Great fun - Intro to Steel

This is the kind of thing that makes me realize just how many great folks are active in the shooting sports community. 

Rob Leatham, the Wayne Gretzky of the shooting sports, hosts a monthly match the 4th Sunday of every month, at the Rio Salado range in Mesa Arizona.   The purpose of this match is to give folks interested in competition, a way to get their feet wet in the sport.

This is not a class.  It's not meant for someone that doesn't know basic firearms or how to use their own equipment.  What it is, is a way for folks that know their firearms to learn about how matches are structured and let them go through a 'simplified' match surrounded by folks that are there to help.

The safety briefing for new shooters is at 8am.    The experienced folks head out and started to run the stages, while we hung back for a quick safety briefing and overview of what we could expect and what to do provided by Rob's wife, an exceptional shooter at the national level herself.

Even the stage design was 'new guy' friendly.   In order to help the new folks learn, they also have you shoot the stages 3 times, keeping your best score.  It's great practice, in that you can get enough repetition to really get a feel for it.  Unlike some of the other local matches, where large numbers of people need to get pumped through the stages, so keeping things moving is encouraged, new shooters were helped out on each stage.  As I went up to each stage, the RO made sure I understood the stage mechanics and briefed me on any things to keep in mind to stay safe on that particular stage.  

If you've ever thought about getting started in practical pistol/3 gun/etc, this one is a great starting point.    I'll definitely be out again next month.

http://www.riopractical.com/intro2steel/intro2steel.html

Remington 700 SPS - 7mm STW - Part 3

Part 3 - Load Development

Let me start out by saying, I'm fairly new to reloading with only about two years under my belt.  I'm by no means a master at the craft, but I can consistently turn out ammunition that is accurate enough to pull sub-moa out my rifles.

Please note - The data I use for development is taken from load manuals and any attempt to use the examples I provide is at your own risk.  This is entirely intended to be a record of how I've found to do my load workup and what works for me.   

Now that the disclaimer is out of the way...

First things first - Planning and the single question at the core of it all..   What do I want this load to do?   Is it for punching paper?  Dropping an Elk, assuming I can ever draw a tag in Arizona?   In this case, it's to do some very basic testing to determine the baseline accuracy of the rifle with some existing bullets so I have something to compare against when I get to the new Long Range Accubonds this spring.   I'd like to have data on  at least two bullets, first with the 160g Accubonds, which have been extremely accurate in two other rifles, as well as the 162g Hornady A-max.

- Review the load data from Nosler #6
- Pick out powder, primer and brass
- Work out starting charge
- Determine seating depth (With hunting rifles, I usually start with a dummy round loaded to SAAMI max length and then check it in the action to make sure it cycles.) 

In this case, brass was an easy choice, Remington isn't my favorite brand, but it was coming in at 1/2 the price of the Nosler, with most places sold out. 7 STW brass isn't exactly common.

I already had some Federal 215M primers on hand, so that was an easy choice.

Lastly, I went with the most accurate powder tested per the Nosler guide, H1000.  At this point, maxing out velocity isn't as important as just finding out what is consistent.  And since consistent is accurate, no reason to deviate from their recommendation.  

Before I start at the bench, I document my load work up to avoid any confusion or do any accidental mix and match.  (It took only one screw up at the bench and 20 rounds needing to be broken down to learn that lesson.)

Below is a picture of my load workup.  You'll see that I also use masking tape, so I can lay out the charges on my loading block.  That way, when I'm doing a progressive increase, I make sure I get the right load each time.  (I also lay out the ammo box the same way.)

I was brave with this build, hoping that the scope alignment isn't too bad, and it won't take too many rounds to get a rough zero.   My past experience with quality optics, quality rings and Remington 700 receivers has been  pretty good.  Usually only 3-6" off the mark after assembly without bore sighting.  If I wasn't feeling so brave, I'd likely have run up another 6 or 9 rounds at 74g to get on paper.   

This was pretty nice brass.  I haven't been the biggest fan of Remington brass, but this was better than expected.  There was only one piece that shouldn't have made it through their QA in the 100 round bag, as it had a folded over bit of flashing at the case mouth.  The primer pockets were also very uniform, with the tool removing almost no material.


Recognizing I'm late to the party on this one, but I was really pleased with the first Redding seating die I've used.  Nosler must have cranked out a great batch of bullets to help in this, but I can't fault the final results.  13 of the 15 rounds I prepped came out to 3.598, with the other two being 3.597 and 3.599.  (And for the record, I don't pre-sort my bullets by length.. so this is just plucking them out of the box and seating them!)  The only downside is that the dies don't fit in their original box with the Hornady L-N-L bushing attached.

(15 small bits of happiness)

Next: Part 4 - Range Results

  

Remington 700 SPS - 7mm STW - Part 2

Part 2 – The build

A simple fact – It’s always a good day when the big brown truck brings you parts  and you get a call from your FFL saying your transfer has shown up.
  

