lancetkenyon

Get a good rifle mounted bipod that is adjustable from 13-27" or 11-25" like this. Makes shooting from knees or sitting much easier, quick to deploy, and really stabilizes the rifle.

Most of my rifles have a brake. Always shoot with them on.

I am in the planning stages of a rebarrel on one of my rifles. Trued R700 LA, BDL, standard .473 bolt face. It is in a Manners EH1 carbon fiber stock, and currently wears a 28" #5 Shilen barrel that has been on it for 15 or so years, with a lot of miles and hot rounds down the barrel. Depending on the mid-winter draws, I am thinking of rebarrelling it. It is currently a 25-06AI that I have used for a long time on deer. Pushes a 115 HVLD @ 3400. But I am looking at stepping up the horsepower a bit while lightening it up as well. It is an 11#+ rifle right now with that heavy barrel and scope on it. I am looking at losing about 1.5-2 lbs. after the diet. The scope will get me about 8-10oz, and the barrel should get me a full 1# when I swap to a 26" Proof Research. I already have two short action 6.5mm rifles. A 15# 6.5 SLR that pushes a 140 @ 2840 (target load) or 2950 (hunting load), or a 127 LRX @ 3050fps. A 10.5# .260 Rem that pushes a 140 @ 2860, or a 127 LRX @ 3000fps. I also already have a 7mm rifle. A 9.5# 7 Rem Mag that pushes a 180 Hybrid @ 2995fps. So my question is what would you guys do for a hopefully 9# carry rifle? It will mostly be used for deer, as I really want to take elk in the future with my late father-in-laws reworked 7RM that I got last year. A 6.5-06AI w. 1:8" twist and go for a 140 @ 3100-3150+ or 127 LRX @ 3200-3250? A .280AI w. 1:9" twist and go for a 160/168 @ 2950-3000 or a 145 LRX @ 3150-3200? I was set on the 6.5-06AI for a while, but have always loved the .280AI. Not worried about reloading or the need for fire-forming, I have that covered. It won't ever see a factory round down the pipe. The 6.5 would be fine for deer and antelope a long ways out, but the .280AI would allow heavier bullets to be shot if I ever want to take it out or loan it to my kids for elk. I know, I know, the 6.5-06AI should be plenty for elk, but I prefer a little more bullet weight for bulls.

I got TACs in the mail yesterday.

I picked up a box of 178 ELD-X and some RL23 yesterday to try out. I guess I am actually building a load for "medium" range elk, but most would consider it "long range". Thinking 600-800 max for it, if it shoots well enough to put the bullet where it needs to go at that range. I will start with the scope that came on it for now, a 6-24 Burris Black Diamond.

I still have not decided yet. I need to make up my mind and order the barrel. I am waiting on a new McMillan stock I ordered for my .300RUM, then will be dropping it off at PCR for bedding, Wyatt's extended box alteration, and Cerakote, finally finishing the rifle I started 2 years ago. Ordered an adjustable Game Warden in Coyote Ambush pattern. Probably Cerakote in something like Coyote Tan, Desert Sand, or maybe Burnt Bronze.

I have the straight eyepiece.

I received my first 2 targets back yesterday. Some good shooters out there.

There are places that get covered up with hunters every day, all day. But that is because they hold elk. My son-in-law shot his bull last day with 30 minutes left in the hunt on a hill that had at least 4-6 trucks around it and hunters on it every day.

More for a loaner hunting rifle. Trying to get my brother back into hunting, plus my son-in-law would use it, maybe some other close family and friends too. It is hard for me to loan out one of my customs unless I am there on the hunt 100%. I am a bit anal about the care of my rifles and hunting gear. Easier to loan out a $1500-2000 setup than a $4-7K setup.

You Sir, have stooped to a new low. Maybe, even deplorable.I will take being a deplorable as a high compliment, thanks Charles!

Wow! Smokin' shooting!

There are a lot more hunts that put people in the woods than that. Archery antelope, rifle antelope, deer, Turkey, bear, Archery deer, cow elk, early Archery bull, late Archery bull.

Looking seriously at the Athlon Cronus BTR 4.5-29×56, or a used Steiner T5Xi, maybe a Burris XTRII 4-20, etc. $1200-1700 range. That is aso low as I can bring myself to buy.

I Hunt 7W for elk, a lot. Never for my own tag, but all of my lucky family members. For those that say if you find bulls now through May, they won't be there in December, I beg to differ. We have watched specific bulls from Mid-April to December in the exact same places. Pressure is what scatters them. Unfortunately, a lot of tags come before your hunt. But get up there and scout. You will find honey holes if you hike. There are elk scattered all across the unit, pretty much year round except the highest elevations mid-winter. Look for a blue Tacoma x-tra cab and silver 4 door JK in December. That will be us chasing bulls for my son-in-law, his buddy, and my cousin.

Good price on a good platform. Great shooting factory rifles. Great cartridge too.

