STOMP442

Both Weaver scopes are sold pending funds.

Both for sporter barrels. Ugly dude: it came off of a rifle so I doubt it.

Tikkas are about as simple as it gets. I have built a few of them and all shoot great.

38.0gr of H380 and your choice of 52-55gr bullet and go hunting. It's not called H380 for nothing. IMR4064 has also always given me great results.

probably just one of those dirty hippie environmentalists.

Range Report: First off my rifle hated this powder. Not sure why but I worked up loads from 47.0 through 48.5gr in half grain increments and the best five shot group I got was about an inch and a half. I never put the magneto speed on because I always look for accuracy first. I am not a speed freak and don't really care how fast it's going as long as it shoots good. I was a little disappointed as I was really hoping to see some good results with this combo. Guess I will have to stick with the Bergers and Reloader 16. I did, however, have a client bring me a brand new Savage Model 10T to mount a scope and work up a load for this weekend. Since I have eight pounds of this stuff I thought I would give it a try in his rifle as well and see how it would do. I did the same work up from 47.0 grains up to 48.5 in half grain increments in new Nosler brass with CCI primers and the 147gr Hornady ELD-M set with 25 thou jump. Overall length was 2.873" and still had plenty of room to fit the mag. The first five shots out of the gun gave a nice 3/4" group and they just got tighter as I went up in charge weights. 48.5 grains gave me a nice group at just over a half inch. Not bad for a factory rifle with literally zero break-in and very little load development. So I went home and loaded 20 more rounds to send through the Magneto speed and see what kind of performance I was getting. A 10 shot average gave me 2860 fps and a single digit SD of 8. Not too shabby. So with 10 rounds left to shoot I put the wife behind the trigger and plugged my ballistic info into my applied ballistics app to see how it would do at longer ranges. I had her dial up for the 600 yard gong and send one, nice solid hit about two inches right of center. 800 yard gong which is probably about the size of a sheet of paper same thing. On to the 1000 yard plate. The wind got her on the first shot and pushed just left. She made a correction and proceeded to put four shots into about a 4" group at 1000 yards. It was very impressive. So, all in all, it looks like Reloader 26 is a viable powder in the creed and does yield some impressive velocities and accuracy with the 147 ELD-M. Tried to post some pictures but I keep getting an error

I just picked up an 8lb keg of 26 this week. I am going to load up some 147s and see what it does for me in my 24" Shilen.

I have been reading really good things about this powder in the Creedmoor. I think best results are with heavier bullets though. Depending on barrel length you should be able to push a 147 Hornady up around 2900fps. There is not much data out there available so you will have to start low and work up.

Beautiful bear Brandon! Congrats.

have you tried rubbing a bit of chapstick around your eyes and cheeks where the irritation occurs? easy to apply and shouldn't attract much dirt and you can add more as needed.

I doubt it, but it could be a parallax issue. Have you tried doing any load development at 200?

Have you checked the rim thickness and diameter on the Hornady brass vs the Nosler? I am with Lance on this, Hornady brass is just awful. I hate it almost as much as I hate Vortex Optics and that's a lot of hate. Could be something as simple as the Savage extractor just slipping off the case. They are known for having pretty weak extraction and you can fix it with a new oversized detent ball to give it a tighter grip. If Nosler brass is working fine then I would go ahead and use that. Nosler is much better brass and once you get your load tuned up in it you will be much better off.

I have found it best to get a good hard zero at 100 yards. This way you minimize effects of wind and other environmental factors. If you are using a scope to dial your dope I don't know why you wouldn't just dial for anything beyond 300 yards. Sounds like either way you got it figured out but I find it easiest to zero at 100. I find my app seems to produce better calculations at longer ranges when done this way as well.

Photobucket used to be a great site and super convenient but over the last few years it was so bogged down with ads and pop ups that I hated using it anyways. Them blocking 3rd party hosting was just the reason I needed to delete my account. I switched to Imgur but have not been real happy with it as It's not as easy to use. I have been using google photos and then just saving the images from google photos into a special folder on my computer as they save as a smaller file size than the originals and can be easily uploaded directly to the forums I visit.