A few details to share after doing quick inspection on the rifle:

• The barrel is a 26” tube, great for taking advantage of a large amount of slow powder.

• I was a bit disappointed to see some grunge/funk built up around one of the optic mounting screws.  It looked like corrosion, but wiped off with some CLP easily.  Odd to have that in a new in box rifle.  

• Per an inquiry with Remington, the twist rate is 1:9.  Perfect for stabilizing the longer new Accubonds when they are available.      

•        The X-Mark Pro trigger was not bad at all and much better than the last one I had on a new rifle.  A few passes over my trigger gauge showed it to be just a hair under four pounds and very consistent.   It broke cleanly enough, that I’m going to hold off replacing it with the Timney until I get some range time.  I have to wonder if it was a random anomaly or if Remington is putting more effort in, now that a fair number of factory rifles are shipping with adjustable, decent triggers.

•        Typical Remington fit and finish – or about what I’d expect from the Remington assembly line. 

The stock I've selected is the B&C Medalist Alaskan.  The action dropped into the stock, but did have a bit of a tight fit when putting on the bottom metal.   Good enough for a first pass at the range, maybe a bit of cleanup later on will be in order.   The action was torqued in place at 50 inch pounds.

As a side note, I’ve left the pressure pads on the end of the stock that put a little bit of upward pressure on the barrel.    I can always remove them, but I’ve had pretty good luck with accuracy on sporter weight barrels leaving them in. 

A past project, moving a free floated laminated stock to a B&C Alaskan, actually showed better groups with the pads.. even if it did cause a 5” upward shift in the POI at 100 yards.

Just a few notes on mounting the Trjicon aimpoint. 

One of the few things I've found helpful when mounting a scope, is to do a setup run before finally torquing down the bolts.   I like to just loosely assemble the scope, base and rings to the rifle, to make sure everything lines up the way I want and that the eye relief is correct.   (And this is where I was glad I had a spare set of medium height rings on hand, since the low version wasn't viable.)

I used 25 in-lb for the base screws and 20 in-lb for the rings.   I did not Locktite them in, as I've not found issues with quality mounts ever having an issue coming loose.   I do use a set of levels to make sure that the scope is level before tightening it all down.  

Here's a shot of the optics mount, showing the limited clearance of the power adjustment with the Talley medium height rings.

The completed rifle - ready for the range:

(7 STW + Lucy)

Next up - Part 3 – Load Development

Remington 700 SPS – 7mm STW - Part 1

Part 1 – The Plan

Let me start this by saying, this project was awhile in the making.    I’d read the blurbs in multiple reloading guides about the 7 STW, and always thought it interesting, if a bit impractical.   The real spark to get moving on this was when Nosler announced a new long range Accubond with some really high BC options.  

Here’s the chart they released:

Looking for a new reloading project, this started to feel like it could have some real potential as a very long range round…  .652 BC with a possible velocity in the 3100fps range?  Sign me up! 

That’s a better BC than the 162g AMAX.

What sealed the deal was one of those random searches on gunbroker.com that turned up one of the factory runs of Remington 700 SPSs in 7 STW at a great price.   A few clicks and a phone call later, I had one headed my way from the good folks at Gitguns.  (http://www.gitguns.com)  

Like many of you, I can’t leave well enough alone.   The real fun seems to always start with the bolt on that turn a decent factory rifle into something a bit better.   

First, the factory SPS stock is, in my opinion, a flimsy chunk of crap.  That’s the kind, my saintly mother-in-law might actually read this post, edited version.   It had to go.

I’ve had two rifles with the factory Remington X-Mark Pro trigger, so I had some pretty low expectations of it as well.  I figured I’d go with the easy, always reliable choice, of picking up a Timney.   Besides liking to support a local company, they have worked extremely well three 700s I’ve used them on.    

The only decision left at this point was glass. 

A few other projects had eaten into my toy budget, so I figured I’d just repurpose a spare Trijicon Accupoint 3-9 I had sitting around.  It’s a good piece of glass, maybe not my first choice for a long range rifle, but certainly a good enough option to get started.   

As a side note, to anyone mounting this scope on a long action… go with the medium height rings.  My personal preference is to go for as low of a mount as possible, but the low height 1” rings, won’t clear the power adjustment ring. 

A call to Red Hawk Rifles out of Colorado, covered the rings, trigger and stock parts I was going to need. (http://www.redhawkrifles.com/) They have become my Remington aftermarket parts vendor of choice.  They have some of the best prices on B&C stocks, Talley rings and Timney triggers I’ve found.

Now I just had to sit back and wait for everything to show up…    you know, the hard part…

Next up - The build

The beginning...

As this is my first set of blog entries, I’ll give a quick introduction before moving onto the good stuff.  First, I’m a professional IT guy, not a gunsmith, paid gunslinger, shill for the industry or anything but a shooting sports zealot.    

Take anything you read here with a grain of salt and heavy dose of skepticism, as the material here only represents my personal experience.