22" Gradous 300 Norma 181 Hammer Bullets

I have another Gradous built 300 Norma and it is the most accurate rifle I have ever shot, but it is heavy and a 26" barrel with a suppressor isn't exactly fun to carry through thick timber in Wyoming chasing elk.

My hope with this build was to keep the accuracy and knock down power, but at a lighter weight and with a shorter barrel. The obvious fear was that I might give away too much velocity with the shorter barrel.

Robert Gradous built
300 Norma
Pierce Titanium Action
Manners EH-4 Elite Stock
Trigger Tech
22" Kreiger 5.5 9 Twist
HS Precision FM
Just over 7 pounds naked
A little over 9 pounds ready to hunt
The target below is 9 shots at 100 yards with 9 different power charges covering 84-88 grains of H1000 pushing 181 grain Hammer Hunter bullets with no pressure signs.

I am very happy with the build.

Congrats on the new rifle, looks like it's a shooter for sure!!

Additional testing shows that this rifle will shoot 215 Berger Hybrids into one hole groups at 2900 fps with H1000 with no pressure signs.

I'm sure that additional speed could be achieved utilizing R26, R33 or VV570, but H1000 has provided plenty of speed for my needs and great accuracy.

Thought this might be of use to hunters wanting to use shorter barrels so that they can hunt with suppressors.

Doesn't get much better than that. That is all you will ever need. Beautiful rig

Man that's nice. I had my 6.5 built on a pierce ti and it's sweet. Very good shooting rifle. Those hammers seem to not care about anything charge or jump they just shoot the same. I had the same thing with my load work up.

This rifle and Hammer 181's proved themselves in Wyoming. 3 Bull elk down. One each by me and a couple friends. None needed a second shot, and none went more than 20 yards.

The one I took was a big herd bull at just under 400 yards. The cows that were with him all stood around looking in every direction for about 20 minutes before slowly starting to eat again and wondering off. Suppressors work. It was like they thought he had been struck by lightning.

cmor said:

This rifle and Hammer 181's proved themselves in Wyoming. 3 Bull elk down. One each by me and a couple friends. None needed a second shot, and none went more than 20 yards.

The one I took was a big herd bull at just under 400 yards. The cows that were with him all stood around looking in every direction for about 20 minutes before slowly starting to eat again and wondering off. Suppressors work. It was like they thought he had been struck by lightning.

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That's fantastic! Congratulations on a great hunt! Did you post elsewhere about the hunt? Not hunting here yet. I could use some vicarious living.

Ive been using 190 SMKs with a stout load of Retumbo for long range hunting. It is devastating on deer size animals even at distances beyond 1000 yds. Velocity in my gun with a 30" barrel is above 3300 fps. No doubt other bullet brand choices would give similar results.

Whoa. Interesting choices there. I think 300NM will be my next addition to the collection. I got pretty similar results with the hammers but I stopped messing with them, planning on circling back to them at some point.