lancetkenyon

I got out to the range on Sunday to almost complete my load development. Still just a touch of tweaking, but I am almost there. I had two seating depths I liked within .0400" of each other. Going to try a few between these and see how it works out. Then load up 300 or so and start my ballistic verification work at distance. I usually sight in and zero at 200 yards, so I hit about an inch high at 100 on all of my rifles. Well, I forgot I zeroed this in at 100, so when I dialed down 3 clicks, it put me about 1/2 to 3/4" low for my first group of 3 shots. After the first shot, I kicked myself, but shot all 3 at that setting for group. Not bad. Aiming dot is .250". Group measures in the mid .2s for 3 shots. This is at .0100" off the lands. Second group, I dialed back up .2MILs, and left .1MIL. I think I will re-zero windage at this and call it good. Again, in the mid .2s. This was at .0500" jump. 2 other groups, at .0800" jump and .1200" jump were not nearly as good, about .75 MOA. Still pretty good, but nowhere near these two. This gives the Berger VLD discussion of a sweet spot of .0400" somewhere some validity.

ADL or BDL? I would think and ADL would go around $300-350 in decent shape, BDL would get you an additional $50. A new Rem 700 BDL LA action is around $450 new. When I built my .25-06 Ackley, I found a terrible shape 700 BDL in .30-06 at a pawn shop. The action was good (no rust), but it had a 20" carbine barrel that looked like somebody dropped it out of a truck on the highway, and the wood stock was hammered. I paid $250, as all I wanted was the action and bottom metal anyway.

Thanks for the clarification on the full year. Must be nice....

Casting your net of requested information pretty broadly. How about a little clarification to help narrow it down. SS or Chromo? ADL or BDL? Right or left hand? Factory barrel or custom aftermarket (and if aftermarket, what quality)? High quality or POS Wally World special? Standard sporter or heavy barrel? New or used? Bolt face or specific cartridge? LA standard or Mag? Just barreled action, or drop in ready with trigger, bottom metal, etc.? You are looking somewhere between $377 like stated above to $3500.

180 day season, anywhere in the state except a reservation I believe. But the deer is usually taken right before the archery hunt opens up.

Did you check www.grizzly.com for the barrel? You might have to get it fluted, but they have a 29" Rem varmint contour 1 in 10" twist .308 Bartlein in stock for $369.

WHICH 23N bull tag did you apply for? Early Rifle? 9-25 to 10-1? My assumption, since you are still iffy on drawing, and an archery tag would be a given with 17bps. Archery? 9-11 to 9-24? Late general? 11-27 to 12-3? This is 23, not just 23N, so probably not this hunt.

^This. I can attest to the OHV community really stepping up every year to do the annual Table Mesa/BLM cleanup. For about 7 years, I went every time. We hauled out burnt cars, usually 4-6 per cleanup, and a minimum of four 40 yards roll-off dumpsters. The efforts consisted of numerous off-road clubs, ATV clubs, the BLM supplying the dumpsters and pizza, and hundreds of volunteers. On the note about a simple effort of picking up your empties/trash....I almost got into a fist fight on Wednesday just outside of Wickenburg. I was out doing some testing for work, and granted, the site is fairly close to an area that is frequently used by recreational shooters. Wouldn't you think common sense dictates that if someone is downrange, you ensure a safe field of fire??? Two separate shooters came to the area while I was performing my work. 180° difference between the two. 1. Guy (maybe 45 years old?) shows up and parks his vehicle off the side of the road. Gets out his needed items and sees me about 100 yards up the hill. Walks up to inform me he is going to do a little bit of shooting to check on his pistol. We talk, and he tells me he will be shooting in the opposite direction from where I am working, and just wanted to let me know so I did not get freaked out when the shooting started. After he was finished, he removed his target, and all of his brass. Yelled goodbye to me and departed. Totally honorable and respectful guy. Much respect to him. 2. Guy (maybe early 20s?) shows up with his girlfriend. Parks in the middle of the road, with my truck and myself very visible down range. Proceeds to get out, with his stereo blasting, and pulls out a shotgun. Loads it up, and commences blasting away within approximately 20° of my location. I yell down to him that I am up the hill (and throw in the fact that I am there on behalf of the MCSO). Girl shoots about 10 rounds, he shoots about 10 rounds. Last few had a few pellets rattling around. I yell again, in not so nice of a tome or verbiage. They very quickly pack up as I start down the hill with a vengeance, leaving all of the empty hulls on the ground. Halfway down, they are tearing out of the desert. I yell a last time they forgot the empties, and get a one-finger salute as they beat cheeks down the road. What an asshole. I finished up my work, and was looking for them in Wickenburg as I drove through. Probably a good thing I did not see the newer model red Jeep JK 2 door with no doors and a young guy in khaki shorts and striped tank top, with his girlfriend in jeans and a black t-shirt. If you know these people, let the guy know he is a douchebag, and taught his girlfriend the absolute wrong etiquette and ethics in recreational shooting.

