quote:

Originally posted by offgrid:

Looks great!

Look forward to your range report.

Barrel contour/length?

Thanks. M24/25" plus brake. M24 was all that was available when I ordered. May end up going a little shorter after seeing it together but will shoot it a bit first. Initial test loads this weekend.

Got out with the 6.5 SAUM this weekend. Initial impression is it's hard to believe this velocity can come with so little recoil. Shot 25 rounds yesterday from 61.7 to 63 grains of H1000 with 130 bergers. Used some Tula magnum primers and had issues. 3 out of every 5 needed a second strike to go off. Velocity was around 3160 with the 63 load. Very high ES though. Loaded up 30 more last night with some at 63.3 and some at 63.6 and used FGGM NON non magnum primers. The 63.6 load had 3230 velocity but still pretty high ES although half of what it was yesterday. Accuracy also improved but still not where I Think it can be yet. The load is far from max and I think ES will improve the closer I get to the top. Best group was in the 1/2" range and average was around 3/4" today.

Think I'm ditching this crappy Remington brass and just using it for hunting loads. Have plenty of Norma that'll be here tomorrow to try. A little less capacity but should be much better dimensionally. I'll start up loads with Norma brass/140 hybrids/H1000 next to try to get a match load going. The other load will be fine for hunting. Still can't believe how little recoil this thing has.

3230/130 VLD's is screaming, what wind?! How's it mag feeding?

I shot a braked 6.5SAUM/130's awhile back, I too was suprised on how little recoil with 60+ grains of powder.

Finished working up a load for the 6BR yesterday, 29.5/H4895/105 Hybrids/CCI450/2870 is shooting exceptionally well. The 6BR is the most accuarte rifle I've shot. Fun stuff!

Mag feeding is good. Had to adjust the feed lips some but works well.

Yeah it's screaming fast and really is not even a mild load. I think I could go way up on powder if I wanted to. Can't wait to shoot it at distance. Should get to target fast! Less than 6 mils to 1000.

I just found a problem with my brass that I believe explains some of the fliers I got today. Fired case is still a press fit for a bullet. Not enough expansion going on. Will turn more off the necks before loading and shooting again.

quote:

Originally posted by jelrod1:
Fired case is still a press fit for a bullet. Not enough expansion going on. Will turn more off the necks before loading and shooting again.

What is your loaded neck/chamber neck now?

When Beanland and I went over ordering a SA 7SAUM reamer he highly recommended .004-.005 neck clearane. He based that off the LA 7SAUM's he had built for some national shooting team, feed back he got from those shooters. My neck clearance was .0045-.005. That much neck clearance goes against the BR world for sure, I trusted Jon advice, it shot very well.

Theoretically I would have had .002 clearance and just followed the instructions per the SH thread. Reality with my lot of bullets and the neck the reamer cut put clearance at less than .001 after measurements last night. Certainly a problem as it's a hard press fit for a bullet on a fired case. I should have caught that before ever firing but didn't. Kind of surprised it shot as good as it did with that going on. Will turn for more clearance before shooting again.

Pulled the barrel on my 7SAUM a while back, swapped out the magnum bolt head for a 308 bolt head on the Bighorn action (one of the many nice features of the Bighorn actions/floating bolt head) had another barrel screwed on.

Now what am I up too? Anyone care to guess? FN in MT?

quote:

Originally posted by offgrid:
Pulled the barrel on my 7SAUM a while back, swapped out the magnum bolt head for a 308 bolt head on the Bighorn action (one of the many nice features of the Bighorn actions/floating bolt head) had another barrel screwed on.

Now what am I up too? Anyone care to guess? FN in MT?

Well, since it was a SAUM, it would have to be short action, and a 473 bolt head would limit it down to a 6.5x47 Lapua, 260 Remington, 6.5 Creedmoor or a 6.5x284 Win. What do I win? (i'd take a sample of those bullets)

quote:

Originally posted by offgrid:
Pulled the barrel on my 7SAUM a while back, swapped out the magnum bolt head for a 308 bolt head on the Bighorn action (one of the many nice features of the Bighorn actions/floating bolt head) had another barrel screwed on.

Now what am I up too? Anyone care to guess?

Yer returnin' to yer .308 Win roots, slapping a .308 barrel on so you have feng schway (or whatever they call that) between bolt & barrel, but yer gonna load them bad boy 308 cases up with 140 grainers to reduce the recoil?
.
.
.
I get the booby prize, correct-o-mundo?

So...will I see you, mister I-won-last-T3-rifle-match, at this weekend's T3?

