recurveman

Oh I went through everything twice. We actually went to the point of bedding the gun and taking the box out just to eliminate that as an issue. I honestly think it is the barrel. It was the worst and roughest barrel we have ever looked down. Including all production barrels. The barrel did look better after 100 shots but was just OK. 200 total shots with hand loads and factory ammo, trigger job, bedded stock, hand lapped the barrel, waiting 5 min between shots, ect. Still couldn't group. At some point you just have to throw in the towel. Now I'm heading out to shoot my tikka and it is very close to dialed in (under MOA in this case) after 2 trips to the range. Had probably 8 trips to the range with the Kimber and still never got close. I tell ya there could almost be a case made for only using custom guns. At least you know they are going to shoot really good and it can be achieved in a quick time and you could save ammo costs, time and end up with a more accurate gun........Or I'm just looking for an excuse to build another custom gun 😉

You have been much closer to cats than that.......and many times. Lucky he didn't think you looked yummy. I was calling last year at a location where I had a camera on some water about 300 yards away. Got done calling about 30 minutes before dark. Headed to camp. Checked the camera the next morning to see that the lion was at the water tank 20 minutes after I ended calling. He for sure knew I was there and probably watched me pick up my call and walk to my truck.

bought a tikka superlite in .308 Put the Swaro scope on it and the gun drives tacks with the same loads I was shooting out of my Kimber. Stepped back to 600 yards the other day and it was shooting well under MOA. It held a great water line with a really stiff load in the chamber. Basically I'm pushing 30-06 velocity with the 308 platform. The recoil is very different too. Much less and more controlled. Side benefit of the Tikka.......I can get the longer magazine and change out the a longer bolt stop so that I can long load (hit the lands) the .308 instead of having to deal with mag length ammo. Don't know if I will go down that road but I do have the option. Down side is the gun weighs about a pound more than the Kimber. To me the extra weight is probably going to be worth it. The balance, feel, and recoil is so different that I think I am willing to add a pound to shoot this gun. I would have loved to put my hands on the field craft. If a gun shop would have had one in town to look at then that gun would have been my next in line to purchase. I just wanted to look at one before I bought it. Going out this weekend again to verify load and shoot some distance. The barrel is about calmed down and starting to maintain velocity. Normally takes 50ish rounds to get a barrel to break in and then it will maintain a constant velocity. I'm probably 30-50 fps faster now than with my first 5 shots. Almost to the point where I can take the gun hunting.......almost.

YEP. Get one. They are awesome if you are going to shoot further than you can see. Normally over 300 yards we use the shot marker. It is fun to sit at a G and see where your bullet hits in real time so you understand the effect of your wind call.

Just bought the compact with the center post extension ( a must have) and the micro pan head. Great gear and they are proud of it.

Who does hydro dipping in the valley? Any idea on cost, turn around and quality of work would be great too. Thanks

I own a tikka superlite in .308 with the z5 glass. It is an incredible shooting gun. Super accurate and the glass is super clear. Very impressed with the rig. I'm sure this gun would be the same.

I've read everything rokslide has to offer. A great resource for sure. I've bought and read the Gilchrist book on sheep hunting. He has a little section on the unlimiteds but most of his book is about shooting monster sheep. I'm honestly just trying to find a legal ram and not end up coming out the butt end of a grizzly bear. Everything above and beyond that is just icing on the cake in my book.

I've read everything on Hunt Talk. Lots of info there for sure. There are a few other sites that have info on the unlimiteds also that I've done a bunch of reading on too. Some of those guys are tough dudes for sure.

The Legend as a boat is a good platform. I fished it out of Seaforth a long time ago and then last year I fished it on a 3.5 day trip. Now with that said I think Chuck Taft is a crappy captain. Not a fan at all. His brother Bob (top Gun) is a ton better guy to fish with. Chuck is not my idea of a good time on a boat. Think really rough, salty, grumpy old man that looks down on his guests. Mix in some yelling and degrading and that is if he is in a good mood. I will only fish the 2.5, 3.5 day boats. I like to get back into the harbor in the AM so I can drive home instead of getting a room if we get back to the dock at 8PM on a 2 or 3 day trip. It might work different for you if you plan on staying in SD for a few extra days. I also like the longer trips because you have a day traveling to and from regardless if it is a 1.5 day or a 4.5 day trip. Might as well make it worth your time and effort.

