Got my new long range shooter!!

[trueblue]

Very nice looking rifle, and Jim does great work.
However, I question the velocity with the 140"s.
Quikload has you over pressure at 3024fps with 53.7gr of Hybrid 100V in a 27" barrel, and that is with starting at minimul initial start pressure.
To get the velocity you are talking about, you would be running over 100,00psi of pressure.
I can't imagine the danzac coating adds 300fps, but maybe.
Good luck, and be careful.

 

[akhunter]

Mslrhunter, so far I really like the stock. I debated on the stock almost as long as the caliber. Cost and weight were the two things I kept going back to. I wanted more of a vertical grip/tactical style stock but didn't like all the weight, options and price that came with them. Jim told me that Grey Bull was coming out with a short action version of their stock and that I should look into it. After getting my hands on a long action version I called Grey bull and asked them to send a short action to Jim as soon as the first ones started rolling in. I really like the look and feel of the stock, and I think the weight is about perfect. My goal was to build a heavier hunting rifle for longer range shooting. Jim really liked the stock and told me he did or planned to order a few.


True blue, I couldn't find any load data for the 6.5/300 saum or 6.5 saum whatever you want to call it. I do know that someone else has chambered it as I bought a set of Redding custom dies from one of the mail order catalogs. Redding tells me their minimum custom run is 25 sets and I bought the last or only set the supplier had. Anyway I used the data Hodgdon printed in their new magazine for reference. The closest I could find to my caliber was 7mm saum shooting the same weight bullet. They had on the low end a 140 Nosler BT going 2980 with 57 grains of Hybrid 100V and top end was 3217fps with 62 grains and 62 shows a compressed load. At this point I'm shooting coated bullets and past experience has told me that all else being equal it takes about (varies) an extra grain of powder to get the same velocity with a Danzac coated bullet as a non coated one. So I loaded up 5 with 58 grains and 5 with 59 grains. Looking back I should have started a grain or two lower. I seated the bullets about 100 thousandths off the lands to start with to help with lower pressures. It was cold as heck so I didn't write down the individual velocities but the 58 grain group averaged 3294fps with a smooth opening bolt. Later I noticed a hint of a rim around the primer dent, a sign of pressure. The 59 grain group averaged 3390 with the posted photo being the high. This is where I got a slightly sticky bolt. Now I know that 57 grains is probably my high and will need to drop as I move the bullet closer to the lands. My plan is to try to work the bullet closer to the lands and find a sweet spot that will still allow a round to fit in the magazine while maintaining accuracy and consistency, hopefully in the 3200+fps range. Sorry if the photo was misleading. I guess the lesson here is start lower/more conservative when you don't have proper load data.

 

[supercrossbmx69]

How long was your wait? One of the nicest looking rifles I've ever seen!

 

[akhunter]

Supercross, I'm not 100% sure the exact time frame, several months for sure but I wasn't in a hurry and I told him that several times. Jim could certainly give you his current wait time. I know his phone voice mail says he is taking nothing but custom gun projects to decrease the wait time on a project.
I asked Jim about getting the bolt interrupted fluted like the barrel. Brux said they could so I was pretty fired up to get that done. Turns out that Pacific Tool bolts are hardened. Brux said they would still do it but it may lead to problems if the tooling broke part way through the process. In the end I decided not to, and in the end it may have let to feed issues as well. It's been pretty cold up here lately so I haven't shot it the last couple days. Its killing me!