lancetkenyon

People hunt animals over "bait" all the time. Water holes, doves on fields, deer in oak stands, ducks/geese over ponds, coyotes over carcasses, etc. Many states allow baiting. No way was this a tame bear. Tame would be the high fence canned hunts where the animals associate humans with food, not a 55 gallon drum with food. That bear wanted the people out, not walk right up to them for a handout. 14"+ of penetration with a 3" wide cutting surface equals a dead bear quick. Just as fast as a broad head I am sure. Humans have been killing bears ever since we could think of a way to sharpen a stick. Why not continue if you have the cojones to do so? This guy was more efficient than a lot of people here who shoot an animal with a rifle or bow and can't recover it. Just saying.

So I have found my .260 Rem and 6.5 SLR load for the 127 LRX. Here is the .260 Rem pushing the 127 LRX @ 3017fps. .335" 5 shot, 100 yard group. Pretty acceptable for accuracy doing nothing but charge weight testing. And here is the 6.5 SLR pushing the 127 LRX @ 3050fps. 5 shot 200 yard group...shot by Taylor. .383" @ 200 yards. Still working on the 7RM load pushing the 168 LRX, but yesterday, I had 3 different groups that were under .750" 5 shot groups @ 3040-3080fps.

TTT

I got out on Sunday and shot for some groups. Best load wound up being 76.0gr. H1000. Shot into .533" @ 100 @ 2920fps average. Other groups were all about 1", some a bit under, some a bit over. Pretty happy with the lack of vertical dispersion. 5 shots I got home and resized the brass bumping the shoulder back .002" and tumbled them. Loaded up some more for seating depth testing this coming weekend. All measurements are CBTO. Shortest is .005" shorter than Berger's recommended COAL measurement. 2.820" 2.780" 2.740" 2.700" 2.660"

How hot are you getting the brass when you anneal? Usually brass cracks when it gets too hard, or if you way over anneal and shorthand and ruin the brass. It only takes 4-7 seconds depending on make and cartridge.

If you plan on shooting to 500-600, you better get to practicing. A load developed for YOUR gun would be best. Otherwise, start with a couple good boxes and try them out to see what shoots best in your rifle.

I think I have one camo hooded sweatshirt, youth L. I will check tomorrow. If you want to drive for it, it is yours. I am in north central Phx. area.

Coach gun! The scariest thing an intruder will ever see. Beside a naked 90 year old grandma.

If you can't find a smaller one, the 12' UTV trailer is not too heavy. I have pulled it behind a Tacoma before.

I agree with that scope being fairly heavy. Even though all of my scopes are chunky, all over 30 oz. If you are going to put that heavy of a scope on, might as well go for a 4-20, 5-20, 5-25x range. Several quality glass that are in the $1000-1300 range that weigh between 30-35 oz. I hate to say this, but a light weight FFP scope of any quality is hard to find. I was in the same boat as you for quite a while. Really only a couple options. Either just so-so glass, limited features, or high prices. I have heard good about the Sightron. March 3-24x42 @ 22.5oz $2100-2700 March 3-24x52 @ 23.5oz $2700-3000 Leupold Mark 6 3-18x44 @ 23.6oz $2200-4400 Sightron 6-24x50 @ 24.3oz $1000 Vortex Viper PST 4-16x50 @ 22.4oz $900 Vortex Viper PST 6-24x50 @ 23.4oz $950 Vortex Viper HS LR 4-16x50 @ 21.4oz $850 Vortex Viper HS LR 6-24x50 @ 22.4oz $900

What size? I have an 18' dove tail flat bed, and a 12' UTV trailer you could use.

Don't ever hesitate with going with a nightforce product!!! I run Nightforce NSx's on my 7mm Rem Mag and custom 338 Lapua. Some will claim others are superior however when it come to durability and most importantly TRACKING of turrets a Nightforce is really hard to beat!! Only other Scope I would choose over a Nightforce is Schmidt and Bender........ However the cost does not outweigh the advantage. Get it you won't regret it I promise!!! What about Kahles? Hensoldt? Tangent Theta? Premier? Vortex Razor Gen II or AMG? Steiner M5Xi? US Optics? Leupold Mark 8? Just asking. Are these more $$ than the NXS? Yes. But performance-wise, all top tier optics. But similarly priced for most to the ATACR F1 or Beast.

If you have your chrono at 15' or so, plug in your numbers to your ballistic program and use that as your muzzle velocity. Look at what you lose in the next 15', (probably around 22fps) and add that number to your number to get a very close true muzzle velocity. I doubt you will see much of a difference except a few inches at distance.

246 on the ground. 4 in the box.

do you ever compare the actual drops you come up with to the shooter app using velocities from the chrono? Garbage in, garbage out. Like muledeerarea33 said, if you input bad info, you get bad info back. I am usually pretty close. But I true my velocities, and keep religious records of different shooting conditions and results, so I can verify what my ballistic apps tell me. It gives you a lot of confidence when you shoot in a different environment than you normally do, and can make a good first round hit on a far away target.

