How capable is my equipment?

[longrangehunter]

I've been putting this together over the past few months and was wondering what you guys thought. I won't be shooting any great distance until I get a lot more range time, but I was wondering what the outter limits of this setup would be:

Stock Remington 700 Sendero
7 STW
Jewell HVR
McMillan A4 Stock
Nightforce base/rings
Leupold M3 LR 3.5-10 duplex
Harris 13-27 inch bipod
Butler Creek sponge sling
Cartridge???

Still need to pick up a few more items like a rangefinder and spotting scope.

LRH out

 

[Darryl Cassel]

Hello
Practice out to 1000 yards and see how it goes with the equipment you have.

Get a good reliable rangefinder and an accurate load.

Good luck
Darryl Cassel

 

[Nicholas]

Looks like a great setup. How do you like the McMillan A4 stock?

 

[longrangehunter]

I haven't shot it yet, but I have no doubt I'm gonna love it. It just feels right. The grip is perfect and moves my trigger finger to the right spot. At first I didn't like the looks of the hook on the stock as I'm more into a traditional appearance. But function over looks is a lot more important to me. I'm thinking about painting everything with flat camo paint, but it's just so pretty.

 

[Nicholas]

how much did the stock run you? I think the hook in the buttstock would be great in prone positions, I wonder if it would be hinder the use of a rear bag.

How wide is the fore-end?

 

[longrangehunter]

"Practice out to 1000 yards and see how it goes with the equipment you have."

1000 yards? Cool.

I hate living in NW Florida though. Hard to find a place to shoot long distance.

 

[Dave King]

The Leupold M3 LR is a 1 MOA elevation and .5 MOA windage scope.

The reticle is pretty thick.

If you're going to be shooting varmints you'll be hard pressed to shoot much beyond 600 yards without holding over or under a bit to get finer than 1 MOA adjustment.

For deer sized critters you'll be fine to about 800 yards.

There are significant advantages to the M3 over the M1. You'll never be a full turn off on elevation with the M3 as it only has one turn available for elevation. It's very quick with the Bullet Drop Compensator (BDC) cam if you can find a match for the rifle/chambering you're using. (There are blank and custom ones available.)

I've used both the M3 and the M1, I prefer the M1 for hunting and the M3 for competitions.

 

[longrangehunter]

Thanks Dave,

I got a lot of good advice over at sniper country before I bought the M3. Since this is my scope for big game I think it will work out nicely. I also looked at the M1 and others, but I was a concerned about how much time it would take to dial in a shot with 1/4moa clicks and the increased chance of error.

I haven't had time to do the research on the cams. Not sure if any of the cams will be close to 7 STW. I'll probably want to go with a homemade cam anyway so I can use the loads that I want to use.

The guys over at sniper country were saying that the M3 is actually more precise then people give it credit because you can place the knobs between clicks which gives you a maximum error of 5 inches at 1000 yards. Reportly it works fine between clicks. Does that sound right?

I didn't know that the reticle is on the thick side so I'll have to see how that works out.

I haven't paid my dues at the range yet so I don't foresee shooting at anything near 800 yards. That was part of the reason for going with the 7 stw rather then a big boomer like a 300 ultra. Hopefully I'll cut down on the recoil while still having enough power to bring down an Elk a 4-500 yards. Which for me is a very long shot at this point. Hopefully this has a lot more knock down power than my old 270 did.

I've got a Ruger 77V in 220swift and one in 243 along with a Burris 8-32 signature fine plex for those pesky varmints. I love that scope.

I'm new at this so if any of my logic is flawed speak up. I'm here to learn.

[ 01-27-2002: Message edited by: longrangehunter ]

 

[Dave King]

Never tried any of mine between "clicks".

I'll be 'lito' aka catshooter responded about the M3 over at Sniper Country. I spend a little time over there too.

I'm sure a well placed shot at 400 yards will kill and elk. Trick is to keep the elk from knowing what you're shoot him with... He won't die if he thinks the cartridge isn't respectable as an elk cartridge.

 

[rlipson]

Dave King,

Every wonder why I didn't post a reply to my 400 yd doe season event? It has to do with that "one full revoloution off" problem. Practice week before the season was perfect--put my life size deer target at 430 yards, consulted my drop chart, dialed in, bingo, 3 shots in the vitals at the exact elevation. SO, I was feeling pretty good...but somehow I got one full rev. off when I had a real shot a week later. VERY embarassing. 7 does, 3 tries, evrything WAY low, but couldn't get it figured out in time. Wasn't until I went to the range and realized I was 15 inches below my previous 100 yard POI. Then I started thinking...on the Leupold 6.5x20, 1/4 moa clicks, one full rev=15 Inches at 100yds...Interestingly, this was with a Stoney Point knob, which doesn't have the indexing of the regular turrets on my other Leupold scopes I use for varminting.

Anyway, I learned a big lesson....

 

[longrangehunter]

sr90,

The A4 stock was $385 from tacticalstocks.com. It came with the adjustable cheek piece, but no recoil pad or studs. The quality of the cheek piece and the entire stock is outstanding. I was kind of wishing that it had the aluminum bedding blocks like the H.S. Precision stocks, but I guess it's really not necessary as most people who are going to spend 400 on a stock will go ahead and glass bed it. BTW: There's an article on sniper country.com about the A4 and it states that Gale McMillan says it's not mandatory to bed the stock.

Also, I have the one in wooded camo. It looks great but the finish is shiny instead of being flat like it should be. I'll probably camo the entire rifle with spray paint, but it's gonna be a sad day.

I think it will work fine with a rear bag. There's 3 or 4 inches of stock past the hook.