lancetkenyon

Threw my Premier on it for a quick photo op. Swapped my S&B back on it tonight, but no photos of it. 10lbs 7oz all in. Can't wait to shoot it.

215 Hybrid over H1000. Elk medicine.

I used to use a cheap tree stand belt. But when you life is literally On the line, get something decent.

I had a guy come to my house last night to pick up some loads, and he asked me what died when he walked by my garbage can. I told him dove carcasses. My wife is such an understanding and patient woman, a real saint.

Heck, I get distracted by ANY game animal, big or small. Part of our nature as outdoorsmen and women. I truly enjoy the outdoors and God's creations. From a cool rock or burned out log, to flowers, cactus, clouds or a sunrise, bugs, squirrels, birds, coyotes (which I try to kill every one I see), elk, deer, etc. About the only thing I could do without is catclaw. I hate that crap.

On a side note, I got to help a new hunter out on Monday morning. After my cousin and nephew left, and Chris was cleaning up, a guy named Angel pulled up. Younger kid, early 20s probably. He stopped and talked to Chris while I was finishing up removing pest Eurasians. Chris gave him some tips on where to stand, and where to watch for birds. I watched him miss about 10 shots, and when Chris left, he started talking to me. Cool guy. I had seen him hit 1 out of about 10 shots. He told me he was new to hunting. I asked him how long he had been shooting a shotgun, and he said about 1 year. So I gave him a quick lesson on shooting, leads, follow through, where to hold, etc. Showed him on the ground and drew it in the dirt, and showed him where to point, etc. Went over the basics, how to sight, distances to shoot, what to pass on, make sure to pick up the empty hulls, etc. No one had ever explained any of that to him. So after a quick tutorial, I helped him watch for birds, told him what to pass, and what to shoot. Wouldn't you know it.....next shot...dove down! And the next, and the next. I think he went 7 for 10 those next 10 shots! He was pumped after that. Glad I got to meet him, nice kid, he was truly excited about getting into it too.