I checked scope height just now and it's right at 1.5 inches. Sounds like I just need to start eliminating different variables one by one and see what's up. Thanks for all the info. And more than likely won't be shooting any animals at more than 600 anyway so if worst comes to worst we will make sure to just get closer. How did you measure your scope height? I have set up literally hundreds of rifles and the closest I have ever got to 1.5" is 1.6" with a 40mm objective. What scope and rings are you using? If it's a scope with a 50mm objective you are going to be at least 1.7" above the bore line. The correct way to measure scope height is to take your calipers and measure the diameter of your scope bell and divide that number by two. Then measure the diameter of your barrel just in front of your objective bell and divide that number by two. Then measure the gap between the scope bell and the top of your barrel and add all those numbers together. This will give you an accurate sight height from center of bore to center of scope tube. For example: Scope bell dia = 2.228 divided by 2 = 1.114 Barrel dia at scope bell = .864 divided by 2 = .432 Gap between scope and barrel = .167 Sight height = 1.713"

Scope height is a big factor that is often overlooked. Most programs assume a sight height of 1.5" when in reality most set ups are closer to 1.8". BC is also one thing to look at. Are you using an average BC value or the highest one printed on the box? Are you using the G7 drag model or the G1. You should be using the G7 for that bullet and the rages in which you are shooting. Hornady lists a G1 of .623 and G7 of .314 for that bullet. But the Average numbers are .603 and .304 respectively and cause some discrepancy at longer ranges. The other issue may also be with the scope. The adjustments marked on the turrets may say 1/4" at 100 yards but the actual adjustment may be slightly more or slightly less and will compound at longer ranges if not accounted for.

Wow i have vortex on everything. The crossfire is the only thing i have a problem with. Give it time. You will eventually have trouble with all of them. At least that has been my experience with them. I have quit counting how many Vortex scopes I have sent off for repair and I cringe every time a client brings me one on a rilfe he wants tuned up.

Now that I know the scope was / is a Vortex I would put money on the scope being bad. Those things are complete Junk. I just sent off another clients Viper HS LR just last week because the stupid thing wouldn't hold a zero or track at all.

Have you ruled out any other possible causes of the bad accuracy? Scope bases tight? Scope rings tight? Scope broke? Action screws loose? Barrel free floated? Has barrel been cleaned with a good copper solvent? 1st thing I would check would be the mounts and scope rings. After that, I would put the scope on a known accurate rifle and see how it does on that. What bullet are you shooting? Reloads or factory ammo?

The hot new Item is the 28 Nosler. Great case design with no belt and great performance. The down side to that is that there is only one brass supplier and who knows, 10 years from now it may not even be made anymore. I doubt it but it's possible. The 7mm Mag has been around forever and has proven to do just about anything and components are everywhere. If it were me and building a lightweight rifle I wouldn't even consider a magnum cartridge. I would pick the .284 Win and push 168-180 Bergers at 2800-2850fps and kill anything I wanted to out to as far as I wanted to with a whole lot less powder usage and recoil.

Mcgowan makes a great barrel as well as Criterion. My current barrel on my match rifle is a Mcgowan chambered in .260AI and it is literally one of the most accurate barrels I have seen. I also have a sporter weight .25-06 in a Criterion barrel that shoots fantastic. I have used a lot of E.R. Shaw barrels and had good success with them as well but they do require a bit more break in as they are not hand lapped like the others. Check out gunshack.com , thebarreloutlet.com , and Northlandshooterssupply.com for prefit barrels ready to ship. Check stockystocks.com for left hand stocks I want to say Bell & Carlson also makes a lefty stock for a Savage.

You can probably go up to a 69gr Sierra Match King no problem. In fact, that would be the bullet I would want to shoot. They perform very well on Coyotes and even bigger critters and shoot extremely well. I would stick with bullet weights between 50 and 69gr with a 10 twist. My Savage has a 12 twist and shoots the 69gr Match King into the .3s and prefers Reloader 17 with the heavier weights.

Northland is good people. I am willing to bet he would make it right. That being said I have quite a few of the Rifle Basix triggers in Savages and they work great. There is not a better trigger made for the Ruger M77 MKII either, I prefer it over the Timney for that particular rifle.

Unless you are ordering a reamer special made you can get them cheaper and quicker from Midway or Bullets.com

I have built a couple rifles with these. Not much to say about it other than it's a trued Remington with a little bolt work. At $380 thats a heck of a deal for a Remington action with all the work already done. I have also used their B-29 actions. They are essentially a stiller and the quality on the couple I have used have been great.