I really, really like Mexico

[luvin huntin]

Congrats on a great buck!! Mexico sure has some amazing genes or something.....Never been there myself - but for all the pics I've seen and I'll the guys I know that go to Ol Mex there are ton BIG deer down there.

 

Congrats.

 

Greg

 

[Coues Sniper]

Finally got a chance to shoot the rifle today. First thing I noticed when i did a once over on her was that the brake was loose . Most screw on type brakes will slowly get tight, but not this one. It's hard to get it tight because once it gets to the end it simply won't go any farther. You can crank it as hard as you want with your hand to tighten it, but when you try and loosen it it only takes 2 fingers. This has gotten progressively worse as I've had her. I think the reason is because I take the brake off to clean it every time and the constant on and off has made it easier to loosen. Another thing is, when it does get loose, it wobbles. And it doesn't have to be all that loose for it to wobble either. So i tightened it with my hand and shot. Good up and down and probably 3/4" left. 2nd shot is about an inch left. OK, so 4 clicks right and i'm home again right? Make my 4 clicks and shoot again. 1/4" low and 1/4"left. The shot felt about there so i shoot again. 1/4" right and almost 3" low. What the??? That couldn't have been me! Check the brake, and you guessed it: loose. VERY loose. Tighten the brake and then proceed to put one touching the bull's eye. Sweet. Let's try 400 now. Dial to 400 and shoot. 12" low, easy. What the ____? Check the brake. It's a little loose but not enough to affect it, I would think. Crank it tight and shoot again. Dead nuts center of the bull, I mean perfect. Try it one more time, almost 12" low again. Brake again was a touch loose but I'm not sure if it was enough to affect it. By this point I'm about to pull my freaking hair out and I'm out of time anyways so I head home. I cleaned the rig and put a bit of plumber's tape on the threads of the brake to see if that will keep it from coming loose. It made it much harder to tighten, and took about all i had to get it fully on. I'm praying that's all it is. I also inspected the brake to see if it was getting any contact from the bullet (due to that wobble) and couldn't see any. But i may have to look a little more closely than i could at the range. The weird thing is, all the shots that were off were off vertically. There was vitually no left or right variance. And when a shot was a flier, it was always low. About 3 to 4 minutes. I'm taking the chrono with me next time to check my loads and see if i'm getting any variances in velocity. Think positive thoughts for me

[longshooter]

Hope you get it figured out dude.

[tjhunt2]

Mexico certainly has some awesome deer down there. Thanks for sharing that big bad boy with all of us.

 

TJ

[Kilimanjaro]

I missed this somehow... Anywhooo, great buck Kev!! Another great Mex buck on the wall!!

 

 

[fatfootdoc]

That is a beautiful deer!!! Hope you get your gun figured out!! congrats..ag

[Benbrown]

That is the buck of a lifetime! Congratulations! Great hunt and a great story!

 

Just curious--how did Brad age it to 10 1/2 years?

 

I wish you continued success!

[Hunterdan]

Thanks for keeping us posted on the rifle. That is interesting to me.

[Coues Sniper]

That is the buck of a lifetime! Congratulations! Great hunt and a great story!

 

Just curious--how did Brad age it to 10 1/2 years?

 

I wish you continued success!

Thanks! Brad is also a game biologist and looks at the teeth on the bottom jaw to age deer. The tooth he normally looks at was actually gone on my deer so he looked at the other teeth and that's what he came up with. I don't think you can be exact unless you cut the tooth open but he says he is usually pretty darn close. He was an old buck for sure though.

 

Thanks for keeping us posted on the rifle. That is interesting to me.

Hopefully I'll have a good report from the range tomorrow. I have another hunt on the 1st so i need to get this figured out quickly I'll keep you guys posted.

[Coues Sniper]

Went to the range again this morning, and I'm still a bit confused. The brake never came loose, so the plumbers tape turned out to be a good temporary fix for that. But the gun still didn't shoot like it did over the summer with these bullets. To back up a bit, I don't reload (yet, I will as soon as my hunts are over) but I had a couple hundred hand loads made up for the gun that shot well. My old man bugged me to try the Remington factory loads with 180 grain Scirocco's that he really liked. I gave them a shot and my gun LOVED them. 1/2 moa was a cake walk. Shots touching at 400 was not uncommon. It was almost too good to be true. Well, after I fixed the brake problem for this morning the gun shot significantly better, but I still had 2 fliers out of 6 shots with the factory loads (both around 2 minutes, once at 100 and once at 400). I tried the old hand loads and they shot just like they did before. So I don't know if Remington changed something (these were all different boxes than shot over the summer, and I tried 3 different ones) or what, but the gun doesn't seem to like these Remington factory rounds at all any more. Anyone else ever have this problem ?

[Red Rabbit]

Have you run the factory cartridges over a concentricity guage to see if the bullets are "straight"? Those 0.005+ out of alignment may be your fliers.

 

What happens if you shoot without the brake?

[Coues Sniper]

Have you run the factory cartridges over a concentricity guage to see if the bullets are "straight"? Those 0.005+ out of alignment may be your fliers.

No, I haven't. But that is a good idea.

 

What happens if you shoot without the brake?

I haven't shot it without the brake. Ever. Although I was thinking about doing just that this weekend. I'm planning on shooting this Saturday, maybe I'll give that a try. Thanks Doug.

[AZantlerhead]

That's one great looking buck!!! Congrat's man!!

[TAM]

You say the rifle performed well over the summer, but not now. Could it be from the temperature variations? I know during the hotter months you could have higher pressures than in the cooler months, which could effect the bullets POI. It's never a good idea to sight your rifle in during the heat of the summer and expect it to shoot the same during the cold fall or winther months.

 

My only other guess would be that with factory ammo sometimes one box will perform better than another.

 

One more reason to load your own ammo!

 

Good luck

[Coues Sniper]

TAM,

 

I had thought about that, but I had continued to shoot those loads all through November and up until the hunt. I would never just shoot in July and call the load good. It was shooting so well, and consistently well, with those factory loads it was almost too good to be true. I was actually calling my shots before they impacted at 800 yards the weekend before we left. I did start a new box on the hunt, so maybe they changed something, or I got a bad lot. I shot again this weekend and shot a 2" group with the handloads, and about a 5" group with the factory's at 400. Fixing that brake made a huge difference, but whatever the case the gun doesn't like them anymore. I think I'm done with factory loads, again . I plan on playing with the 210 Bergers, and 208 A-max's this spring anyways. Thanks for the imput!

 

Kevin