Teaser of the .280AI load development I am about to start. I finished up three rifles this weekend I was working on loads for, so I only have one more to try and slap together really quickly prior to a buddies hunt that starts Oct. 5th. But I got to shoot my .280AI on Friday morning after dove hunting. 1st impressions. Besides being a lightweight work of art, the rifle is really, REALLY well balanced with the Premier scope on it. I did swap my "go-to load development scope" Kahles K624i w. SKMR reticle for a bit more precision to try and get a load for the .280AI shooting good enough as a back-up back-up elk rifle. Since I was at the range to finish up two 7 Rem Mags loads I have been working on, I just took mine out to try it out, since my gunsmith has been badgering me about it... After shooting the 7 mags, I set up the .280AI with some loads I built for a very rough sight-in/"let's see what this thing will do" test. I had already bore sighted it at my house, but gave it a couple clicks at the range at the 100 yards I was previously shooting. I pushed the target back to 200 and hoped I would be on paper so I could see the hit. I had taped up a few fresh targets in hopes of seeing a hit for correction. So, first shot, Nosler brass, Fed GM310M, 168 HVLD over 57.0gr. RL23. BOOM! Oh wow, this rifle is a pussy cat. Even with the light weight, that brake takes off a ton of recoil. Big smile. Even better when I saw I hit paper at 200. Low and right of POA, but good enough to start. I shot 2 more of the same load.......uh-oh. Remember, this is only at 200 yards. First 3 shots from a new rifle with a new, unfired, clean barrel......DANG IT!!! Not a good sign.......for the game animals! First 3 shots at 200 yards. No load development, no testing, just point and shoot. I need to get a better photo, but you can see the group through my spotter on 70X. Sorry, phone photo. Look at the bottom of targets #4 & 5 on the top left paper. Right hole @ 3;00 is the first shot. Left two @ 9:00 & 8:00 are shots 2 & 3. About .8" or .4MOA. Charge weights of 57.5 & 58.0 were both just over 1" @ 200. Final charge weight for the day was 58.5gr. RL23 behind the 168 HVLD. Now, I did not bring my chronograph, thinking no way I would need it. I wish I had, because if these are anywhere around 2900+, I might just call it good! Top "hole" is 2 shots, then I dropped the third by about 1/4". 3 shots, at .29" @ 200. WHAT??? I am sure it was somewhat of a fluke, and I might not be able to repeat it, but dang. Talk about a confidence builder. On a much more serious note. A Public Service Announcement: I went back out on Sunday to verify my own 7RM load and zero (which is golden!) and was testing a few more charge weights in the .280AI @ 200 since the 58.5 showed not a single sign of pressure. I was at the 2nd bench from the tower at Ben Avery. The closest bench is where the range masters work on guns, perform sight ins, etc. Red flag #1: (in my opinion) I had been there a couple hours, when two guys showed up to have the BASF range masters "sight in" their rifle. Apparently, they have a hunt coming up......have....had....same difference. A tag in the wallet. Yet they can't sight in their own rifle..... They uncase a Ruger M77 tang safety in 7 Rem Mag. Same rifle/cartridge I have shot a ton. My cousin has one, my son-in-law has one, my brother has one, I used to have one. Nice enough gun. Great in the hands of someone who knows how to use it. They said, "We just bought a new scope and put on it for the hunt." I heard they had mounted it themselves. Red flag #1: Bolt was absolutely filthy. Covered in old, OLD oil that had turned to glue, years of dust accumulation. The ranger masters asked the guy how long it had been since he cleaned it. His response was "I don't know, a few years?" They got it cleaned up so it was functioning and sliding freely. Red flag #2: Good thing they decided to bore sight the rifle. The barrel was dirtier than the bolt. Years of old oil and dust had accumulated in the bore. Step #2, clean out the bore. Red flag #3: The guys asked myself, and another member here who was at the bench next to me (shooting a sweet custom .270 Win.) if we had a bore snake for a 9mm. Yes, a 9mm. Not a 7mm. The range masters had a cleaning rod, so they got some solvent and some patches and cleaned out the bore. Red flag #4: Ammo condition: The guys broke out a box of 7 Rem Mag ammo, it was Winchester I believe, that was really old, and the box looked like it had gotten wet a time or two. They opened the box, and half the ammo was green, and some were tarnished almost black....I think that box went into the trash? I hope. Box #2 looked OK, but the ammo was really old again. Tarnished, corroded lead soft points that get the white oxidation on the lead.... Now the range masters should have called it quits right there. Too many issues to this point. Anyway, they bore sighted the scope, and strapped the rifle down in a Lead Sled. Now I was shooting a 7RM pushing a hot 180 Hybrid load, with a muzzle brake. A lot of you know those obnoxious guys like me that shoot next to you, and you know the noise and muzzle blast we create, right? Another shooter I know (Charlie) was standing behind me, as I was shooting. So I wasn't paying attention to what was about to transpire 5' to my right.... The range master (a young lady who is there all the time), after bore sighting the rifle/scope, was going to perform the sight-in for the guys..... When she squeezed off that first round.....It was a yard sale. It sounded like a .50BMG round, concussion was unbelievable, shoot went flying, scope came off, bolt came out, scared the crap out of me. Luckily, I believe the ONLY injury was very minor. A cut on the range master's nose across the bridge. But holy crap was she pissed! I have seen the range masters lose their cool a couple times, but dang. She was cussing, yelling, throwing stuff, telling them to get their effing shoot out and get the eff out, etc. And the guys acted incredulous. "It is not my fault", etc. No responsibility, no apologies, no concern for the person whose life was literally in danger. I am not sure what all went wrong, but I am thinking the ammo got wet, or went bad somehow, causing massive overpressure and very dangerous conditions, the corrosion of the case/bullets caused either a "weld" or something, the bore was still way too dirty and caused the issue, the gun had something majorly wrong with it to begin with, etc. ​So please be careful people. Inspect your guns, ammo, etc. before each trip. Make sure everything is in working order and in proper condition. We ARE working with a controlled explosion and extreme pressures.

Had a good time with my cousin and nephew, and Predator. I got me a new girlfriend too. She gives big, wet, sloppy kisses if you buy her dinner. Literally, every time I dropped a dove in the pens and went to get it, she came to see me. The only cow that would let me touch her. I fed he some nice fresh Bermuda 1st thing in the morning, and she stuck around the rest of the morning. I named her "Filet". Got 8 legal birds, and 70 Eurasians. 4 boxes. If I could quit trying to drop those high flying pigeons, my percentage would go way up too.

Looks like those "match" bullets performed fantastic on game.

Went out with my cousin and 2 nephews today. I think the 4 of us were about tied with Adam yesterday. Not an exact count, and Adam has the single person high score still, but we had a blast. I had 2 whitewings and 68 Eurasians. I had 2 catches out of the air, a one handed shot, and 1 double bird for a single shell. 82 shots. Saw Hoghunter, Sherman, and one of their buds out there, and they were slaying them too. Saw Mike make a couple one-sided shots too. Here are a few of mine.

