http://www.huntingnut.com/ HuntingNut en-us Mon, 12 May 2008 20:04:34 GMT 1440 CPG-Nuke Dragonfly HuntingNut News http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/rss/rss.html http://www.huntingnut.com/images/logo.gif http://www.huntingnut.com/ http://www.huntingnut.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=65 PACT High Speed Digital Precision Powder Dispenser (Originally written in 2005) Whenever I make up loads that will be near maximum pressure for hunting, or that require extra precision for matches or varmints, I like to weigh every powder charge. The spherical and flake powders generally meter very well, so all I need to do is throw the charge with my old RCBS powder measure and stick it on the scale to verify the weight. However, I never seemed to have much luck doing that with the extruded powders that I’ve been using in some rifles. Charge weights varied too much around what I wanted. My procedure for those powders has been to throw a charge a little lighter than I want, place it on the scale and trickle the rest of the charge in with a manual trickler. I get good accuracy like that but it’s time consuming. And I’m already pretty slow when loading! I’ve been using a PACT electronic scale to weigh my powder charges for quite a while. It may not be any more accurate than my old RCBS beam scale, but it sure is faster and easier to use! The scale has an infrared communications port built into it, but I’d never tried to use it. I knew that there were some electronic powder dispensers around, but my impression was that they were very slow. Then I read about the new PACT “high speed” dispenser that worked with their digital scale using the infrared port. This unit has two speeds. It uses the high speed to dispense most of the charge and then switches to low speed to trickle in the last bit. In August, Midway offered this dispenser for sale at $109.99 (the regular price is $119.59). Since I was getting ready to test some more hunting loads I bought the dispenser to see if it would speed up my loading process. When you look into the bottom of the powder hopper on the PACT you’ll see that it has two feeding tubes to get the powder to the scale pan. One is the high speed, high volume feed and the other is the “trickler”. The key pad has the regular numeric keys plus keys for “ENTER”, “RESET”, “CALIBRATE” and “DISPENSE”. There are four LED indicators for “Scale”, “Calibrate”, “Memory” and “Dispense”. The powder hopper holds a pound of powder and has a baffle built in. The use and orientation of the baffle is important to proper operation. Setting up the dispenser was a breeze. There are only three pages of instructions which I highly recommend that you READ! Part of these is how to activate the scale’s infrared transmitter and establish communication with the dispenser. You have to place the scale under the dispenser to line up the infrared ports on both devices. The “Scale” LED will be on solid when the scale and dispenser are communicating. Make sure you have a pan on the scale before you push any buttons so you won’t make a mess. The dispenser must then be calibrated for the powder you are using. Apparently there are some “smarts” built into it that constantly adjust to optimize the feed rate. To calibrate you just fill the hopper with the powder you are using and hit the “CALIBRATE” button. One thing I always do, and did here, too, is to tap the hopper with something, a screw driver or wrench, to settle the powder a bit before I start trying to measure. The “Calibrate” LED will blink while the unit runs its routine. The dispenser runs around 150 grains of powder into the pan in spurts for about 2 minutes. The exact amount isn’t important. The dispenser is learning what speed to spit out powder to get to the desired weight as fast as it can. When the calibration is finished the “Calibration” LED will be on solid. Once the calibration is complete operation is equally easy. Simply punch in the charge weight you want using the numeric key pad and hit the “ENTER” key to store it. Don’t forget to use the decimal point key! The “Memory” LED lights when you have a weight stored. When you are ready to throw a charge you just hit the “DISPENSE” key. The “Dispense” LED will start blinking and the dispenser spits out the requested amount of powder pretty quickly. If the charge comes up short you can press the “DISPENSE” key again to trickle a little more in. The time varies some between charges as the dispenser corrects itself on each cycle. I set the charge weight to 50.0 grains of H4831SC and tried ten cycles. The average time was 25.0 seconds with a high of 34.6 and a low of 16.3. I loaded twenty .260 Remington cartridges to get used to using the PACT. I noticed that a few charges came up 0.1 grain short. The instructions say that the dispenser tries to never throw an overcharge. However, a couple of times it overshot by up to 0.3 grains. When that happened the next charge would dispense more slowly. It seemed to me that the tuning could be a little too tight, causing it to occasionally overshoot the corrections. I called PACT to ask about that and they said that that was just the way it worked. However, I knew that I wasn’t talking to one of the “high tech” folks there. The dispenser comes with a certificate for a free software upgrade so I might get to use it for this. To compare the new dispenser with my old method I loaded up some .260 Remington cartridges using H4831SC powder under a Hornady 140 grain SST bullet. The charge weight was around 45 grains. The PACT was set to give me the exact weight. The RCBS was set to throw about 0.5 grain less than the desired charge, according to my usual practice, with the rest of the powder being trickled in by hand. I timed how long it took me to load ten cartridges by each method. The cases for the comparison were prepped and ready for the powder and bullet. I threw a weighed charge and then seated a bullet before going to the next cartridge. I took my time, as you always should when loading. Using the RCBS and the manual trickler it took me 17.4 minutes to load ten cartridges. Using the dispenser I was able to seat a bullet while it measured the next charge so the time was 10.3 minutes, including one “re-throw” that went over weight. I had to use the “trickle” feature a couple of times to bring the charge up to full weight. The PACT instructions mention that, for large powder charges, you can throw most of the charge with a manual measure and then use the PACT to finish it up. That method could speed up loading the really big cartridges. Emptying and cleaning the PACT was a bit more difficult than with the RCBS. Even after you dump the powder back into its original container you need to shake any remaining powder out of the feed tubes. I pulled the powder hopper off to make sure that the tubes and baffle weren’t holding any residual powder. Some compressed air would save some time here. I found that I like the convenience of using the dispenser. The overshooting issue worries me some though. I think what I’ll do for now is to set the dispenser to throw a charge 0.1 grain low then use the “DISPENSE” button to trickle in the last tenth when I need to. Being able to throw a charge in one case while seating a bullet in another sure is a time saver! Since the timed test I’ve loaded some other cartridges using both extruded and spherical powders and was very pleased with the PACT. I don’t know if the dispenser will work with other brands of scales. If you don’t have the electronic scale, PACT or one of its distributors sells a kit with both scale and dispenser included. Mon, 12 May 2008 20:04:34 GMT http://www.huntingnut.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=64 Gun Show Etiquette Ed Harmon It occurred to me that someone needed to do a gun show manners paper with a list of do’s and don'ts. The folks behind the tables at gun shows are from many cuts of cloth. Some of those folks are dealers, some are casual sellers trying to sell a rarely used gem and some are collectors trying to find a new addition to their collection or trying to sell a duplicate in their collection. The folks in the isles are also from all walks of life. You literally have the banker, baker and candlestick maker. If you are a seller, never judge a book by its cover at a gun show. The guy in jeans and a flannel shirt may be the chief executive of a tobacco empire, as happened to a friend of mine at a show. A fellow wanted to buy a very expensive Russian Lugar and wanted to give my friend a check. The buyer asked if my friend would call the president of his bank, on a Sunday morning, who would vouch for him. The bank president chuckled and told my friend that any check signed by that man, of 8 figures (99 million) or under, was good at his bank! I had a Colt collector at a table next to me tell me he had just run a country bumpkin off from his table on Saturday morning. The bumpkin wanted to look at his $12,000 cased colt. He told the bumpkin to beat it, he could not afford the gun. I laughed at the seller, and told him the guy he just ran off, owned six hotels, two restaurants a bank and his own museum full of "his" Colts. Loaded Firearms; never and I mean never, take a loaded gun into a show, not even your carry piece. Check every gun, before you put it on your table, look in the chamber and the magazine do not just work the action and assume that the chamber is empty. With a carry gun, unload the gun in the parking lot. I have been in two shows were a gun went off during the show; I went out the door right then. If just one loaded gun got in, there may well be more loaded guns in the show. My idea of a fun day at a gun show does not include getting shot. Have you ever been to a show and seen a sign that says “Do Not Handle Without Permission?” Well, that sign does not mean that you are free to pick up anything on the table, at will. Most times the owner of the guns has a very specific reason for a “no handling” policy. His guns might be un-fired or they may have cylinders that are un-turned. Or he may just not like folks fingering his stuff, without his say so. In such a case, if you ask permission you will normally be told, yes, but do not ***** the hammer, etc. Collections that are not for sale, “Display Only” are never to be touched unless the owner picks up a gun and hands it to you. If you pick a gun up, after getting permission, pick it up by the wood only. When finished looking, put the gun back on the table and turn the price tag so that the tag can be read. Remember how the gun was laying and put it back just like you found it. Thank the dealer for allowing you to look at the gun; it is a matter of simple manners. Never, ever, hit the gun against another gun or lay the gun down upon another gun. This may sound simple minded, but never