memilanuk
Gold $$ Contributor
Made the trip over the mountain passes and back today... six hours and change on the road. Dropped of a gun with a buyer, picked up another one, and dropped a third and some spare barrels off with a gunsmith for some work. Long trip, but worth it.
The rifle that came back with me was a Savage Target Action w/ a Pac-Nor 30" 8tw 3-groove barrel chambered for the B180VLDs in 7WSM. Came with all sorts of goodies, including dies, brass, powder, primers and bullets - and some loaded rounds.
The stock on it was a nice tri-tone laminate from SSS, but the gun felt a little 'light'. I'm not a huge fan of recoil, and NRA HP rules frown on muzzle brakes... I put the gun on the scale, with a NF 12-42x BR sitting on top, and it just squeaked past 16 lbs. No way in heck am I abusing myself behind a 16lb 7 WSM with no break and a stock made more for light holds or free-recoil. I don't need a 42x monocular, thank you very much!!! I had been kind of thinking that stock would look really nice on my 6 Dasher anywho, so I pulled the McRee stock off the 6 Dasher, put various bits back on it (like cheek piece, pistol grip, regular 'hunter' fore-end with a bipod stud) and dug out my heaviest bipod - from Sinclair Int'l. If I'd had a Henry Remple piece handy, I'd have used that. As it was, the gun with scope bolted on weighed about 19.7lbs... much better.
This is what it looked like before (as a 6 Dasher):
This is what it looks like now, fitted up to handle recoil a bit (yes, our 300yd targets are up-hill, which is why the gun is up on stilts like that ):
Going from a (rough) 100yd zero to 300, just for giggles:
Looks like the previous owner might have had a pretty good load going after all
Tomorrow is our monthly 600yd practice. I realize 600 is still kind a close for a 7 WSM, but it should be a good opportunity to get a feel for how it behaves and such. Assuming I haven't cursed it by putting that dang Sinclair 'pod on there...
The rifle that came back with me was a Savage Target Action w/ a Pac-Nor 30" 8tw 3-groove barrel chambered for the B180VLDs in 7WSM. Came with all sorts of goodies, including dies, brass, powder, primers and bullets - and some loaded rounds.
The stock on it was a nice tri-tone laminate from SSS, but the gun felt a little 'light'. I'm not a huge fan of recoil, and NRA HP rules frown on muzzle brakes... I put the gun on the scale, with a NF 12-42x BR sitting on top, and it just squeaked past 16 lbs. No way in heck am I abusing myself behind a 16lb 7 WSM with no break and a stock made more for light holds or free-recoil. I don't need a 42x monocular, thank you very much!!! I had been kind of thinking that stock would look really nice on my 6 Dasher anywho, so I pulled the McRee stock off the 6 Dasher, put various bits back on it (like cheek piece, pistol grip, regular 'hunter' fore-end with a bipod stud) and dug out my heaviest bipod - from Sinclair Int'l. If I'd had a Henry Remple piece handy, I'd have used that. As it was, the gun with scope bolted on weighed about 19.7lbs... much better.
This is what it looked like before (as a 6 Dasher):
This is what it looks like now, fitted up to handle recoil a bit (yes, our 300yd targets are up-hill, which is why the gun is up on stilts like that ):
Going from a (rough) 100yd zero to 300, just for giggles:
Looks like the previous owner might have had a pretty good load going after all
Tomorrow is our monthly 600yd practice. I realize 600 is still kind a close for a 7 WSM, but it should be a good opportunity to get a feel for how it behaves and such. Assuming I haven't cursed it by putting that dang Sinclair 'pod on there...