I got out early Sunday while shooting another ladder test for a .300WM I am working on to shoot my own ladder test. Looking at the target, you can tell I had really calm winds for the first 5 shots. Similar to the .300WM target in the other thread. Then the winds kicked up a bit around 6:00AM. I will be concentrating on the 5/6/7/8 shot node. I had some pressure signs on the high node of 11/12/13. But the speeds should be plenty for shots out to 500-600. The velocities surprised me a bit with the powder charges. But I know the chrono was on, as my 6.5 SLR rounds were right on the money, and I shot it a couple times throughout the testing. So now I just have to get some rounds loaded up for this weekend of shooting for groups.

I have a sickness. I can't leave a load alone, always having to try new things to pass the time. After the AZGFD shoot this weekend, I picked up a box of the 7mm 168 Barnes LRX to try out. I would have grabbed some 6.5mm 127 LRX too, but Sportsman's was out. So I figured another thread on load development was due. To chronical my sickness for my wife to use against in the divorce proceedings if I don't knock off the spending.... I had 22 pieces of brass that were out of spec from my original brass buy that have just been sitting in a plastic box. So I figured I would use them for this round only, and keep them separate from the rest of the 228 pieces of brass I already have loaded. I figured the 168 LRX would make a good high velocity close range (out to 500-600 yards or so) round, to be used on elk and deer. I have used Barnes before in a number of cartridges with good results. I shot the .308 175 LRX in my .300RUM @ 3350fps, the .257 100 TTSX in my .25-06 Ackley @ 3580fps and took a big muley at 488 yards, and shot the 100 TSX in my .250 Ackley Imp. and my older daughter took a muley at about 200 yards. We also used the 150 XFB in my old .270 and it took a couple elk, and a couple deer very cleanly. This is the bullet seated to the lands in my rifle. These bullets are really long. This is next to the 183 SMK that I have loaded with a .0600" jump. Barnes has a 1 in 8" recommended twist. But the 183 SMK states the same thing, and they shoot lights out in my rifle. I also ran the numbers through the Berger twist rate calculator, and they are right on the edge of marginal/comfortable stability @ 1.65 if I push them to 3050fps which might be doable, and at 40 degrees and 6000ft. AMSL. L-R: 168 LRX, 183 SMK, 180 Hybrid, 175 NABLR, 168 HVLD, 160 NAB My data book with the bullet and cartridge info for reference I resized and threw the 22 extra cases in the tumbler since all the rest of my brass is already loaded. I know some of you may have heard the term, "A watched pot boils no faster." I think the same can be said for a tumbler when you want to start loading a ladder test....

So I got out on Saturday to sight in the rifle at 200. The owner said he was getting 1.5-1.75" groups with factory ammo at 100 yards. I was pretty happy to see a simple consistently measured sight in load with good components netted me this sub 1" group at 200 yards. This looks promising. I brought the fired cases home to measure the chamber dimensions of the brass to see how much they grew over virgin brass dimensions. Shoulder pushed forward .0200" upon firing. So I resized them and bumped the shoulder back .002". Again, I recorded all info for future reference. Then Sunday, Taylor and I woke up early and headed to shoot a 400 yard ladder test. Here were the results. So I resized all the fired brass bumping the shoulder back .002", tumbled, and annealed them. Then loaded up some 5 shot groups in the higher node for group testing this coming weekend. Concentrating on the higher node, here are the charge weights I will be working around. All ready for the upcoming weekend.

I throw to within .3 grains, and then trickle up to the exact kernel for every single charge on my RCBS 5-0-5. Time consuming, but worth it.

I have a Chrony. It serves its purpose to get me an idea of velocities, which I validate and adjust with a lot of shots at distance and actual drops.

Are you FL sizing? First time using the brass? First time using the dies? Same issue with other brand of brass? Possibly have a minimum chamber and loose tolerance die. Brass might be hard, so it is springing back a bit after sizing. Try annealing the neck and top of case.

I am up to 84 boxes for the upcoming sporting clays and Dove season. Not including duck, Turkey, and varmint loads.

CBTO=Cartridge Base To Ogive. I find CBTO much more important to keep consistent for accuracy rather than COAL. I only use COAL measurements to ensure a round fits in a magazine.

Taylor was shooting very well today. So we'll, I let her shoot the 6.5 SLR to try the new 127 LRX loads I worked up. I also figured out my load for the .260 Rem pushing the 127 LRX and got a .300WM sighted in and it shot really well with just a first load for sighters. .260 Rem w. 127 LRX @ 3001fps To be honest, I might tinker a bit, but fpr a 500 yard max round, I am pretty happy with only loading 4 different powder charges for testing, and not going all out. Here is Taylor shooting the 6.5 SLR. Her 100 yard group with the 127 LRX @ 3051fps. And here is her 200 yard group w. 127 LRX @ 3050fps First shot was just high, adjusted down 2 clicks, and sent 5 in this photo.

Heading to the range with 4 guns for load development in about 20 minutes. .260 & 6.5 w. 127 LRX, 7RM w. 168 LRX, and .300WM w. 210 HVLD.