spin a handgun on your finger. I had a moron thrown out of a show when I caught him doing this, with one of my Ruger Hawkeye guns. He reached across a rope barrier to get the gun. Do not dry fire guns, work bolts or jack actions unless you ask and the seller agrees to this being done. If you want to purchase a gun, hold it in your hand. Do not lay the item back on the table, do not give it to anyone else and then try to negotiate the purchase. A gun show is like a chess game, once you release the piece from your grip, it is free for someone else to purchase. When a person has a gun in his grip, he is dealing with or waiting to deal with the seller. No one else may enter the deal until the gun is put back down or the potential buyer releases his hold on the gun. It is always bad manners and unacceptable for another buyer to enter or try to enter the negotiations for a gun while the buyer is negotiating with the seller, never, ever, do this. A seller, once he accepts a deal from one buyer, may never negotiate with another buyer. Misconduct by a seller or buyer is regarded in the same way and will be told around the show crowd. This can get you ostracized from shows for life. If you take an item to a show for sale and the item has something wrong with it, you must not lie about the item or its condition. Do not try to sell junk for jewels. You will get marked for life if you do so. A person who is cheated at a show will tell every one he knows how he was cheated and who did it. A cheat who walks into a show 10 years after a deal will be pointed out. If asked, tell exactly what is wrong. However, if you are not asked, you are not required to advertise any problem, with one major exception, safety. You may never sell an unsafe firearm without warning the buyer first. Some sellers regard any defect as a reportable item prior to sale. However 90% of the sellers I know, treat all defects, except those as noted, as the responsibility of the buyer to determine, before the purchase. Dealers should examine their guns before the show and tie every gun before they arrive at the show. Do not put an untied gun on top of a table. Some shows regard this as a breach severe enough to expel the dealer. The reason; There are folks out and about who will load a gun on a table, just for a perverse thrill. That has happened at several shows. If you do not have a table and are bringing a gun into the show for trade or sale, do not tie the gun until the security folks at the door have examined the gun to make sure it is unloaded. Food and drink; Do not walk into the show with food or drinks if there is an eating area provided. Never set food or a drink of any kind on a table where guns are present. A spilled Coke will destroy blue and salty potato chips or salty French fries, well what can I say, just do not do it. The table cover for my 3 table Old Model Ruger award winning display still has a ring from a sweating coke cup that a grown adult, moron, sat upon my custom made, crushed velvet, gold, table cloth. Children; Do you allow your children to run amuck in your gun room, eating potato chips, drinking from sweating coke cups and fingering your guns with wet, salty, fingers? Really now, you do not allow that? Why do it at a gun show with the property of others then? Think, keep your kids right with you and instruct them properly, over and over again, “do not touch anything.” I wish I had a dollar for every kid I have seen run their salty, greasy fingers along a table as they walked down the isle, still eating potato chips. With a teen, it is usually sufficient to tell them: “If you can not buy it, do not touch it.” Buyers should ask about any firearm before purchase, has it been refinished, is it original, is anything wrong with it, how much has it been shot, does it shoot good, etc., etc. If the seller seems evasive or says they do not know, look real close, especially if the seller appears evasive. With an evasive seller or one that will not look me in the eye, I usually pass, regardless of what they say or how good the deal is. Junk at any price is still junk. Ask if there is a return time period. Should you get the gun home and find a problem do you have three or four days to return the gun for a full refund and where does the gun have to be returned to? Do not block the isle. If you are with a group, do not bunch up and block traffic. Never block a table to talk to a buddy or anyone but the dealer behind that table. If you are a dealer, do not stand in front of another dealer’s table to talk to anyone, stand in front of your own table. Those tables may cost $100 or more per table and no one appreciates having access to their table blocked by a gabbing mindless, non buyer. Do not bad mouth a dealer, his guns or his prices, standing at or near his table. That is a good way to get yourself escorted to the parking lot by security. If you must discuss a gun or price, wait until you are past the end of the isle and have room for others to get by you. Enough of the “do not” items. Here is a do item. If you are at a show and see a great deal, buy it. Right behind you is someone that also knows it is a great deal and they will buy the item if you do not. There is nothing quite like going to a show, finding a great buy, passing on it, then going back and it is gone. You go out to the car and there stands Bob, your buddy, with "your" great deal. This makes for a very quiet ride back home. If someone tells you they have X out in the car in the parking lot and you think you want it, walk them out to the car. Buy the item and walk back into the show with the item in your hand or put it in your vehicle. Never, ever tell the seller to go get the item and bring it in. You will never see the item in the hands of your seller, the item will not make it back to your table. Exactly such a situation happened to my show buddy, it was a rifle just like the brass frame gun on his table, but was funny looking, not like that gold color. He watched “his” seller get stopped across the show floor and sell “his” iron frame Henry to another dealer at the Tulsa show. A tough lesson learned, the hard way, and nothing he could do but watch. I never remember a good deal or regret buying a good gun. I never forget a great gun that I did not buy. Wed, 19 Mar 2008 15:49:30 GMT http://www.huntingnut.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=63 Building the Switch Barrel Rifle Ed Harmon This project started as a “how can that be done” discussion between master gunsmith Steve Brady and myself. I had wanted a switch barrel rifle for years and Steve had for many years tried to figure out a way to build a switch barrel that worked and was cheap enough to be marketable through his shop. The discussion took place on one of the four to six evenings a year that I would stay overnight at Steve’s home. The crux of the discussion was how could one build a switch barrel rifle capable of hand switching (no bench or vise) and shooting MOA groups, inexpensively and with the least amount of gunsmith time. Steve, is one of those rare gunsmiths that not only had the craft down to a art, he also had a searching mind that was always looking for something better or an easier way to complete a project. Steve patented many tools and sold several of his inventions to Brownell’s. I had the pleasure of working with Steve, in his shop for over 20 years, as my hobby. Steve and I both had over the years seen many different variations on the switch barrel theme. Most of the processes we had seen used, were very labor intensive and resulted in a rifle that offered inconsistent accuracy and would not shoot MOA groups with each barrel. Most systems used open sights, with the sights mounted on each barrel. The results, in general, were not satisfactory. I had recently seen a new system for building a switch barrel single shot handgun, that Richard Mertz over at MOA designed. Not many folks realize that the MOA handgun is a switch barrel gun. The interesting thing about Richard’s system is that it produces a multiple caliber gun capable of shooting sub MOA groups with each barrel and the barrels can be changed with, at the very most, a square jawed vise having padded jaws. The barrels index on a witness mark for headspacing and have a flat spring detent to prevent thread back out or run in. The sides of the barrel are milled flat, at the chamber area. The sides of the action are also flat. The forend is *****d to the flat area. This is a quote from Phil W. Johnston handgun editor of Gun Week Magazine: “the best group was-are you sitting down-a mere .280 inch, center-to-center! That's the best 5-shot group we've ever fired, with anything.” Phil was describing the MOA handgun in 223 with a 14-inch barrel. A few days after our discussion I was in a pawn shop and came across a real beast, a Winchester Model 70 Classic gun in 338 Win Mag that some nimrod had cut the barrel off on. The barrel was reduced to 20 inches for of all things, a tree stand gun. First shot and mister “better idea” got kicked like a 19 hands mule, hanging onto a tree 12 feet in the air. I would have like to see that wide-eyed fellow. I traded a 7x08 custom XP-100 that I was dragging around, for the gun, plus a few hundred dollars in boot. Upon arriving back at the house I called Steve to let him know we had a guinea pig and test bed for the switch barrel rifle project. The first thing I did was to buy a set of dies and a couple boxes of bullets for the 338. Then I took the gun to Steve’s shop to square the muzzle. The nimrod had cut the barrel off with a hacksaw. It was some butcher job. I then cut a target crown and off to the range we (Mr. snub nose 338 and I) went. Just a few loads showed the rifle was capable of .70 groups so we were in business. The 338-barrel was OK for use as one of the barrels in the project. The next step was to obtain a second barrel. So I looked around and found a gunsmith in Alaska that had a 7mm Remington Mag barrel for a Winchester Classic. I called the smith and he told me the story of the barrel. He had removed the barrel under protest from a good shooting gun. The prior owner had gut shot a caribou and blamed the cartridge for the animal not expiring on the spot. You might say I was building a switch barrel gun using mistakes by nimrods. While I was awaiting the arrival of the second barrel I took the barreled action over to the shop to start the machining process. What we had decided to do was to drill and tap a hole in the center of the recoil lug then insert a plunger, spring and retaining plug. The recoil lug would be drilled with the barrel in place so that the drill bit extended into the barrel shank past the thread depth by .1000 The effect of the hole was to create a tapered hole in the threads that would center the barrel shank, if necessary. It was