My Walmart .30-06

[jm8960]

Hello all, just now getting started from Sylva, NC and wanted to introduce my rifle to you more than myself!

About 5 years ago my parents bought me a rifle for Christmas. Ah I was ecstatic. Remington 700 ADL from Walmart, .30-06. For the first year I hunted with the scope that it came with (Mmmm so much quality there!!) After that I replaced it with a Leupold VXI 3-9X40. It didnt take long to find out that Hornady SST's were what my rifle liked. BUT my problem was with consistency. 4-5 shots and then I held a tighter pattern with a shotgun. I was kind of depressed. After much flipping through forums I found just the inspiration I needed through Trebark's Nephew's Rifle. I knew then that I wanted a rifle that was capable of shooting close to that consistently!

I went straight to Boyd's and ordered a Classic stock in Pepper Laminate. Upon arrival and much searching I found some Acraglas gel to glass bed the stock. (Already very much free floated but wanted to tighten the recoil lug up while at it). An elderly friend of mine who is very well experienced helped me with this project ( I was terrified after reading the one piece guns that people had after forgetting release agent, but everything went flawlessly).

Brought it home and set it up for a few days, and then decided to go to the gunsmith and grab a set of Leupold mounts and bases while I was at it! This is where I am now, hoping to get to sight in tomorrow and see how it does with the modifications!

Also lowered the trigger pull to the vicinity of 2 pounds, factory Remington X Mark but very crisp and no over travel. With my limited amount of experience behind the trigger it is plenty for me!

Tossing around the idea of sending the VX-I to the custom shop to have turrets changed, at the moment it has friction adjust ( I'm not a fan) is there any turrets I could go to that I can set and put a cap over, but still be able to take the caps off and target shoot with if given the opportunity?

Right now I am a student at WCU so I am not being able to really spend the time hunting that I want, but I know this rifle is going to be with me for a lifetime. Why not make it right the first time, right?

 

[trebark]

Your rifle is a great platform to begin with. Welcome to an addiction that will drill a big hole in your wallet! It will be really fun though.

Your VX1 is a good scope. If you decide to send it to the Leupold custom shop, you might consider just changing the elevation knob. This will help keep costs to a minimum.

Alternatively, you may be better off just changing the scope all together. Bushnell makes a couple of affordable options:

Bushnell 5-15x40 Elite Tactical Rifle Scope

Bushnell 10x40 Elite Tactical Rifle Scope

The 10x is a good scope and I've had several and loved them all. My cousin has the 5-15 on one of his rifles and likes it.

As for the consistency issue, you may find that when the barrel heats up, your accuracy will begin to open up. My nephew's rifle will shoot .5moa or better all day...provided you let the barrel cool ever couple of shots. Those factory sporter barrels have a pretty light profile and heat up fairly quickly.

 

[Daveinjax]

Congratulations on catching the diy rifle modification bug ! You are off to a good start on a collection half finished projects and some fine shooting rifles. As soon as you get this rifle close to being what you want you will look for another one.

 

[jm8960]

Re: My Walmart .30-06p

I would definitely agree that the barrels heat up exceptionally fast. How long should I wait? 5-7 minutes? 10?

Oh I know how the addiction is... But at least this is a hobby that you can keep and use for years to come!!

 

[Daveinjax]

Just run your bare hand down the barrel after each shot and note how warm it feels when it starts to open up. When the barrel is cooler than that temperature you should be good. Thats my low tech way to know when to shoot again. On a really cold day it could be just a couple minutes and on a really hot day it could be 10 minutes or more.

 

[jm8960]

Shot today after work! Brought it in with relative ease, everything went according to plan with no fliers. I love this stock, I have so much more confidence in it than the synthetic. In my opinion your shooting ability is directly related with your confidence in your rifle.

Brought it into bullseye and was very happy, went back to fire another and I got in a hurry and pulled the shot exactly an inch. 3rd shot was touching the first. I have no doubts they would all be touching had I taken my time. Loving the rifle and I just received the oppurtunity to take it hunting with me Tuesday. With the Good Lord above willing I will have a safe trip, whether I kill anything or not, any day in the woods is a blessing.