Slapping a 308 barrel on it, that's funny!

I'll shoot the mystery rifle at this Saturdays T3 match. Only shot it at 100yds so, got good chrono numbers. I'll bang some rounds on the practice range before the match, should be good to go right?

Rumor has it we might be shooting off of sticks on stage 9. 680yds off of sticks, should be fun! Don't know what will suck worse, sticks or shooting off that tower leg banging my scope and head on those cross braces? Don't run out and buy a pair of sticks, you're welcome to mine.

quote:

Originally posted by offgrid:
Rumor has it we might be shooting off of sticks on stage 9. 680yds off of sticks, should be fun!

According to my old dope card, technically it's only 679 yards. Much easier than 680.

quote:

Originally posted by offgrid:


Now what am I up too?

I'm guessing you're up to just shy of 2800 with 37 or so grains of Varget. It is cool you can change bolt heads like that and not need a new complete bolt.

Got out again to do more testing with the 6.5 SAUM. Rain made it rough but survived. Changed a lot of things so not sure which made the most difference. Changed to Norma brass and turned necks for .004 clearance. Had to start over with charge weights since it has less capacity than Rem. On the next trip I'll go up some on charge weight and see if accuracy and ES holds. For now it's hammering though.

140 hybrid/Norma brass/Fed 210 match/3070.



Only a three shot group but had a lot I was testing. Some with and some without Chrono at different weights and depths. Had similar results with the 130 Bergers tested at shorter length. Found out I was way off on depth with them last time out in the Rem brass so that may have been part of it. They want to be jumped in this gun. They were going 3161 at 61.5 grains. ES was extremely good on all of the shorter length loads with both 130's and 140's.

Wish I could have gone, but have't done any reloading since last week. IF you need a sig, I can come down tomorrow.

jelrod1,

looks like you are on the right track with the 6.5SAUM. 140 Hybrids at 3070, hard for me not to look at those numbers and drool! Look forward to seeing how it does at distance. How far you jumping the 130's?

The big mystery rifle is chambered in 6.5x47 by gunsmith Jon Beanland. Went over to the 6.5 for barrel life. It should give me two seasons of shooting two monthly field steel matches, T3 and Raton. Not going away from the 6x47, will use it for "big" matches just getting one season out of a barrel. Shot the 6.5 yesterday at the T3 match, had a 135rds though the barrel all shot at 100yds. Ran most of those loads through a friends Magneto V3. Settle on 37.3/Varget/140 Hybrids jumped .015/2770. On the practice range before the match, put 5 shots on a plate at 700yds, held vertical very well, impact just under .2 mils high though, closer to 2800 fps. Shot just OK in the match, tough wind, unable to maintain top banana status, managed 4th melon. Good friend Alpine and I were tied for 4th. Match director let us have a shoot off using his 6.5 Creedmoor, Badger action, Chanlynn barrel, TB supressor, factory ammo. 8" round plate at 700yds, 6 shots each, crowd of shooters watching, fun stuff! Wind 5-8mph. Alpine went first, hit 2/6. I hit my first three shots, lucky wind call

fritz, glad you can make the match again. Stage 9 off of sticks, that was tough with ground sloping away from us at the shooting position. Hurt only getting 1/5 on that stage. Lot of fun after the match shooting that mover stage again, cool Paul lets us do that. I would like to spend a day and 100rds shooting that mover, very challenging for sure getting off three shots in one pass now that travel is shorter. How did Zach's 6.5CM with the TB compare to yours with a brake? How about AJ's mega buck bino/RF ranging at 3000+ yds, fun group of guys to shoot with for sure! See you next month.

Heading to Wyoming tomorrow for work, will shoot the 6.5x47 and 6BR with my buddies outside Gillette on Tuesday. They have FS IPSC steel targets from 600-2200. Should get solid dope on both rifles.

Ya, I know it looks just like my other rifles. Finally used a barrel from local barrel maker Mark Chanlynn. Medium palma contour, finished at 24", APA Little Bastard brake. Out of all the barrels I've used, this one shows the least amount of copper fouling. This Bighorn action does not have a AW cut magwell using AICS mags. Comparing the feeding to my other Bighorn action/6x47 with the AW cut, the AW cut/mags feeds a tad smoother.

Looks great offgrid. All that Bighorn porn is going to get to me enough to add one to the stable sooner or later. That's a nice stout load of Varget with the 140's. What size firing pin do the Bighorn actions use?