No pictures, but I am already home. Limit of legal birds,plus 22 Eurasians by 7:10. Took me about 10 shots to get my leads back on, then I slayed them. 2 boxes + 2 shells. Loading up some rifles as we speak to head to the range now.

Range bag packed. Shotguns ready. License with bird stamp in the wallet. Alarm set. Fingers crossed.

Yes, McMillan Game Scout w Edge fill.

Brandon PMed me, and I actually texted and said, "Why didn't you just text me?"

It will be a full power hunting rifle. I have another 6.5 that I use for shooting a lot of rounds through. I went down to visit my rifle today to check seating depths for all of my rounds I loaded up. That thing is looking amazing too! Eric open up the feed opening a touch since this was originally a standard action, not a WSM/SAUM action. It feeds crazy smooth. This is a 140 Hybrid seated really long. The base of the bullet is still above the body/shoulder junction. I knew what the Wyatt's extended box length was going to be (2.990"), so I made sure I kept the COAL shorter than that length And still get at least .264" of bearing surface in the neck. I am about .030" or so short of the max mag length I pushed the round down in the mag to make sure it would not stick. Still good. I also took a bunch of loose bullets and an empty case with a neck that was a bit loose, but still held the bullet tight enough that I had to use a kinetic puller to get them out after chambering the round to check where they would be jammed to the lands. Amazing how different bullet shapes change CBTO when jammed to the lands. Also shows the comparators we use do not measure to actual ogive, but slightly above. Here are the jammed CBTOs for various bullets. 127 LRX 143 ELD-X 142 NABLR 142 SMK 140 HVLD 140 Hybrid

I did for my .25-06AI that runs on RL22. It is about 1fps per 1° difference. It worked perfectly taking this into account. Had hits out to 800 on a variety of varmints, and at 488 on Deer. Never concerned me after I had that info input into my ballistic program and drop charts. I will take the extra 100fps it is supposed to give over H1000 and run with it IF it is as accurate as I am expecting. If not, these are fore forming loads, and I can do load development with both RL26 and H1000 simultaneously to see which one performs better. I would give up .1" for 100fps gain. Time will tell. I will also be working up two loads. A 140 and the 155 Elite Hunter when it comes out. Or maybe a 150 or 160 Matrix.

RL25, yes. RL26, no. It has been proven to be much more temp stable than the earlier Reloader powders like 15, 17, 19, 22, 25. I am trying RL23 in my .280AI also. Same thing with RL23 vs. RL22. http://www.alliantpowder.com/products/powder/reloder26.aspx http://www.alliantpowder.com/products/powder/reloder23.aspx

I have seen some bulls from 6A, 7W, and 10 that all looked great. But even on average years, there will be bulls that dwarf others. So it is hard to judge a population by the biggest bulls. But having a tag means you are already ahead of the game!

Stayed up too late last night and got some fire forming loads worked up. Using RL26, I did two charge weights 5 grains below max according to Rich Sherman. His max loads for a 140-143gr bullet is around 62.0-63.0 of RL26. I figured to be safe I would do 57.0 & 57.5gr. Five rounds of each charge weight, five different bullets just to break up the monotony. 142 SMK (actually 10 of the 57.0 for sight in and fire forming of the 57.0 load), 142 NABLR (which I have never had good results from), 140 Berger Hybrid, 127 Barnes LRX (only the 57.5gr charge weight), 140 Berger HVLD. Got 50 of 101 pieces run through the FL die, chambered, annealed and loaded. 142 SMK 140 HVLD 127 LRX

Let the tourists go to the wolves now. Not try to bring the wolves to the tourists. Besides, they will never be seen! And I am sure the hunters in 9, 7, 10, 12/13 would just LOVE that!

I call it the .280 Foreskin.

I will weigh it when I get it back to find out what the total weight savings are with fluting the barrel, fluting the bolt, alloy bolt shroud, and alloy 20MOA Picatinny rail. I know the rail lost about 3 oz, the bolt shroud lost 2 oz. My LA bolt lost just over 1oz with fluting, another 1 oz, with the CF bolt knob install vs. the factory steel ball and 2 oz with the alloy bolt shroud. Went from 14.5oz to 10oz. But I added a muzzle brake and Cerakote. So I bet I won't lose too much. Maybe 4 oz?

Eric is fitting the Wyatt's box today for the 6.5 SS, and might be Cerakoting this week still. Man, I can't wait to see it! My S&B PMII 5-25x56 is getting lonely sitting in my safe waiting on the rifle to come back. Should be a deadly combo a long ways out. And those 155 Berger EOL Elite Hunters.