Hi all
I made some changes to a rifle I have owned for about 4 years today and I thought i'd share some pics and talk about it a little
It started out as a Tikka T3 Varmint Stainless chambered in 7-08. I purchased it as a step up from my .223 1:8" twist tikka varmint and shot it in high power/service rifle style matches and centerfire silhouette for a couple of years before the long range bug hit and shooting 500m standing didn't deliver the fix i was looking for.
I spoke to a well known NSW gunsmith about fitting a match grade target barrel to my existing action and had a 28" straight taper barrel fitted in my chosen chambering, .284 Winchester. For those who don't know the .284W was developed to directly compete with the .270 shooting similar weight bullets at similar velocities but in a short action and Winchester developed their Winchester 88 lever gun around the cartridge but the gun failed to stick around and was soon forgotten. The .284W case though found a home with target shooters and wildcatters being necked up to .30cal and down to 6mm and 6.5mm. with the 6.5-284 becoming a popular long range cartridge and indeed today it's the most used variant and both Lapua and Norma manufacture quality brass for it.
To complete my build I purchased a Gunworks Laminated varmint stock and had the gunsmith pillar and glass bed it for the action. I fitted a Yodave trigger spring which allowed the trigger release to be set to 12oz and fitted a Sightron Siii 10-50X60 mounted in Leupold QRW rings on a Ken Farrell 20MOA stell Pic rail. I also fitted a Sinclair Intl tactical bipod and some Sierra 175gr Match kings and 200 Lapua Cases. Initial 500m testing saw a couple of sub MOA groups then a final test saw a 5 shot group of around 4" with 4 shots into 2 1/2"
The rifles first outing was to a ACT Tactical Service comp where I shot form 300m-800m without any data other than a 500m zero and a velocity. I under performed as would be expected but finished mid field with the "little" 7mm being single loaded fighting against a group of Blazer's, Sako TRG's and AI tactical outfits with 10 round mags and cartridges including 300WM's and .338Lap's. In fact in the blustery cross wind conditions at 800m I was the only shooter all day to go close to a hit the "huns Head" target (an A4 sized German soldiers head) albeit 2" low on the target and outside the scoring area but dead on line.
With the help of a mate advice and his convenient sighting in spot i worked up a load using Bergers 180gr Hybrids and ADI 2209. the final load saw velocities sitting at 2740fps with low ES and SD numbers. The beauty of the cartridge shows here with it's ability to launch an extremely high BC 180gr bullet at those speeds with just 50gr of powder
The stock i had been using had a rounded forend that while it sat well on a bipod it was not suited to shooting of a front rest and with hopes of competing in 500M fly benchrest comps and F class I made the decision to sell the stock and look for a 3" forend BR stock. Easier said than done for the T3 action at the time so the rifle was swapped back to 7-08 and put into the standard stock for a while.
I made the decision in June 2012 to shoot in a 500m fly match in Batemans Bay but without a stock I rushed into bedding a blank myself and to be honest botched it in an attempt to do it in under a week. So once again the gun went back into it's stock and sat in the safe.
So what did i change?
Well my lovely wife bought me a GRS F Class stock for my birthday and I fitted it up today.
Here's some pics of it in standard form, still fitted with 20MOA rail and with a Bushnell 6500 2.5-16X42. a package that's proved itself with sub 1/2 moa groups with 120gr nosler balistic tips, 130gr speer SP, 140gr Rem corelokt, 150gr SMK, 162gr Amax, 168gr SMK
Here is the Gunworks Thumbhole Varmint stock and Sightron Siii 10-50X60
Here 3 shots at 500m then the 4th shot on a 4" steel gong at 500m
We experimenter with a Widden bullet pointing die, here's 5 shot groups, the left group is factory 180gr Berger Hybrids, on the right is the same bullet, meplat uniformed and then the bullet pointed. You can see the difference in vertical between the two groups.
And here's the GRS F Class with the Tikka Varmint stock for comparison. You'll notice the longer forend which will help support the 28" barrel and will sit in my SEB Gen 1 Front rest and BIGFOOT rear bag. sorry for the pics, taken inside at night.
enjoy, Chronos