POST YOUR SHERMAN KILLS

[waspocrew]

Looks like the Hornady worked! Ya, 3097 is fairy mild load

Whoops, looks like I caught a typo in my original post - 60.5 gr yielded 3167!

 

[elkaholic]

Thought that was pretty mild

 

[BlackHillsSD]

7mm Sherman SS built by LRI. Running 60.9 grains of RE26 pushing 175 Berger Elites at 3000 FPS with an SD of 3.2 FPS. Consistently shoots 3" groups at 1200 yards. Round count this year is 585. The rifles first blood this fall was a 370" Wyoming bull at 1154 yards with one high shoulder shot, he made it 5 steps and tipped over. The next was a cow in Wyoming that my buddy used to shoot his at 1002 yards one shot thru the boiler room and down, exit hole was the size of a quarter both lungs were mush. Took another cow in Colorado at 803 yards High shoulder shot and she dropped, lungs and heart were trashed. Next up was a 155" whitetail in South Dakota, 328 yards shot him bedded down into the shoulder, he didn't move. My brother in law also used it on his whitetail buck at 498 one shot into the shoulder and down he went. Took another cow last weekend in Wyoming at 463 yards, one shot and dead. These Berger's are the money! Can't wait for next season.

 

[elkaholic]

That is one heck of a resume! Do you have any pics?

 

[BlackHillsSD]

South Dakota whitetails, don't have any pics of the elk right now.

 

[Idaho Trecker]

This was a very trying year for whitetail in my neck of the woods but still did decent. My 270ss accounted for my dads first whitetail which he dropped at 532 yards with 1 shot and I filled my extra doe tag with a big doe at 230 yards. Almost forgot i got my first bear this spring with this rifle too at a whopping 30 yards. I'm running a 165 matrix at 2935 fps. Unfortunately another year passed without getting blood with my 270 Sherman. Just too many choices! My 300 SS toppled 2 whitetail bucks (453 and 540 yards) and a doe (530 yards) between myself and a friend. This year I was running 208 eld- m at 2953 fps and definitely still my favorite 30 cal hunting bullet (and A max). This was a terrible year for me in terms of taking good pictures and documenting but next year will be better.

 

[RT2506]

I am not sure this is the Sherman you are talking about but my uncle told me that he killed a few panzer tanks and one tiger tank with a Texas heart shot in WWII with his Sherman.

 

[elkaholic]

I am not sure this is the Sherman you are talking about but my uncle told me that he killed a few panzer tanks and one tiger tank with a Texas heart shot in WWII with his Sherman.

Haha....my dad was there and took an 8mm in the leg for his trouble.

 

[TC338]

First blood with my 6.5 Sherman. Shot this buck on the WY opener back in October. Load was 140 gr VLD over 60.5 gr RL-26 for a MV of 3167 fps. Found the buck at 375, dialed up, and sent one into the boiler room! He never knew what hit him and tipped over a few seconds later.
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My brother in law also had a tag and after looking over a few different bucks, we found a nice tall buck that he was happy tagging. I brought my rifle along just in case a longer shot presented itself (his 300 WSM is topped with an old 3-9x leupold). His buck was bedded at 460 and it was just a matter of waiting him out. My BIL got prone, and dry fired a few times while waiting for the buck to stand. 10 minutes later, once the buck stood, the 140 VLD dropped him like a bolt of lightning!

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A day later, I went out to fill my cow elk tag. We found a herd hanging out at the top of our property and with light fading, we hustled to get as close as we could. There was a canyon between us and there wasn't enough time to drop down and attempt to sneak closer. I got prone, settled down, and found a cow feeding broadside at 583 yards. With absolutely no wind and a rock solid rest, I felt confident in the conditions. A few seconds later, she was down at the shot! It made for a long night of packing out, but was definitely worth it. The 140 VLD performed well in my rifle and I look forward to using it on game again. I recovered the VLD from my buck and cow and the weight retention was actually fairly close to each other.
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What are the build specs on your rifle?

 

[waspocrew]

What are the build specs on your rifle?

All work was performed by Dallas Lane, of Lane Precision Rifles.
- Trued Rem 700
- 25" 1:8 twist Bartlien light palma with sendero style flutes (can't recall exact cerakote color)
- 2 port mini brake
- Greybull precision stock
- PTG bottom metal
- Jewel trigger
- Topped with a Gen 2 PST 5-25x50 SFP

 

[TC338]

All work was performed by Dallas Lane, of Lane Precision Rifles.
- Trued Rem 700
- 25" 1:8 twist Bartlien light palma with sendero style flutes (can't recall exact cerakote color)
- 2 port mini brake
- Greybull precision stock
- PTG bottom metal
- Jewel trigger
- Topped with a Gen 2 PST 5-25x50 SFP

How much does it weigh as it sits?

 

[waspocrew]

How much does it weigh as it sits?

I'm away from our place until the 3rd, so I can't get an exact weight for you until then. My guess would be somewhere around 10 lbs with scope.

