Earlier this year I acquired a Remington Model 7 in 7SAUM off Brads. I already had a 7mm magnum, but it weighs 9lb, so I figured I would see how light I could get the 7SAUM.
Barrel and bolt fluted by Abe, lightweight firing pin and a carbon fibre stock got the bare rifle weight down to 5lb 4oz, with a Bushnell 6500 2.5-16x42 in talley mounts the final weight is 6lb 10oz.
It has taken a few high misses to finally get things right, turns out the adjustments of the scope are more like 0.3 MOA per click rather than 0.25MOA.
So on the weekend I walked 4 hours back in to the bush and met up with a couple of mates who had walked in the day before. We headed out to a lookout point for an evening hunt. Weather conditions were perfect, a light NE breeze, lots of sun. The only downer was the multitudes of blowflies that buzzed around.
As the evening got longer the mist started to build. Luckily it came and went every 10 minutes or so. After one clearance about 7pm I spotted a hind sitting on a slip then noticed another lower down. I thought it would be 600 yds + but a quick range showed 445yds. It took a little while to find a good possie to shoot from, by which time the cloud had come back.
10 minutes later the cloud was gone, but so had the deer. Rob finally picked up a hind on a small clearing not far from where we had last seen them. This time it was 450 yds away, 12 degrees down. Pressure was 911mb, temp 20 degrees and no wind. I plugged it all in to the ballistic program and it came up with up 5.8MOA left 0.2MOA.So dialled it all in and settled in behind the rifle.
http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/f...ps31e1acc2.jpg
arrow shows where deer was
The hind was now quartering away, so I held fire until she turned back to nearly broadside. At the shot she jumped forward into the trees and two other deer ran off. Then about a second later I noticed bushes shaking as she stumbled and rolled out of the trees into the scrub.
Finally I had deer down with the 7SAUM. It took a little while to get over to her and locate her in the scrub. The shot had hit in the crease of the shoulder and angled forward out the front of the opposite shoulder. The 162 amax had destroyed her lungs and the blood vessels at the top of the heart.
http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/f...ps363fb689.jpg
I can see me carrying this rifle around a lot now.
