L Cazador

Well said 10 Turkeys, one shot one kill with an accurate rifle is all one needs! One of the drawbacks the Tikka has is a long free bore, it's a lawyer thing and it's not the only rifle on the market with beaucoup free bore! I have a friend with a long action Tikka in 260 Rem. After a long conversation with him about the generous free bore in his Tikka rifle, he bought a Tikka long magazine and modified the bolt stop and viola now that he's able to seat bullets closer to the rifleing and he has a very accurate rifle. Now this is a medium length cartridge in a long action so the same may not be possible with a longer cartridge. The trick is modifying the bolt stop.

Nice job with the stock. If you don't have brass that has been fireformed to the chamber, fireform new brass first before working on a load. Is this a factory chamber and do you know barrel twist? Also is this a repeater or a single shot? Repeater or single shot will dictate your seating depth and CBTO. After fireforming uniform primer pockets and flash holes. Use a headspace guage to set up sizing die and bump no more than .002". Make a dummy round and find maximum CBTO for your rifle. Hopefully you have a caliper and a bullet comparator to measure the cartridge base to ogive or CBTO. The best way to find CBTO is to remove the firing pin assembly from your bolt and seat in small increments until you feel just a slight pressure on closing of the bolt. This will be the "touch" measurement or touching the lands. From there you will move either into the rifleing or "jam" or away from the rifleing or "off". Start at .010" off for your ladder test and work your powder load in .3 increments from moderate to max. CFE has a good burn rate for heavier bullets in the 223 so it should do well with the 53gr. Vmax. All this may sound like a lot of work but it will bring the best accuracy out your rifle.

Only one way to go. Redding bushing full length die, Redding competition shell holder set, and Wilson straight line seater. The shell holder set will allow you to set the shoulder bump at .002". The bushing die will allow you to set the bullet grip or tension dead nuts on. And the Wilson seater will give you the best runout. If you're a serious target shooter, Neil Jones dies would be even better. Spend good money on dies and they'll give a lifetime of great shooting!

Is the Black Cat still open? I thought they ran out of bar flys, hee,hee, ho, ho! Now you know what G&F does with those extra dollars you give them.

Hush you insignificant blow hard. It is not mere pictures that signify success! It is the actions of success itself that prove thine actions. Touche!

I wouldn't want to make you cry, LOL!

I think Lance knows what he's doing! Some of us really go to the extreme! This post is not about slamming anybody or any product. It's just the truth about the what the market has become. The word " precision" is a marketing ploy that is aimed at the "unknowing". Minute of angle or minute of deer is what some folks are willing to accept. As a competition shooter I only accept zero groups!

This wasn't the only set of Seekins that needed lapping. As a matter of fact only about 10% of Precision Seekins and Vortex were good to go without lapping. They may make them as 'matched pairs' but the fact that they do not number them makes me doubt they are matched. That's not to say other makes of rings have been just as bad or worse. The best bang for your buck are TPS rings, about $40 less than Seekins and yes they'll need lapping too. Over the past twenty years of mounting hundreds scopes for my rifles and many friends' rifles, there has only been a few sets of rings that only needed minor lapping. The best being Kelbly rings mounted on Panda dovetails and Nightforce rings on Nightforce piccatinney rails. Are you checking bearing surface with dykem? Understand that the proper mating of ring and scope surfaces is dependent on a straight and true mounting base. That is a truly straight action with a true mounted base. That's why I recommend bedding a scope base on a factory action. Proper ring and base torque will not leave marks but also will allow true adjustment of scope and increased longevity of scope performance. Performance meaning repeatability of adjustments and security of maintaining POI. That last word "performance" is an issue most folks don't take into consequence when properly mounting a scope. I learned all this some 50 years ago from my mentor a benchrest competitor! I might add that a true precision rifle is only as good as the scope and mounting system! Well maybe the guy behind it too, LOL!

BTW, Midway has Howa 1500 picatinney one piece base on sale, 50% off. Good deal and free shipping over $49

I just lapped a set of Seekins rings that had only 10% bearing surface touching the scope. Seekins and Vortex in the same sentence with the word precision is an oxymoron, LOL! They're good rings after they've been lapped but nothing you should be paying extra for. Whatever rings you buy lap them and if you buy a picatinney one piece base bed it so it'll mate properly with your receiver. The average factory receiver is not straight.

