I've gone through my magnum rifle, high magnification scope, heavy barrel, beanfield type rifle stage.

As of late I've been trending toward lighter rifles, low magnification scopes, with cartridges that have muzzle velocities between 2500 and 2800 fps. For some reason Mannlicher stocked rifles have really caught my attention.

Over the last several years I've lusted for a Merkel K1 stalking rifle. The problem is I have stringent parameters. Has to be no more than 70% of MSRP,either 7mm or 30, cal and it had to be the Jagd Stutzen (Mannlicher stock), had to have the money at the time to buy.

Finally,













I just got back from a hunt in the Capitan Mountains chasing hounds and bears up, down and sideways, over burns, rocks and cricks. It now has several well earned character marks.

[img]http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e129/glenn1221/Bear%20Hunt/IMG_0150-1.jpg[/img]

I'm spoiled for sure. This little rifle is a joy to "tote" and shoot.

GWB

That is a very nice looking rifle in a great caliber. I sold my Merkel shotguns many years ago but your rifle makes me kind of want to go with that brand again.

Good snag!

How does it shoot? My bet is very accurately--and I bet you like the trigger as well.

I've got a K1 standard rifle in .308, as well as a 47E 12-gauge side-by-side that's one of my favorite shotguns.

That is a beautiful rifle and you've actually hunted with it. Good on you. I have a standard K1 in 270. Got it from Cabelas. I guess I paid about full price for the rifle but that included a nice new Sworo scope so I figure I got a pretty good deal. Essentially a free scope. The rifle is accurate. Likes 140 Accubonds. I like the mounting system. I can wrap my hand around the rifle at the balance point. Carrys real nice. Seems to weigh about 3 lbs! Well, actually less than 7 lbs with the big scope. I didn't get a dandy fitted hard case with mine though.

Great looking rifle and thanks for taking it hunting!! I could like one of those.

Awesome rifle!! There goes my champagne taste over riding my beer budget.

The ONLY thing wrong with a Merkel is the price! Wish they'd make a "bare bones" model for those of us with modest means. Unlikely; they probably can't make the nice ones fast enough!

Check the Haenel 9 for that.

http://www.cg-haenel.de/haenel-jaeger/produkte/kipplaufbuechse-jaeger-9/

I like that... a lot.

cmg, do you have an importer/dealer for Haenel in the US? (My German is nonexistent, except for a few gun terms....).

Darn nice rifle.

Them Germans know how to make a fine shootin' iron.

Nice photo's.

I sent you a PM with some questions.

Mitch

Geedubya,

That is a magnificent rifle in every possible way.

Congratulations.

Steve

Very nice rifle. You are now spoiled forever. If I may offer a piece of advice that I do when hunting with my Blaser K95, Beartooth stock guards over the stock work fantastic for protection. Best $13.00 you will ever spend

http://www.beartooth-products.com/shop/stockguards-smoothskin/-stockguard-smoothskin-brown.html

Freedumb1,
I replied to your PM.

GWB

Sir,

I have not taken the opportunity to wring it out. As I stated, I've been on the prod for one of these for a couple years. I got this in hand two weeks before I was to leave on a bear hunt. My go to load in the 7mm-08 is the 140 gr. Accubond over 43 gr. of W 748.
This particular rifle is throated long, so I loaded my first rounds at 2.850 OAL.
I did my usual barrel break-in with 50 strokes down the barrel with a bronze brush and jb bore paste/kroil mix.

Took three shots to zero at 25 yds, then a couple more to get to get close at 100 yds.

Here are the first two 100 yd groups using the load mentioned above at an oal of 2.850�
.


It was +/- 95 degrees F the day these were shot. Needless to say it don�t take long for the barrel to heat up.

A couple days later I loaded up some 170 gr. Sierra Spitzers, thinking I might go heavy for caliber. The rifle didn�t like them much at all. At that second range session I also took my Browning Micro Medallion, also in 7mm-08 to check zero. I use the 43 gr. load in this also, but with book length rounds at 2.780 OAL. They tended to group better.

Here is the sequence I settled on for the hunt. My idea was that if a bear was treed, the shot would be 30 yds. or less. If I got set up on a running bear that would not tree, it would be 100 yds. or less.

First two rounds at 100 yds. are almost touching (7 O�clock).


