Ordered my boys first rifle.

DallanC · Site Admin Joined: Jan 18, 2005 Posts: 3572 Location: Utah

Gun arrived in fine form, very impressed with this rifle for the price. The safety is a bit "odd" when you first look at it but VERY simple for a youngster to use. It fits him great. The only complaint is the scope focus ring is right over the rear mount holes so I have to get a one piece rail that allows me to move the scope mounts around properly fitted.

Anywho, I definitely would recommend this model. Cant wait to get it out on the range and see how it shoots! They have a great reputation for accuracy so we'll see how it goes.

-DallanC

Bushmaster · Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2013 11:11 pm Post subject: Re: Ordered my boys first rifle.

I know I don't have to say this, but...Let him shoot his rifle first. Of course he'll have to clean it too. Very Happy

DallanC · Site Admin Joined: Jan 18, 2005 Posts: 3572 Location: Utah

Bought 100 brass off a guy this morning for $20, already have some 120grn ballistic tips so we'll load up some nice light loads over the weekend for him to break in the rifle. I think it will be fun for him to create his own loads from scratch and use'em at the range.

All we are waiting on is the scope rail which I had to mail order. Maybe by next weekend we'll get it all mounted up and be ready to shoot. Smile

-DallanC

ElyBoy · Posted: Fri Mar 01, 2013 8:11 pm Post subject: Re: Ordered my boys first rifle.

Nothing like starting a kid out right Dallan.
Have fun and savor the times with him.

Eric

chambered221 · Posted: Sat Mar 02, 2013 10:16 am Post subject: Re: Ordered my boys first rifle.

What powder you gonna use ???

DallanC · Site Admin Joined: Jan 18, 2005 Posts: 3572 Location: Utah

chambered221 wrote:

What powder you gonna use ???

Right now I'll use Varget as I've got a alot of it. Will stay light, just up from a minimum load. In time we'll try other powders to see what the gun prefers. Varget seems to be fairly popular for 7mm-08's.

-DallanC

chambered221 · Posted: Sun Mar 03, 2013 8:41 am Post subject: Re: Ordered my boys first rifle.

Excellent choice !!!

If your gonna try different powders I suggest IMR 4350 and IMR 4064 for lower velocity loads.

DallanC · Site Admin Joined: Jan 18, 2005 Posts: 3572 Location: Utah

*UPDATE:

Just returned from a 4 day camping trip in a very remote part of Utah. We probably burned through 300 rounds of ammo of all types... so a great trip!

Anyway one of the things we did is put through ALOT of different loads through my boys rifle trying to find something the gun really liked. I had mixed results with my previous loads... nothing to really I was really happy with. Tried a variety of different powders and bullets... and after alot of shooting (can I just say I really enjoy shooting this caliber!) I found a load that really worked well.

120grn Nosler Ballistic Tip Hunting, 47grns of 4350 and a winchester large rifle primer. Cronograph clocked them at 2920 fps out of his 20" barrel. Right at 1 MOA, I was really happy with that load... if my eyes were better it would probably be sub moa! Anyway now that we have it dialed in, we'll load up 100 rounds for hunting and practice. Really happy to have that worked out.

Its going to be a deer & antelope killing machine come fall! Smile

-DallanC

Pumpkinslinger · Posted: Fri Jul 26, 2013 8:34 pm Post subject: Re: Ordered my boys first rifle.

Good Dallan! We're all looking forward to hearing about some successful hunts, and don't forget the pics!

Elvis · Posted: Fri Jul 26, 2013 10:55 pm Post subject: Re: Ordered my boys first rifle.

sounds like an awesome load. the stuff Ive read recently on those balistic tips is they do thier best if not pushed to fast so you should be right on the money. the 130s worked fine for me in .270 at about those speeds.
cant wait to see picturs of the lads fist kills with the 7mm08, my nephew has had a great run on red deer with his.

gelandangan · Posted: Fri Jul 26, 2013 11:00 pm Post subject: Re: Ordered my boys first rifle.

Awesome 4 days 300 rounds including load development!
Thats my kind of dream vacation!!

Glad that you found THE load for the gun.

Vince · Posted: Fri Jul 26, 2013 11:24 pm Post subject: Re: Ordered my boys first rifle.

Only 300 rounds Dallan...gee mate...you took it easy. Laughing

Sooo...how many of those rounds did the young fella fire mate...or did Dad do all of the testing? Laughing

It's great that you have sorted a load that the rifle likes.

Now it's time for your young tacka' to get some trigger time in so he becomes confident and competent with the rifle for deer and antelope season mate.

DallanC · Site Admin Joined: Jan 18, 2005 Posts: 3572 Location: Utah

Oops I musta been tired, couple corrections. It was 47grns of 4350 for the best load not 45. H414 was the 2nd most accurate at 48.5 grns. Both of those shooting 120grn BT's.

I tried some 140gn Sierra Pro Hunters I had sitting around unused as well as 140grn Accubonds, the Pro hunters were terrible... accubond was ok. Those will need further load development.

One thing we did to the Savage Axis rifle prior to going down was a "redneck" trigger job. The trigger was terrible on it, set very strong. I did some googling and found that the axis is rediculously easy to adjust the trigger pull on. You basically take a set of wire cutters and cut 1.5 turns off the main spring and put it back in. I being overly careful measured pull before, cut off 1 coil, remeasured, cut off another .25 turns, remeasured before cutting off the final .25 turn. Sure enough, 1.5 turns removed brought it down to a nice 3.2lbs trigger pull. Very simple to do.

As for just plinking, one cool thing is my wife finally got to shoot her .30-30. She inherited it from her dad when he passed away, he in turn got it from his mom who hunted with it & used it for defense while living in the remote areas of southern Utah. Its got ALOT of miles on it for sure... but she enjoyed putting a dozen or so rounds down range with it. It has a minor loading issue I need a gunsmith to check out but other than that it functioned fine.

My boy was all smiles though... shooting his rifle, a few boxes of 20ga at skeet and a ton of .22lr at the 12 billion ground squirrels running around (never seen so many in my life). I broke out the .17 HMR and sent a few flying off their perches at longer range. All in all a great week!

-DallanC

Bushmaster · Posted: Sat Jul 27, 2013 10:07 am Post subject: Re: Ordered my boys first rifle.

No time is better spent then with your children...