Say hello to my little friend....

Specs.

I ordered from Ric.
This thing weighs 2 oz. more than the last two I bought several years ago..
I didnt wait for it for that long not like the old days at all.

dave

Playen around trying to get it ready for test.


dave

Thanks HilhamHawk for a nice sling.
dave

I ordered this stock from RickBin .
8 weeks on the nose from order to delevery.
Thanks RickBin......

dave

Very cool. Dig the paint.

..... It started out alittle different.
It was supposed to be light gray base with dark gray and black blotches...
I seem to remember telling Randy...off the cuff... As I headed out the door to "surprise" me...
Well he did.
Kinda growen on me.Beats black.

The donor was a 25-06 beater I picked at a LGS. No I didn't shoot it. Older one. The idea was to do as little as possible other than clean up the reciver threads, lap the lugs and square the bolt face. 1980s style. I even did a Neil Jones style trigger job... The trigger was a crisp 3 pounds but like one and 30 times it would not set the sear when slamming it down..
Ended up switching to a rifle basic trigger that went just a touch over 2 pounds and no creep. Sear set every time.
So looking the thing over Randy and I talked about how old it was and if the fireing pin spring was original.
Decided to put a new spring in it and ended up putting a Tubbs speed lock fireing pin and spring. So much for the 80s vintage build stuff...
M700 LA.
Rockcreek no4 fluted 1-10 finish at 24 .
McMillian GP/HTG.
Seekens rings.
I mounted the Sightron for testing..


dave

I’m glad I’m not the only one with rifle build creep.....

Nope u are not.
I did try to keep it to minimum.

dave

Swivel studs removed and Sinclair bench rest adapter installed
Sightron on top.
Ready to go testing...

dave

You can tell its an old timer with the flattened off safe lever.
The tear drop bolt knobs are growing on me.
This is the second one I have and I like them alot.
Installed by Randy at Accurate Rifle Works.


dave

Set up for testing the same way I run my benchrest rifles.
Seb Neo.
Old model 33 chrono.

Sightmark lazer on the end of the barrel.
I use it for lining up the skyscreens....

Less then 40 bucks.

You just have to remember to take it off before shooting.................

dave

Makes setting up skyscreens a snap.

better yet.

havent shot a screen yet....

dave

By the time I got this rifle my time was pretty limited if I wanted to use it for deer season.
I had planned from the beginning to try something different load development wise.
Since I test all summer with my 1000 yard stuff, have a pretty well developed method of testing that has worked well for me.
I figured I try it on the 25.
If it shoots well at 500 it should do well everywhere.
I started with the gunsmiths load of 56.5g of Norman MRP with a 250 CCI primer..
Gunsmith shot it at 100 and it did a .56 out of the gate.
Looked good..
I shot it at 500 and it was pretty big.
In fact most of the stuff I shot Rel26 and Rel23 IMR 7828ssc, looked pretty big at 500.
Although some did manage to hold MOA at 500. .
Its kinda like watching a sausage maker, make sausage.
Its as you would expect .. Rel26 was the speed king I drove 58.5g of it behind a 115 BT to 3130fps.Accuracy was OK.
IMR7828 would not break 2950.
Rel23 was a bit odd in that the lower load shot the best. As I went up in charge weight it opened up.
I ended up with 54.5g of Rel23 fed 210 primer WW case running 3055 fps.
it went sub 3 inches at 500.

Gunsmith said the deer dont know if its going 3150 or 3050.
That where I ended up.

dave



.

Seems like it is a good shooter. Too bad them deer keep running "So far" on ya buddy!

Looks good from here! Are you entertaining a mono for future projectile usage?

You know how much I hate that runnen crap.
Ya ya I guess I need a 458....... Hehe
Dave

Thought about the 100 TTSX..
Not sure it would gain me much over the 115 BT.
I cant see the TTSX shooting with the Ballistic tip. Accuracy wise.
Never know unless you try I guess.
I like monos for the high speed stuff.
I got more spongebob stuff to post just haven't yet.

Dave

Well..... we gotta try... what fun would we have the rest of the year if we didn’t dream up a few builds

The Swift like 22 is sounding pretty fun though.

The Ackley/i Swift replacement is in planning.