Next I fired at 50. Dead zero



Next two shots at 25 yds. The low shot is with the scope. The high shot is with irons (scope removed)




The final shot would be the hole at 4 O�clock on the 100 yd. target. This sequence probably took 5 minutes as I had to move to three different benches with my rest. Once again it was hot and the barrel did not have time to cool. Whether it is a true sub inch gun I can�t say. But for me and the critters I hunt, I figure I�m good at 100 yds or less.

As to the trigger. I've several rifles with set triggers as well as varminters that break at under two pounds. This has a selectable trigger that breaks at 2.6, 2.4 and 2.1 lbs. IIRC. That's fine for a stalking rifle.

Best

GWB

As an aside, never one to let well enough alone, I did adjust the elevation two clicks up before I broke the rifle down to put in the case.

Thanks for the ton of information.

I am officially bitten.

This is precisely why I love this website.

When gentlemen take great pictures and explain their latest purchases, chocked full of loading information, targets, hunting pictures.

What more can you ask for from others who share the same passion/obsession.

Thank you for sharing your experiences with your new rifle.

Mitch

Be sure and do the same with yours.

Best

GWB

GWB,

Thanks for the info. It will be interesting to see how the rifle shoots in cooler weather.

Mine ia .308 with 24" barrel and standard forend, very short with a schnabel. It also has a long throat. I load it with 150 AccuBonds seated just shy of the lands and 46.5 grains of Varget, which gets just about 2900 fps and around 3/4" accuracy.

Two shots touching at 100 yards is about all the accuracy a fella needs for 95% of hunting, methinks. With a break-action single shot, that third shot tends to be just juvenile self-expression....

Sir,

Although I do quite a bit of load development and shooting at the bench, it is all done with the thought in mind of knowing within a 1/2" or so, say to 250 yds. of where the bullet will impact. I usually shoot 3 shot groups over a chrono to get a reasonable idea of velocity and which bullet and powder combo will give the velocity/accuracy combination that most pleases me. Believe it or not I often do one shot groups. I find that on most of the game I hunt one shot if placed correctly is all that is needed. I would posit that a good test of a hunting rifle would be to take and shoot 1 shot out of a cold barrel at the same target on three different occasions/days at the same distance. I do this with most of my hunting rifles. It's amazing what a difference absolute confidence makes.
In this particular instance I had removed the scope for the 25 yd. shot with irons and wanted to be sure that when I re-mounted the scope that it would return to zero. This being a new rifle that I was to take on a hunt two days later, I had not had the opportunity to test it before. It was close enough. The third shot was icing on the cake and a huge increase in the confidence factor. I once had an old insurance mentor that had a saying, "when you know you know, and you know you know, confidence replaces fear". I agree.

As an aside, here is an old Winchester I found years ago. It had set on a rack for six months or so at one of my favorite gun shops. Seems it had a hair line crack in the wrist of the stock and a heavy barrel, on top of that it was a push feed. Well I took one look. Lets see, Shilen barrel, crowned at 26", bedded and trigger job. No one seemed to want it, guess they wanted crf. I figured, what's not to like for 3 Benjamins.



anyway, it turned out that it shot pretty good. Here is a sequence that I fired a while back before I took it out to poke some hill country porkers.

Two shots fired (100 yds.) with about an hour or so in between to give the barrel time to return to ambient temp.



Two clicks right and we're ready to go




Best

GWB

Love this photo. Great rifle, too.

Thanks for all the kind words guys.

FWIW, there is a complete hunt report with pix on AR should you care to read. The thread was started by Bob Connell who is the administrator of Texas Predator Posse forum and the organizer of our hunt. My report and pix follow his.

http://forums.accuratereloading.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/3411043/m/7971028871

Best

GWB

GW,
Now that was a great link! Thanks for posting it!

Nice rifle GWB, congrats on the rifle and the hunt/bear! Nice!

Geedbya, very nice Merkel. Just added a second barrel to my Blaser Luxus K95--a 7x57, the first "7mm-08" -- and mean to find a black bear next spring in Montana. i've never been one for safe queens but having qualms about dragging this one over hard scabble, through brush, up, down, and around with perhaps a fall or two but believe you are right--marks made by earning its keep only give it more character.

Friend George,

"The FIRST 7-08"

Indeed it was, my dear old friend, indeed it was.

God Bless,

Your friend Steve

Hello Steve, and the same to you. PM inbound.

Looks like it was a great hunt! I like the pics and the story!