quickly determined that the plunger needed a method of retraction or removal. So a hole was drilled and a drill rod piece inserted in the plunger. The drill rod was not affixed to the plunger. The front of the recoil lug was slotted in an upside-down L shape to allow a pin to be used to lift and lock the plunger out of the barrel’s retaining hole. The threaded plug would hold the plunger down and in place, aided by the spring. The wood in the center of the front of the recoil lug was relieved to allow for the plunger pin to extend out of the lug to the front. The barrel was marked with two witness marks for better alignment in the “field”. Then the barrel was put into the lathe and the threads were polished / re-cut by hand, using a thread file, until the action would turn onto the barrel, save ½ turn. This process was time consuming to start with but once done, a feel was developed for the process and the other barrel went much faster. As the barrel fitting process was going on I decided that I did not want to use the 338 magazine box and ordered a longer box from Winchester for $36. I like to shoot heavy bullets and wanted the bullets to be set up with no base below the bottom of the case neck. The rifle was further modified by replacing the bolt’s stop extension and re-cutting the action’s bolt stop / release. Then the retaining lip for the center screw, for the trigger guard, was re-cut in the front to clear the new box. Once we had the 338 barrel finished we realized that there was a problem, placing the action back into the milling machine and indexing the recoil lug hole, perfectly, for the second barrel. The solution we devised was a two-diameter hole in the recoil lug. The larger diameter hole would be drilled first then tapped and a then a threaded, hardened, guide would be made for the plunger hole drill bit. The result was that every barrel from first to last would have the exact same hole even if there were a slight error in alignment. This was devised so that jigs did not have to be made and so a 700 action could be done as the second project. The next thing I did in the shop was to put muzzle breaks on both barrels. The 338 got a Vias break and the 7mm got a shop break, devised previously by Steve Brady as an integral break. I just used a section of a 96 Mauser barrel to make the 7mm break. The last item in the shop was to build the take down wrench. I had an old industrial 2-horse skill saw made by Rockwell. It came with a big wrench for the bronze clutch. The wrench was heated and forged flat then a slot was cut on the inside of one jaw and a drill rod of appropriate diameter welded in place. The wrench was *****d to the barrels then bead blasted and rubber coated. The last step was a leather wrap for the handle. The solution to the sights was simple, a quick release base on the action and quick release rings on two scopes. I chose the rings and bases of Warne for the project. I have never been disappointed by a Warne base or set of rings and decided to go tough as the gun would have a good bit of take off and put on to contend with. The proof is in the pudding as they say. So how does it work/ Take a look below for groups and a picture. Custom switch barrel Winchester 70 Classic. 338 Win Mag and 7mm Remington Mag barrels in one gun. The barrels come with their very own scopes and quick release rings on each scope.Action altered by shortening the ejector, removing the extractor block and removing the extension into the magazine well. Alterations to allow for proper bullet seat length (longer cartridge OAL). Action glass bedded with removal of rubber substance from recoil lug area. Installed Packymeyer 1 inch recoil pad. 338 barrel shortened to 20 inches and threaded. 7mm bbl threaded for muzzle break and muzzle break built. 338 Winchester $400.00 allowed in $700 trade Extended Magazine box $36.00 7 mm RM Model 70 Classic take off bbl $46.00 7mm Muzzle break made from old 6.5 barrel, $0 338 Muzzle break $100.00 Warne Bases $25.00 Warne 1 " Rings $50 Warne 30mm Rings $55.00 Nikon 2x7 Scope $165.00 Hakko 3x12 Scope $350 Total: $1,227 Cost without two scopes $712 http://huntingnut.com/index.php?name=coppermine&file=displayimage&meta=lastup&cat=10942&pos=1 .338 Win Mag 3 shot group .576 http://huntingnut.com/index.php?name=coppermine&file=displayimage&meta=lastup&cat=10942&pos=0 7mm Remington Mag 3 Shot group .591 http://huntingnut.com/index.php?name=coppermine&file=displayimage&meta=lastup&cat=10942&pos=2 Switch Barrel Model 70 Classic with barrels, scopes and wrench Mon, 18 Feb 2008 16:59:11 GMT http://www.huntingnut.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=62 Remington 700 CDL in .35 Whelen In my continuing effort to plug perceived gaps in my gun collection (at least that’s the excuse I tried on my wife) I had decided to get a “medium bore” hunting rifle. Obviously “medium bore” is a relative term but I use it as John “Pondoro” Taylor defines it in “African Rifles and Cartridges”, that is “A rifle the caliber of which is not less than .318” nor greater than .375”.” (See note below.) Possible uses (maybe I should say hopeful!) include elk and bear hunting. A couple of obvious choices in this range of cartridges are the .375 H&H Magnum and .338 Winchester Magnum. But I wanted something a little different. I wasn’t as interesting in earth-shattering energy as I was in just a bigger, heavier bullet at “standard” velocities. I started looking hard at the .338-06 and .35 Whelen. These cartridges would give me the bigger bullet I wanted without belting me out from under my hat with recoil. The .338-06 would pretty much have to be a custom job while there were a few commercial .35 Whelens around. The .338 caliber seemed to have a better variety of premium bullets available though. Decisions, decisions… While at a gun show a couple years ago I saw a new Remington 700 CDL chambered in .35 Whelen. I liked the looks and feel of the rifle and, after wandering around deliberating for a while, I bought it for $600. A local gun shop sold me a Burris Fullfield 2 scope, 3-to-9X with the “Ballistic Plex” reticle. Hornady dies, as well as brass and bullets were ordered from Midway. The Remington 700 hardly needs any description. It is one of the best known bolt action rifles around. The CDL, or Classic Deluxe, has a satin finished walnut stock with a black fore-end tip and grip cap. I very much prefer this stock finish to the shiny one seen on some Remington guns. The 24 inch barrel also has a satin finish. The barrel twist is 1 turn in 16”. There is a two position safety, back is “SAFE” and forward is “FIRE”. This rifle has Remington’s new R3 recoil pad, designed to reduce felt recoil. Overall length is 44.5” and, with the scope mounted in Leupold rings, it weighs just less than 8 pounds. The .35 Whelen cartridge is simply the .30-06 case necked up to accept .358” bullets. It was developed by James Howe in 1922 and named after Col. Townsend Whelen. The intent was to create a sort of “poor man’s” .375 H&H Magnum, a classic African cartridge, for use on large American game. I’ve read a couple articles detailing its use in Africa too. Remington finally made it a commercial cartridge in 1988. Although the .35 Whelen performance falls short of matching that of the .375 H&H it is a step up from the .30-06 and is in the ball park with the .300 Winchester Magnum. Rifle bullet weights in .358” start at 180 grains and go on up to 310 grains. When looking around before buying the rifle I had overlooked the premium bullets from Swift and Woodleigh so that concern was covered. One interesting aspect of the .35 Whelen is that you can use .357” handgun bullets to make plinking loads. The Speer #13 reloading manual lists loads using the 158 grain .357 bullets that produce around 2000 feet/sec. These could be used for practice or maybe varmints. However, the slow twist that makes this possible might prevent me from using the heavier bullets in this caliber. Manipulating the Greenhill formula for calculating twist I come up with a “suggested” bullet length of around 1.2”. Velocities over 2000 ft/sec allow you to use a slightly slower twist. The Hornady 250 grain spire point bullets I have measure 1.26” long. Swift Bullets lists a 280 grain A-Frame as 1.345”. One of these days I might give them a try. For my first loads I chose the Hornady 200 grain jacketed spire point bullets to use for whitetails. After looking in several loading manuals I saw that the fastest load used Hodgdon BL-C(2) powder, which I had on hand. Federal 215 primers would light off my first test loads. As usual I started with cases that were resized full length and trimmed to length. The powder charges were kept below maximum loads from the manual. I was wondering what the recoil would be like so, before sighting it in, I fired a few rounds from the rifle to get a feel for it. I immediately noticed two things. First, this 700 had a terribly heavy trigger. I later measured it at about 8.75 pounds. It broke cleanly but was way too heavy for practical use. Second, that R3 recoil pad really worked! Felt recoil was quite manageable; maybe even less than my .280, which has a thinner rubber recoil pad. The scope had been bore sighted using the proper tools at the shop where I bought it. This put the point of impact about a foot low and foot right at 100 yards. (Remember that if you think that bore sighting is “good enough” for hunting.) As I zeroed the rifle I also used a Chrony chronograph to check the velocity of my load. After I got the rifle zeroed I fired one 3 shot group to try to check the accuracy. I didn’t have high hopes for accuracy given the trigger situation. I ended up chronographing eight rounds using the 200 grain bullets over BL-C(2). Actually I had chronoed more but I fat-fingered something on the printer and erased the other velocities. Anyway… The average velocity was 2638 fps with a standard deviation of 26.4 fps. Best of all, my last three shot group at 100 yards measured 0.8”! Considering the heavy trigger pull I was pretty pleased! The ol’ PointBlank software was put to use once again. I used it to calculate the recoil energy at 27 ftlbs and recoil velocity at 14.9 fps. For comparison a “standard” .30-06 load with a 150 grain bullet would have 19.9 ftlbs of recoil energy and a recoil velocity of 12.8 fps in the same weight rifle. A .375 H&H with a 300 grain bullet would be more like 50 ftlbs of energy and 20.2 fps velocity. This particular .35 Whelen load generates 3090 ftlbs of muzzle energy. Remember that this load is below maximum and the max load would be closer to 3500 ftlbs. The .30-06 would have 2700 ftlbs of energy at the muzzle while the .375 H&H shows 4500 ftlbs at the muzzle. If you compare book velocities with the same weight bullet, 200 grains, they look something like this: .30-06 – 2550 fps, .300 Win Mag – 2850 fps, .35 Whelen – 2800 fps. All in all I’m pretty pleased with this addition to the family. It is well balanced and just feels good in my hands. It’s a good looking rifle too. The R3 recoil pad sure works as advertised. The trigger has been replaced with one from Timney. The .35 Whelen cartridge has plenty of power and I was somewhat surprised by its accuracy. This rifle should get its turn in the woods this fall. Wonder if any of those Smokey Mountain elk could wander over this way… Note: John Taylor was an African hunter and writer. He wrote about cartridges ranging from the .22 rim fires to the .600 Nitro Express. He defined cartridge classes as follows: Large bore – A rifle the caliber of which is not less than .450”. Large Medium bore - A rifle the caliber of which is not less than .400” nor greater than .440”. Medium bore - A rifle the caliber of which is not less than .318” nor greater than .375”. Small bore - A rifle the caliber of which is less than .318”. Miniature – A rifle the muzzle energy of which is less than 1,500 foot pounds. Magnum – A rifle the muzzle velocity of which is not less than 2,500 feet per second. Tue, 22 Jan 2008 06:54:36 GMT http://www.huntingnut.