Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters What is the most accurate BG rifle you own?! Load?

.460 Weatherby load consisting of 116gn of Varget (AR2208) put 5 400gn Barnes X bullets into .6 MOA.

Must have been a pretty serious Loony turned loose on that one.

I just got back from the range and my HVA 30-06 still prints 130 gr. bullets at a half inch or less. This time, 130 gr. Hornady SP's with 59 gr. Big Game at 3,100 fps. Those are 3 shot groups, but it's done the same a number of times. It does almost as well with 3031. I'm not sure how the Councel bullets will work on game, although Ralph says they do very well. Hornady SP's are less expensive and are proven game getters.

Because it's a light gun, I was hoping it would perform with light bullets and I wouldn't have to use 150's or 165's. So, I'm pleased. A 130 gr. Horn SP at 3,000+ fps should whack a whitetail about as well as anything. It may not be the best bullet for 3-400 yd. shots, but should be deadly up to 250 yds.

DF

What are you taking as pain medication afterwards?

That's a sign of a good rifleman. He can squeeze the trigger perfectly every time, knowing he's fixing to have the stuffing knocked out of him. Now, that takes real concentration, mind over matter...

DF

JB - thanks for the insight.

DF - no doubt that's mental!

Not every man can avoid flinching just before he's about to get the Snot knocked out of him! Lol. Shot a 416 RM ONCE, no interest again! 375 all I'd ever want, and before that odds are I'd sling 286 PTs or 250 ABs from a 9.3mm.

A 340 WBY and Hornady 250 RNs, IMR 7828 enough to push them 2950 fps. Five shots makes a 40 caliber hole in the 100 yard target, I think the bullet is stable!

Where the first shot from a cold bore hits is the most important demand I have of a hunting rifle!

My best-shooting big game rifle is a stainless Montana 1999 in .358 Win with one of their hand-lapped barrels, bedded by Serengeti Rifles into one of their "Leopard" pattern stocks. It is also my most beautiful rifle. It shoots 3 handloads with 225 gr Partitions or Sierras into 1/4-inch pretty regularly. My buddy couldn't believe one group where the single hole only measured .401, edge to edge, even though he saw me shoot it!

Sounds like a keeper, for sure.

Can you post photos?

DF

Recently picked up a Cooper in 6.5 swede that seems to be coming along pretty easy. If it goes like the first couple outings I think it'll be a very good shooter...

Coopers are a lot of gun for the buck.

Interested on how your's works out.

What twist?

DF

Df, an 8" twist. 24" length. It has all the right things for what I wanted. I was pretty surprised just how well it shot out of the box. The only bullets I've tried so far were 130 & 140 Berger vld's over RS Hunter powder.

My 8 twist 6.5x55 Shilen/FN Mauser, so far, prefers 139 Scenars, shooting sub half inch. It will shoot 140 VLD's into .7" or so. The 155 Mega is more accurate (near half inch) than the 140 or 160 Woodleigh (1.5"). BTW, I like Lapua brass.

I talked to Pat (Scenarshooter) yesterday, asking him about how 139 Scenar's perform on game compared with 130/140 VLD'd. He said Scenars hold together slightly better than VLD's. Performance, otherwise, not much different. Pat has considerable experience with 130 VLD's in his .260's. I think he prefers Scenars. No surprise, considering his handle.

I may stay with the 139 Scenar for general use and the 155 Mega for bigger stuff. I have some 123 Scenars to test, but my gun seems to like heavier bullets. I tried very hard to develop a good 125 NPT load to no avail. 1.5"-2" was all I could get out of them, using established accuracy loads.

Keep us up to date on your Cooper as you develop loads.

DF

I have the bullets you mention and will work my way through them. At the moment I don't want to get too strung out as it would be good to have a load that works and work with it for a bit. Would like to take this one antelope hunting this fall.

Too many bullets & powder and to little time..

The 6.5x55 seems to work well with so many combos. That's a good thing, to have a very forgiving round. The flip side, with so many choices, it takes longer to find that special load. But, even the less that premier loads will do the job.

Looks like there could be several premier loads, never a bad thing.

