Ist Post- My One Hunting Rifle Answer For All, I know!

[FNWhelen]

I just loved shooting peeps most of my life but now at age 69 and having had a torn retina in my shooting eye I need a scope. I just put a 1.75x5 Sitron on my whelen. So far I really like it but will have to se how well it holds up. I spent some time talking about this with the most famous bear guide I know. His take was after spending a lot of time comparing peeps with a low power scope he was faster with the scope. Made me feel better about going to a scope.

 

[xphunter]

I just don't hunt the really big game like Moose or Bison.
Elk is as big as I go, and me and my kids (When they were kids), have used a 14" 25 Creed and a 14" 260 Remington (MOA Maximum) to put down three elk-Each one shot.
The cow and the bull were each around 100ish yards while a really big cow was around 220ish with the 14" 25 Creed/Pachmayr Dominator.
You may have to give up certain shot presentations when shooting the smaller cartridges, but elk are NOT bullet proof.
Proper bullet for your task, and shot placement, shot placement, shot placement, shot placement.............................................

For what I like to do, to only have one chambering, would more likely be a 6.5-284 or 6.5 Leopard (270 WSM necked down) or a 7mm Dakota.
The Dak is kinda of overkill for varmints and pd's, yet I have killed pd's past 1500 yards with one of my 7mm Dakota center-grip XP's.
I have killed a pd beyond a mile with one of my rear-grip 6.5-284's.
If, wanting to have distance for big game the Dak is King, from my two choices.
The 6.5-284 or the 6.5 Leopard limits me to elk at shorter distances (700ish...Tad further with the Leopard), but the 6.5-284 is so much more enjoyable for sustained shooting.
Since elk is only a small part of my hunting shooting experience, I would probably go with the 6.5-284 or the 6.5 Leopard.

 

[xphunter]

Left a small, but big word out in my original/previous post..."NOT"
Fixed it

 

[DrMike]

Left a small, but big word out in my original/previous post..."NOT"
Fixed it

Happens to all of us Ernie.

 

[wildcatter]

Finally a first look at the almost finished rifle, a tad shorter than I wanted at 21 1/2", but very pleased to see the finished weight! I wanted this to finish light below 7lbs without glass, looks like we more than tackled that goal!


I also put to rest to the all the "it will be to much recoil" hype,,,, what recoil!! Seriously, what recoil? I spent a lot of time researching stocks and how to get the best for handling recoil, the Peek 44 Blackford proved with the first shot @ 6lbs, with a 200 grain Hornady and 58.5 grains of Varget, to be the ideal option. I have never shot a 30-06 that shot this mild!


This was a 22" barrel, but after throating it it to my desired length for the 200, and 225grn. Nosler AB's, found a sc ratch he did not like in the chamber, so that was why we ended with a 21 1/2" barrel. He carefully recut the chamber to his satisfaction, and re-throated it for the loaded 225 AccuBond I sent with all the new hardware barrel and stock. I had it throated for the Ideal seating depth for the 200 grain, as that is my desired standard bullet I want to work with. It should be ideal for the 210 Swift Scirocco as well. Those are the two bullets i plan to use for most hunting. But I want to be able to use the 225 AB as well and this is not seated bellow the shoulder, which should give me enough room for H4350 to my desired pressure.

Yes the 200 grain Hornady was seated well off the lands, but was one of two rounds I loaded for test loads to begin with. Not to warm, but about .00075" expansion at that the head, showed seated to the lands, maybee close to max! I want close to .001" before I call it enough, and hopefully have good accuracy by then, if not, we try another powder. But as you see from the fired case, it is a perfect chamber. Now we have to hope the barrel is a keeper?

The rifle still needs final bedding or skim coating to complete the bedding, this will add less than an ounce when finished. But the big weight gain is going to be with the glass others have wanted to see. It might be compact, but it sure aint LIGHT! with the Vortex light 2 screw rings (Seeking), and the back Country one piece Leupold picatinny mount, that little 6 lbs rifle is going to gain 2 lbs! WOW


If this was not going to get the 257 AI barrel added to it later, the 25.6 oz Leica with its illuminated AMO reticle wouldn't be my choice. I would be using the Meopta Optica 6, 1-6x24 with it's BDC-3 Illuminated reticle instead, and I still my use that scope on the 338 and swap for the 257? I have one and love them, they are who Makes Zeiss sporting scopes up to and including the Conquest, V-4 and I believe V-6 line of scopes. Meopta is a huge surprise and big bang for your buck. They are true Top end reliable, and repeatable optics that will hang with any scope manufacturer on the market, as well as available in models with optics to match anything twice their price range!

But back to the 3-18x44ia Leica, It offers the shortest scope, with the best optics and smaller Objective than anything else available. even the 3x cost of the NF which offers slightly better optics, can't produce the field of view or compact size of this scope. I have run this scope thu the paces for repeatability, and the adjustments are dead on! Plus when moved and returned to zero, they can be counted on, with the best zero stop to boot! Illumination is unmatched for hunting in the lowest light. Nothing will adjust as low, and still give enough illumination in daylight for shooting into shadows. They will not dazzle those want pretty colors for full sun open country shooting! But for me that is not what I want from a hunting scope. At 71 years old, I can still get by in full sun with top optical quality as Leica is well known to provide!