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=61 Decoyed Pigeons In Argentina Ed Harmon In June of 2007 we started out late on a Thursday afternoon for a decoyed pigeon hunt in Argentina. This was to be my first decoyed pigeon shoot. I flew from Florida to Dallas, TX where I met the rest of the 8-man group. Our group consisted of the owner of a MS timber business, an ENT Surgeon from Jackson, MS, a MS real estate developer, the Assistant to the Commissioner of the MS State Police, a Drug Manufacturer’s representative from Jackson, a Federal Judge from Biloxi, MS and myself. We went by way of Dallas, through Santiago, Chile to Cordoba, Argentina by plane and then on to the South Pioneers Lodge in Yacanto, Argentina by van. Yacanto is a very small village located at the far western edge of Cordoba Province, just 6 kilometers from the border of San Louis Province. San Louis Province is the province west of Cordoba and is where you first see the eastern foothills of the Andes Mountains in Argentina. The little village of Yacanto is a 4 to 4 ½ hour drive from the big city of Cordoba, across the 9,000 ft Sierra de Comechingones mountain range, or as the mountains are called by the locals, the Sierra Cordoba. The village of Yacanto, population 4,000 compared to the city of Cordoba, population 1,000,000 might as well be on another planet. Our flight from Santiago to Cordoba was delayed by fog so we did not arrive at the Cordoba airport until just before dark. Our drive across the high mountains of the Sierra Cordoba, which we understood to be a great scenic drive, turned out to be a pitch black ride through the mountains, in light fog, looking at the light thrown by the headlights, on a switchback mountain road. Many times the curves were without guardrails. When we arrived at the lodge after 4 ½ hours we were pleasantly surprised by the beauty and quality of the 105 year-old, restored, former summer home of a railroad executive. We did not expect much due to our late arrival, however at about 10:00 PM, we had a supper meal waiting for us. After eating a light supper, drinking a cool beverage and getting a hot shower we collapsed into bed. The next morning, wake-up came very early, about 5:00 AM. But we all got up promptly and after a quick breakfast we headed off on the hour and a half van ride to our hunting area. On the way we drove through the city of Villa Dolores and on into San Louis province. We drove for over an hour without seeing many birds. When we came to the area in the large valley where it was irrigated and grain crops were being grown, we began seeing birds. First we saw the doves and then the speckled wing pigeons mixed in with the doves and then the speckled wing pigeons mixed with a few of the big dark picazuro. The picazuro is the largest of the pigeon species in South America. We turned off the paved road and drove about a quarter mile down a dirt road, to the edge of a big, flat, open, potato field. The potatoes in this field were ready for harvesting. Potatoes are a main staple in the Argentine diet and this area has soil much like that found in Idaho or upper Maine, a combination of sand and clay. The field was about ¼ mile wide by ½ mile long. After a few minutes discussion we transferred guns and ourselves to a pickup truck and were driven out along the edge of the field where blinds had been built by the bird boys the day before or arrival. As we reached the blinds we were, one by one, dropped off and introduced to our bird boys. The bird boy we were assigned to on that day would be our assigned bird boy for the rest of the trip. The blinds were spaced about 150 yards apart. This morning we had left the lodge in our groggy and tired state, without anyone remembering to bring along their sunscreen. The high valley was at 3,000 ft altitude. In Argentina a high altitude hunt would result in sunburn within a very short time, without a good sunscreen, even though the time of year was the dead of winter. Having learned about sunburn and high altitude in South Africa the year before I carried a face mask, just in case. So on went my facemask, not for camouflage, but to protect my face from the rays of the sun. I then broke out the 12ga Browning 525 over and under gun, put on my shooting gloves, my shooting glasses and my hat. We were then ready to start shooting. The wait was not long. Almost like clock work, at 9:30AM the pigeons started flying. All over the field and you could hear the far and near crack of 20ga guns and the boom of 12ga guns being fired. This was the first time I have ever heard a 20ga gun sound like a rifle. I could only attribute the different sound to the large, flat, landscape and altitude. One thing to mention here; shooting glasses and pigeons: it is absolutely necessary to wear a good pair of ballistics glasses at all times while pigeon shooting. Pigeons fly very erratically and in the heat of the moment it is very, very easy to loose track of the elevation as you follow a bird with the gun’s muzzle. Shot at 100 yards or so may not penetrate skin but the eye is a different matter and does not react well to a particle introduced at even low velocity. No one should ever be on a pigeon field without good solid eye protection. For some reason, on this day, the pigeons did not take to the decoys. The decoy setup was two plastic pigeons wired or taped onto heavy steel wires. The wires were in turn attached to an electric motor. The electric motor rotated the two decoys slowly like a clock lying on its back. Spread out on the ground below and around the slowly rotating decoys were about a dozen plastic pigeon decoys set out to look as if they were feeding on the ground. The decoy areas were set up out about 25 yards out in the potato field from each blind. The blinds were made from yellow grass and green mesquite branches inter woven to form a wall about 4 ft high across the front and two sides of the blind. The back of the blind was open and against a barbed wire fence. Inside the blind were two white plastic stools, several cases of shells, a soft cooler with bottled water and cold drinks, the shooter and each shooter’s bird boy. The bird boys on this trip were all adult males whom we were told were all firemen from the city, either Cordoba or Villa Delores. None of the bird boys spoke much English and none of us spoke Spanish, so we, each pair, worked on our basic communication skills. It did not take to long for me to realize that shooting pigeons when you are mentally and physically tired results in a many a missed bird. I found that pigeons are pretty much the same the world over, at a shot; the pigeon, a real master flier, instantly goes into aerial acrobatics. They jink, dive, dodge, flip, roll, turn and stop in mid air. With 8 hunters in the field the sound of gunfire was pretty much constant. This first morning I shot many a round where a bird should have been, but was not. When a pigeon is flying by and you stand to shoot, if he drops a shoulder and dives, you need to increase your lead, as he just shifted into 5th gear and has increased his forward speed by as much as double. The morning was pretty much a disaster for me as my ratio of dead pigeons to fired shells was miserable. But the afternoon was still to come. We had a lunch of fresh baked bread, sliced tomatoes, sliced raw cabbage with vinegar and oil and beef tenderloin. The beef was grilled just off the field on a low, four legged, portable grill, over natural mesquite coals. The food was delicious and we were hungry. The meal was served with red wine, beer, bottled water and Cokes. I was always taught that there was no alcohol consumption while shooting, so my beverage today and everyday thereafter was a Coka-lite (Diet Coke). After a short rest-break we went back to the field to resume the shoot. The afternoon for me was a different story from the morning. I got into the groove, remembered some of the lessons learned from the trip to South Africa last year. I started shooting pigeons, not empty air. By the end of the day I had shot 167 pigeons and expended 13 boxes of shells in the process, not good for me at all. The most important lesson I learned on that first day was to be applied the next day and every day of the shoot thereafter. That first day I determined that, a thirty inch 525 sporting 12 ga., that is great for shooting 100 sporting clays at a time, is simply too heavy to swing for 300-400 shots in one day when shooting fast flying, eccentric moving, darting pigeons. So the 12 ga’s debut was also its swan song, the 12 ga went back into the case and never saw the light of day again. The 12 ga became my backup gun. I had brought another Browning with me, a 32-inch 20 ga sporting 525 gun that, on occasion and with a little luck, I do manage to shoot well. The second day I was moved away from the potato field, across the paved road about a half-mile, to a spot in the oak and mesquite brush next to an old cattle pen. The 20ga became the “sand man” on that day. By the end of day two, the 20ga had accounted for almost 400 birds and the shell count was down to just 19 boxes. This was a big turn around for me from day one. Most of the difference I attributed to a good night’s sleep and the lighter 20 ga gun. One of our shooters shot 425 birds on day two, in the afternoon alone. The pigeons started pouring in on his decoys and his Benelli 20 ga semi auto gun became smoking hot that afternoon. This was lesson number two about decoyed pigeon shooting, the choice of gun. In South America pigeons fly in flocks, they do not fly in streams, as they do in South Africa. When