Some of you may remember back last year, a build I did for my son as his first big game rifle to be used this year as he turns 10 and is able to hunt big game here in Idaho. The rifle was built on the following blueprint...
Rem 700 short action - 6.5 creed
Bolt futed and bolt handled drilled out to shed weight
#2 Shilen Barrel (minimum shank) 22.5", lightly fluted
Timney trigger at 2.5#
B&C mountain lw stock adl, finished at 13" LOP
medium Talley LW
Weighs 6# 2oz before scope

[Linked Image]

At first it wore a conquest 3-9x, now it wears a Leupold VX3 3.5-10X40 CDS. My son has shot it quite a bit and does well with it. With a good rest, I would be ok today letting him attempt a shot on a big game animal to 300 yards. It really fits him well.

Now, for the reason of the post. Wanted to get some feedback on some last minute tinkering I want to accomplish in the next couple a weeks on the rifle, giving him the month of April to get some final shooting in for a may bear hunt. (Little tinkering that won't affect his hunt as its over bait with the blind setup about 100 yards from the bait)

1. The talley mediums set just a touch high and he has to raise his head a bit, so replace those with lows.
2. Replacing the 3.5-10x with a leupold 6x36. whenever we shoot, he leaves it on 6x anyways and this little simple scope would be one less thing to worry about and plenty out to 300 yards
3. Trying one other load with a soft point bullet. The rifle is solid 1" gun - not benchrest accurate - but a good moa hunting rifle. The load we have now is a 120 TTSX at 2800 FPS. I don't expect to improve much on group size or accuracy, but at 2800 FPS, maybe the barnes is a touch to tough of bullet. Feel like at that speed, a 125 partition would be hard to beat.

Thoughts?