So that's it for now. I haven't been around much on any of the forums, but am very busy fly fishing and hitting the road with the truck camper, hitting different regions around Ohio and Michigan Great Lakes Tributaries for anything from Steelhead to small mouth and everything in between. I just had to take a day to make a visit to my smiths for a feel and preview of what to expect here in the next week or two. But till the end of May or middle of June, I'll have the pedal to the metal, ( which aint full throttle anymore at my age in my condition) but still where my time is spent this time of year. Then I will be ready to dial this little big game getter in! Until then, this is all the eye candy I can offer.

 

[DrMike]

Excellent summation. There should always be time for fishing! Riflery and handloading won't go away. Sweet looking rig.

 

[xphunter]

Very nice set-up.
I like and use Meopta optics as well

 

[wildcatter]

Finally its finished, picked it up yesterday after final bedding, and got the scope mounted and started the breakin. I only have 8 shots thru it, and all are with the Max Varget Load for the 200 grain Hornady in the 338 A-Square load data in their manual. It is forming the case fully with sharp shoulders all in one shot. My only tweak before load development will be to have Fred take .002" off the shell holder for this set of dies. I am getting less than .001" shoulder bump with the case bottomed out in the Redding full length die. I want .0025" to .003" bump for a big game hunting round. But she is tight and a sweet shooter, gentle as I could ask for, it truly is a soft shooting stock. I just hope 1/2 to 3/4moa is in it's ability with the 200 or 210 grain AB or Sciroccos, either will make my #1 load if they can shoot under moa for three shots consistently?



Its starting to settle down on the copper fouling, hopefully 4 or 5 more shots and cleaning after each will do the job, the the fun begins,,, load development. I have high hopes for this rifle, and hope to get the 257 barrel before fall hunting season, and that will be the cartridge most used, but if not, hope to have a 180 grain load worked up for this for lighter duty till I get the 357 AI chambered barrel for this setup.

 

[wildcatter]

Day 3 and now a total of 12 single shots breaking in the Brux 1-10 Brux barrel while fire forming the 30/06 Lapua cases. First shot was solid coper from the throat to the muzzle, I mean a lot of copper. But by shot 4 the first 10 inches had pretty much cleaned up to just three wet patches of Butches Bore Shine 5 or 6 strokes of a bronze brush, followed by three more wet patches and two dry, to find only the last 11 inches or so still holding copper.

These loads are all using 57.5 grains of Varget and the 200 grain Hornady SST bullet. Giving me a perfect fire formed 338/06 AI case. By the time I had the 8th shot thru it those last 10 inches of barrel were starting to show light streaks of copper scattered down the bore. I used Iosso after cleaning with the 3 wet, 6 brushed, 3 wet and 2 dry patch regime, then a couple patches of Isso, and was ready for the next shot.

So after that I switched to JB patches after my normal 3 wet 5 brush 3 wet 2 dry normal cleaning, as the copper is getting more under control and barrel getting broke in. So after the tenth I loaded two of the 180 grain AB that I plan on finding a load for as my light load. I used the Varget with 59.0 grains, to fire form the 06 brass and run 2 shots for the first time from the clean barrel thru the Chrono Graph for the first time. I had to get a feel for just how much Velocity the little 21 3/8" barrel was capable of producing. I think I should be happy at 2901 and 2918 fps for the first and second shot, with no sign of to much pressure and room to go up from there.

St have put nothing on paper, as I wanted to be sure the barrel was going to cleanup, and it is starting to look good. So from here I will start using the still one shot and clean with 200 grain SST's till I see no copper, but will get the new 3-18 Leica sighted in, and the 50 rounds of brass formed for this rifle.

I have to say the last 2 shots with softer copper jackets fouled no more and maybe a little less the 10th round did alone with the SST. So I'm pretty happy with this gun so far. I am also very happy with how soft it shoots. Yes there is recoil, but I would have expected more and very easy on the shoulder with just a push and no harsh jump from the Blacktooth stock, and plenty of eye relief from the Leica when with a full view on 6X. I will see what the 225 AB do after a few more rounds and getting the scope zero'd over the next 3 or 4 shots.

But for now I am heading back east for some more Lake Erie Trib fishing, as the small mouth are starting to fill the rivers to spawn, so need to exercise the arm and put the flyrods to use for a dew days, besides Carter hasn't been getting much exercise the last few days, my fishing buddy.




All work and no play makes for a boring life, and we got all summer to get the new rifle up and running. But those Big smallies won't be around in big numbers for long. Then we'll ne ready for some bedding Bluegills on the fly to break the boredom from the rifle and keep everything more fun in a couple weeks. Versatility is the spice of life, and I'm trying to keep it fun@!

 

[DrMike]

I envy your time chasing those snallmouths!