one of the Rock Creek button rifled barrels in the group by earlier this yr. I got a .284 fluted #4
I got a trued action from someone on Accurate shooter, picked up an old style Remington Varmint stock locally (the laminate one with the ebony tip) and waited months for a H&S DBM system, got a 7-08 reamer from PTG.
My only "mistake" as it were is that I had on my target shooter hat when I ordered the reamer so it's got freebore to let me seat 162s out to 3" and still be .015 off of the lands. Makes for a bit jump with hunting bullets loaded to the 2.845 or so that I can fit in the mags.
I took all the parts to my local gunsmith (Predator) and had them put build me a rifle.
I've been working up some hunting loads with it, the accuracy has been good but a combination of influences including a low power scope has left me with nothing too impressive.
A shooting buddy sent a message last night wanting to know if I wanted to shoot from 600 today, "SURE!"... now what can I shoot? My TR rifle is at the smith getting a new chamber cut, so hmm... IDEA! put the 42 NF on the 7-08 and load up some long 162s and shoot a ladder.
Well that's what I did. I got some good and some annoying. The annoying was that part way into shooting the Sinclair bipod pulled the front sling stud off of the stock. My bad, the stud wasn't one that was anchored through, the Sinclair puts a lot of pressure on but any way it messed with my stability a little bit and I had to switch to a rest that I had in the truck.
In any case, I wasn't paying any attention at all to the wind, I was just dropping 3 shot groups with each load and then having the target pulled and the groups marked. At 600 yards my WORST group, even with the bipod falling apart had 4" of vertical, and that's on the pod, and I just yanked the NF off of the shelf still in the rings and bolted it on, it was way too far back for prone shooting, my position sucked, but .... I shot 6 groups, Group #1 was only 2 bullet diameters in vertical, groups 2 and 3 the bipod wrecked any useful data, but the last three were 1.5", 2.5", 2.5" vert.
This baby with a light barrel and virgin brass holds sub .5 vertical at 600 yards! Group number four was a 1.5 inch group. I still have to play with the loads with a chrono and I think I may need to take the loading a little higher, based on the drop compared to my 140gr hunting bullets my MV is still lower than it should be but I'm happy.
Predator Custom Shop puts together a damned good rifle (they are doing my TR rifle too) and the great part is that they are 20 minutes away. Color me a happy
For those interested, I'm loading WW brass, H4350 w/ BR2 primers. My hottest load was 45.3, and with the bullets seated all the way out I think it will take a lot more, but I stopped there for today because 45.0 was the listed max in my Lyman Manual.
Yea, I know, I'll get pics of the rifle up.
I picked up one of the Rock Creek button rifled barrels in the group by earlier this yr. I got a .284 fluted #4
I got a trued action from someone on Accurate shooter, picked up an old style Remington Varmint stock locally (the laminate one with the ebony tip) and waited months for a H&S DBM system, got a 7-08 reamer from PTG.
My only "mistake" as it were is that I had on my target shooter hat when I ordered the reamer so it's got freebore to let me seat 162s out to 3" and still be .015 off of the lands. Makes for a bit jump with hunting bullets loaded to the 2.845 or so that I can fit in the mags.
I took all the parts to my local gunsmith (Predator) and had them put build me a rifle.
I've been working up some hunting loads with it, the accuracy has been good but a combination of influences including a low power scope has left me with nothing too impressive.
A shooting buddy sent a message last night wanting to know if I wanted to shoot from 600 today, "SURE!"... now what can I shoot? My TR rifle is at the smith getting a new chamber cut, so hmm... IDEA! put the 42 NF on the 7-08 and load up some long 162s and shoot a ladder.
Well that's what I did. I got some good and some annoying. The annoying was that part way into shooting the Sinclair bipod pulled the front sling stud off of the stock. My bad, the stud wasn't one that was anchored through, the Sinclair puts a lot of pressure on but any way it messed with my stability a little bit and I had to switch to a rest that I had in the truck.
In any case, I wasn't paying any attention at all to the wind, I was just dropping 3 shot groups with each load and then having the target pulled and the groups marked. At 600 yards my WORST group, even with the bipod falling apart had 4" of vertical, and that's on the pod, and I just yanked the NF off of the shelf still in the rings and bolted it on, it was way too far back for prone shooting, my position sucked, but .... I shot 6 groups, Group #1 was only 2 bullet diameters in vertical, groups 2 and 3 the bipod wrecked any useful data, but the last three were 1.5", 2.5", 2.5" vert.
This baby with a light barrel and virgin brass holds sub .5 vertical at 600 yards! Group number four was a 1.5 inch group. I still have to play with the loads with a chrono and I think I may need to take the loading a little higher, based on the drop compared to my 140gr hunting bullets my MV is still lower than it should be but I'm happy.
Predator Custom Shop puts together a damned good rifle (they are doing my TR rifle too) and the great part is that they are 20 minutes away. Color me a happy
For those interested, I'm loading WW brass, H4350 w/ BR2 primers. My hottest load was 45.3, and with the bullets seated all the way out I think it will take a lot more, but I stopped there for today because 45.0 was the listed max in my Lyman Manual.
Yea, I know, I'll get pics of the rifle up.
