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Over the last year or two, I’ve picked up some Campfire goodies and with some mixing and matching have come up with this little gem.



Grand had the McWoody for sale so I scooped it up knowing it would be good for something down the road.

Same with EFW’s little Leupold 2-7 with dots and aluminas.



When hornsurgeon’s Titanium 7-08 hit the classifieds, I didn’t dick around even though it’s 7-08 number four or five for me. It had a VX7 3.5-14X on it and the whole shebang had been rattlecanned including the alumina’s. Two evening’s with acetone and some elbow grease had everything looking good as new. But the scope seemed too much for this lightweight, and that original Ti stock will bide it’s time on the shelf for now.



I bedded with Marine-Tex including the barrel channel as it was a bit fat for the Ti barrel. It floated nicely with one wrap of pipe tape. I rounded up the bottom metal from the place my kid works at, nice that it’s also my last name, grin.

I recruited a Trigger-Tech in my parts drawer because I couldn’t get the Remington trigger to behave at all. The TT breaks like glass at 2 1/4 pounds.



The j-lock fiasco had to go, and the Campfire didn’t offer what I needed, so I got a PTG pin assembly and shroud (yes, Red—why not!)

Talley lightweight extra lows worked perfectly to complete the package.



Thanks for the parts, guys! Looking forward to wringing it out. What do you think? 120 BT’s or 162 ELD’s?

Cool. I dig the big-ass trigger guard.

Nice rifle

Nice rig!

Looking forward to your load development and groups..

120 bt's fo sho!
Big Ed

Good looking rig. Another vote for 120's.

Campenstein Rifle!

It's Campenshteen! Ha Ha

When you said "Campfire Casserole" I thought you meant this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zb1qsVqjwg

I finally got to wring her out today. I loaded the 120BT’s with 44 grains of Varget just off the lands, fired a fouler at a distant rock and these were the next three out the spout at 100. Think she’ll hunt?



With the little 2-7 VXII, Leupold says I should be zeroed at 200, dot one is 300, dot two is 400 and the tip of the bottom picket is 500. I verified it on paper today and it’s dang close. The dots cover up my aiming stickers at those distances, but the dope is good to go. Think I’ll call this one my Easy Button.

+1 Nice rig!!

sweet bud. let us know how the 120 bt's do on game for you please. i love to see exit wounds..........
Big Ed

We’ll, it’s only been two years since we put this rifle together, but who’s counting?

My better half drew a deer tag on a “used to be good but going downhill” unit. We’ve had a busy fall with kids moving out, others moving back and one moved to Alaska. So our time afield has been a bit limited.

We had just two afternoons to try to get Jill on a deer. The first day lived up to our low expectations, with about 50 elk and exactly zero deer seen. We almost tapped out for day two, but I purposely left our Wolverine on the property so we had to at least go back and try again.

Again, lots of elk but no deer at all. We were just about back to the truck with 15 minutes of shooting time left, when we decided to glass two draws closest to the main gate. Draw 1 was deerless. As we drove around a bend bringing draw 2 into view, I brought the glass up for the last chance of the hunt.

I picked out a deer immediately. Then he turned his head revealing his rack. In my most trying not to seem too excited Terminator voice, I simply said, “Get out.”

In the fading light he looked 500 yards out, but the laser said 290. I got Jill set up on the sticks and pointed in the right direction. Our buck was with a 2 point and some does off to the right. “Can you see him?” “I can see 2 bucks.” “Well only look at the big one then!”

Once I was sure she was looking at Mr. Big, I dialed the little Leupold to 7X. “How’s that look?” “I’m shaky,” she replied. “OK, now you’re going to put the first dot under the crosshairs right on his shoulder.” “What dot?” Oops, with only 2 years to get ready for this moment, we’d not verified Jill could actually see through the scope. 🙈

“Put your readers on!” That brought the reticle into sharp view for her. The buck had walked away a bit and changed ends, now at 304 yards. “Now get that first dot on his shoulder and don’t jerk that trigger!” She couldn’t get steady and asked me to lean into her. I pressed my chest against her shooting arm and that seemed to help. I was just about to prod her again when, “Whop!”

It sure sounded good. The little buck headed out left and I saw the does still off to the right. Where was our buck? Suddenly, he appeared with them and started walking away up the hill. I was just about to tell her to shoot again (we hadn’t even reloaded yet), when I saw him bed down. The other deer were milling around, so I knew he was either sick or the smartest buck on earth.

All we could see above the sage was his rack and nose when he’d put it in the air; and then eventually just one side of his rack, and then nothing. With light fading fast, we made our way up the draw. We hiked up to where he was standing at the shot and had blood right away. I knew the little quakie that he had bedded by, and walked straight to it while Jill followed the blood trail. “I’ve got good blood down here!” “Well, I’ve got a good buck up here.”

To say we were pleasantly surprised would be an understatement.




She hit him low with not an inch to spare. The 120 NBT did the trick and he was a dead deer walking. This is the exit.



I think my Campenshteen rifle might have a new owner.🤣

Absolutely outstanding! You have a great shooting and great looking rig..........I really like the way you put everything together. Super nice buck. Congrats

Great buck, great hunt. Congrats to you both!

Wow, great buck, cool rifle and cool hunt! I guess the woman of the house should claim that one! Congrats on that hunt.

Cool story, thank you!

Congrats!

Thanks guys! I've been a 7mm-08 fan a long time, and this one might be my, I mean HER, new favorite.

Excellent!