 

[trebark]

Seems as though you have a real shooter on your hands! Congrats.

At what distance were you shooting? details on ammo?

 

[jm8960]

~115 yards. Not good but I know I will improve with more time behind the trigger to get to know my gun.

Hornady Superformance 165 gr SST. Thought about a BTHP? Good for whitetails?

 

[trebark]

~115 yards. Not good but I know I will improve with more time behind the trigger to get to know my gun.

Hornady Superformance 165 gr SST. Thought about a BTHP? Good for whitetails?

You've achieved sub-moa accuracy with your rifle. That's pretty good. You're right, it will improve as you gain more trigger time.

Generally speaking, the SST is a good bullet for whitetails. I have a personal bias again them though. I believe the story is included in the thread for my nephew's rifle where he shot a whitetail from 335 yards with his 270 shooting 130grain SSTs (Hornady Superformance). The bullet blew up on the hide of the deer. It knocked the deer down but when we walked out to get the deer, it was gone!

As for the BTHP, I have no experience with them on game.

You should start reloading. There are so many good 30cal bullets. Berger makes a couple of hybrid bullets that perform well on game like the 168grain and 215grain hybrids.

 

[jm8960]

Okay thanks for the advice!

As soon as I finish the body work and paint my other truck I'm going to sell it and buy a reloading kit. There are so many awesome choices and you are able to really be precise on the amount of charge behind the bullet so everything can be consistent.

 

[trebark]

Okay thanks for the advice!

As soon as I finish the body work and paint my other truck I'm going to sell it and buy a reloading kit. There are so many awesome choices and you are able to really be precise on the amount of charge behind the bullet so everything can be consistent.

Sell the truck to buy reloading gear...awesome! You are truly addicted! Some time ago I was talking to a friend and he was complaining that he couldn't acquire all the gear he wanted. I asked him how many vehicles he had. He said four. I told him he had three too many.

 

[jm8960]

I must say I like my vehicles! But you can keep that body work!

I want to be able to afford some real time behind the gun. 20 rounds for 32 dollars is quite a bit of money compared to the cost of reloading - initial investment of course.

 

[jm8960]

I know that reloading allows you to custom tailor for your particular rifle, but from a financial standpoint what price range would you be looking at for say, a hundred rounds. I understand that they are all different depending on bullets used and such, but a rough estimate?

 

[trebark]

You're absolutely right that reloading allows you to custom tailor a load to your rifle. What's more, your bullet choices are infinitely better than factory loaded ammo. So here's a breakdown.....

Berger 168grain Hybrids $46 per hundred = .46 each
CCI BR2 Primers $40 per hundred = .40 each
H4831SC Powder $30 per pound = .25 each (7000grains per pound and 30-06 uses ~60grains of powder per round)
Total: $1.11 each or $111 per hundred

Please keep in mind that this calculation assumes you already have brass. If you buy brass you would look to add an initial cost of ~$1 per round. The beauty of brass is that you can reload it many times. So it is almost a fixed cost.

Also, the above calculation is done with a Berger bullet which is about the most expensive bullets on the market. Also CCI primers are on the high-end too. You could look at Hornady Amax bullets which are .28cents each and you can probably find less expensive primers. Regardless, all this still comes out cheaper than factory ammo at $32 per 20.

As for reloading gear, RCBS makes a nice kit. Get your parents to buy this for you for Christmas:

RCBS Rock Chucker Supreme Master Single Stage Press Kit

Then sell the 'uniflow powder measure' and get a powder trickler.

Once you have this, all you need is a set of dies. Personally, I like Redding and RCBS dies. RCBS dies will run you $30 to $50 depending on which set you like. Redding dies will cost you ~$200. All you need is a full-length sizing die and a bullet seater. I am not a fan of Lee dies as their 'collet neck sizing' tends to leave marks on the next of your brass which means they are not very concentric.