 

[couesaddict]

My 270 Sherman with a fluted 27" light Palma barrel, hs stock and 50mm nxs scope weighs 9.8 on the bathroom scale so probably similar to yours as well.

 

[CA48]

The first hunting season is over with the 6.5 SS. Everything went great and I was more than pleased with the performance of this round on medium game.

Gunsmith: Eric Goss of Axis Works

Rifle specs:
•Blueprinted Rem 700 SA with Pt&g bolt W/ badger knob
and Gre Tan F.P. Assembly
•manners eh-1 w/atlas pic rail
•jewel trigger
•Curtis custom dbm
• Murphy precision Ti pic rail 30 Moa
• March 3-24x52 FFP FMA-2 reticle w/ NF ultra lite rings
• proof research bbl, sendaro contour at 26" 1-8 twist.
• Terminator T-3 brake

•With scope, bi pod, sling, and Curtis custom flush mag(SS cases don't fit in this mag but it makes a good single shot follower, but AI mags work) 10.25 lbs field ready

Just need to get the stock painted gap camo but haven't done it yet.

Loads:
1200 ft altitude
Mild load
Norma brass
60.1gr H-1000
Fed 210
140 Vld-h just off the lands
Neck tension .002"
3170fps

Max load
61.2gr H-1000
Fed 210
140 Vld-h just off the lands
Neck tension .002"
3250fps

These animals were harvested by my friends and myself

384yds broadside just behind the crease
3/4" exit hole
Stumbled 15yds and dropped

Around 100 yds
Bullet Acted like an amax and left a huge hole
Drt

Just under 200 yds broadside in the vitals
Drt 3/4" exit

718yds broadside heart shot, ran about 15-20 yds and dropped.
Bullet passed through the hog and almost exited but was just under the hide on the opposite side trying to protrude out. Not surprising, hogs have thick cartridge and are built tough.

550yds high shoulder shot broad side. 3/4"-1" exit hole
Stumbled 10 yds and dropped.

583yds we hunted this buck for weeks. Caught sight of him one evening before dark as he was trying to slip into the brush. He was facing away from us slightly angled to the right. We didn't have much time and the shot was slightly left and went through his right hind leg and out the ribs on the left side due to the the position of the deer to us. He dropped and crawled about 10yds trying to get to the brush and within a few seconds a second shot was sent that ended him. We regret taking the shot as he wasn't close to being broadside. It was hard to resist as we had been hunting this buck hard and didn't want him to get away but. Got lucky this time but should of let him go and waited for a better shot.

1107yds 9cl 5mph wind
Stumbled 10-15yds and dropped. Broadside, Shot went in center shoulder, I was aiming about 3" to the right of where the shot impacted just behind the crease of the shoulder. Bullet hit rib bone on both sides and made a full pass through leaving 3/4" exit

Exit side

There may be a few more kills im leaving out but results were the same.
Overal wouldn't really change anything on this rifle. Well except for the swept bolt handle with the big knob. It's in the way of my trigger finger. Meant to get the straight bolt handle but I screwed up and ordered the wrong one. I've adapted to the swept style and it's not a big deal on a hunting rifle.
This cartridge has far exceeded my expectations and packs a punch with very little recoil. I tried running it with a suppressor for a while and it shot great. Went back to the brake though because the quick impulse of the brake made it much easier to spot shots and I wasn't a fan of the extra length and loss of the rifles balance. Something important to me because most of my hunting is solo with no spotter.

Something to note with running a can. It increased pressure of my load. I always hear of ppl gaining velocity but I actually lost ~3fps running mine(hunter town arms Chameleon Ti 30cal) ran it over the chrono several times on different days. It was quieter than I expected and that part was awesome. No ear plugs needed as long as something isn't around for the shot to echo off. Accuracy with the can went from 1/3 to 1/4 moa to 1/4 moa and less.

I've heard mixed results with the 6.5 bergers on game but my lot performed excellent from less than 100 yds to over 1100. Very pleased with this bullet. I have noticed lot to lot inconsistency. I've had some lots that were .020" shorter (bullet base to ojive measurment) which increased velocity up to 70fps!!! Just by changing bullet lots and nothing else. So I try to only buy large amounts of bullets of the same lot now.
It took a lot of work to find a load that shot well at 100 yds for me. Although this is a long range hunting rifle and I don't care how it groups up close, I just zeroed of my cold bore shot before I found the magic load that shot well both at 100yds and longer ranges. 300yds out 1500 yds load delevelopment has never been so easy. You could put any bullet combo, seating depth, or powder brand or charge in it. It made no difffernce it would shoot it 1/3 Moa or less at distance even in heavy wind.

In conclusion this rifle is just awesome! Eric and Rich are great guys to work with and I thank them for helping me out on this build. I couldn't be happier with the way it turned out. They were very helpful to answer all my questions and deal with over the phone with fast response times. It was a great season and I'm already looking forward to next year.