I have a Vortex Razor HD strait spotting scope for sale. Comes with a case. Used it for one hunt and it will be an awesome piece for a backpack guy that wants a spotter that is light weight. This scope only weighs 25 ounces. It will end up in your pack all the time instead of leaving a 4 pound spotter at home.. Asking $675.00

sold

I don't think 40 rounds a day is that much. We have a place to shoot out to 1 mile right by where we reload. We would get out there early and shoot 20-25 rounds and then go reload something different. Then go back out after lunch and shoot some more. I've got 5 days of that (and a tan) with crappy results. I'm really only looking to shoot this rifle out to 4-500 yards max. I've got the talley rings (with blue locktight) and a swaro scope. Mounted and leveled the scope myself. both are tight and I love the swaro scope!!!!!!! Thought I had the gun close with 2 different loads. Then I loaded up 15-20 of each to verify that it was repeatable. One group of 3 would shoot 1.5 MOA and the next group would be 3MOA. Then the next group would be back to 1.5 MOA. There was no consistency

going to try this if bedding the stock doesn't work

+1 on the above. I would add that I like to send a mandrel into the brass as a last step before powder and seating the bullet.

So I bought the Kimber ascent and so did my buddy. Both in .308. Both are shooting like complete crap. I'm struggling to get the guns to shoot under 2 MOA. 3MOA is common. 4+ MOA happens frequently. I've shot over 200 rounds down the tube with factory ammo and mostly handloads. Tried multiple powders, grain weight bullets, brand bullets, taking 15 minutes to shoot a 3 round string, ect. Both guns are shooting in the unacceptable range. Maybe even worse. I'm going to try and bed the stock and see if that helps. If not I'm close to out of ideas to get this gun to shoot. All I really need from this gun is MOA and then I'm happy. Might have shot (1) 3 shot group just at MOA. I've got a buddy that has one in .280 AI and it shoots lights out. Not sure of the difference but it is night and day for sure. So, I'm 5 days of range time and reloading into the gun and I'm wondering if it might be the wingnut between earth and the gun. So I broke out my good gun and shot a ragged hole with it just to make sure I'm not a complete looser. If I was going to do it over I would look hard at the barret field craft. Might look hard at it anyways and cut my losses shortly.

I've shot one mule deer with the ABLR bullet. 142 grain 6.5mm bullet and the bullet did great. Deer dropped in its tracks at 100 yards and it was a done deal. Shot through the ribs and the exit hole was a little bigger than a golf ball. My problem is the bullet isn't that accurate. I could achieve about 3/4 MOA with the bullet (with a custom gun). If I shot 20 rounds I would have 2 flyers that I couldn't account for. Typically elevation changes on the range and 500 yards. It was really, really frustrating. I finally gave up on the bullets after putting about 200 of them down the tube. I switched to the Hornady ELD line of bullets and my gun was instantly shooting under .5 MOA and it shoots much better than that now. I have zero elevation issues even out to 1000 yards. The bullet flat out shoots and the tolerances that I've measured are much tighter than the ABLR bullets. I'm a huge nosler fan but this bullet isn't a long range bullet in regards to accuracy. If you were planning on shooting 500 yards and under the bullet would probably do fine. The question is if you were planning on shooting 500 and under why would anyone needs an ABLR bullet? The regular AB or BT bullet would do just fine. Bottom line is the ABLR bullet will be great under 500 yards for hunting and not consistent enough for accuracy reasons past 500. FYI - I've seen a few animals shot with Hornady bullets and they all did a great job.

TTT

I have the pro in 1800 and 5200. I have the ultra in the 7000. I don't think you issue will be durability. I haven't put the 7000 to the test yet but it seems plenty tough with just screwing with it at the house. I think the biggest issue is going to be storage/pockets. The ultra has a lot less pockets/storage. If you are OK with that then I think you will be fine. I was worried about the same thing until I got my hands on the Ultra. Get the Ultra and save the weight if you want to save weight. FYI I live in Gilbert if you want to put your hands on my Ultra pack. I know what it is like to buy gear and not be able to touch it ahead of time. I've sent plenty of gear back to Kuiu for a variety of reasons (fit, function).