the pigeons decoy into your decoy field, they pour in all at once from a single flock. The O/U gun gives you two shots at 50 birds and then the flock flies away before you can reload. The semi-auto gun, without a plug, allows you 5 shots before the flock flies off. The difference could be a 300-400 bird day VS a 600-700 bird day. My next decoyed pigeon shoot in South America will be with my 20ga Beretta 391, sans the plug. Hard to clean or not, the Beretta is just too quick and pleasant to shoot to be left in the safe at the house when there is serious work to be done in the bird field. Let me stress one thing here about the semi-auto gun and travel to other countries. Argentina allows you to shoot pretty much what you can bring. South Africa does not allow semi-auto guns to be brought into the country. So, if you are going across the pond to shoot birds, make very sure that your gun of choice is legal by local or national regulations, before you get to customs and have your baby confiscated and your hunt ruined. The next day I was switched back to the potato field. My blind assignment was where Joe had shot the 425 birds the afternoon before. However, it became very clear that the O/U was at a disadvantage when, working pretty hard, the best I could scrape up was about 330 birds. As mentioned before, the O/U even when the birds start to flock to the decoys only allows two shots. By the third day we had quite a gathering of eagles to contend with. Within 15 minutes of the start of shooting in the morning, we had eagles in every dead tree and eagles on the ground. At one time I had seven eagles on the ground, inside my decoy field! I intentionally shot near one on the ground. My shot threw dirt all over the big bird; he just ducked a wee bit and then stood and glared at me. Later in the morning I had a big eagle land in a dead tree right behind me. I shot near the big eagle perched in the dead tree, he never moved, just looked at me. I sent my bird boy out to run the eagle off that was setting behind us. The bird boy threw several dirt clods at the eagle without effect; one even hit the limb the eagle was standing on. But when a clod went flying by the bird’s head the eagle finally flew off. The eagle only returned in about 20 minutes. The eagles were brazen to say the least. There was no way they would leave the free lunch represented by all the downed pigeons. Speaking of eagles, I did get to see an amazing sight. A medium sized gray eagle landed off to the side of my decoy field to eat a pigeon that I had shot at a very high altitude. The pigeon had hit the ground about 60 yards out from the blind. The pigeon was flopping around so it was a live bird, much preferred by the eagles. The gray eagle walked over to the pigeon and puts his foot on it and looked around then dropped his head. Just as the gray eagle took his eye off the sky, a big red eagle swooped down and nailed him. The red eagle hit the gray eagle with his chest, in mid flight, like a flying tackle. The gray eagle did about three flips, just rolling, end over end, with feathers and dust flying, all the time under the big red eagle, until the red eagle pulled up and swooped away. It looked every bit like a dog that had been run over by a garbage truck on a dirt road. The strike of the red eagle, without talons, was obviously not intended to hurt the smaller eagle, only to knock him down and roll him about. The big eagle was showing the smaller eagle just who was the boss. Later, one of our group saw a huge black and white eagle do the same thing to a big but smaller red eagle. Except in this instance the bigger bird swooped up, turned on a wing tip and dropped on the pigeon that had been the red eagle’s prey just a moment before. The black and white eagle then flew off with the pigeon. Funny thing was that there were over 200 pigeons lying in the decoys and those two eagles had to fight over one bird, leaving all of the other pigeons without interest. Such is nature, I guess. After several days we came to understand that our out*****r had about as much experience as we did in shooting pigeons over decoys. We were especially thrilled to learn at lunch that; “This is my first pigeon only group.” That one sentence explained a lot. It also explained why we had #8 shot instead of #6s or #7 ½ shot. The statement also explained that the prior numbers of birds per day we had been told about, 600 to 700 birds, included not only pigeons, but a number of doves. Doves are not near as hard to kill as pigeons. The Dove flies slower and is not nearly as aerobatic. So we, as a group started asking for things that would make the hunt and stay easier and better for all. When we asked, whatever we asked for was produced. So if you have a mind to shoot pigeons in San Luis province, Argentina, we have opened the door at least at this out*****r’s lodge. On the last day we moved into the brush area, away from the potato field and shot pigeons using decoys in the trees. The guys that were shooting O/U guns also doubled up, two to a blind, this arrangement gave the O/U shooters the ability to fire twice then reload while the other shooter shot two rounds. The effect was to get a couple of extra shots in on every flock of birds. When we alternated the first person to shoot it made for some fast and fun shooting. In addition to the increase in scores the guys had someone to talk to besides their bird boy, none of which spoke English. So we had a big time on the last day, shooting, joking and laughing. After all, that is to me, about 90% of a trip, the companions, not the stack of birds. With the sun going down on the last day we left for the return ride to the lodge. The 5 days were now just a blur as they always are on these trips. With a little rest and time separation, your mind sorts through all of the good times, picks out a couple of choice memories and returns to those memories when the subject of the shoot comes up. Some things of interest for the reader: -About 6 years ago they started farming in the big valley west of the Sierra Cordoba. The farmers raise mostly grain crops in huge fields. -Pigeons and doves in the area were a small problem until the grain farming started, now the birds represent a pest with populations in the millions. -The locals do not hunt or shoot doves and pigeons due to the cost of ammunition. -While driving to and from the hunting area we saw many Perdiez along the road. The Perdiez is a game bird resembling a big Bob White quail with a long neck. -The winter climate in the valley west of the mountains is very moderate, with temperatures in the morning in the 40s and in the afternoon of 65 to 70 degrees. -Decoyed pigeon shooting does not require a 12ga gun. As with dove shooting, the 20ga is the ticket. -If the pigeons fly to the decoys, the best gun is a semi-auto as the shooting is quick and close with five shots being possible per flock. -The best choke I found for any gun shooting over decoys was the Improved Cylinder. With regard to my choice of gun; I have been to Argentina on several occasion now. I have also been out west in the US, pheasant hunting and over the pond to South Africa pigeon shooting. I hunt quail and doves in the SE. I first bought a Beretta 391 and have owned three of the guns in 20ga and another 391 in 12ga. They are great guns. However, they are dirty and hard to clean when you shoot 1,000 rounds in the morning and another 1,000 in the afternoon. In the US with the restricted bag limits the 391 in 20ga is just wonderful in the dove or quail field. I have shot the Benelli 20ga and 12ga. The 20ga Benelli for high volume shooting is notorious for its narrow loading port. I do not like the recoil of the Benelli 12ga. I have seen several guns break in the field including O/Us by Winchester, Remington and Beretta. After a few trips and watching folks I noticed that I had never seen a Browning O/U break or cease to function in the field. So I bought a couple of Citori guns, then a couple of 425 guns then an Ultra Xs and finally settled on the 525-sporting guns as my Argentina gun of choice. The 525 trigger does take a bit of getting use to, but it is worth the time it takes to learn to release the trigger on the first shot. Some folks go to Argentina on a dove shoot with 2,500 or 3,000 shells included. Others go without any “free” shells, the price works out the same. The folks I will never understand are the ones that shoot the “free” shells and quit. They spend thousands of dollars to get there and will not spend $400 for 1,000 shells. That is a penny wise and a pound foolish. The cost of the pigeon trip comes up once in a while from those that would like to go in the future. This trip to Argentina was about $5,800 front door to front door, including a $1,000 shell bill. This is a breakdown: Airline round trip 1461.70 Permits & Fees 216.00 Initial cost 5 days without shells 2795.00 Shells, tips for staff and bird boys (shells @ $10. per box) $1,200 Misc 200.00 The trip was arranged through Fin & Feather Safaris in Birmingham, AL., Mr Charles Arnt. http://www.huntingnut.com/index.php?name=coppermine&file=displayimage&album=218&pos=10 Pigeons & Doves in the Air http://www.huntingnut.com/index.php?name=coppermine&file=displayimage&album=218&pos=6 Decoy Machine http://www.huntingnut.com/index.php?name=coppermine&file=displayimage&album=218&pos=9 Lodge in Yacanto http://www.huntingnut.com/index.php?name=coppermine&file=displayimage&album=218&pos=0 Lunch on the Barbe http://www.huntingnut.com/index.php?name=coppermine&file=displayimage&album=218&pos=5 Sierra Cordoba http://www.huntingnut.com/index.php?name=coppermine&file=displayimage&album=218&pos=11 Speckled Wing Pigeon http://www.huntingnut.com/index.php?name=coppermine&file=displayimage&album=218&pos=8 Red Eagle on Fence Post Sun, 06 Jan 2008 03:34:39 GMT http://www.huntingnut.