338 edge imp. From the build through hunting season

HuntFarther

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With all the hype of the edge +p and the long wait for one. I decided do build one of my own. I ended up working with a guy and designed a throat that was like the +p, and then on top of that I also went ahead and imp the case. I had a 300 rum that was a great gun still shot really good just a little long in the tooth. It was an earlier sendero, so all I did was true the action and put my 32" broughton on it with the vias brake. Just pulled it from the rum.
Through load testing what we found was hit pressure at 2970 with the h1000, but from 2900-2950 it shot unreal. I played with retumbo and could get to 2980 but after that had pressure signs. Then we played with rl33. This one was tricky. 3000 fps was the edge of no pressure. Then we got to 3040 fps and was getting slight pressure. And granted the psi had to go up, but the bolt lift never changed from just a normal bolt lift. And when we stopped we were at 3166, and this was ruing brass. 2-3 firing was all out max. I decided to stick with a load that was tremendous the whole time would one hole and had single es. This was at 2988 fps with the 300 berger,
Going into hunting season I shot this gun every morning I took a batch of rifles out. And would only shoot one round just cold bore mapping at 2115 yards. I found that with rl 33 I was getting right at 8fps change for every 10 degrees of weather. It was getting ridiculous trying to keep track of the sporadic temperatures so I then went back to my load that now with the barrel broke in was 2955fps with the h1000. This load as well would just one hole for five shots, had 3fps es. I ended up shooting the rest of the days on the 2115 rock . The last time I shot this gun I have on video. One cold bore, then let it sit while I had a phone call for over 20 min in 38 degree weather. Shot one more. After this my gun was shot by three others and by no means at all long range shooters on different days and all have cold bore first shot hits.
Then hunting season started I ended up on Halloween morning finding a bachelor herd of bulls come over the ridge. I got down there just as there were going into the timeber I shot the biggest of the 8. He was quartering at 675 yards and he never even moved just piled him up.
Then after this I started hunting deer, was after a really nice buck that I had seen and wanted bad. The only time I seen him he was three miles away with a doe. I thought that he would have bedded but never did. I lost him for 2 minutes behind a knob in between me and him. Could not turn him up the rest of the day. I figured this buck to go in the 190". In the process of searching for him I found another buck and ended up passing him three different times while searching for the big deer. Finally the day before thanksgiving I decided I was going to shoot this one if he presented a shot. I figured him to be in the 170". Now these are sw Montana bucks where we are not known to have too many of decent size. So right at daylight I was glassing and I turned up a few does and little bucks. But nothing 150"+ even. So I started my way up the draw and bumped a few does. I was looking hard I knew one of the bigger bucks was there. Then I spotted the smaller of the two at 609 yards behind a juniper. All I could see was the tip of his nose to half way down his neck. I grabbed my new 6.5 lrm I though I would shoot him with that, then stepped out and realized the wind is gusting pretty good. So I have a theory "when in doubt pull the edge out" and that is what I did. Climbed up out of the burrow pit on top a little nob along side the road. Set the bipods up and the rear support. Held one moa for 11 mph wind, and squeezed it off. As soon as it recoiled there was deer going everywhere, I looked where the buck was and nothing. I could not find him with any of the deer. Stood up to move and then I could see his forks sticking up.
Then in the mean time I shot a few does with the 6.5 lrm. And Saturday morning before the season closed we were invited to a big ranch to shoot cows. My wife and I showed up there and were asked how we would like to hunt. We said we would start the elk up to the mountains out of the prarie. So at daylight the ranch hand with us said. There are all the elk, we have to watch that lead B***h she messed us up last week when we were trying to get a bull. He then said someone has to go down on that knob or we will lose them. All I asked him are we legal? He said sure all our land and legal shooting hours. The cow was 675 trotting I held right on the front of the chest and all you could hear was "Whack" He said that should teach that b***h. lol So the elk start to turn others were shooting at them at the same yardage, one guy even with open sights 270 win. We had a cow heading up a draw trying to get away she stopped at 545 yards and my wife dropped her. We never got any good pictures the storm that showed up just as I shot mine was absolutely miserable.
That ended our season, we did really well over all. The edge I was completely satisfied with even though no long shots were taken. But happy to say all the hunting berger 300's opened exceptionally well. That added velocity helped a ton. This gun only was fired four times hunting.
 

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Wife and mine cow elk, My bull and buck after I boiled and bleached them. Then the jerky after butchering. This batch is 25 pounds.
 

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Congrats, great story great results. Just curious what was the load of rl33 that shot the best? I have an LRKM +p I played with rl33 a bit but went back to h1000 because of time restraints.
 
Boy thanks for all the nice comments. I appreciate it. I will upload my video of the last two cold bore shots I did right before hunting season opened. This was with my h1000 load.
 
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