After I settled on the load.
I figured id better get the Sightron off and the S&B on.
I bought this 1.5-6x42 S&B from someone here on the fire several years ago.
FFP with a very heavy No4.
In and around 2000 S&B increased there eye relief from 3.15,,, a old complaint,,, and moved up to
3.5 inches or 80 to 90mm. When they did this the rear ocular diameter increased in size by .080..
You can always tell the newer ones over the older ones because of the slight angle on the ocular...
I guess they must have thought this was a BIG deal because the very first ones they came out with have a S/D
on the outside of the scope caps.
Standing and Driven game is what its supposed to mean.
Squareheads are special.
Only complaint I have is the the up and down and left and right are written in squarehead.
So i didnt know which was which... guess I could have googled it.
I always click to the hit so it doesnt matter that much..
The Seekens rings are way over kill.
But then if I ever decide I want to jump out of airplanes.
I think im covered..
I used the JJHACK-A-WITTS rule on this thing.
You close both eyes and yank the rifle up to your shoulder.
Open your peepers
Repeat.
If your looking over your scope, its not high enough.
if your looking under your scope, its not low enough...
This thing was just a touch low...I was looking over it ever so slightly. ... Close enough.
.All up ready to go for a walk.
.
Not a fly weight.

Do not ever get one teardrop bolt knob.
You will replace them all.

I took it back to the smith yesterday for a trigger tune.
Its good but I felt it needed just a touch of a tuneup.
dave

Man, that’s a killer scope. I’d bet it’d be excellent on my 375 Improved. I’ve swapped a few scopes on and off that rifle so far. Not quite finding the one, just yet.

I started with a 50 round bag of WW 25-06 brass I got off Randy.
All I really did to it was clean up and chamfer the case mouths.
Between zeroing up scopes and playing around at 500 yards I worked my way through all 50.
Then they went into the pins for cleaning and got an anneal job.
All ready to drop 54.5 of Reloader 23 into.

For some reason I didnt get a barrel stub on this one so I set the bullet seating depth with the Hornady lock and load tool.
The 115 Nosler ballistic tips are .010 off the lands.
After I got the S&B zeroed.
I did my two shot-er stuff to 300 yards.
At this point the fancy stuff was put away ... BR adapter was removed studs put back in....
Shot these off my regular set up for a deer rifle.

And.

And.

Whens the last time you shot more than two rounds at a deer?
Might be a touch high but thats where I left it.
The reticle is heavy. I mean like really heavy.
But I get a pie shape on the big bull at 300.
Fit the target to the reticle you have .. Works like a charm.

dave

Nice rig looks like a shooter!

Thanks efw..
I ended up getting a buck the first Sunday of deer season.
The Pa. Game commission had decided to add Sunday hunting.
A one day thing ...first time in Pa. at least as far back as i can remember..
I had to wait untill the second Saturday before I could doe hunt.
First Saturday morning at 930.
It all happened pretty quick.

And.

Both of these were about 170 yards.
Both shoulder shots.
I remember taking a somewhat low hold.
Both did about a 35 yard lunge stumble death run.
My buddie DonKnows watched from 500 yards away....had more fun than I did..
No snow but both had exits.Both pumped blood all over, so following them was easy.
Inside the clock works were pretty messed up.
I have read guys saying these bullets dont exit.But here they did.
Looking at the internal damage these 115g bullets caused.
Its hard to imagine anything going very far when hit like these two were.
The tenderloins on the little one were excellent..

dave

trigger issues resolved.
Its back in the barn.

Scary slick action.
Lubed with TSI-301..
dave

Just a touch over 2 lb..


dave

Painted in black Duracoat.
The inside of the action and the bolt have the lubricating Duracoat
With the TSI-301 its one of the slickest M700 I have.
And I have a bunch of them..

And.

I may leave it.
And I might just put a alittle bigger scope on it.
Thinking the 7x50 fixed Schmidt & Bender with the A4.

dave

.
.

I wanna see the 7x50.... jump in! Let me know how the water is.

. Very nice.

"By Burn's definition (one of them), the 7X57 is obsolete too, because I haven't been able to find factory ammo for mine."

I usually can find Federal 7x57 at my local big box store and Privi on line. Personally, I don't shoot factory ammo in my 7x57s, much preferring my much hotter handloads. Lucked out a few years ago at a gun show where a vendor was selling bulk brass and bullets literally by weight. I bought every single round of Winchester and Remington 7x57 brass he had on hand. I'll never live long enough to use it all up. I've match prepped most of it by resizing it to round off the necks trimming to the trim to length uniforming primer pockets ad clearing the flash hole. Still have a couple hundred or so to do. Some were primed before doing the prepping so may do load work up. I decided back in 2019 that I was going retro and working with that oh so obsolete 7x57 cartridge. between a bad car wreck and various medical problems I haven't been able to do much. I'll be trying for deer and elk tags this year and maybe an out of state elk hunt as well It's all in the luck of the draw.
PJ

Huh?