PRDATR

I'm more concerned with the potential loss of hunting habitat from the proposed Mine.

Is it the Deluxe Model with the Rosewood cap? In excellent condition they can sell for the price of a new wood stocked Remington. Tikka made high quality rifles and while this one 40 years old they have a strong following.

I stay in shape all year as part of my lifestyle and have been doing so for almost 60 years. It's all about moderation.

I have never used on but Jackie Bushman seems to have one on all of his rifles.

With all due respect, and you obviously know your stuff - When I reload - it is for one thing and one thing only. That is accuracy. I know every rifle has a sweet spot, when the perfect balance between burn rate, meets the harmonics of the barrel - and everything from primer to brass to powder and bullet weight all come into play. I have to disagree that 4350 is "way too slow". While I agree it's not a super fast burning powder, it is very stable and provides consistency. From what I've seen, consistency and accuracy go hand in hand. Based on 20 years of reloading, I would bet you would be hard pressed to find a single powder that is more consistently accurate from the 25-06/270 Win platform up through the .300 Magnums than IMR 4350. I've never seen 4350 flatten primers at medium loads, or produce barrel whip at higher loads like I have in the other powders I've tried. Again, not trying to be argumentative, I just don't think you can discount IMR 4350 in just about any finicky rifle without trying it out. No problem. I did some web surfing and did find it being used by one fellow. The slowest powder I used was 760 (H414) and that filled the case to the bottom of the mouth and was a compressed load so it stands to reason that 4350 being slower will not give optimum velocity, although it being a very consistent powder accuracy could by all means improve. Then again not every production rifle is capable of sub-moa. I tend to be a bit methodical when it comes to reloading and start out with a new batch of brass then chamfer case mouths and uniform primer pockets and clean flash holes and confirm all cases are the same length before I weigh/sort cases. I tend to pick tried and true powders after I decide on a bullet then chrono each load and note the results.

My take; Loss of habitat, more people movin in and being born and more emphasis on hunting added to ORV's enabling people to get faster/further into areas, game cams, higher powered optics, faster bows, tree stands, ground blinds, bait, all are compounded to the decline of game. But we all want our cake and it's not really you and me at fault. Honestly I don't really care about the hunting aspect and am perfectly satisfied in putting out a dozen cameras to outsmart the biggest buck I can find so the hunt can be over 20 minutes after the sun comes up and I can post some pics for well deserved accolades. As a bow hunter I don't like having fingers pointed my way about my success rate. If G&F doesn't like it then don't make tags available for the rut or pre-season when deer haven't been hunted for 8 months.

Ask here, http://forums.outdoorsdirectory.com/forumdisplay.php/36-Alaska-Handloading

Thats pertty entertainin dere hillbilly.

Way overkill for a varmint round. Better suited for deer.

http://www.accuracyspeaks.com/new_page_5.htm

Is the Berger bullet longer than a bullet by say Nosler? If so you probably want to use a powder where it can be pushed faster with that slower twist so it stabilizes better. With a production rifle I would be satisfied with MOA.

4350 is way too slow, you can't get enough of it in the case and velocity will suffer. If you have a 1 in 9 1/2 that is suprising as 1 in 9 1/4 is the usual twist. I always used CCI Bench Rest primers. http://www.accurates...dge-guides/7mm/ http://www.imrpowder.../burn-rate.html

Get socks made by Smart Wool. You can wash them out at the end of the day and they will be dry in the morning. Good boots with crappy socks are going to give your feet fits.

Look at my post with the 150gr from Corbon. The big concern here is whether optimal ballistics can be achieved in a 16" barrel. The folks at Corbon are certainly not going to create a load using an incorrect diameter bullet.

Great reply Doug.

Early Balloter here.

Not sure what you mean by jumping them in? That just means loading them so they are not touching the lands. What is the twist on the T3? Are you using a Chronograph? Don't be afraid to use 4064 that round loves it. I had good results for accuracy using W760 and 168gr HPBT Sierra Match bullets. For Elk I prefer something with more punch.

I used to hunt it back in the 90's with a friend of mine entering from the Horseshoe Canyon area and Mexican Camp. We usually climbed high to get away from the other hunters and hiked back into the canyons. They were there but I don't know what the population is like now. We always hunted the late December hunt and bears were still active with Mulies in the rut but the WT were not. The early hunt will probably be hot but staying out all day is the key. Leave camp well before sunrise and get where you want to begin hunting before it gets light and settle in and hunt until last legal light. Weather can be a factor getting in and out of some places.

I have both Zeiss and Bauch&Lomb and usually use the latter as they tent to be moister but I also use the brush on a lens pen and used to have a mini duster from my old film days but haven't seen one for a while.

I camped up on a well used knoll along with a few others who decided to come in with their RV's and generators, in the middle of the night. It may have been off the Ruby Rd, we were south of town and not far from the turnoff to the mud hole they call a lake. Just south of us was a small mountain with what looked like a cell phone dish on it that I hunted near one day. I was walking the ridge on the hill south of it and followed a small trail into a couple of oaks. Low and behold tucked up underneath of a large oak were sleeping bags, coleman stove, canned food galore lots of variety magazines like you see at the checkout in the supermarket (only in spanish) and a nice flat bench for sleeping on cut into the side of the mountain. Sure glad it was unihabitated when I walked in on it. A few miles further south there is a large body of water with some buildings on it and IIRC it is set up for tourists. I sat overlooking a tree filled canyon a ways to the east one morning as the sunrose hoping to see some deer when I heard a loud sneeze from a woman which came from amongst the trees. I did hear a few helios each night buzz our camp and saw lots of BP vehicles whizzing up and down the roads each day but though it was strange they never came into camp to talk to us or the others camped nearby. Just keep your witts about you and leave the beer back in town for after the hunt is over. I'll be back again this year on the second hunt, not sure where I'll hunt this year but will not be hunting around either of those two areas and will be looking to hunt some newer areas probably further east but need to do some scouting. From what I saw be self reliant and don't expect much from BP.

Rabbit would be my first choice followed by pup in distress. Foxes prefer broken country like canyons, deep washes, rocky outcroppings etc mainly because it gives them a place to hide and dash into quickly when coyotes show up. Foxes cannot outrun a coyote and are just competition.

Go over to Rimfirecentral.com, plenty of nice helpful folk over there.

Never had that kind of time to toy with that stuff.

Thanks for taking the time to give the review. I was on their site over the weekend looking to see if turrets could be added to an early 90's VXll. I didn't get a chance to call them today, too busy at work. Hoping to get some time to call them tomorrow. Taping clicks worked well for me when I shot competition and had time to do it but turrets will be my next modification to my rig. After 20 years I think it is ready for something. To each his own.

The 7.62 has very similar ballistics to the 30-30 and you should be good out to about 250 yards. http://www.shopcorbon.com/CORBON-Hunter/762x39-150gr-CORBON-Hunter-JSP/HT762X39150-20/300/Product