I've been reloading for over 50 years now for both competition and hunting. Belted cartridges can be headache. The 28 Nosler best out of the cartridges you mentioned.

You're better off buying a stock from Richards micro fit and fitting in a slot for the peep. I believe Richards will mill it in for you. This refinishing and modifying is still going to leave you with a very modified rifle with very little collector value left any way. I've been collecting Remington 722 rifles for years and have never seen a factory original stock with a peep sight cutout. I have several 722's in my safe and none have a peep sight cutout.

Oh yee of limited intelligence. There is more than "ten ways to skin a cat", LOL!!

You can find factory ammo that is too tight for your chamber as well. And trying a round in the chamber does not mean the whole box of ammo is going to fit and function. Another reason to reload and to learn how to set your dies properly with a headspace and COAL guage. A .001" crush fit is not going to prevent ammo from being chambered but it will prevent brush from opening the bolt.

It's real simple, you don't push the shoulder back at all and you let the brass stretch to .001" over chamber dimension. Brass stretches on every shot and sizing and bumping the shoulder back so the bolt will close easily is the usual SOP. You need a headspace measuring tool to do this accurately but the old trial and error works as well. Remove your firing pin assembly also for an accurate measurement. We're talking bolt actions here.

I have a trigger assembly with the long arm safety that will prevent the bolt from opening. PM me for details and pics.

The older Remington trigger has a safety with a bolt lock. The safety lever extends into the action and prevents the bolt from opening with the safety on. Due to a lawsuit this was changed where the bolt could be opened while the safety is on. You could search for an older Walker trigger with the long safety and replace the one you currently have or just replace the safety. IF you're a reloader you can remedy the bolt opening by making your ammo tighter for your chamber.

I can't help but ask if anyone else has had problems selling stuff lately? Wow I mean trying to get a price that I'm asking is impossible! It seems you literally have to give away reloading stuff and forget about selling guns you're lucky to get anywhere near what you're asking? Should we blame this on Trump too, LOL?!! Do we need another Democrat in office, ugggh! Can't believe I said that! Sorry but I'm feeling very sick right now!!

Saguaro you have a good point. We're going through a generation change and the guns that are being bought today are $300-500 firearms. Anything higher is just not justifiable for our younger generation. I think the reloading thing is also generation change. The craze of the 6.5 Creed is all about grabbing a box of ammo off the shelf that shoots pretty decent in a fairly inexpensive rifle so why reload. Every body has good points. Thanks for the feed back. I especially like the one about selling it for what you told the wife you paid for it, LOL!

I agree with what Levers says. Barrel appears to be replaced. Shotgun butt indicating a replacement stock. Looks like replacement barrel too! Worth what a guy wants to spend on it.

Plus one on Szweda. He is the best in Arizona but the wait can be long. His checkering and finish is impeccable!!

The finicky part about reloading any caliber is the bullet. Berger has had so many complaints about their VLD (secant ogive) bullets that they have gone to a more reloader friendly hybrid ogive, a combination of a tangent ogive and secant ogive. Hornady is soon to follow as their ELD bullets can be hard to tune. That extra ballistic coefficient advantage doesn't matter when your can't achieve a consistent group or hit what you're shooting at! My two centavos!

I've been shooting benchrest since 1975 and I've been blending powders for most of that tenure. It's nothing that I would recommend to the average reloader. You need to know your burn rates and then you need to do a lot of experimenting to arrive at a safe load. With that said there isn't a 6.5 Creedmoor that will outshoot a 7/08 or a 260. When you consider the far superior powder capacity of the 7/08 and 260 it's a no-brainer. Are there some drawbacks like brass stretching etc., yes but that doesn't make the 6.5 CM superior. Hornady designed the 6.5 CM to sell ammo not reloading components. If I wanted more velocity and superior ballistics to shoot at a grand, I would be shooting my 6.5/284 Shehane instead of trying to blend powders for a 6.5 cartridge based on my old 300 Savage case! Next wives' tale is the 6.5 PRC. It's going to launch a 142gr. bullet to the moon. LOL!!

Not impressive and nothing I've never done with a 6.5/284 Shehane. Don't you think that is a pretty wimpy barrel for this caliber?