Byrnesy
Member
After some very poor experiences involving a custom gun build, 12 months ago I sold up everything to by myself one quality do all rifle that met my needs. The build a went south and I did a lot of dollars amongst other things.
Now being Down Under the selection of rifles in top end factory and off the shelf custom is pretty limited. So I visited one of the biggest gunshops on the east coast with a good mate.
The salesman asked what we were after and what calibre. My best mate wisely said lets leave calibre out of it for this stage, but we want to try every rifle over $1800A for fit and feel. This involved about two hours of trying Weatherby Mk V, Blaser, Sauer 202, Sako, Cooper, Christensen, FN, among others I cant recall.
For fit and feel it came down to the Sauer 202 and the Sako but the Sauer won over due to something I had never considered. The Sauer has a very deep fore-end in comparison to other rifles and when going prone my left, front hand, could remain in its most natural position. With the Sako, and other rifles, I found I had to slide my left elbow back, hence lifting the muzzle, to get natural eye alignment of the rifle with the sighting plane.
Not loving big recoil but hunting Sambar in Victoria where the minimum legal calibre is 270Win the selection of available calibres was fairly straight forward.....30-06 Springfield.
The rifle showed immediate indications of being a accurate and consistent shooter putting 3 shots consistently into 0.5 to 0.3 MOA at 100yards with a initial load of RE17 behind Nosler 165Gn BTs which was all I could get in reasonable numbers 12 months ago due to limited stock in Australia.
With a budding interest in extending my abilities to be able to accurately shoot to 500 to 600 yards over the last 6 months I started looking at the ballistics of the load. My model Sauer sports only a 21 inch barrel so velocity was down a little, which I expected, at 2777fps but with a extreme spread under 10fps.
Running the load through G7's calculator the Nosler was dropping to under 1800fps, the minimum recommended performance velocity of the BTs, at a little over 500 yards. After a bit more playing and searching on the internet I decided to try Berger 168Gn Classic Hunters. If I could duplicate the speed with this load then I would gain nearly 100yards before I dropped below 1800fps at 620yards.
Well RE17 is just a sweet powder. At 57 grains I was getting 2766 fps with only 6 fps extreme spread and a consistent 0.4 MOA group when I did my part. Every load tested from 54 grains to 58 grains shot less than 0.75 MOA with three shot groupst.
As this is a hunting rifle I am happy to test with 3 shot groups provided there was no difference in POI on cold bore with the following shots. Once again the 202 was extremely stable. And being a hunting rifle for use in heavy bush and in the mountains it is not onerous to handle for hours on end.
Two weeks ago I headed south for some time hunting Sambar in Victoria. The opportunities on these deer are likely similar to Elk in the the Nor-West of the USA with some close in stalking in forest / heavy bush or long range work on the fringes of improved pasture on adjacent farmlands or cross valley shots. Although the bush is much thicker than what I have viewed on YouTube videos filmed in the Nor-West states like Montana.
With a fair bit of poaching under spotlights from vehicles taking place in the area I was hunting, the deer have almost gone nocturnal. They will stay hidden high up in the valleys only venturing out onto rich pasture only on dark for a short period of time. So it was off stalking in heavy bush gullys.
I am happy to say that on the afternoon of the second day I was successful in shooting a nice 18 month old Spiker, young stag, at about 70 yards after being honked twice by him. He knew I was there but just couldn't work out what I was till after it was to late.
For this hunt I stuck with the Nosler BTs as I was familiar with their performance. He was shot straight through the neck about 10 inches below the bottom jaw with the bullet ending up just inside the front of the right back strap.
End result was a instant kill with many kilograms of great meat recovered and rifle that I will happily rely on for years to come.
Now being Down Under the selection of rifles in top end factory and off the shelf custom is pretty limited. So I visited one of the biggest gunshops on the east coast with a good mate.
The salesman asked what we were after and what calibre. My best mate wisely said lets leave calibre out of it for this stage, but we want to try every rifle over $1800A for fit and feel. This involved about two hours of trying Weatherby Mk V, Blaser, Sauer 202, Sako, Cooper, Christensen, FN, among others I cant recall.
For fit and feel it came down to the Sauer 202 and the Sako but the Sauer won over due to something I had never considered. The Sauer has a very deep fore-end in comparison to other rifles and when going prone my left, front hand, could remain in its most natural position. With the Sako, and other rifles, I found I had to slide my left elbow back, hence lifting the muzzle, to get natural eye alignment of the rifle with the sighting plane.
Not loving big recoil but hunting Sambar in Victoria where the minimum legal calibre is 270Win the selection of available calibres was fairly straight forward.....30-06 Springfield.
The rifle showed immediate indications of being a accurate and consistent shooter putting 3 shots consistently into 0.5 to 0.3 MOA at 100yards with a initial load of RE17 behind Nosler 165Gn BTs which was all I could get in reasonable numbers 12 months ago due to limited stock in Australia.
With a budding interest in extending my abilities to be able to accurately shoot to 500 to 600 yards over the last 6 months I started looking at the ballistics of the load. My model Sauer sports only a 21 inch barrel so velocity was down a little, which I expected, at 2777fps but with a extreme spread under 10fps.
Running the load through G7's calculator the Nosler was dropping to under 1800fps, the minimum recommended performance velocity of the BTs, at a little over 500 yards. After a bit more playing and searching on the internet I decided to try Berger 168Gn Classic Hunters. If I could duplicate the speed with this load then I would gain nearly 100yards before I dropped below 1800fps at 620yards.
Well RE17 is just a sweet powder. At 57 grains I was getting 2766 fps with only 6 fps extreme spread and a consistent 0.4 MOA group when I did my part. Every load tested from 54 grains to 58 grains shot less than 0.75 MOA with three shot groupst.
As this is a hunting rifle I am happy to test with 3 shot groups provided there was no difference in POI on cold bore with the following shots. Once again the 202 was extremely stable. And being a hunting rifle for use in heavy bush and in the mountains it is not onerous to handle for hours on end.
Two weeks ago I headed south for some time hunting Sambar in Victoria. The opportunities on these deer are likely similar to Elk in the the Nor-West of the USA with some close in stalking in forest / heavy bush or long range work on the fringes of improved pasture on adjacent farmlands or cross valley shots. Although the bush is much thicker than what I have viewed on YouTube videos filmed in the Nor-West states like Montana.
With a fair bit of poaching under spotlights from vehicles taking place in the area I was hunting, the deer have almost gone nocturnal. They will stay hidden high up in the valleys only venturing out onto rich pasture only on dark for a short period of time. So it was off stalking in heavy bush gullys.
I am happy to say that on the afternoon of the second day I was successful in shooting a nice 18 month old Spiker, young stag, at about 70 yards after being honked twice by him. He knew I was there but just couldn't work out what I was till after it was to late.
For this hunt I stuck with the Nosler BTs as I was familiar with their performance. He was shot straight through the neck about 10 inches below the bottom jaw with the bullet ending up just inside the front of the right back strap.
End result was a instant kill with many kilograms of great meat recovered and rifle that I will happily rely on for years to come.