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=60 I had my best hunting experience yet this past weekend (17 November 2007). Or I guess I should say we had one. It was the opening day of white tail “gun” season in this part of NC. I hadn’t had much time to prepare so I decided to wait until mid afternoon and go out to hunt in the evening. As I was getting ready to go my 22 year old daughter popped up and asked “Can I go?” I was so surprised that I made sure that she knew that I was going hunting, not just hanging a stand or scouting. None of my girls, my wife or two daughters, had shown much interest in hunting before so I was just thrilled that she wanted to tag along! I dragged out some of my extra hunting clothes while she washed up with some of the “scent killer” soap I use. I made sure she had enough, and proper, clothing to stay warm for a few hours. I wanted to make sure that her first trip out wasn’t unpleasant! I found her my extra binoculars so she could use them to observe any wildlife we found. I also gave her my electronic ear muffs so she could amplify the natural sounds but muffle the sound of any shot I might take. As soon as we hit the woods we saw our first wild game. A flock of turkeys was feeding along the edge of a field, through the trees where I wanted to hunt. They moved off as soon as they saw us. It was the first time she’d seen wild turkeys in the woods like that. I found a good place to sit on the ground, overlooking the junction of two small creeks. Normally I’d use a climbing tree stand but I only had one handy. Again I tried to make her as comfortable as possible. We were backed up against a huge old tree were we could see both creeks, an adjoining field to our front and right and a logged out area off to our left. The leaves were still on the trees pretty thick so visibility was somewhat limited. After I put out some food scent lure near the junction of the creeks I used the laser rangefinder to check some distances. It was 34 yards to the “food” tree, 100 yards to the top of the field and 124 yards to a clear space in the center of the logged area. We whispered back and forth some as I explained why I picked the spot and what other features were around that she couldn’t see from there. There was a salt lick at the edge of the field and a garden spot out in the middle of it. There were good bedding areas on the ridges to our right and left. We listened to the turkeys moving around just out of sight, occasionally seeing one slip through the edge of the woods. After things settled down I saw a flock of small birds flush from the clear cut off to our left. I noticed a deer moving at the top of the ridge and then another step out onto a logging trail that led to the creek. I nudged her and pointed. I assumed the closest deer was a doe and hoped that the other was a decent buck. We watched the closer deer move right down to the edge of the creek. This deer crossed over toward the “food tree” and I saw that it was a small spike buck. The other deer disappeared, I’m afraid it may have seen me move as I hadn’t put on my camo face net. We watched the spike snoop around the creek bottom some before he walked past, heading to our right. I used the rangefinder to see that he’d passed about 26 yards away. Needless to say we were both thrilled to have a buck pass that close without noticing us! When we were sure he was gone I told her that I’d seen a second deer so we settled back down to see what else came by. And I put on my camo face net and some gloves. At one point a siren sounded on a nearby road and some of the local dogs started howling in response. As the howling spread I realized that some coyotes were joining in, and not all that far from where we were sitting! Again it was the first time she’d heard coyotes while out in the woods. A little while later she nudged me and pointed toward the field to our right. At first I didn’t see anything. Then I heard something walking through the leaves and saw some motion. Sure enough it was another deer, walking toward our “food” tree. When this one cleared the leaves I saw that it was also a buck. I watched him sniffing around the tree where the scent lure was until he was looking away. I raised the rifle but, when I looked through the scope, realized that it was only a 4 point. Before I’d left the house I’d made up my mind not to shoot anything less than 6 points. So I lowered the rifle and we just watched him wander around, feeding on acorns. He made me think of a little kid, munching on a favorite food while looking all around nonchalantly. He even looked up in the trees some. We, on the other hand, were getting pretty excited! As he fed he slowly started making his way up the hill from the creek, directly towards us. Both of us were trying not to even breathe! He meandered along until he was about 25 feet away. Then he noticed us. He stopped and stared but obviously had no idea what we were. He was looking at my daughter, who didn’t have a face net on. She told me later that she was trying to hide under her hat while peeking out at the buck. Finally he couldn’t stand the curiosity and blew at us, trying to provoke some movement. He did just that but couldn’t see it, we both jumped when he snorted! He stomped his feet and then jogged back down to the creek. He circled a bush there and continued to watch us and stomp at us. He blew again and then crossed back over the creek, watching us all the time. He blew a few more times as he walked away through the woods. It was obvious that he wasn’t ever really scared but just uncomfortable about something he couldn’t identify. I tried a couple calls to see if I could get him to come back but he wasn’t having any of that. When he had finally wandered off I turned to see a huge grin on my daughter’s face. I suspect she saw one on my face too! Her first trip ever hunting and she has two bucks within 30 yards of her while sitting on the ground. I told her why I hadn't shot, that I was hoping that the little bucks would get to grow up some for next year. We stayed put until after sunset, hoping “big brother” might wander into range. A few doe-in-estrus calls didn’t get any response. When it finally got too dark to see we picked up and started back to the car, talking about the second buck in particular. When I asked her if she’d like to go with me again she said yes, that it was a nice way to spend a few hours. I don’t think she’ll be a die-hard hunter any time real soon but now I have a buddy to share at least some of my hunting “adventures” with. And I couldn’t ask for a better one! Mon, 19 Nov 2007 16:36:50 GMT http://www.huntingnut.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=59 In spring 2005 I acquired a Ruger 77 Mark II Compact chambered in .260 Remington. I gave a lot of thought to this rifle and handled it at several gun shows before I finally broke down and bought it. There were several considerations in my choice. I wanted a small, fairly light weight rifle that I could use for deer and maybe varmints too. I wanted it to be pretty weather resistant. I also wanted a cartridge that I felt would cleanly kill deer but not have quite as much recoil as my .280 Remington. I’ll try to explain my thinking as I describe the rifle and cartridge. First, let’s discuss the rifle. I had decided that I wanted a stainless steel action and barrel with a laminated stock to make it a bit more weather proof than my wood stocked .280. I know that a synthetic stock is even more weather resistant but I just like the looks and weight of the laminated stocks better. I’m trying to walk a fine line between “light for carry” and “heavy to absorb recoil”. I wanted a compact rifle that my daughters could use comfortably should I ever con them into hunting with me. I had narrowed my choice down to a Remington Model 7 or the Ruger. In the end I never saw a Remington exactly like I wanted but I kept bumping into this little Ruger at the local gun shows. The Ruger 77 Mark II Compact is all stainless with a gray and black laminated stock. This is a rather small rifle. It has a 16.5” barrel and is 35.5” long overall. Length of pull is 12.5”, a bit shorter than usual. This length will be easy for my younger daughter to handle as she is only about 5’ 1” tall. It weighs 6.25 pounds without a scope. Magazine capacity with the .260 Remington cartridges is four rounds. It has a three position safety that I really like. The safety lever moves horizontally. The first position, forward, is “fire”. The second position, middle, is “safe” but you can still operate the bolt for loading or unloading. In the third position, back, the rifle is “safe” and the bolt is locked closed. One of the concerns I had was whether the rifle could handle the heavier bullets in this caliber. I like the option of a “heavy for caliber” bullet for hunting. Early reports I saw on the .260 rifles said that they wouldn’t stabilize heavy bullets because the twist rate was too slow. This Ruger has a twist of 1 turn in 8 inches, which is faster than earlier .260s and I think faster than the 6.5x55mm Swedish Mauser. It looked like this would work for the 160 grain bullets that I wanted to try. I added a Simmons AETEC 2.8-to-10X scope to the rifle. Ruger’s built in mounts always make this an easy job. I did have this scope mounted on “Ol’ Splintermaker”, my Winchester Model 70. The Simmons has a short tube though, and I never did like the way it fit the long action Win 70. However it fits the short action Ruger perfectly. The optics are bright and clear and the zoom range gives me what I need for short range woods hunting or long range varmints. With the scope mounted the rifle weighs 7.5 pounds. Now let's talk about the cartridge. The .260 Remington is part of the .308 Winchester case family, along with the .243 Winchester, 7mm-08 and .358 Winchester. It was introduced in 1997. Initially it was intended as a target round, taking advantage of the high ballistic coefficients that the 6.5mm bullet have. The “useful case capacity” is 3.32 cubic centimeters. The .264 bullets are available in weights from 85 to 160 grains. The Lee manual gives velocities up to 3340 fps for the 85 grain bullets and 2595 fps for the 160s. I know that a lot of folks use a .243 Winchester for deer but I wanted something that would fire a heavier bullet. Blame it on all those books I read about African hunting. The heaviest .243s are only 105 grains so the .260 gives me a lot more to play with. To get ready for shooting I placed an order to Midway for Hornady dies and Remington brass. I picked the Hornady 129 grain SST and the Hornady 160 grain round nose bullets for initial testing. I had just bought a pound of Hodgdon H4831SC so I thought I’d try that first. CCI 200 primers completed the first batches of loads. One aspect of the loads that I looked at was the pressure vs. the velocity. I wanted to try some loads that showed a lower pressure to see if I could reduce muzzle blast by any noticeable level. All cases were sized full length and trimmed to the same length. Case mouths and flash holes were deburred. Every powder charge was weighed, especially after I realized that the powder wouldn’t meter very well through my measure. All of the charges were about at the “Starting Load” level. Bullets were seated a bit long, just short of the lands. I hit a snag when I started loading the 160 grain round noses. I always run that first cartridge that I finish through the gun before continuing, to make sure it chambers OK. Although it chambered fine it wouldn’t feed worth a flip. In fact not at all! This Hornady has a VERY blunt nose and it kept catching on the edge of the chamber. I decided to load five just to see if they would stabilize. I checked some catalogs and saw that Sierra has a 160 grain “semi pointed” bullet