Recent content by lead foot

Personal observations and opinions which I may catch flack for: There isn't much point in free floating a #1 barrel IMHO. It's never made any difference for me. I do quite the opposite and full contact-bed the barrel and forend. I've had my gunsmith drill and tap the forend hanger to put in...

If you're only going to have one, I'd buy the .22 mag. The .17 HMR shoots flatter, the .22 mag hits harder. All 3 of the .22 mag rifles ... winchester 61 mag, Ruger 77/22 (light stainless synthetic), Winchester 9422 ... I've owned would shoot right on MOA with a 3-9X scope and their...

Tom,

So far, so so ... MOA, no more no less. 32 grain hornady factory load gives me MOA at 100 and 200 yards, haven't tried it at 300. 40 grain factory load gives me MOA at 100, 200, and 300 yards. My 2 best handloads give me MOA at 100 and 200, all I've shot 'em at. Both of those use the 40...

Yeah, I've been playing with the .204 for a couple weeks. In a nut shell, it's MOA, no better, no worse. My rifle is a 700 ADL synthetic converted to BDL in an HS Precision stock, Jewell HVR trigger, with a Leupold 6.5-20X in their dual dovetail b&r. It's pretty consistently MOA with both...

It's hard to say. Both 'bout recoil and effectiveness. For stand hunting, small deer, moderate range, with premium game bullets and careful shot placement the .243 will get it done. If it doesn't, it was user error, failing to wait for a right-enough shot. The important thing, probably...

Ok, time for me to get up on my stump. Buy the .243, definitely, but for yourself, not for your kid. The absolute worst thing you can do to a new hunter, kid, wife, whatever, is to saddle them with a marginal cartridge on their first hunt merely because "it kicks less." By that logic we all...

For whitetail and black bear ... "use it." Unless you're going to build specialized loads for each purpose (in which case your gun is always sighted in for the wrong load) just go with a premium 180 grain bullet and go kill stuff. 180 Accubond, maybe. For coyotes, etc the Accelerator loads...

Of the two I'd go with .264. I think a .264 with 140 grain partitions, if it'll shoot 'em, would be a wicked long range hunting setup. A friend o' mine almost jumped on the 6.5 WSM bandwagon, went with the 6.5x.284 instead, thought he was ahead 'cause the guys he shoots with that went with 6.5...

I've had several PacNor barrels. I like them a lot. You get a hell of a barrel for a P.O.S. barrel price. $220 for for their best grade stainless in any of their standard contours. For me it doesn't make any sense to buy anything else. Plus, their shop is about 3 hours away and I run into...

I've had one in .221 since early spring. Oh wait, I just put it up on consignment. Great rifle, but I magazine feed so the ADL setup isn't my favorite. I don't really have a rational reason for getting rid of it, just time to move onto something new. Mine shoots (shot?) around .4 MOA with 40...

There are a lot of factors in barrel life. Probably the first thing to do is establish expectations. What is adequate accuracy and why? If you're in competition your needs are different than if you're getting a beater .30-30 to shoot a deer a year with. For hunting accuracy, I'd expect a...

Two rifles? For everything? There's no way you can do all the different things I like to do with only 2 rifles so part of the decision would be choosing what kinds of hunting to give up. Don't want to go there. My first priority is a walking around varmint rifle since that's what I spend...

I used to shoot a lot of Ruger rifles. I've had both extremely good and extremely bad luck ... more variation / less consistency than with Remington. I've had two Ruger 77 (mk IIs) in .338. The first one shot great after I replaced the factory plastic stock with a Ramline synthetic. With...

Not quite sure what you mean by "military type" rifles, so I'll suggest a Springfield. That be '03-A3 or Trapdoor. Depending on your state, if you're shooting a semi-auto,you may have problems getting magazines with limited enough capacity to be legal for game. Fer instance, here in Oregon...