DF

I have had quite few big game rifles and have shot a lot with them. I built some and bought some and have never had what I would call a 1/2 moa rifle which was not a dedicated BR or "F" class rifle. Virtually all of my big game rifles have fired, at one time or another, three shot groups under 1/2 inch. Most followed this up with one which was an inch and a quarter.
Of the factory rifles I've had, the most accurate was a Remington 700 Varmint in 308. With this one, I could put money down and usually produce a sub-half inch five shot group but it wasn't really a big game rifle. I'm not real sure what happened to that rifle but I might have given it to a brother.
As far as hunting rifles are concerned, my first was and is pretty good. A #4 Lee Enfield, it has produced a lot of sub-minite five shot groups; both as a 303 and a 30/40Krag.
The most accurate was probably my Ruger No. 1 in 6mm Remington. I bought this in 1971 or '72. We used to have turkey shoots which consisted of one shot for center, no sighters. I was a pretty steady winner with this rifle. At the same time, I had a BRNO ZKK 600 in 30/06 which was very close to as accurate but, due to recoil, was more difficult to shoot.
Another rifle which brought home the turkeys was a Marlin 1886 45/70. This rifle was from the first year they produced them and you could see the location of the dovetails by the distortion inside or the bore. There were three dovetails which were readily visible inside. I used Elmer Keith's load of 53 of 3031 and used a 400 grain Speer bullet instead of the 405's he used. I had a 2.5 power scope on it and it really shot well. I shot a lot of groups under an inch (five shots)and one memorable group measured .400 even. The first group was the best one and I usually got a headache after twenty rounds or so.
Today, I have a dozen or more big game rifles and all are adequate for the task for which they are intended. The 35 Whelen is very good, two 30/40's (the Lee Enfield and a P14)are both very good as well. My 308 Norma produces a lot of three shot groups under 1/2 inch and probably a solid 3/4 minute rifle. At three hundred meters, it's usually around 2 1/2 inches for five shots.
Looking back, there is not a single shot I have made on big game which could not have been made as well with a 2 minute rifle. In fact, some were made with rifles which didn't shoot all that well.
That really accurate 6mm Ruger never shot anything more than 150 yards away.
The great-shooting BRNO 30/06 accounted for.... nothing! It was the unluckiest rifle I ever owned. If I wanted to garantee my knife would stay clean, I only had to carry that '06 and I wouldn't even have to strain my eyes looking at an animal. I shot it a lot, re- barreled it, and sold it to someone who probably never shot another animal.
The 45/70 killed deer well and all were under 75 yards.
The 30/40 Lee Enfield is a lucky gun and has killed more than all others combined. Longest shot about 325; average well under 100. Still shoots 1 inch five shot groups but is and has always been, fussy. Nonetheless, it's a meat getter and has sentimental value to me.
I have never had one of those hunting rifles that shoots a half inch "all day long", never mind one that shoots in the two's. I beat a bunch of them though; at those turkey shoots I used to attend. Luck I guess. GD

Hey GD - do you remember that rifle build we talked about - #3 Douglas contour - Krieger SS turned down, R700 in 7mm RM? Well your advice was well taken and Dennis finished it off a few weeks ago. I did some preliminary load work - RL22 and H1000 + 175gr GameKings are giving consistant 3 shot groups in the 0.5" - 0.75" range. I also shot a ringer with IMR7828 and 175gr Speer Deep Curl - 3 shots into 0.2". While the others were repeatable, the 0.2" group was not.

Having said that the rifle has only 50 or so rounds down the tube. I suspect there will be some even better results in the future.

Oh, I should point out that this is in the factory synthetic stock which has not been bedded. The McMillan still hasn't arrived. So, and I am sure this will come as no surprise to you or those that know you, your ideas worked out well. And your trust in Dennis' abilities was well founded too. But again, that will come as no surprise to those who know him.

When Iver finished my .458 custom Mauser in 1957, one of the first questions that my Alaska and Montana hunter friends asked was whether it'd shoot inside an inch at a hundred yards.

I assured 'em that anything that I expected to shoot with it would definitely be bigger'n an inch and probably a lot closer'n a hundred yards.

Say, that's a sobering dose of reality.

Seems we Loonies fantasize about our rifles shooting one hole groups, which gets lost somewhere out hunting in the real world. Now, for long range work, probably more of an issue than with all around hunting.

Your statement represents a "keen grasp of the obvious", often lost on too many of us gun nuts.

DF