Starting load development on a Christensen Arms rifle. Last year, I cleaned it thoroughly and mounted a scope on it. It was having issues with a flier or two out of every 5 shots. It went back to Christensen Arms and a new barrel was spun on, and a test target was returned with the rifle giving it a clean bill of health. Fast forward a couple months, and shot some rounds getting it re-sighted in. It is still sub-par for accuracy, and also has a mean cold bore deviation. So before it gets wrapped around a tree or run over with a truck, I figured I could work up a load for it and see what it can do. I have always wanted to get behind a Christensen Arms rifle, and this thing is a beauty. 8lbs 8oz. including mount and scope. It would be a dream to carry around the elk canyons. With the brake, I am hoping it does not kick like a mule. I cleaned it and stripped the barrel completely. tore it apart and reassembled torqueing everything to spec. I was given about 100 pieces of once fired brass. 50+ of HSM headstamp, and 40+ Winchester headstamp. I weighed the brass, and found a 20+ grain difference in brass weight. HSM was 262.6 to 265.5. Winchester was 241.8 to 244.7. So I won't be using all of the brass due to the big variation. I also have 20 unfired HSM rounds with 185 HVLDs, and 8 Winchester rounds with the same bullet. I will use them as foulers and sighters. I also noted the HSM had signs of pressure with flattened and cratered primers. The Winchester did not show quite the same pressure signs, but still a bit. Upon checking the loaded virgin rounds and once fired brass, I found a bid discrepancy in headsapcing, which can cause pressure. Winchester factory loaded rounds, most within .003". HSM factory loaded rounds, most within .002". Once fired brass before resizing. And resized with .003" bump. Owner wants to shoot 185-190 Berger HVLD, so I went and grabbed a box for load development Checking the chamber and throat depth, the 190 Bergers are touching the lands at 2.8725" CBTO & 3.555" COAL. I resized and bumped shoulders back .0025", and tumbled them. I trimmed them all to minimum length of 2.610" Chamfered inside and out Uniformed the primer pockets and deburred the flash holes (which I didn't show) Then annealed the whole batch (I slightly over annealed that one as you can see with the orange flame change, but my camera was being slow.) Sorted them into the two headstamps for loading

Double post

I think the MOAK reticle comes in the Gen 3. You will love it. I have the SKMR in my Gen 3. It is probably my favorite scope I own. CA is a bit more, and Color is not quite on par with my S&Bs, but everything else is right there, and the reticle is my favorite of all I have ever seen. You will not be sorry.

1. Kahles K624i Gen 3 2. Swarovski X5 3.5-18 3. Kahles K624i Gen 2 But everything else on the Kahles K624i Gen 2 kills the Swaro X5. Glass is very close on the Kahles Gen 2 & Swaro X5. The Kahles Gen 3 beats the Swaro X5 in every field except CA.

Still here.

I added 69desertdog, colthutton, and sandman to the list. All met and paid for some spare rims/tires. No issues, no drama. Just a smooth transaction.

Funny you should bring this back up. The Swarovski X5 3.5-18x50 is a very clear scope. Good glass, good color, hardly any CA. Turrets are OK, not great, but not bad either. It seems to track well also. I have taken it from 100 to 952 yards, and while I have not confirmed it returned to zero from the longer ranges this weekend, it seemed to track where I needed it to go between 100, 200, 100, 600 (dead on), 802 (just a touch low impact center of group), and 952 (just a touch high impact center of group). It is not an illuminated reticle, which I prefer for a hunting scope. But it has a decent reticle in the BRM variety. It is still a BDC type, and not a true MOA type reticle, but if you know your drops, and verify, it should work fine. It is also a SFP scope, so the reticle stays consistent at various magnifications. Over the last 2 weeks, I have also finished my testing. I do not have a ton of photos of the seating depth testing, but I did see a difference in the group sizes. This rifle seems to like a lot of shooter input as well. I think being so light, you need to really get behind it and pre-load the bi-pod consistently to manage recoil. I tested at 200 yards, and the best seating depth was 2.783" CBTO. It shot just about .75 MOA. I could not recreate the .3MOA that I got at 100 yards during charge weight testing with any seating depth at 200. I also got out this weekend to verify at some longer ranges. I was quite pissed off at myself for the first 4 rounds. I thought I had a good shooting lane picked out at 600, and dialed for elevation, held for a 2.2mph L-R wind and allowed for a bit of spin drift. First shot was about 2' high and 2' right......WTF? Second shot was low and left....WTF????? Third shot was low and 3' right.....WTFFF?????? I decided to break out one of my proven rifles and let a few fly.....my 7RM pushing my known 180 Hybrid load was about 2' right and a foot high........AARGH! Tried 2 more shots, with crazy results. High left, high right. I was fuming at this point. I had my son-in-law take a shot while I watched through the spotter this time...... right by about 2'. But, I found the issue. When he shot, I was watching the vapor trail and saw a piece of desert shrubbery fall about 150 yards out. I had been hitting a bush I thought we would clear and deflecting bullets all over the place. About a 4-5' difference in POI just because of a few tiny branches and leaves. I walked out and trimmed them off, and shot for confirmation with the .300WM. Boom...clang! Better, much better. The wind was picking up, so I had some horizontal dispersion, but not terrible for 600 yards. Thank goodness we had a truck to run back and mark the groups. Moved back to 802 and the winds lessened for a while, allowing me to shoot this group. Moved back to 952 and the winds picked up again, and the shooting conditions were not the greatest. Holding for windage, I had a few just off the right side, but I did not want to change wind holds to see how the rifle was doing. Since I can't plot the misses for POI, I am going to hope it was about MOA? Probably slightly more. After I finished confirmation, the winds really picked up and it actually started spitting rain, so we packed it up and headed home. I was hoping to shoot a ladder test on a new 168 SMK load I have been toying with, but did not get the chance. Look for that thread to follow soon. All in all, I am fairly happy with the rifle and load. Final load will be a 190 Berger HVLD @ 3070fps under MOA in an 8#+ rifle. I think it is a great mid range light carry mountain elk rifle option.

One of those days you start out at 2° in the dark, expecting to summit a glassing spot at sunup....that actually took 3 hours to get there instead of 1. Then it warms up to 50° while you are glassing, and have to shed about 3 layers for the pack back to the truck.

I have one too. Carries a big butt 100# elk rear quarter easily. Or a crap ton of gear. Good price for a great pack.