What round do you like??

[coyotewhacker]

Yeah, you're right about the .300 Savage. Sorry about that. All Savages look the same to me. I stumbled upon a great load for the 6.5 with 140 grain Sierra seconds bullets and IMR 4350 powder...a 60 pound girl could shoot them all day long without flinching, and I dropped a mulie buck in his tracks at a paced off 264 yards in the sand hills above Scotts Bluff Nebraska. I was shooting from inside a popup blind that was about half covered with snow, and when I fired, the snow fell, blocking my view of what was happening. A couple of seconds later we didn't see the little buck, but I was pretty sure I had hit him. My "guide" suggested that we walk out across the alfalfa field to try to find a blood trail in the snow. As we got up high enough to see back down where the deer had been I spotted him lying exactly where he had been standing. It was a perfect "archery shot" where the bullet had gone in just behind his shoulder and blew up his heart. There was a lot of luck involved, but the little Swede sure did its part. I am considering having it polished up and reblued, then put it in a nice synthetic stock and pass it on to my granddaughter for her first deer rifle. She will start hunting with her dad season after next, and if I cut down the original wood stock to fit her, it will probably shoot just as good as it does now. The Midway stock is just too heavy for a kid, though.
I have a few rifle type bullet molds out with the lead furnace. I think one of them is a 170 grain round nose gas check number. I made some up for the .308 to use for plinking, but I don't have any of the proper powder. Besides, I just had an injection in my left shoulder today for inflammation, and the idea of an extended bore brush session doesn't really appeal to me. I sized and lubed the bullets with some of that blue stuff, but still not convinced it will stand up to the 2000 or so fps of the cast bullets. I have a target out on the wall in the garage where I put ten rounds of cast .308s downrange at a hundred yards. It would not impress a good jacketed bullet shooter, but for an old fart like me, it ain't too bad. Looks to be around an inch and three quarters to two inches. That's out of the H&R Ultra Hunter with the raised comb stock and heavy barrel. For a small rifle it is really pretty heavy, which makes it nicer to shoot. I was going to give it to the granddaughter, but the recoil is just a tad heavy for first gun. She shoots a .410 now, and her other grandfather is standing by with a neat little 20 gauge for her when she starts to duck hunt. Between us, we will spoil that kid rotten and if she plays her cards right, one of us will probably put a second mortgage on the house and go get her a custom Dakota or a Christensen Arms with a carbon fiber barrel. But that's what grandpas do, I guess.
Better go. I am thinking strongly about going up on the Pomme de Terre River tomorrow and running back upstream in my canoe. The meanmouths were fun last month, and I can make the two mile run in fifteen or twenty minutes with the tiny little outboard I have, or maybe clamp on an electric motor to make the run. In my declining years I discovered that getting dumped in the river by a son in law who did not understand the physics of a canoe is no fun, so I got a set of outrigger pontoons that clamp on, and now it is virtually impossible to roll it, even if you stand up and try to tip it....the pontoons have so much bouyancy that they are like air bubbles...you can't keep 'em down.
I feel as stable in the canoe as I do in my full size bass boat. Might even take a bow and try to stick a gar or two.

[Rafe Hollister]

CW,

Can I be your grandson?

[Hellbender]

If I had to pick an oldie but goody, it would be my Rem. Classic 257 Roberts. The Classic 257 was on the long action, which allows proper bullet seating and my 100 Hornadys print 3/4" consistantly for 3 shots and graph at 3000. I put a Hornady Interlock 100 behind the ribs of a Mulie,in Wyoming, and it traveled through the opposite shoulder and laid under the hide, it weighed 70 grains, Thats performance.

[coyotewhacker]

I agree completely....the .257 on a pre-64 action was a fitting and proper use of the 7mm Mauser case. BTW, if anybody out there shoots the 8mm Mauser (8x57) and ammo is hard to come by, it's extremely easy to make your own from .30-06 fired cases. Just run the '06 case into the 8mm resizing die. Make sure the shoulder and neck are well lubed. The .30 caliber neck will be expanded out to .323, and all you will have to do is trim the neck, which is now considerably longer than the 8mm case neck. The 8mm makes a very nice woods rifle where cover is heavy. And 8mm Mausers are CHEAP.....often times a good one can be had for under a hundred bucks.
Sorry, Rafe....got two granddaughters and one son in law. The gun rack is pretty well accounted for. The son in law has lusted after my #1 since the first time he laid eyes on it. I got a note from him tonight saying that it was OK to give the older granddaughter the 6.5 x 55 for her birthday. Guess I know what he will be hunting pronghorns with this fall.

[Outdoorsfool]

22-250 is a blast to whack yotes with.

[Big John]

The 7mm Rem Meg with a 120 gr Spitzer BT w/ 56.0 GR of IMR 4895 doing 3400 ft/s will get the job done also!