Just had a talk with God on this (mostly one way talk, but I know He hears me). Prayers for a healing hand laid upon this young man. Prayers for comfort for family and friends too. And prayers for the Drs. to make good calls and to give them the information they need to make Jared better.

I cannot believe this is still here. Smoking price. Which model Savage?

Ahh. Another one of the joys of the online draw. Call me old fashioned, I like hand delivered paper. At least I know it is down there. Now I just have to hope someone inputs all the info correctly on my behalf....

PM Sent.

http://www.coueswhitetail.com/forums/topic/54649-winchester-model-70-30-06-post-64/

Check the Berger twist calculator for gyroscopic stability. It states (just guessing at a 3000fps MV), you are at the low end of marginal stability. At 1.14SG, probably not going to work out too well. Berger suggests the 85 VLD,90 Classic Hunter and down in bullet weight. Try it. Only your gun can tell you what it likes. If not, sell what you have left and try a different bullet. It won't hurt the gun, and time behind the rifle is never a bad thing.

With the specs you gave, you MIGHT not hit the sweet spot. But then again, you could easily do so. I am just re-stating what Berger suggested with the .0400" jump between seating depth differences. It gives you a big jump to see where the sweet spot will be, and then fine tune from there. But like Stomp, I have usually found the sweet spot closer to the lands. As for jam vs. jump, I ALWAYS start my load development at jammed into the lands. This will give you the highest pressure you would ever see. And when you finally get pressure signs from powder charge, you know where your absolute max will be. Then, when you start seating off the lands to fine tune, you know the pressure will never go up. I only ever had one rifle that likes jammed bullets the best. But it really likes them, so I stuck with it. Just barely touching, so not really hard jammed. The rest have been between .005 and .025" off the lands. As for the Wyatt box, I think it is a very good idea since you are starting new anyway. I have never felt I needed a second round in the mag, as I can single load pretty fast. And when I am getting ready to take a shot on game, I have a second round in my hand ready to go just in case.

Dining room table centerpiece. Antique copper bowl, filled with pine cones and sheds. (there are more in there now) Coat/hat rack. Sheds on an old piece of barn wood. This pile has really grown over the last few years, but just sitting on an end table. I have a few nice pick-up racks hanging on the wall or on a gun cabinet too.

VLDs are touchy with jam/jump. Try loading 3 of each at different COAL. One group will far outshoot the rest. Berger says there is a .040" area where they shoot best. Try: Jammed into the lands (you will get higher pressure here, so be wary). .0300" off .0700" off .1100" off One of those should be hands down better than the rest. Then you can fine tune if you want.

Dan already mounted up his new scope.

I like them out of my .300RUM with a factory 26" barrel. 210 VLD and 215 Hybrids. You should have a 1 in 10" twist, so they should stabilize fine. They hit like a sledgehammer. I still have the factory LA box, I just load mine single feed. Are you looking for a recipe? Or just opinions on the combo? To me, the .300RUM was built to shoot the big heavies out to the horizon....and beyond. Otherwise, you might as well have bought a .30-06.

I dial elevation too, but hold windage. With that, you need a reticle that has hold off marks. I like them at least .2MIL spacing for myself. Going from .6 to .8MIL hold off at 1000 yards is a big jump. And when you only have .5MIL marks, it is hard to know if you are holding .7 or .8 off. And that could easily be a miss. It would really suck to have to keep dialing L or R a click or three as winds shifted. With .2MIL windage holds, usually comes .2 or .5MIL elevation marks. Not too busy for my liking, as I am not engaging targets from 600-1200 rapidly where you do not have time to dial like a military scenario. So no need for an H59 type reticle with a Christmas tree. But on a prairie dog town from 300-600 yards, it might be really nice if your spotter is calling your holds and yardages. And if you miss elevation by .3MIL (or 1.25MOA), wouldn't it be nice to just hold the extra correction for a quick second shot rather than having to reach up and dial (or guesstimate your extra hold)? There is a reason those reticles are so coveted by the LR guys, and especially the guys who go in harm's way.

PM sent.

All of the things people are posting to do to the dog, try with the owner first. I bet it will go a long way in getting him to be responsible. 1. Spray with water. 2. Paintball gun/slingshot. 3. Electric stimuli. 4. Baseball bat. 5. Well, you get the picture.

I have a matching set, left and right hand.

After that all dried, I hit it with four coats of flat clear, and let it dry. Did my final assembly on Monday, and was extremely happy with the results.

Well, I got my real stock finished up this weekend. I am pleased with the final results. Here was the practice stock laid on top of the action to see what it might look like. I liked it, so went with the scheme, but decided to go wider with the stripes on the real stock. First stage was go over the Coyote Tan with some Dark Khaki and a couple of the darker greens. After letting it dry for a couple days, I masked off the stripes, and hit it in a similar pattern with a light khaki/sand and a Sage green, then stripped off the stencils and hit a few shadows of olive on the stripes. Let that all dry for a couple days, then taped off the stars and the edge of the dark background using dark olive with a few light sage highlights.