Just bought the kimber in .308. Gun weighs in at 4#13 ounces. Putting a set of talley rings and a swaro 3.5 X 18 ballistic turret scope on top of it. Should come in right at 6#. Could go 3-4 ounces lighter with the swaro 3X9 scope but wanted a bit more magnification. I couldn't figure out how to make a custom rifle lighter or I would have went that direction. For a mountain gun I don't think you need a really large cartridge so I went with the .308 to get the lightest rifle possible. I didn't look hard at the 280 AI though. I'm planning on this gun to be a 600 yard gun and under.

No need to hot rod this for a pig. Try a 6.5 X 284, 6.5 300 win mag, ect. No need to press the envelop like that. Use the extreme powders too. I won't use anything else just for the fact that you can develop a load when it is 30 degrees outside and then go out in the summer and blow your gun up. Do as you wish but the extreme powders are the only powders to use. I'm also not a fan of the 6.5CM. Way over sold. It is like buying a .308 and wishing you had a 300 win mag. But I have to congratulate the gun manufactures for their marketing efforts to sell more guns in a popular caliber.

No need to hot rod this for a pig. Try a 6.5 X 284, 6.5 300 win mag, ect. No need to press the envelop like that. Use the extreme powders too. I won't use anything else just for the fact that you can develop a load when it is 30 degrees outside and then go out in the summer and blow your gun up. Do as you wish but the extreme powders are the only powders to use. I'm also not a fan of the 6.5CM. Way over sold. It is like buying a .308 and wishing you had a 300 win mag. But I have to congratulate the gun manufactures for their marketing efforts to sell more guns in a popular caliber.

Well I recently bought a kimber subalpine in .308. I'm going to load the 178 ELD X bullet and see what happens. I've recently shot the 140 grain ELD M bullet out of my 6.5 X 284 with mixed results in regards to terminal performance on game (really accurate). I shot one deer at 450 yards and the jacket and the lead seperated upon impact. The complete copper jacket was just below the skin on the entrance side of the hide. Wasn't impressed. Shot another deer at 964 yards and it went bang flop. Was really impressed. The accuracy of the ELD M is in the same league as the berger bullets out to 1000 yards per my testing in regards to accuracy. I was getting well under sub MOA groups with the ELD M bullets. Had a buddy shoot a deer with .270 and the ELD X bullet. It performed great. Stayed together really good and nice expansion. It acted a lot like a nosler BT bullet with a better BC. Bergers are best used to shoot targets. They are super accurate but I've had crappy results on game multiple times. Not impressed but others love them. I will not shoot them at game again. Shot another deer this year with a Nosler long range accubond. It performed great. Nice sized exit hole and was a bang flop experience at about 125 yards. Wasn't impressed with the bullet from an accuracy perspective. I had a bunch of elevation issues (past 500 yards) with that bullet and never could figure it out. Probably ran 200 rounds down my barrel and finally gave up. The ELD X and M bullets had a perfect water line. The bullet I'll be shooting out of my 6.5 X 284 will be the 143 grain ELD X. I have also shot these bullets out to 1000 yards and they performed great on paper. The bearing surface is a bit longer than the ELD M so I wasn't able to get the velocity out of this bullet like the ELD M bullet. From a trajectory and energy perspective the ELD M was better but the ELD X was on its tail and I think the difference just won't matter on game when it is all said and done. Watched a buddy shoot a deer with a 90 nosler ballistictip bullet and it dropped like a rock. Had another buddy shoot a deer this year with a hornady SST bullet out of his .270 and it was bang flop. Good year for deer hunting......bad year to be a deer........

I have 210 pieces of .308 ammo. This is federal 149 grain FMJ. Asking $110.00 Chad 480-510-43eight4

I would try the 300's and see what happens. I shoot 300's out of my 62# hoyt and they fly like darts. Maybe a bit stiff but I would much rather have a stiffer arrow than a weak arrow. I personally shoot the full metal jackets and love them. My wife and a few other buddies also shoot them and have had great luck. Not the fastest or smallest shaft but super durable and accurate.