In your opinion

[RMulhern]

what constitutes the makeup of an excellent longrange capable hunting rifle? As a point of debate in this post would also be...."what in your view is longrange"? And to cut down the debate somewhat....I don't mean ULTRA-LONGRANGE which would maybe go on out to 1800 to 2500 yds. whereby the rifles weigh in at maybe 50# or more; those within the .338x.378 class of cartridges! What I mean to discuss is a rifle that can be carried comfortably to a box stand or other site and not one weightwise which you'd want to tote up to 9000' elevation in the Rocky Mountains! For purposes of this debate let's establish a weight limit of say 12-14#! For starters....here's a small view of what I like! It's a 7MM WSM w/Savage action with a 6.5 x 20X Leupold! One better than excellent accurate rifle made up by my friend Keven Rayhill up in Nebraska.

This rifle loves 140 gr. Accubonds w/67 grs. H4831SC and F215M primers!

 

[Backcountrypro]

My Choice

I am on a elk hunt in Colorado right now. I have been carrying my model 700 Sendero without any problems. It is chambered in a 300 WM, shooting 180gr Accubonds. I have is topped with a 4.5-14 Nikon Buckmaster. I feel pretty good shooting to 500 to 600 yards. Not once has the weight of this rifle been a bother, today we were in some really rough wilderness areas. I have a ultra light 700 Mountain Rifle in the truck and I haven't even thought of taking it out. Now if we could just find some elk.

 

[mikebob]

I like the savage 300 win mag with a leupy, rifle basix trigger and stockade stock

 

[Surveyor]

mike, is that a elk or coyote stalker?

How do you like it?

 

[sambo3006]

For starters, I like the position of the bolt. Most rifles have them on the wrong side of the receiver. Is that smith the one at Stockade Rifles? My 6.5WSM is wearing one of their stocks. Good looking rig!

 

[Skidly_50]

6.5wsm?

For starters, I like the position of the bolt. Most rifles have them on the wrong side of the receiver. Is that smith the one at Stockade Rifles? My 6.5WSM is wearing one of their stocks. Good looking rig!

Sambo3006, would you share some of your 6.5wsm loads with me? thanks

 

[RMulhern]

For starters, I like the position of the bolt. Most rifles have them on the wrong side of the receiver. Is that smith the one at Stockade Rifles? My 6.5WSM is wearing one of their stocks. Good looking rig!

sambo3006

Kevin Rayhill built this rifle up and he's Stockade Rifles! He's found his 'niche' with building these up! This particular rig is deadly accurate back to 800 yds.! Just haven't had the time to shoot it farther back! The photo doesn't really give an indication of the barrel size as it's larger than what it appears to be! Recoil is about like a .222 with the break!

 

[silvertip-co]

My idea of LR is about 600yrds. Thats plenty for shaky ol me and for Colo. I dont spend any money on custom stuff as most factories today are ISO9000+ and the quality of factory rifles is pretty darn good. Sadly rifle mfrs refuse to put 26" bbls on most stuff to keep msrp's/weight down. Fortunately I found a rancher with a Mod 70 7RemMag he needed to sell and it had factory 26" bbl. I made up for the custom work by using Hornady 139SST Hvy Mag ammo and replacing the Bushnell 3-9x40 with a Nikon 3-9x40BDC then a Bushnell 4-12x40AO. The combo worked well for me as I missed a doe at 602 yrds, the miss coming because I didnt use quite enough elev and I shot under her a few inches while using my backpack as a rest. That wasnt the gun's fault. That was me.

The local range shoots 1300yrds so I may go try that one day soon to see how it works out. I guess I need to get a foto of my low buck rig and post it (???) or link it here. My key thing is flexibility, the doe I did shoot was 87yrds(after missing one a few mins earlier at 87yrds), so I want to be able to go from 50yrds to 600 pretty easy. The mulie place I hunt is a sort of a pick the one you want place(on public land).

I figure if the gun cant do it then I can adjust for that with quality optics and ammo(well 32.50 a box is a bit much).

My main thing is flat, over the counter, and 26" bbl. I want any rifle I have to shoot flat, so if I miss it's my fault. I began hunting big game in PA in 1966 with a 264WinMag with 3-9x40 and cant seem to get far from a similar combo. Faulty programmming I guess.

 

[mikebob]

mike, is that a elk or coyote stalker?
coyote stalker

How do you like it?

I really like it, light weight, and I like the way the pistol grip feels. I will be putting another one on my next project