I thought I would post up a report of my latest rifle which I will try hold onto :ORLY:
Always on the search for the next/latest/best rifle I have ended up owning a few over the years including a 270, 7mm-08, 7mm rem mag, 2 6.5 creedmoors a 7mm blaser mag and a 284win. In recent times I had been chopping and changing between a kimber 6.5 creedmoor and a tikka t3 7mm blaser mag as my main hunting rifles. I like hunting on the tops/open country and do a bit of walking so wanted something that is powerful, accurate and easy to carry (light). I love the power of the 7mm blaser mag and shot a lot of animals with that, but enjoyed the weight of the kimber for carrying on the hill and also how the stock/trigger setup feels. I felt like I was a little under gunned with the 6.5 creedmoor, but didn't always want to carry my blaser everywhere when I knew that I had a lighter option in the safe.
So logic dictated that another rifle was the only reasonable solution to this problem I had invented for myself. After watching a mate shoot a fair few deer with a 280AI kimber and doing some research of various reloading data/rifle specs I decided to go down this route as well. I looked into a custom setup but decided that a kimber mountain ascent in 280AI was pretty hard to beat in the weight/power/price ratio.
I have set this up with a vx6 3-18x44 scope in talley rings, with a DPT magnum mark 2 suppressor. I have left the unusual kimber thread as is on the muzzle and the barrel at 24 inches and purchased a thread adapter which I inserted into the DPT.
Previous research had told me that reloder 26 would be a good place to start powder wise, so I panic bought about 8 tubs of this along with some norma brass and a few different projectiles to try.
I started off with the 162 eldm which I have used in the past in a couple of rifles and liked how they performed. Initial groupings were terrible, with 2-3inch groups all over the show and zero shifts etc. I had hoped not to fiddle too much with the rifle but decided that it would be worth opening up the barrel channel and hopefully not having to play around with the bedding too much. So I sanded out the barrel a little to get it free floated and then went back to the drawing board and tried some 160tmks. These went Ok with accuracy around 0.75moa pretty consistently with various powder charges and seating depths. Not particularly happy with this I decided to have another crack at the elds now that the barrel had been floated.
I loaded up a few rounds at varying seating depths at the mid - higher end of the powder range I had run initially which was giving about 3000fps and it shot very well with the standout being a seating depth with a10thou jump. These shot into a 0.3 inch group which I was pretty happy with with no pressure signs and 2980fps. Unfortunately they don't fit into the magazine at that length so I loaded up a few more of these to double check and also some barnes 120ttsx with reloder 16 as a mag fit short-medium range load.
Back at the range the eld load seemed consistent with 2 more nice groups and all of the barnes loads shooting under an inch. I decided not to fiddle with the barnes too much as I would only be using these to 300 yards or so.
Next was to start hunting and to confirm my drops. Generally at this point I am happy shooting animals to around 300 yards using a good 100 yard zero and velocity from a reliable chronograph but much further than this and I am wanting to check the MV/BC/Scope is performing as it should. So I went and shot a few rocks at longer range and then a few gongs. This is where things stared to get pretty exciting. I dialled in to a gong at 400 yards and squeezed off. I hit this bang on height wise but a little to the right so fired again. The next shot was dead centre so I moved on to a gong at 600. Squeezing off here the first shot hit dead center. I considered leaving it at that but decided I might as well shoot a group to see what the accuracy was doing at this range. The next shot went to the same hole on the plate! I got very excited at this point and promptly pulled the third shot left and missed completely! Bugger. I shot one more round which hit center plate 3cm lower than the first 2 which (discounting the fluffed shot) is a pretty good group for a lightweight hunting rifle.
So all in all I think things have worked out well and for me this is about as good as it gets. I only really want to shoot animals at 600 yards max so have the accuracy and energy at this range to shoot a deer/tahr/chamois and end up carrying the rifle a lot more than shooting it when hunting. All up it weighs a bit over 3kgs scoped and suppressed so is very nice to carry and if you focus on good shooting technique (eg hold the forend and don't get too excited) it is very accurate.
Unfortunately I am having trouble uploading the photos which is frustrating!