that I might try later. An article I read in “Rifle” magazine said that the premium 140 grain bullets penetrated better than the 160s anyway, due to bullet construction. I’ll have to rethink my strategy here. The 129 grain SST bullets fed fine. Since I had some cases prepped that I didn’t use for the 160 grain bullets I used them to load some of the SSTs over Hodgdon Varget powder. Varget is supposed to be pretty accurate in this family of cartridges. I finally got to the range with my new toy. Although the temperature was comfortable the wind was blowing pretty good, swirling through the valley where the range is located. There were some thunderstorms moving into the area. Every gust of wind brought clouds of dust, pollen and debris onto the range. I decided to go ahead and shoot some 10 shot groups at 100 yards to check the velocities because I wasn’t sure when I’d get the next chance. Because we were trying to beat the storm I didn’t let the barrel cool between shots or groups. The first loads tried were the 129 grain SSTs over Varget. My Chrony showed an average velocity of 2438 ft/sec. Extreme spread was 86 ft/sec and the standard deviation was 23.8 ft/sec. The group size was right about 2” and interestingly enough almost made a “+” sign on the target. I was disappointed with these starting loads and wonder if raising the charge will improve the accuracy. The next loads tested were the 129 grain SSTs over H4831SC. These averaged 2510 ft/sec with an extreme spread of 64 ft/sec and a standard deviation of 21.3 ft/sec. If I throw out the called flyer I have a 1.4” group. With the flyer it opened up to 3”. Finally I tried the five 160 grain Hornady RNs over H4831SC. I had to drop each one into the chamber. Average velocity was 2263 ft/sec with an extreme spread of 21 ft/sec and a standard deviation of only 7.8 ft/sec. Figures huh? Naturally they also made the best group, 1.1”. My shooting buddy asked “How fast can you load those one at a time?” I noticed that all three loads shot to the same point of impact at 100 yards. Shooting from the bench I found that the rifle was very comfortable, even with the shorter stock. The trigger was decent and the recoil was fairly mild. Calculated recoil energy for the .260 was 12.3 ft-lb compared to 18.8 for my .280. I was also shooting a Winchester 94 .44 Magnum carbine that day and the .260 was much more enjoyable. My buddy fired a few rounds too and liked the way the rifle handled. I couldn’t really tell any difference in the muzzle blast between the H4831SC loads and the slightly lower pressure Varget loads. At a later range session I had a young lady in her teens shoot some of the 140 grain bullet loads and she really liked the rifle too. I was pretty pleased with the H4831SC loads, especially because they were almost literally the first shot out of the gun, there hadn’t been any load tweaking yet. Powder charges were pretty safe so I thought I could increase the velocity some, although 2500 ft/sec out of a 16.5” barrel isn’t too bad. On a later trip to the range I was able to try some maximum loads of the same powder with the same bullet and gained a whopping 30 ft/sec. Group size was the same. Apparently the short barrel is doing about all it can with this combination. After I started working on this review “Shooting Times” ran two articles, one on the .260 Remington cartridge and another on the Ruger 77 “Frontier” rifle. The “Frontier” is the same rifle I have with the addition of a rib in front of the action that allows a “Scout scope” to be mounted. You can find these in the May 2005 issue. In the fall of 2005 I finally did some hunting with the rifle. I really liked the way the gun handled in the woods and up in a tree stand. A small whitetail buck became the first live target. One of the Hornady 129 grain SSTs placed behind his left shoulder at about 40 yards turned his heart/lung area to mush and he ran about 50 yards. The only exit wound was found by the BB sized drop of blood on his off-side shoulder. Over all I am very pleased with my purchase. In fact I like the handling so much that I hope to buy a Ruger Frontier chambered for .338 Federal for use as another “woods gun”. I think the Compact in .260 Rem. would be an excellent rifle for smaller shooters while not giving up much in performance on medium sized game. It is exactly what I hoped it would be as far as something my girls could shoot comfortably. However, they haven’t shot it yet and, you know, I never really told them that I’d bought it for them… Sat, 27 Oct 2007 21:22:50 GMT http://www.huntingnut.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=58 The Great .308 versus .30-06 Debate A chat room discussion got me looking hard at the “.308 Winchester vs. .30-06 Springfield” debate. My contention was that there was no significant difference between the ballistics of the two in hunting situations, or for that matter in any other situation. So let’s examine the ballistics of both cartridges and compare. First we’ll take a quick look at the history of both cartridges. The .30-06 Springfield started life as a US military cartridge in 1906. It was derived from the “.30 Model 1903” cartridge that was designed to replace the .30-40 Krag. The ’03 cartridge used the same 220 grain round nosed bullet as the .30-40. The ’06 is essentially the same case as the ’03 with a 150 grain spitzer bullet at 2800 ft/sec. The .30-06 was the primary cartridge for the US military until it was “replaced” by the .308 Winchester/7.62x51mm NATO in 1954. The .308’s original load was a 149 grain spitzer at 2800 ft/sec. Both cartridges have certainly been very successful in military, match and hunting use! (Reference “Handloading” by William C. Davis, Jr.) To quote the Speer #13 manual, “In the hunting field, ballistic differences between the 308 and the 30-06 are negligible.” The .308 was designed to duplicate the .30-06 for military use, but in a half inch shorter package. Both guns use the same 0.308” bullets. These bullets range from 100 grains to 250 grains in various styles. I figured that the .30-06 would have an advantage as the bullets get over 180 grains because its case was originally designed for the heavier bullets. The most common hunting bullet weights for these cartridges are the 150, 165 and 180 grain. I realize that there are tons of loads for each cartridge but you’ve gotta start somewhere. I looked in the Speer #13 manual and compared their loads for both cartridges. I figure this is a pretty good comparison as loads for both cartridges were fired in the same type rifle, a Remington 700 with a 22” barrel. In each case I took the bullet with the highest ballistic coefficient and the highest velocity listed. Here is a chart of the muzzle velocities for each bullet for both cartridges, the difference between them (.30-06 minus .308) and the percentage of that difference: Bullet weight .308 .30-06 Difference % 150 2919 2847 -72 ft/sec -2.5 165 2812 2803 -9 ft/sec -0.3 180 2623 2756 133 ft/sec 4.8 From the chart we can see that the average difference in velocities for the three bullets is 17 ft/sec, or 0.6%, in favor of the .30-06. Now don’t forget that these are average velocities. In a string of shots a cartridge/gun’s velocity can easily have a standard deviation of 1% or more. In other words the normal variations in loads result in a built-in error that pretty much means we can’t count on such a small difference to be meaningful. So, what does all this mean downrange? We’ll zero both guns at 200 yards and compare the bullet energy there. Let’s also take a look at what the bullets will be doing at 400 yards, which is a heck of a long shot for hunting. I used the “PointBlank” ballistics program to make the comparisons. With the 150 grain bullet the .308 has 2093 foot-pounds of energy at 200 yards while the .30-06 has 1985 foot-pounds. Out at 400 yards the .308 will have dropped 20.9 inches, and still has 1512 foot-pounds. The .30-06 will have dropped 22.13 inches and maintains 1428 foot-pounds. The .308 shows 5.9% more energy at 400 yards. Then with the 165 grain bullet 200 yards the .308 shows 2202 foot-pounds versus 2187 foot-pounds for the .30-06. At 400 yards the .308 drops 21.90 inches and has 1645 foot-pounds. The .30-06 drops 22.06 inches with 1633 foot-pounds left. At 400 yards the .308 has a tiny 0.7% energy advantage. Finally we take the 180 grain bullet, which should give the biggest advantage to the .30-06. At the 200 yard mark the .308 will have an energy of 2143 foot-pounds and the .30-06 will have 2379 foot-pounds. The .30-06 has about 11% more energy. When we get out to 400 yards the .308 will be 24.64 inches low and still have 1647 foot-pounds while the .30-06 will be 22.10 inches low and still carry 1840 foot-pounds. That means that at 400 yards the .30-06 has an 11.7% advantage in energy. Now I’m sure that folks will look up their favorite of these two and “prove” that it is better in some manual or another. I looked in some other manuals too and found varying velocities. One thing I noticed in one manual was that, with 250 grain bullets (yes, that is two hundred and fifty grains), there was only 100 feet per sec difference in the velocities of the two cartridges. That particular manual doesn’t give any barrel lengths though. Just for giggles I also looked at the .270 Winchester and .280 Remington loads in the same Speer manual. With a 22” barrel and a 150 grain bullet at 2907 feet per second the .270 has 2170 foot-pounds at 200 yards and 1648 foot-pounds at 400 yards, while dropping 19.98 inches. The .280, with a 24” barrel and a 145 grain bullet at 2975 feet per second, shows 2209 foot-pounds at 200 yards and 1689 foot-pounds at 400 yards, while dropping 18.83”. So, both of these cartridges “beat” the .30 caliber rounds in energy and trajectory. When it’s all said and done does either the .308 or the .30-06 really have any ballistic advantage over the other? I’ll concede that an 11% difference in energy with the 180 grain bullet is an advantage but I wonder if a deer on the receiving end tell the difference between 1647 and 1840 foot-pounds of energy? Considering the overall differences and performance of both cartridges I’ll stick to my assertion that there is no SIGNIFICANT ballistic advantage with either cartridge. Now just pick which ever you like and enjoy shooting it! Tue, 16 Oct 2007 18:29:48 GMT http://www.huntingnut.