Yeah 140's at 3070 are nothing to sneeze at. Looking forward to shooting at distance. Very happy with this round so far. Speed is crazy fast and recoil is much less than my 6.5x47 that doesn't have a brake. Bit of a learning curve and expensive to shoot though. I'll chamber my Chanlynn barrel when it gets in to have it ready. Tested the 140's at .02 jump and .03. .03 was the best. Tested the 130's .005 in, .01 jump and .02 jump. .02 was by far the best. Shocked me considering experiences with the 6.5x47.

Nice shooting. Looks like it was a challenging course. Cool yall did a shoot off with a rifle you've never shot.

Bighorn actions come with a small firing pin.

Went to 37.6 Varget, no pressure. Popped out a few primers of the 37.6 load immediatley, pockets nice and tight like new.

Maybe keep going further on the jump with the VLD's. It shocked me the 130's shot so well jumped .100 in a 6.5 Creedmoor years ago.

offgrid -- It was good shooting with you yesterday. You rocked, even if we did struggle shooting from sticks on #9. I guess we shouldn't have griped about the tower support.

Zach has a great gun, and I could shoot well with it. Keep this quiet, but I think my trigger produces a crisper break. My brake seems to reduce both recoil duration and intensity over the TB can. It's suttle, but noticeable. BTW, I shot my last Rifles Only class while borrowing Jacob Bynum's TB can, and my feelings about can vs. brake on my gun are the same. Not so subtle -- the TB can is "just a bit" quieter than my APA Fast Bastard II brake. I'm used to my traditional-stocked GAP, so Zach's pistol grip stock feels different to me. I like to rest my trigger-hand thumb on the top of the stock, just behind the bolt.

Stupid mental mistakes at the match didn't help my score. Four times I had the wrong dope dialed on the gun. The 20 MOA high shot on the first target after the 1353 yard stage was a classic. Doh!! At least my score improved a bit -- no goose egg stages this time.

This morning I met my parents, sister, and brother-in-law at our ranch. We didn't have much time before the rain, but I helped my B-I-L sight in his hunting rifles (.270 win & 7mm Rem mag). Then we played on steel with my 6.5CM. He didn't think he'd ever shot beyond 150 yards -- his last elk was taken at 20-25 yards. We started at 350 yards, then 580, and finished with 700 yards before the weather turned foul. He was totally jazzed that he could hit a 12" plate at 700 yards.

Atmospheric contiditions were great. Trace was uber visible, and I even watched the trace for all my shots through the rifle scope for the 580 and 700 yard targets. I've watched my own trace a few times before, but never all the way from the barrel (OK, maybe from 150 yards out) to the target.

Great thread, thanks for starting it. My long range shooting came to a screeching halt several years ago, when a government contractor sued and got the long range shooting range not 10 minutes from my house shut down. Unless I use family or friends private property, and that is limited due to lay of the land in this area. Too flat, not enough back stop on most of it nearby. Other than that, it is all the way up to Camp Perry, a good 2.5 hour drive. I've only got a .308 bolt gun with Hawke scope on it. I'm not likely to go any larger caliber than my M1 Garand either now. In Ohio we just now got hunting with pistol caliber rifles for deer. Again, the land is mostly flat farm land, except for the souther part of the state. My m41B Swede is crying the blues too!

So, I can slobber over all the neat pix you folks are sharing of your long range flyholes! I can shoot pistol or shotgun off my back deck, but we don't. We go to the range. It's a good 2 miles of flat farm land to the nearest road looking out our back land. Neighbors sometimes shoot pistols. Their horses don't like it much, and they rarely do it. I've thought about putting in a large back stop dirt pile and shooting suppressed only, and nothing larger than .223 Remington. Maybe if and when I retire I will do that. Maybe not. It is quite and peaceful out here in the sticks, and we all like it that way. I really don't want to go blasting away with any unsuppressed guns out of respect for the neighbors. It could get to be a habit if I started doing it. .22 suppressed, I could do that, especially if I do it in the middle of the day Mon-Fri when most all are at work, except Ernie the farmer about eight acres down the road from us.

Mean time, I will follow this thread and love every minute of it!

quote:

Originally posted by offgrid:
How about AJ's mega buck bino/RF ranging at 3000+ yds

Amazing optics and electronics. When he said it could be used to measure and call in artillery strikes, you realize it's a little beyond the requirements of our 1,000-ish yard civilian rifle matches.

Good thing my Vectronix Terrapin was back in the car. It might have experienced range finder envy.

FWIW, I did notice that the AJ's binos were slightly more clear than my $99 Nikon compact 6x, fit-in-my-pocket binos. It's amazing what $12,000 can do to optics quality.