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=57 Leupold RX Series Laser Rangefinders I’ve long been interested in getting a laser range finder. What with shooting, hunting and battlefield touring I could see a lot of potential use for a toy like that. These devices work by bouncing an invisible laser off of the target and either timing how long it takes to make the round trip or detecting a phase change in the signal. The details are a little too deep for me to write about! The accuracy of the measurement is dependent on the reflectivity of the target and the atmospheric conditions at the time (read that rain, fog, smoke, etc.). A bright colored target bounces a stronger signal back than a dark one. Fog or rain weakens the signal by dissipating the laser light. Those are a couple of factors to keep in mind when you’re using them. One drawback I’ve seen on all of the laser rangefinders around up to now is that they only give you the Line-of-sight (LOS) distance to the target. If you are shooting up or down at a steep angle this can be misleading. If you remember your geometry you see that you are using the hypotenuse measurement of a right triangle while what you really need is the true horizontal or base measurement from you to the target. Gravity only acts on the bullet for this horizontal distance. For example, if the LOS measurement is 400 yards and the target is at an angle of 40 degrees above or below you the horizontal distance between you is actually 335 yards. If you held for 400 yards you’d shoot high. So, what does all this have to do with anything? If you use a laser rangefinder and you need to know the actual “shooting distance” to your target you have a couple of options. You could carry the rangefinder, an inclinometer and a calculator, and then calculate the correct distance to your target. Or you can buy one of the new Leupold RX Series rangefinders and let it figure it for you. Leupold calls it the “True Ballistic Range” or TBR for short. It’s just what the doctor ordered, especially for anyone hunting in mountainous terrain. There are four models in the RX Series. All have a focusing eyepiece, choice of 13 different reticles, built in thermometer, Yards/Feet/Meters mode, scan mode and LOS measurement. The RX-I and RX-II have 6X magnification and are “weatherproof” while the RX-III and RX-IV have 8X magnification and are “waterproof”. The RX-I is the entry level model, lacking a number of the bells and whistles the other models have, including the TBR. Starting with the RX-II the TBR is a standard feature. Other features, as you go up in model, include “Rain mode”, digital compass and various targeting modes. While wandering through Bass Pro Shop a while back I saw an RX-III in the display cabinet. The price was $400. This model has all the features except the built in compass. It is 4.6” x 3.5” x 2” and weighs 12 ounces. The battery life is 2000 activations. The useful range is from 3 to 1200 yards. You should note that 1200 yards is the maximum range using a reflective target. The instructions say that for a deer type target the maximum effective range is 500 yards. Since I had some gift cards I just HAD to use I felt it necessary to purchase it. At least that’s what I told my wife… One of the wonders of modern electronics is that they have LOTS of features and options to choose from. That sure can make them a pain to set up! The Leupold uses a “Quick Set Rotary Menu” to allow you to scroll through the options. Choosing some options turns off others so make sure you read the instructions. A list of features for the RX-III follows:  Match 13 Reticle System – Choice of 13 different reticles.  Long range mode – ON or OFF. ON only reads objects over 150 yards away.  Rain mode – ON or OFF. ON helps prevent false readings due to rain, fog, etc.  1st Target mode OR Last Target mode OR neither. See explanation below.  Yards OR Feet OR Meters reading.  Fahrenheit OR Celsius OR LOS reading.  TBR – ON or OFF. Also activates the inclinometer reading.  Ballistic Group Selection – A, B, C, AB, AC, BC and ABC. Offers a choice of eight groups of cartridges/loads for use with the TBR. The groups are listed in the instructions. I set the unit to show measurements in yards. I naturally selected TBR mode and also have it show LOS and the angle of inclination in the lower right hand section of the display. Another option is the selection between “1ST Target Mode” and “Last Target Mode”. If there are several objects in view the rangefinder can sometimes give you an average distance for all of them. “1ST Target” gives you the range to the closest target and ignores anything in the background. “Last Target” ignores the fore ground and gives you the distance to the farthest target. I’ve initially set mine for “Last Target” thinking that while hunting I’ll probably have to range through light brush, trees, etc. You can select which information you want the TBR to display. Your choices are BAS, MOA or HOLD. BAS is the actual horizontal distance to the target. To use HOLD or MOA you have to specify a “ballistic group” of cartridges and zero your rifle at a specific distance, explained in the instructions. For example: a .280 Remington with a 140 grain bullet at 2990 fps would fall into ballistic group “C” and would be zeroed at 200 yards. Then HOLD will give you the inches of holdover/under and MOA will show the minutes of angle for holdover/under. Since I plan to use this thing with a number of different guns I chose the BAS mode. The rangefinder couldn’t be much easier to use after you’ve set it up. Look through the eyepiece at the object you want to measure and press and hold the power button. A reticle will appear to help you line up on the target. Center the object in the reticle. The display mode and the distance will start blinking over the reticle. Release the power button and the distance will be displayed for a few seconds. The display can also be lit by pushing the “SET” button. Then the unit will power down to save the battery. At this time I’ve only done some limited testing. I measured some distances around the house; to neighbors’ houses, mail boxes and such. I also took the device to the range and measured some known distances and the measurements were dead on. One of the first things I noticed is that it’s hard to hold steady on a small target at any great distance. The unit has a threaded hole in the bottom for a support such as a monopod or tripod. If I was going to try to use it on distant groundhogs or prairie dogs I’d keep that in mind. So far I’m pleased with my purchase. When deer season gets here I’ll use it for determining the distances of certain landmarks from my stand locations. If I know that a certain tree, for example, is 130 yards from the stand it will help me place my shot better when that deer wanders by. Of course, if time permits, I’ll be able to measure the distance to any deer seen directly. Some time next year I hope to use the rangefinder on a trip to Gettysburg. Just exactly how far is it from the “sniper’s den” at Devils Den to the top of Little Round Top? Sun, 07 Oct 2007 17:07:19 GMT http://www.huntingnut.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=56 Is newer reloading information “wimpier” than the older stuff? Every so often when I am talking to folks about reloading I hear that the loads printed in current reloading manuals are much milder than the loads in older manuals. The most common reason given is legal liability, that the various companies have “wimped out” due to legal pressure. Since I had a variety of manuals on the shelf I decided to check some loads for myself to see if there really was that much difference. Also, if I found differences, I wanted to try to understand why there was a change. The oldest bullet manufacturer’s manual on my shelf is a Speer #8, printed in 1970. I also have a Speer #14, printed in 2007. Obviously these would be a good place to start as they come from the same source and use the same bullets. I picked two very common cartridges to use for comparison, the .30-06 Springfield and the .45 ACP. The procedure was pretty simple. I just went through both manuals, found the loads using the same powder and bullet weight in each and wrote down the maximum recommended load. Then I determined the difference between old and new loads, both as grains of powder and as a percentage of the load. I did not list any muzzle velocities because different guns, with different barrel lengths, were used in the tests and I didn’t want to muddy the water with that variable. I took the .30-06 first. I used three different bullet weights: 165 grain, 180 grain and 200 grain. I found five powders that were used with those bullets in both manuals. The results are in the table below. .30-06 Springfield Powder Bullet 1970 2007 Difference % Difference H414 165 58.0 56.0 2.0 3% H414 200 52.0 53.0 -1.0 -2% IMR4064 165 51.0 50.5 0.5 1% IMR4064 180 50.0 50.0 0.0 0% IMR4831 180 59.0 59.0 0.0 0% IMR4831 200 58.0 56.0 2.0 3% IMR4350 180 56.0 56.0 0.0 0% IMR4350 200 53.0 54.0 -1.0 -2% IMR4895 180 50.0 47.0 3.0 6% When you compare all the loads you see that the older ones averaged about 0.6 grains more powder, a difference of 1.1%. Switching to the .45 ACP I picked two bullets, the 200 grain lead SWC and the 230 grain FMJ. I found five powders that were used in both manuals. The table below shows the results. .45 ACP Powder Bullet 1970 2007 Difference % Difference Red Dot 200 4.5 4.5 0.0 0% Red Dot 230 5.5 5.3 0.2 4% Bullseye 200 4.0 4.6 -0.6 -15% Herco 200 6.2 6.0 0.2 3% Unique 200 6.0 5.4 0.6 10% Unique 230 7.0 6.5 0.5 7% 700-X 200 4.3 4.2 0.1 2% 700-X 230 5.0 5.1 -0.1 -2% Again comparing all the loads the older ones averaged 0.1 grains more powder, a difference of 1.2%. We can see that, while there is a small difference between the older and newer data, it’s not significant. There are a couple of things that can account for the changes. Different lots of the same powder will vary a little. You’ll note that sometimes the older charge weights are higher; sometimes the new ones are higher. I think another likely reason for any changes is that we now have better ways to measure the actual peak pressures. Electronics give us more accurate pressure readings than the “crusher” systems that were used before. To quote Alan Jones, editor of the Speer manuals #12, #13 and #14, “Sooner or later the old crusher system will be obsolete. We started the transition from crusher to electronic pressure measurement with the handgun cartridges in Number 12. Now we are converting the rifle data as time permits.” All Speer loads are kept at or below the standard industry maximum pressure. It looks to me that the recommended loads today are no “wimpier” than the old loads. They should be safer, given the better pressure measuring equipment now available. One thing I would like to say is that these reloading companies have much better equipment than we do measure the pressures for the various cartridges. Personally I think it is foolish to try to exceed the maximum loads they have printed. I won’t risk the chance of damaging a gun, or me, to try to boost my velocities by a few feet per second. Let’s enjoy our hobby of reloading but keep it safe! Fri, 05 Oct 2007 04:06:41 GMT